Customer Reviews

Child Star: An Autobiography (Windsor Selections)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like many of us, I grew up watching Shirley Temple movies, mostly on television -- no longer in theaters, they were classics in the 50s and early sixties.

I found Ms. Black to be a good writer, clear and concise, and as classy as I expected her to be. No "Mommie Dearest" here, although toward the end she is honest, but not bitter, about how the money she earned for the many, many movies (far more movies than I realized) had never made it to her adulthood as they were legally supposed to. Rather than add bitterness to an already difficult situation, though, she chose to let it go, and move on. Way to go, Shirley. Not sure I could have been so considerate -- but then again, ever the optimist and considering everyone's feelings, she had a family she was not willing to lose, and children who needed their grandparents, and uncles. Nothing was done with malice, at least not by her family. Any greed by the studio and/or government is also allowed to slide as water under the bridge. She worked her heart out, and she loved it, she considered that payment enough. At the time she was able to take that approach, she was in a good place in her life, and felt rich beyond words. Good for her, she earned the right to move forward.

I was appalled at how studio executives treated her as she moved forward in her adult career, as a woman in general, and indeed, as who she was -- an American icon! Sometimes I think there is no level low enough that some men won't stoop to... Again, she mentions it as an annoyance, but "part of the business" she had to learn to deal with. No sexual harassment claims for her -- though she certainly would have been justified!

And how sad I was to read the story of her first marriage, and how she is also able to rise above that without the recriminations of so many others who have lived with the nightmares she describes. Angelic is the only way to describe her.

But the accomplishments! I can't wait to read the second part of this autobiography, that I see listed in amazon.com's catalog. I had no idea what an accomplished woman Shirley Temple Black is -- probably the most accomplished woman in American history! The "About the Author" piece in the back of the book just blew me away! And in all my years of feminist study, nobody mentions Shirley Temple Black...I wonder why? Because she was a movie star (with a filmography that apologizes to no one!)? Because she took her husband's name? Because she loved being a homemaker and taking care of her children? Fal-de-ral and fiddle-dee-dee!

Yes, she was appointed as Ambassador to Ghana by President Gerald R. Ford in 1974, and many people know that; but among many, many other accomplishments in this arena she was later appointed Ambassador and U.S. Chief of Protocol, the first woman in U.S. history to hold this position. Where is her work? I want to read her work!

I am astounded at our ignorance about this woman who traveled the journey from the depression through Word War II and beyond spreading grace, charm and joy everywhere she went. I wish she had said more about the war, and her take on the holocaust and the Nazis, but I'm not surprised she didn't bring it up. It's not in her nature to focus on the negative. Leave that to women like me.

Shirley Temple, I salute you!

This book kept my attention from cover to cover, and would do the same for anyone who is interested in Shirley Temple (-Black) and/or this era of filmmaking in Hollywood. The only complaint I have (and the reason I could not give it 5 stars) is that Ms. Black is not, by nature, a writer. The stories are certainly fascinating but her writing style is too like that of someone who is trying to appear as a writer and is not. Often you will encounter paragraphs in which you do not know exactly what is going on until the end because she tries to write with unnecessary flourish instead of getting to the point. Though it is superb to be able to find out her point of view on her life and the detail is great without bogging down.

It was a very good read that kept a nice pace. I recommend it, though only if you are willing and able to infer the meanings and happenings.

Also, the pictures included (in the paperback version, at least) are lovely and span her infancy to her adulthood.

