Monday, August 29, 2016

Unproduced Shirley



Shirley Temple is best remembered as the curly-haired singing and dancing moppet who helped cheer up a Depression-weary nation in the 1930s. Here she is with one of her favorite costars, James Dunn in 1934's "Bright Eyes." Like most little tykes, Shirley had to grow up. A mere four years later, she was teetering on the brink of box office disaster as her number one position was beginning to crumble. This photo is from 1938's "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," co-starring Gloria Stuart.



This list from October 1938 on 20th Century-Fox stationery shows that studio chief Darryl Zanuck and team were looking hard for future properties for Shirley. None of these came to fruition, although "Lady Jane" probably came the closest to being produced.



In the end, Shirley cranked out a few more films before "retiring" from Fox at the ripe old age of 12.

More Shirley at my main website.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That's be Gloria Stuart a few years before she played Rose in Titanic, of course.

Chuck said...

Patrick, isn't it amazing that she looks absolutely exactly like Kate Winslet? ;-)