Shirley Temple Black Died on Monday February 10

Shirley Black Temple Died on Monday February 10
Obituary by Teresita Blanco

Shirley Temple died yesterday. She was 85, when she died. Apparently, she died of old age. Her publicists only said that she died. So, it is safe to assume that she died of natural causes. Shirley Temple began her career as a child actress, at the age of 3.

Her parents had sent her to tap school at that young age. During one of her dances, two producers spotted the little girl. They decided to feature her in their films. They where the ones who started her career. By the age of 6, she had a contract with Fox.

The first movie that I saw of her had her as a little orphan girl. I forget the name of the movie. All I remember was that my teacher used to make us sing the songs of her movie, "Its a hard knock, life for us!" Back then, I used to think Shirley Temple was blonde.

Later on, I saw an old painting of the girl at age 3. I think it was a promo poster of one of her early films. It turns out that the original Temple had brownish hair. In the movies, they colored her hair blonde because they thought it looked cuter. Frankly, I liked the original hair color of Shirley Temple. It was unnaturally brown, and glistering.

The third time I heard of the girl was in a Simpsons episodes. You remember, the one where Lisa out tap danced Temple using robot shoes? It really gave me a good laugh. I think we should return to her old life. By the age of 10, Shirley Temple earned a massive salary of $50,000 per movie.

Franklin Roosevelt praised her performance. He found it charming that for 15 cents, the people could go forget about their troubles by looking at the face of Shirley Temple. The film directors loved her the best. They only had to tell her to do things once, and she would remember it for the rest of her life. For a small child, she had a prodigious memory.

She acted, sang and tap danced for 18 years. Her hairstyle became  pretty popular for blonde little girls between the 1950s to the 1970s. Her films became more popular as the Great Depression got worst. Some of her films tackle issues of poverty and the plight of orphan children. She offered an uplifting hopeful view of the life of the poor. Via wit, they could better themselves.

The pity with child artist is that once they get older, they stop being cute. When she reached her teens, Shirley Temple started getting less and less movie roles. She retired from the movie industry at the age of 22. How many people can claim that they retired at the age of 22?  From that time forward, she dedicated her life to politics.

She served as US ambassador in many missions to the United Nations, Ghana, and Czechoslovakia. In 1967, she tried to run for Congress as a Republican Representative. She naturally lost. It was very rare for women to be elected into Congress, in those days. Most who did make it to Congress where widows of US Representatives.

Still, most remember her for the wonderful movies she used to make as a child. For her performances, she received two lifetime achievement awards. In 1988, she wrote her autobiography titled "Child Star". The book spoke of her experience of those days of success. Indeed, she left a big legacy. She will always be remember in those childhood films of hers. For her amassing career, Shirley Temple deserves 5 stars rating.