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I'm interested in counterfactual/alternate history and i was wondering Is there anyway to avoid/abort the superstar jugganaut that was Shirley Temple in the thirties?

(ObWI: Baby Peggy Montgomery never loses her contract at the height of her fame and her film career continues into her teens and beyond...)

Betty Holt or Sybil Jason might have stepped into her blessed little white cotton socks if she had squibbed.

What is meant by "squibbed"?

Urban Dictionary (oh dear, I just admitted that I sometimes consult it) has dozens of definitions, but from the context it seems that "squib" in this case refers to an explosive that turns out to be a dud. IOW, how would film history be different if Temple had never become popular?

Graham Greene wouldn't have visited Mexico in 1938.

But seriously, I don't think the film world would have been that much different; it's not like Shirley was especially powerful in and of herself and not that many of the adults who worked with her had their careers dramatically boosted for doing so. The era would have had other child stars who became popular, just like most eras do. Jane Withers probably would've been the biggest child performer and would've starred in films with higher budgets, for one thing.

I don't think she's the most talented child star ever, but she was pretty good in The Little Princess where she was demoted to being a servant girl (and the scene where she tries to get her father [Ian Hunter] to recognise her is nicely done). The Blue Bird, where she starts out as a spoiled brat, also has some good acting from her.

-HA

Richard Finegan wrote:What is meant by "squibbed"?

Here in Australia "sqibbed" usually means something like loosing your nerve to go through with something important you have to do and failing. Being parylised by stage fright is an example or chickening out or a coward in the face of the enemy.

The Shirley Temple Fox films were pretty much dependable money-makers, so it would have been difficult for Fox to replace them with other films that all performed so successfully.

I think..... not much. Others have suggested Jane Withers might have done better. Perhaps some moppet at another studio would have flown a bit higher for a while. In my view, Hollywood was a factory town in that era and they were interested in profitable product.... and to the extent that a star was a component in that product, well, the audience began recognizing actors and actresses in the movies about 1910 and by 1912, the studios were experimenting with producing their own stars. I saw Ruth Roland the Kalem Girl from 1912 at the Museum of Modern Art last month. This short was clearly an attempt, at least partially successful, to make Roland a star and thereby increase demand for Kalem films. By the 1920s the studios were adept at creating stars.

In truth, there has always been a lot more talent floating around the entertainment industry than the industry can profitably exploit. Fox recognized and exploited a model of film star in Shirley Temple, one that the people who ran things recognized. Clearly they knew they were dealing with a new Baby Peggy, since, among other vehicles, they remade Captain January. If Shirley hadn't been there, some other young, talented girl would have taken her place. Lamont would have cast the lead of Polly-Ticks in Washington with some other three-year-old in a diaper and that girl would have had something like Shirley's career arc. Or maybe some other genre would have been particularly popular from 1934-1939 and a different actor would have cracked the money-making list. The Hollywood story would have been the same.

Bob

Changsham wrote:

Richard Finegan wrote:What is meant by "squibbed"?

Here in Australia "sqibbed" usually means something like loosing your nerve to go through with something important you have to do and failing. Being parylised by stage fright is an example or chickening out or a coward in the face of the enemy.

I think it's meant in the sense of a dud bit of fireworks, recognized over the English-reading word because J.K. Rowling used it for scions of wizardly families with no talent for magic om the Harry Potter series.

Bob