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It is a pity that most information available on Shirley is pre-1941, as her years beyond this are just as (if not more!) interesting and honourable! 1941 was the first year Shirley found herself unemployed, and yet she was only eleven years old --or so she believed. Just before Shirley turned twelve, her mother confessed to her that Fox had altered her birth certificate and claimed she was a year younger than she really was to promote the 'baby Shirley' image. Now that her contract with Fox had ended, Shirley was enrolled in the elite Westlake Girls School. Although the reaction from her classmates was at first icy, soon Shirley made friends.
Soon Shirley made her only film with MGM, Kathleen. The film was generally a success. While Shirley had stopped singing and dancing, she continued to act in comedic and dramatic roles until 1949's A Kiss for Corliss (aged 20). While she never again reached the heights of fame she had in her earlier films, Shirley as a teen actress remained very much in demand. Films such as Since You Went Away (1944) and The Bachelor and the Bobby-soxer(1947) were huge critical and popular successes and are now considered classics.
Socially, Shirley enjoyed her years as a teenager going to dances and drinkin sodas with her friends. She had a desire to prove her independence by being the first of her friends to be engaged. At only 16, the 24-year-old Jack Agar, older brother of her friend Joyce, proposed to her and in little over a year Shirley was a teenage bride at a fairytale wedding. However, Jack proved to be the wrong husband for Shirley. He drank heavily, and was arrested several times for drunk driving. Often he would bring home other women and felt he lived constantly in the shadow of his wife. They had one daughter, Linda Susan, who Shirley took custody of once she and Agar divorced in 1950.
Hawaii had been a holiday haven for Shirley throughout her life. After her divorce had been sorted out, Shirley and her mother visited the island for a well-deserved break. There she met Charles Black, and it wasn't long before they were married on December 16, 1950. They have now been married over fifty years, with two children, Lori and Charles, Jr.
1957 saw Shirley narrating and sometimes acting in a TV show, Shirley Temple's Storybook. It mainly featured retellings of old fairytales and ran until 1961.
Shirley describes acting as her first career, being a wife and mother as her second, and so now she was about to embark upon her third: politics. Shirley ran for congress in 1967. Although she was unsuccessful she says she enjoyed and learned from the experience.
In 1969 she served a term as a delegate to the United Nations, which she recalls as one of her favourite periods of her life. Her responsibilities within the UN were as diverse as outer space, refugees, social progress and aging. She also later was later a member of the US Commmission for UNESCO, a member of the UN Association and a representative at the UN Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm.
Shirley had taken an interest in Africa, and believed the United States did not take enough interest in the continent, so naturally she was pleased when she was appointed US ambassador to Ghana by presidents Nixon, and then Ford (who later gave her the job of the first female US Chief of Protocol, a liaison role in diplomacy). She worked hard, 17-hour days and became popular there. Her main concerns were health, particularly regarding women and debts and she tried to raise the profile of these issues in the US. She was also worked in the area of trade and maintaining a peaceful relationship between Ghana and the US
Shirley began work at the American Academy of Diplomacy in 1983 as a founding member. At first her students did not take her seriously, only remembering her days as a cutesy actress, but soon found she meant work. She trained them in such areas as what to do if taken hostage and negotiations.
1988 was the year Shirley published Child Star, an autobiography detailing the early years of her life. It was very well recieved and Shirley became and award winning author!
The following year she became the US ambassador to Czechoslovakia under President Bush. This was the difficult time of the Czech revolution but Shirley still loved her work and the excitement of watching the rebelling streets of Prague from a window ledge. Indeed, she had been treasured in Czechoslovakia since she was a little girl!
One of the hardest periods of Shirley's life was when she learned she had breast cancer in 1972. She could not bring herself to talk about it, even to her husband and would leave articles about breast cancer around the house rather than facing him. As we now know, she became well again after her operation and survived. Through this experience she learnt how much of a taboo subject breast cancer was, and realised more women had to be educated about it. She became the first woman to go public with her treatment in order to raise awareness. Shirley also is devoted to finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis after it crippled her brother and donates money to research. She was a founding member of the National Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies.
Shirley recieved an honourary Oscar in 1998, which replaced the dwarf-sized one she recieved as a child. This is added to her D.W. Griffith Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, Kennedy Center Honoree in 1998 (where it was noted, "...the world owes a great deal to Shirley Temple"). Over the years Shirley also had key roles in the US Delegation on African Refugee Problems, (Director) National Wildlife Federation, (Delegate) Joint Committee Treaty on Environment USSR-USA, California Advisory Hospital Council, Member San Francisco Health Facilities Planning Association Board and the United States-China Relations Committee. She has also lended her skills to business as a director of Walt Disney Productions, Bank of California, Firemen's Fund Insurance Corporation, BANCAL Tri-State Corporation and Del Monte Corporation.
Evidently, Shirley has had an amazing life across many fields. She now occupies herself writing the second half of her autobiography (as yet untitled) and the should make for interesting reading in the future!