I borrowed this book from the library because I was reaserching Shirley Temple's background in tap dance. By the time I finished it I had to purchase it and add it to my private research library. There is just so much more in this biography than I ever expected. I guess it's obvious if you think about it, Shirley Temple is a very intelligent person. Part of her talent as a child came from the fact that she has a very high IQ. So the writing in the book displays humor, wisdom, and candor I just had not anticipated. Her ability to memorize lines and deliver them correctly in one take was legendary when she was a child. What maybe less well known is that she is on every top ten list of great tap dancers and she gave the practice up, at least publicly, when she was 20, a time when most dancers are just getting started. I found this autobiography unusual on several fronts: Mrs. Black is very introspective about her parents and grand parents and their relationship to who she became. This is common in biographies, but much less so in autobiographies. She is also candid about unorthodox techniques used to direct her in her early movies, and her likes and dislikes of her various directors and co-stars. As a child she had an unusual capacity for concentration which she brings to bear on her work as a writer and the details of what she recalls. Any child growing up under similar circumstances would find their egos hardboiled. Mrs. Black turns acute perception on the problems of her personality and her use of her own power that are not always complimentary. This is a true expose of what becomes of someone who is both manipulated and praised beyond their own self image. I can only think that it was her unique intelligence that got her through. The National Enquirer is filled with similar stories of the less intelligent. I'm very much looking forward to part II of these chronicles.

This book provides a rare and fascinating look behind the scenes of the Hollywood motion picture industry, including the haphazard way in which "discoveries" were made, the almost ludicrous way decisions were made, etc. Shirley also relates how she was grossly cheated by Twentieth Century Fox by being nailed down to a five-year contract at $150.00 a week when a few weeks later Paramount offered to borrow her from Fox at a salary of $1000.00 per week. She goes on to quote dollars-and-cents amounts to demonstrate how she (or her mother) was repeatedly cheated, how false announcements were issued to the press as to her salary. The careful detail she goes into indicates that she (or some assistant) has done considerable "homework."

Shirley cycles from intra- and inter-studio political maneuvering to financial dealings, to candid details of other stars, to her schooling and her home life, thus keeping the story interesting and appealing to a number of different tastes. Among these are extraordinary events like two assassination attempts, visits to the White House, the governor of Massachusetts carelessly slamming a car door on her hand, etc.

The story gets more horrendous during her adolescent career. While her contract negotiations were going on at MGM, the fourteen-year-old Shirley was treated to sexual advances by the producer of "Wizard of Oz" with promises of stardom if she put out and threats of being washed up if she didn't. Her mother, meanwhile, was being subjected to the same treatment by Louis B. Mayer, the studio boss. Four years later, David O. Selznick pulled the same carrot-and-stick ploy during contract negations with his studio and on another occasion locked his office door and literally chased her around his office. Shirley relates in detail how she escaped from each of these sexual harassments with one glaring exception: a train ride to location shooting of one of her "grown-up" movies. In this case, the producer of "Wizard," now employed by Selznick, tried to r*pe her. This coy ducking of the incident is infuriating. If the r*pe didn't succeed, why does she not recount in detail how she got out of it, the way she does with all the other incidents? He tried to r*pe her again at his home some weeks later and she describes what she did to him to get out of that one.

She recounts how her own father ignored the court order under the Coogan Act and did not deposit any of her earnings in her trust account during her adolescent years (the pictures she made between age 14 and age 20). He had also kept all her childhood earnings (before the Coogan Act). Her father was uneducated but fancied himself a financier and lost all Shirley's money in one way or another. Consequently, out of over three million dollars earned in 19 years of stardom, Shirley Temple was left with only eighty thousand.

At twenty and married for the second time, she relates how she was induced to have a Caesarian at Bethesda Naval Hospital with promises of especially good medical care, how the surgeon botched the operation, then did not call in other physicians for consultation but kept trying to treat the consequences of one mistake after another in order to cover up his mistakes. Shirley almost died. Fortunately, other physicians intervened in time to save her life. On another occasion, a physician misdiagnosed a stomach ache for appendicitis and performed surgery, removing a perfectly healthy appendix.

