The death of Shirley Temple Black February 10 received widespread media attention, and for good reason. It wasn't necessarily her talent that made her well remembered, despite being a triple threat as an actor, dancer, and singer during her childhood. Nor was it her intelligence, although a director of one of her films said she only needed to be told something once to remember it.
What makes Black well remembered in the national consciousness has more to do with the period she is associated with than any talent she possessed. As a child star in the 1930s, Black gave hope to people in the midst of the Great Depression, when grown men stood in bread lines for hours and families lived in shanty towns called Hoovervilles. Her smile and optimism that shone on the silver screen helped people who were down on their luck to forget all their troubles, if only for a couple of hours. "As long as we have Shirley Temple, we will be all right", declared President Franklin Roosevelt, another national figure who gave hope to the hopeless in the midst of the Depression.
After marrying Charles Black in 1950, the former child star entered into a life of public service, running for Congress in the 1960s and later serving as U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. But it was her ability to make people smile during a very dark time in our country's history that is her most crowning achievement.
What makes Black well remembered in the national consciousness has more to do with the period she is associated with than any talent she possessed. As a child star in the 1930s, Black gave hope to people in the midst of the Great Depression, when grown men stood in bread lines for hours and families lived in shanty towns called Hoovervilles. Her smile and optimism that shone on the silver screen helped people who were down on their luck to forget all their troubles, if only for a couple of hours. "As long as we have Shirley Temple, we will be all right", declared President Franklin Roosevelt, another national figure who gave hope to the hopeless in the midst of the Depression.
After marrying Charles Black in 1950, the former child star entered into a life of public service, running for Congress in the 1960s and later serving as U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. But it was her ability to make people smile during a very dark time in our country's history that is her most crowning achievement.
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