July 2015 … Shirley Temple is Turner Classic Movie’s Star of the Month … To celebrate, here’s a post from August 2009:
THIS must be why I’ve always been a Shirley Temple aficionada!
On Sept. 19, 1945, Mom just happened to be in the right place at the right time, outside the Los Angeles Wilshire Methodist Church where 17-year-old Shirley Temple was marrying John Agar.
“A crowd of 5,000 which started assembling at 3 o’clock this afternoon gathered outside the church. Following the brief ceremony the young couple escaped through the throng to a waiting automobile.” – New York Times, Sept. 20, 1945, p. 25
Things are mighty quiet now. Notice how the palm tree to the right of the door has skyrocketed since 1945? Wilshire United Methodist Church, 4350 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
The reception was held at Shirley’s family home, Brentwood, CA.
Unfortunately for Mom, the crowd outside the church wasn’t invited to the reception. Not known to be a party-crasher, she missed her chance and will have to make do with these photos …
Alas, fairy tales are short-lived when they cross the threshold of reality. In 1950 Shirley and John divorced. (Above, Shirley & a pal, Pie Covered Wagon, 1932)
In the interim, they acted together in Fort Apache, 1948, the first of John Ford’s Monument Valley “cavalry trilogy.” John went solo in the second of the trilogy, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, 1949.
Our plucky Shirley tried her valiant thespian best, but she’d lost her natural ease in front of the camera.
(Left) When the cameras stopped rolling, we see this wonderfully candid glimpse of the real Shirley, not “acting”, but herself, the true “sparkle”!
[First posted August 18, 2009]
Movies, Of Course! 