Kara Pelosi
27 March 2013
FYS Rough Draft
Shirley Temple and the Great Depression
Throughout the nineteen thirties, the United States was in the grips of the worst financial depression in history, the Great Depression. People of all ages; men, women, and children, suffered from the stress of such depravity. The nation was in need of a pick-me-up, someone to lift the hearts and spirits of the American people in such a time. The country, and the world, for that matter, turned to the movies to find an escape from such misery. Moviegoers did not want to see the reality of the depression; they were already faced with such harsh reminders at home. Three-year-old child-star, Shirley Temple was the film industries answer to people starving for optimism. Her job as an actress was not merely to play a role in a film, but to play the “part of a girl whom fans would find irresistible” (Kasson 3). Shirley Temple’s appeal stemmed from her ability to capture the hearts of audiences, men, women, and children, throughout the Great Depression.
Men, in particular, found Shirley Temple to be an escape from the Depression. Temple’s characters often lived alongside, and even won the hearts of, a middle-aged male co-star. Depression-era audiences, even audiences to this day, find the relationship between Temple’s characters and her male-caretakers incredibly endearing. Shirley Temple’s films conveyed the idea that men were, in fact, capable of providing for and taking care of children. In a time when a man’s ability to deliver, and even a man’s masculinity was questioned, “Temple’s character disavowed the threat of castration for Depression-Era audiences confronted with the spectacle of male inadequacy” (Osterweil 16-17). In other words, “Temple films” to some degree contradicted reality, and offered a refreshing glimpse of positivity toward the middle-aged male population.
Temple’s male fan base also emphasized a growing positivity toward Depression-era men. Much like the loving relationship between Temple’s character’s and her male counterparts in film, movie-goers found her immense male fan-base charming, even cute. Men, rather than being depicted as rough, harsh people, “provided assurance that they were subject to the same tender sentiments that made women the moral guardians of the nation” (Hatch 10), through their love for Temple. Audiences loved the idea of a young girl adored by crowds of older men, as it was a sign that all men could be emotionally touched, even in the harshest of times. It symbolized a display of the innocence in everyone, even those under the most strain. While in today’s society, a grown man’s obsession toward a child star would certainly be viewed as inappropriate, during the Great Depression, “a man’s love for a little girl signaled his capacity for self-control and his willingness to discipline his unruly desired in order to partake in the chaste pleasures of sentimentality and innocence” (Hatch 9).
The theme of innocence, as well, drew men to Shirley Temple’s films throughout the Great Depression. Her movies centered on the rediscovery of innocence and childhood memories. They were reminiscent of childhood and being nurtured, in a time when it was up to the men in the family to take care of everyone else. Shirley’s films “fed the public their Pablum. The adult’s fantasy was not so much to have a little girl like her…but to actually be her. To be taken care of, fussed over, listened to” (Basinger 14). Many men associated Shirley with their own childhood. For the price of a movie ticket, a man could fantasize about their past, when their only worry was about getting home in time for supper. They could be swept away in these “modernized fairy tales…in that mythic realm where poor orphan girls may turn into little princesses, where dead fathers may turn out to be alive after all…where a strong child may, in her wisdom lead them all to the inevitable happy end” (Boring 101).
Depression-era men, struck with emotion, also found Temple’s films to be a viable outlet for such frustrations. Because society renders the image of emotional men to be unacceptable, theater-goers flocked to Temple films to essentially cry. Society’s support for men attending such films often drove male fans into the theaters, and “male fans acknowledged that getting caught up in the plots of Shirley’s films allowed them to express emotions—to weep with her in sorrow” (Fuller-Seeley 55). The films were an escape, not simply one in which audiences could retreat from their troubles, but one in which men could channel their troubles into her films. This was a popular “therapy” technique and was actually marketed to some degree toward older tougher men. Accounts from salt-of-the-earth workers proved to be successful, claiming that they “went down to see Shirley…one of our gang was rather hard boiled and we were no jellyfish ourself, but when Jimmy Dunn took Shirley up in an airplane…we’ll just be doggoned if the salt water didn’t run down the noses of both of us” (Fuller-Seeley 56). Shirley was not just a star; she was an escape.
Similarly to men, women also found comfort in Shirley Temple’s movies. Maternal instincts, in particular, drew women to Temple’s characters. When watching her films, mothers everywhere felt as though they were protecting Temple, serving as a guardian of sorts. Her films activate this “mothering desire of preservative love and protective cherishing, or women’s empathy for children, and of a desire for ownership as if the cute kid were a pet” (Fuller-Seeley 50). Shirley Temple movies fed Depression-era mothers what they wanted: to be able to shelter. Families in America often had no control over the Depression’s effect on their children and left mothers feeling vulnerable. Imagining that were protecting young Shirley from the dangers on film gave them satisfaction and sheltered them from the “humiliation of not being able to adequately provide for the younger generation” (Fuller-Seeley 51). In other words, Temple’s films, to some degree, filled a mother’s internal void to care for her children; something the Great Depression somewhat prevented them from doing.
