The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America by John F. Kasson Page B
Authors: John F. Kasson
Ads: Link
the world, using every ploy that they could devise, movie theaters joined with merchandisers to promote Shirley Temple’s latest film and licensed products. Her power and presence could be purchased in Shirley Temple dolls, dresses, underwear, coats, hats, shoes, soap, books, tableware, and similar items. Her face beamed from cereal boxes and cobalt blue plates and mugs. Ideal Novelty and Toy Company’s Shirley Temple dolls accounted for almost a third of all dolls sold in the United States in 1935. Sheet music of her songs, such as “On the Good Ship Lollipop” and “Polly-Wolly-Doodle,” led the sales charts. Newspapers around the globe bulged with Shirley Temple stories, as did movie magazines such as Photoplay , Modern Screen , and Silver Screen , each of which claimed a circulation of roughly half a million. 3
Shirley’s immense popularity reveals much about the ways in which Americans and many others around the world coped with the demands of this pivotal decade. The bright arc of her celebrity illuminates the dynamic relationship between the Hollywood film industry and movie fans, and between Shirley’s performances and fans’ dreams, as well as among those fans, the studio system, and the Temple family itself. Altogether, Shirley Temple allows us to explore the intricacies of Hollywood and consumer culture in the Great Depression more fully and freshly than any other figure of the decade. By placing Shirley Temple and her fans within the context of FDR and his constituents, we can see how popular entertainment as well as New Deal politics helped Americans to surmount the Great Depression. The forces set in motion by their smiling faces have shaped American life ever since.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PERMISSIONS
Many individuals and institutions helped to make this book possible. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, my professional home for more than forty years, provided support of numerous kinds, including a Spray-Randleigh Fellowship, research and travel funds, library services, and encouraging colleagues in the Departments of History and American Studies, especially Lloyd Kramer. I advanced this project considerably at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, supported in part by a John Medlin Jr. Senior Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. For scholars, the center is, quite simply, the happiest place on earth, made especially so because of its immensely helpful staff and stimulating fellows. To enumerate all of their individual contributions would be impossible, so let me simply express my profound gratitude to each and every one.
In conducting research for this book, I benefited greatly from the help of Michael Beck, Sara Bush, Angelica Castillo, Jennifer Donnally, Joey Fink, Rosalie Genova, Elizabeth Gritter, Rachel Hynson, Greg Kaliss, Jason Kauffman, Kimberly Kutz, Pamella Lach, Elizabeth Lundeen, Blake Sloanecker, Sarah Thomson Vierra, and Jessica Wilkerson. Rachel Hynson also translated Spanish-language articles, and Emily Taylor translated Japanese newspapers. Alison Robins gave me the benefit of her dance scholar’s eye in analyzing Bill Robinson’s numbers with Shirley Temple. Wanda Wallace lent me her cache of Shirley Temple films, and Charlene Regester called my attention to other films and essays. For other kindnesses and suggestions, I am indebted to James W. Cook, Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Lawrence Glickman, Elliott Gorn, Karen Halttunen, Michael Hornblow, John Howard, Mary Kelley, Lary May, Michael O’Malley, Sharon O’Brien, Joel Pfister, and Charles Weinrab.
I wish also to thank the crucial aid of archivists at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the Harvard Theatre Collection, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the National Portrait Gallery, the Stanford University Library, the State Library of New South Wales, The Strong, and the
Shirley’s immense popularity reveals much about the ways in which Americans and many others around the world coped with the demands of this pivotal decade. The bright arc of her celebrity illuminates the dynamic relationship between the Hollywood film industry and movie fans, and between Shirley’s performances and fans’ dreams, as well as among those fans, the studio system, and the Temple family itself. Altogether, Shirley Temple allows us to explore the intricacies of Hollywood and consumer culture in the Great Depression more fully and freshly than any other figure of the decade. By placing Shirley Temple and her fans within the context of FDR and his constituents, we can see how popular entertainment as well as New Deal politics helped Americans to surmount the Great Depression. The forces set in motion by their smiling faces have shaped American life ever since.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PERMISSIONS
Many individuals and institutions helped to make this book possible. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, my professional home for more than forty years, provided support of numerous kinds, including a Spray-Randleigh Fellowship, research and travel funds, library services, and encouraging colleagues in the Departments of History and American Studies, especially Lloyd Kramer. I advanced this project considerably at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, supported in part by a John Medlin Jr. Senior Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. For scholars, the center is, quite simply, the happiest place on earth, made especially so because of its immensely helpful staff and stimulating fellows. To enumerate all of their individual contributions would be impossible, so let me simply express my profound gratitude to each and every one.
In conducting research for this book, I benefited greatly from the help of Michael Beck, Sara Bush, Angelica Castillo, Jennifer Donnally, Joey Fink, Rosalie Genova, Elizabeth Gritter, Rachel Hynson, Greg Kaliss, Jason Kauffman, Kimberly Kutz, Pamella Lach, Elizabeth Lundeen, Blake Sloanecker, Sarah Thomson Vierra, and Jessica Wilkerson. Rachel Hynson also translated Spanish-language articles, and Emily Taylor translated Japanese newspapers. Alison Robins gave me the benefit of her dance scholar’s eye in analyzing Bill Robinson’s numbers with Shirley Temple. Wanda Wallace lent me her cache of Shirley Temple films, and Charlene Regester called my attention to other films and essays. For other kindnesses and suggestions, I am indebted to James W. Cook, Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Lawrence Glickman, Elliott Gorn, Karen Halttunen, Michael Hornblow, John Howard, Mary Kelley, Lary May, Michael O’Malley, Sharon O’Brien, Joel Pfister, and Charles Weinrab.
I wish also to thank the crucial aid of archivists at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the Harvard Theatre Collection, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the National Portrait Gallery, the Stanford University Library, the State Library of New South Wales, The Strong, and the
Similar Books
