What Fans Don't Know About Shirley Temple

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Most people don't hit their stride in life until they are into their 30s, the decade by which the human brain is fully developed, according to Men's Health. At that point, the proverbial wild oats have been sown, and a career path is laid out or at least well-considered. Shirley Temple's life and career hit full gear a bit earlier than that, though. According to People, she was learning to dance by age 3, and by the time she turned 4, she was already appearing on the screen.

Temple's years of greatest success as a screen actress came between 1935 and 1938, when she was between the ages of 6 and 9 years old. The film "Bright Eyes," released in late December 1934, according to AFI, would rocket the young lady to international stardom, and for a while, she was a top box office draw and earner. By the time she was six, Temple was earning more than $1,000 a week for her work, a figure that today would be just under $20,000 weekly, according to the U.S. Inflation Calculator.

But by the end of 1938, her star was already fading, in the parlance of Hollywood. In 1940, when Temple was 11 years old, her contract with Fox studios was cancelled, and though the actress would still make pictures, her heyday had come and gone.

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