Another source of relief women found in Temple’s films was the film’s depiction of men. In a time when men were constantly depicted as harsh, volatile, and dangerous, Shirley Temple films refuted and rejected this idea. “While the image of men in bread lines inspired fear that armies of unemployed men might erupt into violence, as had their German and Italian counterparts…the image of men lined up for a Shirley Temple film offered the promise of peace and stability” (Hatch 10), certainly a source of comfort for the Depression’s women. Throughout this time, women were virtuously powerless over men, as the Depression was “a period when the survival of the nation depended on the compassion and restraint of its men” (Hatch 9). They were essentially at the mercy of the mind state of their men.
The Temple movies themselves also advocated this emotional restraint and stability of men. Women were drawn to this new, sensitized, image of men during Depression-era assertions of masculinity. Her films were popular among women “by assuring audiences that even the coarsest gold miner or most miserly businessman would prove benevolent when touched by the innocent love of a little girl” (Hatch 6). To see gruff, grown men falling head-over-heels, wrapped around the finger of such a young girl in films was revolutionary. Women of the Great Depression were attracted to such a theme, as they were constantly confronted with more robust and virile depictions of men. Temple’s films, in a way, expressed a support for the weaker or oppressed. Temple’s ability to charm the powerful domineering men throughout her films mirrored the feminine struggle for a voice and power throughout the Depression, and was thus incredibly relatable for women of the time.
It is because of this ability to charm adults that children admired and idolized Temple. Much like women of the time, a child’s fate was left in the hands of the men who were struggling to make ends meet. Temple’s films, however, suggested otherwise. Men seemed to be at the mercy of children in Temple’s films, “it is a game that Temple played with adult male costars in several films, in which this play signified that man’s capitulation to the child’s arms” (Hatch 3). To young children, who were often neglected throughout the Depression, it is this dominance over adults, especially men, which was so appealing. Her ability to, almost hypnotically, capture the hearts of grown men gained her children’s following and fandom. This attention she demanded was relatable for children and “to want to be Shirley Temple was, in some part, to want to be appreciated, loved…by adult men” (Osterweil 5).
It was not only Shirley’s power over adults that drew children to her; rather, it was also her attitude and character. Temple maintained a sort of spunk, and because of this attitude children “often wanted to be her or in any case, be just like her. For a generation of children and adolescents growing up during the Great Depression Temple was indeed the primary ego ideal” (Osterweil 5). Shirley was encouraging to children in that her characters always embody perseverance and individuality. She symbolized the type of person all helpless children wish that they could be, “Shirley never waited for help; in fact, it was generally she who saved the day” (Boring 105). In other words, Shirley was a hero. Unlike the heroes of the comics, Temple seemed accessible, as she was a child herself. She constantly demonstrates in her films “bravery, persistence, intelligence, diplomacy, and an unbreakable spirit…Shirley is a heroine who can tackle life’s problems on her own” (Boring 106). This attitude helped children face the strain of the Great Depression with a smile.
Shirley Temple, because of her appeal to people all over the social spectrum was able, to some degree; mend the hearts and spirits of the victims of the Great Depression. Her lighthearted, positive attitude was the perfect remedy for a nation full of suffering. Temple was, in a way, a crutch upon which the downtrodden could lean, and an ambassador “creating a regime of confidence and cheer” (Kasson 1). Overall, Temple’s presence in the media and film is widely acknowledged as a form of public relief throughout the Great Depression.
Work Cited
Basinger, Jeanine. Shirley Temple. New York: Pyramid Publications, 1975. Print.
Browne, Ray B., and Marshall Fishwick. "Shirley Temple: Super Child." Icons of America. Bowling Green, OH: Popular, 1978. 100-10. Print.
Hatch, Kristin. "Discipline and Pleasure: Shirley Temple and the Spectacle of Child Loving." Camera Obscura 27.1 (2012): n. pag. Print.
Kasson, John F. "Shirley Temple’s Paradoxical Smile." American Art 25.3 (2011): 16-17. Print.
McLean, Adrienne L. "Shirley Temple: Making Dreams Come True." Glamour in a Golden Age: Movie Stars of the 1930s. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2011. 44-65. Print.
Osterweil, Ara. "Reconstructing Shirley: Pedophilia and Interracial Romance in Hollywood’s Age of Innocence." Camera Obscura 24.3 (2009): n. pag. Print.