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"The Biggest Little Star," as this 100-minute video is titled, child actor-singer-dancer Shirley Temple saved a Hollywood studio and brightened the lives of Depression-era filmgoers. Peter Graves's narration is complemented by interviews of actors such as Gloria Stuart and the late Roddy McDowall, President Gerald Ford, as well as biographers and her on-set tutor. From her beginnings in a series of disquietingly sexual low-budget "Kiddie Burlesk" spoofs to her heyday in wholesome pictures such as The Little Colonel and Heidi, the sausage-curled Temple grew up onscreen before an adoring public. An accomp
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"The Biggest Little Star," as this 100-minute video is titled, child actor-singer-dancer Shirley Temple saved a Hollywood studio and brightened the lives of Depression-era filmgoers. Peter Graves's narration is complemented by interviews of actors such as Gloria Stuart and the late Roddy McDowall, President Gerald Ford, as well as biographers and her on-set tutor. From her beginnings in a series of disquietingly sexual low-budget "Kiddie Burlesk" spoofs to her heyday in wholesome pictures such as The Little Colonel and Heidi, the sausage-curled Temple grew up onscreen before an adoring public. An accomplished dancer she was paired with the likes of Buddy Ebsen and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. When she held hands with the latter, a black man, the pint-sized reformer not only made a small step for race relations, she inspired theaters in the Deep South to edit those parts out of her films. Her costars included Ronald Reagan and, as a pre-reader, she learned her lines from her mother before bedtime. But by age 12 she was a has-been and the very studio she had saved from bankruptcy, 20th Century Fox, released her from her contract. The resilient Temple went on to a second career in Republican politics, losing a California congressional run, but securing appointments under presidents Nixon, Ford, and Bush. This video biography, part of the excellent A&E series, is crammed with clips from her movies and offers plenty of information on her two careers. Unlike others in the series, however, it provides scant details on the personal front, shedding little light on her relationships with her stage mother and apparently somewhat uninvolved father or on her two marriages. --Kimberly Heinrichs
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Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
Release date: 27 December 2005
EAN: 9780767084956 UPC: 733961730920
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