I do not know how anyone could have remembered with as much detail, the account of their life as Shirley Temple-Black does in this work. She does state that she kept a journal and we all are the better for it. Her talent and personality will never be matched, and the time with which she appeared on the early movie scene, makes her life and work one that could never be matched. One only has to look at the Britney Spears and the Miley Cyrus' that Hollywood attempts to produce today, and you quickly realize that they far so short of the talent and professinoalism that Shirley brought to our attention. A highly detailed account of each stage of her life, including the inept business side of her parents trying to manage her contract with the Hollywood elite. It also gives her shocking account of her being brought into the office of her movie studio director and age 12, and him exposing himself in front of her, while here mother was being treated in a similar way in another office. All of which give insight in that the infamous "casting couch" of Hollywood was true.
The read is quite challenging to hold one's attention because of the detail and I have had to put it down and read two other books in between. However, I would not have wanted any information gleaned from the work either, as that would have been disappointing. Reading this gives the reader a better appreaciation for Shirley and her talent and the world leaders and celebraties that she was encountered in her career. People such as J. Edgar Hoover and Eleanor Roosevelt were fans and visited her. The book leaves you realizing that Shirley was the "Forest Gump" of her time and was an active particpant in this era of our movie history and later onto the political arena. The writing is intelligent and give glimses of Shirley's personality which peek through and make the read enjoyable. I loved the book.

A long-time fan of Shirley Temple's, when younger I read as many biographies about her as I could find in the local library. How I wish that someone had told me that an autobiography existed! Straight from Shirley Temple (Black)'s point-of-view come stories about her mother sneaking peroxide to lighten darkening hair, shooting President Roosevelt's wife in the behind with a slingshot, talking to Orson Welles about his infamous _War of the Worlds_ broadcast, running her own "police force," a murder attempt during a live radio performance, and more.

Temple Black lived during an interesting era, including the Great Depression, and onset of World War II. Superimposed with her surreal life as a movie star are the responses any normal child would have to the world changing around her, made more significant because of her growing interest in world affairs and politics. But the text is also engaging because it comes across as age-appropriate. In other words, there is an authenticity to what a child would have known at certain stages of life. As the book progresses, so does the maturity of the point-of-view, including a realization of her parents' (mis)use of her earnings and a failed first marriage.

There are also dialog-containing conversations, which lend to a feel of a novel in parts, and keep the book moving along. At a hefty over-500 pages, though, there are certain points where the reading is not as engaging as others. The author herself believes that one part of her ceased to exist around 1941 and, that being said, the text probably could have ended there, with her adult life being detailed in the promised future volume.

It's a real shame that this book is out-of-print and that the promised sequel has not as of yet materialized in print. At the same time, this is a real gem for any Shirley Temple fan, and it covers the part of her life the majority would be most interested in.

This book is an easy and entertaining read. Mrs. Black is a very good writer.

I read it out of interest in Shirley Temple, who she was, why she stopped acting, where she is now. I got more than that. She explains what she was thinking, her excitement, her terrors, her reflections of being adored by so many. The fake tears, the real tears, the laughs, the family, the friends, and the industry. And now i have a deeper appreciation for this talented actress because of this book.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in who Shirley Temple was.

Child Star: An Autobiography by Shirley Temple Black is a must read for all "curley top" fans. Interesting, informative and entertaining - the book is a well laid out travel through this child star's life-journey. Many of Hollywood's child stars came to bad ends in life - not this one - in fact she goes on to continue to shine.

I read this book because I was interested in learning about Shirley's political and ambasodorial roles. I read the entire book only to find the story finishing in 1954. The notes at the end said that shirley was working on the second instalment of her biography, and seeing as that was in 1988, I can only guess that she would have completed it by now - but it appears never have made it to publication. I was very disappointed that the biography only covered her life as a childhood star and then as a wife and mother. So I would hesitate to recommend the book as it is only half a biography, and would suit fans of the silver screen only.

When I first read the book from our local library I thought it was going to be another boring life story like all the others I have read, little did I know that this one was going to be something special.
After I read it, I sank back on my bed and said out loud "THIS IS JUST LIKE MY LIFE".
I was also a younge star on stage as a child and then one moment it was taken away from me because I was no longer cute or babyish.
This is why I had buy the book to remind me of who I am and never give up.
Thank you Shirley Temple Black for a real outlook on life.