Glimpse at life of Shirley Temple

She was the biggest of child stars. She was the top U.S. box-office draw from 1935 to 1938, bigger than Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper or Joan Crawford. She retired from acting at age 21 and went on to a diplomatic career. Here’s a glimpse at the life of Shirley Temple Black, who died Monday at age 85:

• How many golden curls were on her head:

Her mother was said to have done her hair for each movie, with every hairstyle having exactly 56.

• When she stopped believing in Santa Claus:

At age 6, “Mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.”

• So famous they named a drink after her:

The kid’s cocktail for the ages: ginger ale and grenadine, topped with a maraschino cherry.

• How she lifted people’s spirits during the Depression:

“… It is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said.

• How she learned to cry on cue:

“I guess I was an early method actress. I would go to a quiet part of the sound stage with my mother. I wouldn’t think of anything sad, I would just make my mind a blank. In a minute I could cry. I didn’t like to cry after lunch, because I was too content.”

• Why she didn’t play Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz”:

20th Century Fox chief Darryl Zanuck refused to lend her out for the 1939 classic.

• Her advice for those aiming for a lifetime achievement award:

“Start early,” she said in 2006 when honored by the Screen Actors Guild.

Associated Press