Shirley Temple Makes History

by Susan King 

        Forget F.D.R’s warm Fireside Chats; it was little Shirley Temple who helped people escape the Depression of the 1930s. With her curly hair, dimples and a can-do personality, the child star sang and danced her way into audiences’ hearts. She was all of three when the Santa Monica native began dance lessons at the Ethel Meglin’s Dance Studio in L.A. where she was discovered by director Charles Lamont. The following year she made her movie debut in the short, ‘What’s to Do?” and starred in a series of “Baby Burlesks” in which she parodied such glam stars of the era as Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. Fox signed her to a contract — Temple helped save the studio. In 1934 alone she made ten movies including “Little Miss Marker” and “Bright Eyes,” in which she introduced the hit “On the Good Ship Lollipop.”

And she made history in 1935.  

On February 27th, six-year-old Temple became the youngest performer to receive a juvenile Oscar for “in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934.” The following month, Temple became the youngest to put her hand and footprints in the forecourt of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, as well as beginning her reign as the box office champ in 1935.

She once told the L.A Times, “little Shirley opened doors.” And she opened a major door on Feb 22nd 90 years ago with the release of “The Little Colonel.” She and the famed black entertainer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson became the first interracial couple to dance on screen. The two performed Robinson’s seminal “stair dance” in the sentimental musical drama set during the post-Civil War. 

Robinson had introduced the “stair dance,” in which he tapped up and down a freestanding staircase, at the Palace Theatre in 1918. Robinson biographer James Haskins stated that his footwork had a “different rhythm for each step — each one reverberating with a different pitch.” 

She called him Uncle Billy; he called her darlin.”

Shirley told NPR in the 1980s that “we held hands, and I learned to dance from Bill by listening, not looking at the feet. It was kind of a magic between us.” She had added that Robinson taught her “to feel the beat, rather than count it out.” They would do three more films together — 1935’s “The Littlest Rebel,” and 1938’s “Just Around the Corner” and, “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”

Still, racism reared its ugly head. Their dance scenes were cut from their movies, as well as any scenes of them holding hands or touching. Though black audiences were happy he was appearing in movies, they weren’t thrilled with the type of roles Robinson was getting, especially playing a former slave in “The Little Colonel.” Black film historian Donald Bogle noted that his character seemed clueless about the Civil War.

“He has a moment when he’s really asked about the war,” noted Black film historian Donald Bogle. “And he seems completely befuddled that he doesn’t understand it.” 

Still, Robinson became the highest paid black performer of his time working in vaudeville, Broadway, radio and movies.  His catchphrase was “Everything’s copacetic.” 

Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly admired and were inspired by Robinson, with the latter stating he was “the epitome and the quintessence of tap-dancing perfection". 

Temple and Robinson, who was 57 when he made “The Little Colonel,” remained friends until his death of a heart attack in 1949 at the age of 71. “Bill Robinson treated me as an equal,” Temple told NPR. “He didn’t talk down to me, like to a little girl. And I liked people like that. Bill Robinson was the best of all.”

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Susan King was a film/TV/theater writer at the Los Angeles Times for 26 years specializing in Classic Hollywood.