So long to Shirley Temple

I remember the first Shirley Temple movie I ever watched. It was The Little Princess (for those of you paying attention, it was the movie Sookie was watching after she thought Bill was dead for good after coming out into the sun to save her). After that I watched just about every Shirley Temple movie that ever came on TV.

It wasn't that her movies were so great, it was that for such a young child she was great in them. I was horrified to learn that when they wanted to make Shirley cry they told her one of her parents were dead, but I liked the simple melodramas her movies were.

Shirley was not like a lot of child stars who faded off into some tragic life after her childhood acting career dried up at the ripe old age of 22. She went on to become an UN ambassador and she inspired people to be the best person they could be. She stood for the light at the end of the tunnel during the Great Depression and she was America's little cutie.

Now her movies go largely unseen by younger people and perhaps they would say they were a little corny, but I liked them. They were innocent and sweet and I can never get over the impression I had of her watching her dance on the stairs with Bo Jangles in the Littlest Rebel.

So so long Shirley, and may you forever sail on the Good Ship Lollipop