Monday, Jul. 23, 1934

Temple Strike

When five-year-old Shirley Temple performed in Stand Up and Cheer (TIME, April 30) she got $150 a week. Notables like Warner Baxter, Madge Evans and James Dunn, who appeared in the same picture, got from $1,000 to $3,000. Shirley Temple's songs, smiles and capers made the picture profitable. They also marked her for that Hollywood rarity, a natural overnight star who needed no press buildup.

How important a star Shirley Temple was to be became apparent with her second picture, Little Miss Marker. In this, still getting $150 a week, she appeared with Adolphe Menjou, Charles Bickford the late Dorothy Dell. The picture played three weeks at the New York Paramount equaled the record of Mae West's She Done Him Wrong, caused Fox to produce a story written especially for Cinemactress Temple called Baby, Take a Bow.

For performing in Baby, Take a Bow Shirley Temple was still getting $150 a week. Last week the picture was held over for a third week at Manhattan's Roxy Theatre. It broke box office records in Kansas City and Chicago, seemed likely to be one of the most profitable Fox productions of the year. Forthcoming is another Temple picture, Now and Forever, in which the child will be starred with Carole Lombard and Gary Cooper. No youngster in the memory of Hollywood oldsters had ever scored such a quick and complete success with cinemaddicts.

Shirley Temple's father is an easy-going Branch manager for the California Bank in Santa Monica; his salary is about $300 a month. He makes a habit of taking clippings about Shirley to work with him, picks up his wife and daughter at the studio on his way home. Business at his branch has picked up 5% since his daughter became famed; new depositors often turn out to be people who want to get their children cinema work. Indignant at suggestions that he should quit his job to manage his daughter's affairs, George F. Temple pays some heed to her finances. It finally occurred to George F. Temple that the No. 1 cinema sensation of the year was being grossly underpaid. He instructed Fox that, despite a five-year contract, Shirley Temple would not start work on her new picture, Angel Face, for less than $2,500 a week. Fox countered with an offer of $1,000. Mr. Temple said he would discuss the matter with his lawyer.

While her parents were squabbling about her income, small Shirley Temple was last week playing in the backyard of her Santa Monica home. She has two brothers, Jack, 18, and George, 14, neither of whom has appeared in cinema. Not yet old enough to go to school, Shirley Temple expects to do so in September. Aware that she receives fan mail she has none of it read to her lest it make her egocentric. When not on strike, Shirley is taken to the studio by her mother, who says "sparkle, Shirley, sparkle!" when her daughter starts a scene.

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