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Shirley Temple was born in Santa Monica, California in 1928. Her mother quickly saw her remarkable talent, and did all she could to develop it, and to get her noticed. She enrolled her in a dance school, where she amazed everyone with her dancing and singing abilities at such a young age. Her mother gave her a hair style imitative of that worn by Mary Pickford, with exactly 56 "ringlets". She appeared in her first movies starting when she was just shy of four years old, in a series called "Baby Burlesks" (she had apparently failed an audition for the Our Gang series). She was paid $10 a day. In 1934, she signed a contract with Fox, and her career really took off. Her big breakthrough came with Stand Up and Cheer!, where her singing and dancing amazed the nation. But she proved she was a remarkably poised actress that same year in Little Miss Marker and Baby Take a Bow, and Fox rushed her into as many movies as they could. That same year she was in Now and Forever with Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard (reportedly Cooper asked for her autograph when he met her!), and soon after she starred in the series of juvenile musicals she is best remembered for, films like Bright Eyes, The Little Colonel, Curly Top, Poor Little Rich Girl, Wee Willie Winkie, Heidi, and many more. In the late 1930s, Fox (now 20th Century Fox) still had her in little girl roles, even though she was rapidly maturing, and in 1939 MGM badly wanted her for the lead in The Wizard of Oz, but 20th Century Fox refused to loan her out, and instead put her in The Blue Bird, which did not do well. She left Fox, and began playing "teen" roles for various studios, but none were very successful, and she made far fewer movies. In 1945, she married actor John Agar, and they were married four years and had a child. In 1949, they divorced, and a year later she married businessman Charles Black, and retired from movies forever. She became active in politics (she was a Republican, and was appointed to several posts in the 1960s to 1990s). Shirley Temple was far and away the greatest child star of all time! She saved the Fox studio after the death of its previous greatest star, Will Rogers in 1935. She was merchandised in a zillion ways, and countless girls born in the late 1930s were named "Shirley". There has never been another child actor with so much talent at such a young age! She passed away in 2014 at the age of 85 AND Will Rogers was born in 1879, and people today can't imagine how popular he was and how much influence he had! He was part Cherokee Native American Indian, and he was a champion horse rider and lasso artist (film of this is on Youtube, and it is incredible what he could do!), and he started in Wild West shows and then vaudeville, but he soon started making movies, and he appeared in 33 very popular silent western movies, performing his own stunts. But when sound came in, unlike many other silent stars who could not adapt to talking pictures, Rogers became an even bigger star than ever, as audiences loved his homespun common sense humor. He starred in an astonishing 20 movies in 7 years, and he wrote daily newspaper articles that appeared all over the world, and he almost surely could have been elected President, had he wanted the office! In 1935, while on an airplane trip with famous aviator Wiley Post, the plane crashed, and both men were killed. Will was 55. Rogers' family made the unusual decision to withdraw all his films from circulation (out of respect!), which resulted in future generations not seeing his work, and this has caused him to be not very well known today, but he was a giant in his time! AND Janet Gaynor was a popular actress during the 1920s and 1930s. Because of her youthful appearance, many people think of her as a 1930s actress, but actually, she was born in 1906, and she moved with her family to Los Angeles in the mid 1920s, and she got a few bit parts in movies, but in 1926, she became a star with her performance in The Johnstown Flood. She signed with William Fox and starred in a series of movies, especially Seventh Heaven (winner of the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), and Sunrise (winner of the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), and Street Angel (winner of the Best Actress Academy Award for this film). She won the first Academy Award ever given for Best Actress, and unlike many other top silent actresses, sound did not create a problem for her, for she had a great speaking voice, and she remained just as popular. She starred as Vicki Lester in the 1937 A Star is Born (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film; she was 31, but looked much younger). She retired in 1938, making a few appearances decades later. She passed away in 1984 at the age of 77.

Important Added Info: Note that this wonderful still shows Fox Pictures' three greatest stars, Shirley Temple, Will Rogers, and Janet Gaynor. It is undated, but it is surely from 1935, because Temple did not become a major star until then, and Will Rogers' plane crash was that year! We previously auctioned a similar still to this (the same three stars, but in a different pose), and that one sold for $40! Also note that this still has been trimmed and it now measures 7 1/2" x 9 3/4" [19 x 25 cm].

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