Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple Black died last night. She was 85 and had lived a long, good life so I am not particularly sad, but I loved her! I watched so many Shirley Temple movies as a kid and my sister and I were really into her and acting like her. I especially liked anytime she danced with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (they did four or five movies together). 

A bit of a side note here, because I love Bojangles so much:

{Bojangles is a super cool guy (if you ever take a history of dance in musical theatre class, you will learn about him). He was a great tapper, but in a time period of heavy racism, he was also one of the first black men to be in  "white" films and was the very first to dance with a white person on screen--Shirley Temple. }

This little dance is adorable:

Shirley Temple is easily the most popular child star there has ever been. When her movies were coming out in the 30s, she and her movies were more popular than any other movie or actor--adult and child alike. She was funny, adorable, spunky and a dang good tap dancer. Her popularity continues to this day and people still love her movies. Elanor has watched a few and loves them! 

"Good Ship Lollipop" is one of her most famous songs:

Perhaps the best thing about her, is that she survived her childhood popularity. She became an ambassador for the United States for goodness sake! She was a good mother and wife to her husband of over 50 years. She is no Miley Cyrus. 

She was a huge part of my childhood and I love her so much!  There will be articles all over the internet about her which will be more informed and better written and I hope they do something special for her at the Oscars--but I wanted to say just a little something on here about how much this person meant to me. Shirley Temple inspired me, she made it seem possible that a kid could do anything and she lived her life well.

Plus, that little girl could dance.

In case you were wondering, my favorite Shirley Temple movies are:

The Littlest Rebel

Bright Eyes

Little Colonel

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

I also liked: Heidi, The Little Princess, Baby Take a Bow, and pretty much every other one, but the four listed above are the best--at least I think so.