Happy Birthday, Motion Picture Princess!

Today is the birthday of a true American icon!  One of her works was embroiled in a major network television controversy a full 45 years ago!   She also served her country well for more than two decades.  But I’m wishing a very happy birthday to a lady best remembered in years prior to that as the most adorable and most popular child performer of all time!   Yes!  Happy 85^th birthday to Shirley Temple!     

Born in Santa Monica, CA in 1928, who could forget Shirley’s singing, dancing, and acting performances in dozens of 1930s and 1940s motion pictures?

Probably her two most famous songs are “On the Good Ship Lollipop” from the 1934 motion picture, Bright Eyes, and “Animal Crackers in My Soup” from the 1935 film, Curly Top.  Those movie titles were named for Temple’s own appearance.  All that was missing was one named for her delectable dimples!

But scores of NBC television viewers were not so keen on seeing those dimples on November 17, 1968.  That is when that network cut away from an old American Football League game (expansion into the National Football League was in 1970) in which the New York Jets had just booted a field goal to take a 32-29 lead over the host Oakland Raiders.

There was just 1 minute and 15 seconds left in the game that had exceeded a normal game’s length by about 30 minutes due to an abnormal amount of penalties and timeouts.  Fans missed Oakland’s two long plays leading to a touchdown, and the Jets fumbling the ensuing kickoff that was scooped up by the Raiders for another score just nine seconds later in a 43-32 win!

But the station, following pre-set rules, had already switched to the made-for-TV children’s version of “Heidi,” featuring Shirley Temple and set in the Alps.  

Due to the thousands of calls from outraged fans near the conclusion and after that game, the network changed its policies to hold off on other regular programming until games were completed.

All that happened due to the airing of “Heidi.”  Thus, that forever would be known as “The Heidi Bowl!”

The second most noteworthy accomplishment in Shirley’s career, then known as Shirley Temple Black, was her political life.  She was appointed as a United Nations representative in 1969.  Ensuing posts included Deputy Chairman of the USSR-USA Joint Commission, of the U.S. Delegation to the Conference on the Human Environment, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  That was all through 1972.

Finally, Shirley was US ambassador to the Republic of Ghana from 1974-76, our Chief of Protocol from 1976-77, and ambassador to Czechoslovakia and later the Czech and Slovak Republics from 1989-1992.   

Shirley Temple had of course won many achievements as a politician and an actress.  That includes the National Board of Review Career Achievement Award.  In 1998, she was honored at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  Just seven years later, Shirley won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild.

Once again, thanks for all the memories, princess of the motion picture screen!

Wait!  There’s one more thing!  How about the non-alcoholic drink named after Shirley Temple?  Made from ginger ale, grenadine, and topped with a maraschino cherry, it is reputed to have been first mixed in the late 1930s by a bartender at Chasen’s, a famous Beverly Hills establishment.  Nowadays, ginger ale is often substituted by lemon-lime soda.    

So, let’s all drink a non-intoxicating birthday toast to Shirley Temple!