{"id":382583,"date":"2026-04-05T03:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382583\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T03:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:10:14","slug":"shirley-temples-memoir-revealed-secrets-of-her-darkest-moments-and-brightest-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382583\/","title":{"rendered":"Shirley Temple\u2019s Memoir Revealed Secrets of Her Darkest Moments and Brightest Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1934\u2019s Bright Eyes, a pint-size Shirley Temple <\/a>sang \u201cOn the Good Ship Lollipop,\u201d praising all sorts of sweet confections. Her tastes through the years, though, grew more sophisticated. \u201cOne night we were waiting in line to get drinks and I said, \u2018You\u2019re obviously not drinking a Shirley Temple,\u2019 \u201d her longtime friend Barry Barsamian, who met Shirley in 1996 when she was 68, recalled to Closer. \u201cShe looked up and said, \u2018No! I\u2019m having a Black Russian with vodka. I\u2019ll call it a Shirley Temple Black!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

The star of Depression-era films such as Wee Willie Winkie and The Little Princess, it turned out, hated the mocktail named in her honor. \u201cShe told me if you drink them you\u2019d get diabetes because of all of the sugar,\u201d Barry added of his friend, who left show business behind in her 20s and worked in international government relations later in life. She detailed that unique and surprising career path in Child Star, her 1988 autobiography, along with stories about being a mom to three kids.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Now, her son, Charles Black Jr., says that his mother<\/a> had secretly written more intimately personal memories to share with her fans. \u201cBefore her death she had completed the second volume of her autobiography,\u201d Charles told Closer of the secret tell-all, which has never been published. \u201cShe\u2019d always tell me to call her around 10 a.m., after she\u2019d had her breakfast. She said she was penning part two of Child Star, so we\u2019d chat at 10 and then she\u2019d get into her writing for a couple of hours. She did it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Private Thoughts\"<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Some secrets Shirley shared with her friend Barry were for his ears only. \u201cShe\u2019d say, \u2018I want you to feel honored, because I don\u2019t really talk about little Shirley with anyone except you and Michael Jackson,\u2019 \u201d Barry recalled. \u201cEvidently, Michael was a huge admirer, and she said there was a blown-up picture of her in his bedroom, which she thought was unusual, to say the least!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

As a former child star himself, Michael no doubt related to the unique struggles<\/a> Shirley faced. Born after two older brothers, Shirley was groomed by her mother, Gertrude, to be a star from day one. \u201cWhen Shirley was in her crib, Gertrude would say, \u2018Sparkle, Shirley!\u2019 and Shirley would sparkle!\u201d Marilyn Granas, Shirley\u2019s first film stand-in, told Closer. \u201cShe was a brilliant child \u2014 extremely bright and very talented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Shirley was subjected to traumatic conditions on set. Sometimes, when separated from Gertrude by a producer on a film, she was placed all alone in a freezing-cold box. \u201cBeing a starlet was difficult, and I was a starlet from 3-and-a-half to 5 years of age,\u201d Shirley once shared, recalling the incident that involved other kids her age, via BBC<\/a>. \u201cWhen any of us misbehaved we were sent one by one into the black box to cool off,\u201d Shirley said, describing a sound box that held a big block of ice. \u201c[I was] in the dark with the door closed. I got a lot of earaches, styes, a lot of problems from it. The lesson was time is money. And it\u2019s work, not play.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 1930s, kidnapping threats also plagued the young actress.<\/p>\n

\u201cShirley became aware of some of the plots against her, as well as her parents\u2019 anxieties,\u201d\u00a0 John F. Kasson, author of The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America, told Closer. \u201cAt times her father [George, a banker] carried his gun around at night as her mother checked nervously on Shirley in her bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

And on Christmas Eve in 1939, Shirley, then 11, was terrorized by a failed assassination attempt during her radio debut. A mentally disturbed woman pulled a handgun from her bag and pointed it at her before security guards dragged the woman away.<\/p>\n

