# 5060 - 2016 First-Class Forever Stamp - Legends of Hollywood: Shirley Temple
Happy Birthday Shirley Temple
Temple had a talent for singing, dancing, and acting from a very early age. She started going to a dance school when she was just three years old. It was here that Charles Lamont, casting director for Educational Pictures, first discovered her. Though she hid behind the school’s piano, Lamont saw something in Temple and asked her to audition for him.
Temple signed her first contract, with Educational Pictures, in 1932. She then appeared in their Baby Burlesks short films, which had young children acting out recent film and political events. Temple then appeared in the Frolics of Youth series as well as commercials, before earning her first film role, a small part in The Red-Haired Alibi. Then by chance, a Fox Film songwriter happened to see Temple dancing in the lobby of a theater where one of her Frolics of Youth pictures had just played, and invited her to do a screen test.
By the mid-1930s, Temple was the top earner for her studio, and there was a team of 19 writers that worked to create 11 original stories and classic adaptations specifically for her. She generally did four movies a year, including the hits The Little Colonel, Our Little Girl, Curly Top, The Littlest Rebel, Captain January, Poor Little Rich Girl, Dimples, and Stowaway. In 1937 she appeared in the John Ford-directed Wee Willie Winkie alongside Victor McLaglen and Cesar Romero. The film was Temple’s favorite.
Click here for a compilation of Temple’s most popular dance numbers.
Happy Birthday Shirley Temple
Temple had a talent for singing, dancing, and acting from a very early age. She started going to a dance school when she was just three years old. It was here that Charles Lamont, casting director for Educational Pictures, first discovered her. Though she hid behind the school’s piano, Lamont saw something in Temple and asked her to audition for him.
Temple signed her first contract, with Educational Pictures, in 1932. She then appeared in their Baby Burlesks short films, which had young children acting out recent film and political events. Temple then appeared in the Frolics of Youth series as well as commercials, before earning her first film role, a small part in The Red-Haired Alibi. Then by chance, a Fox Film songwriter happened to see Temple dancing in the lobby of a theater where one of her Frolics of Youth pictures had just played, and invited her to do a screen test.
By the mid-1930s, Temple was the top earner for her studio, and there was a team of 19 writers that worked to create 11 original stories and classic adaptations specifically for her. She generally did four movies a year, including the hits The Little Colonel, Our Little Girl, Curly Top, The Littlest Rebel, Captain January, Poor Little Rich Girl, Dimples, and Stowaway. In 1937 she appeared in the John Ford-directed Wee Willie Winkie alongside Victor McLaglen and Cesar Romero. The film was Temple’s favorite.
Click here for a compilation of Temple’s most popular dance numbers.