Though she truly adored performing \u2014 \u201cI loved what I did. I probably would\u2019ve paid for the pleasure of working,\u201d she reportedly wrote in a memoir, Child Star \u2014 incidents like these made Shirley\u2019s exit from the movie business after 1949\u2019s A Kiss for Corliss somewhat easier.<\/p>\n

That same year she divorced her first husband, actor John Agar, with whom she had admittedly rushed into an ill-fated union in 1945 at age 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had marriage on the brain,\u201d she reportedly wrote of her decision to wed Agar, who drank too much and cheated on her.<\/p>\n

Her daughter Susan, born in 1948, was the sole bright spot of their partnership. \u201cShe was sweet. She just liked to kiss, hug and be loving,\u201d Susan told Closer of her mom, who would finally find her true love in 1950 with Charles Black, a handsome former Navy man.<\/p>\n

It was love at first sight, and it couldn\u2019t have come at a better time. Shortly after divorcing John, Shirley discovered that her father had squandered more than $3 million of her life\u2019s earnings on bad investments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was possibly the darkest time of her life<\/a>,\u201d Kasson said, noting Shirley was left with just $44,000 to her name. \u201cShe had been her family business,\u201d Kasson added, and she knew it. \u201cKeep dancing, kid, or the rickety house collapses,\u201d she wrote in Child Starof the pressures on her during her youth.<\/p>\n

A New Chapter\"<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Her life entered a much less stressful second stage once she and Charles wed. They welcomed Charles Jr. in 1952 and daughter Lori in 1954, and her family would always be her greatest accomplishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was wonderful \u2014 and normal,\u201d Charles Jr. recalled to Closer. \u201cWe had dinner at the table every night all together,\u201d he says of how much she embraced her new role as a housewife and mother.<\/p>\n

While raising her family, she got involved in children\u2019s health issues, local politics and campaigning for soon-to-be President Richard Nixon. To thank her for her tireless support after his win in 1968, Nixon appointed her as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations. President Gerald Ford later made her ambassador to the African nation of Ghana, and she would eventually become the first female chief of protocol at the White House in 1976.<\/p>\n

These later-year triumphs are what the second autobiography was expected to cover. \u201cThe book was [going to be] about her diplomatic life,\u201d said Barry, \u201cand I think she\u2019d include things about being a mother, because that was very important to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her kids agree. \u201cShe was devoted and generous, and she could be a little stern if we didn\u2019t behave,\u201d Susan revealed to Closer. \u201cBut she was also a lot of fun. Very inventive and imaginative. She was all about her children and her husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susan was lucky enough to travel with her mom, and those memories will last a lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018Come with me! It\u2019ll be fun,\u2019 \u201d Susan recalls of exploring Romania and the former nations of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia with Shirley. \u201cWe ordered things we had no idea what they were off the menus and fiddled with whether or not we were tipping enough,\u201d she says. \u201cBut she was very interested in what was happening, and always up for adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those closest to her, though, venture that she was proudest of her family. \u201cIf you go to her grave site, it\u2019s not set up like Shirley Temple the star or the diplomat,\u201d Barry explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more Shirley Temple Black, the wife, the mother, the grandmother, the great-grandmother. It\u2019s very humble and normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story Shirley Temple\u2019s Memoir Revealed Secrets of Her Darkest Moments and Brightest Days<\/a> first appeared on Closer Weekly<\/a>. Add Closer Weekly as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1934\u2019s Bright Eyes, a pint-size Shirley Temple sang \u201cOn the Good Ship Lollipop,\u201d praising all sorts of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[170643,321,170642,170644,170646,93,360,61,60,39478,170641,170645],"class_list":{"0":"post-382583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-barry-barsamian","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-charles-black","11":"tag-charles-black-jr","12":"tag-closer","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-getty-images","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-michael-jackson","18":"tag-shirley-temple","19":"tag-wee-willie-winkie"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}