Modern Screen (Dec 1949 - Nov 1950)

their marriage, when visiting her new husband in Salt Lake City, he told her of David Selznick's offer of a screen contract. Shirley was under contract to Selznick herself but it was baffling news to her, especially when John told her he was going to accept. "But," she puzzled, "how do you know you'll like that? You haven't had any training or experience or even thought about acting, have you?" John said no, he hadn't, but he'd like to give it a whirl, and Shirley said she'd do all she could to help. I suspect she had already helped, although she didn't know it. I wonder if John would ever have had that offer if he hadn't married Shirley Temple? I've since learned from friends that back in '41, before he knew Shirley, John Agar was angling for a chance around two separate Hollywood studios. He has a good voice, and also before he met Shirley he sang in Chicago's swank night spot, the Buttery. In the service, too, he sang and worked in shows. Yet he never told Shirley this and for a long time she was completely in the dark about his real ambitions, which were aimed straight at Hollywood. I'm not saying two careers broke up their marriage, although certainly that was a factor Shirley had never counted in her marriage plans. golf-widow . . . It may be more than a coincidence, too, that the moment John Agar got his Hollywood start he became indifferent to Shirley. That day I dropped in to see newborn Linda Susan, Shirley was there alone. I asked about John and he was out playing golf. He was always out playing golf. "But he should be back by now," Shirley kept repeating. He never showed up and I left late that afternoon. I suppose the 19th hole at Riviera Golf Club and his links pals were more fascinating then than his wife and new baby girl. At any rate, that's what led to the events which have placed Shirley in an unfavorable light. For John's regular foursome included Johnnie Johnston and Joe Kirkwood, names that soon were linked with Shirley Temple's in very messy gossip. Well, by now all that is water over the dam for Shirley and she is anxious to forget it. Whatever I quizzed her about to confirm my suspicions, she answered frankly and truthfully without making any excuses or alibis. "I'll tell you the truth, Hedda, scout's honor," she said, "but then I don't ever want to talk about it again." I don't blame her. Shirley washed her dirty linen publicly in her divorce testimony, frankly and in detail, and I'm not going to rehash that here. But for that, too, she drew harsh criticism. She could have won her decree ear^y enough without baring so many urpieasant details, I knew. I asked Shirley about that. "I felt I had to," she said. "It wasn't easy, but the judge said there should be no trivia. He instructed me to go back as far as I could and bring out strong incidents. Otherwise it would be just another Hollywood husband-shedding divorce story. Don't you see, if I'd done it the easy way it would give other young people the idea they could too. I think marriage," said Shirley, "should be difficult to achieve — and divorce difficult too, just as difficult as it can be." She's well aware, believe me, of the seriousness of this sad chapter in her life. The hurt was deep and the ordeal exhausting. That's why she went to Hawaii with her parents and Susan, as Shirley said, "to lose myself for a while." You can't beat Blue Hawaii for that. After her heartening welcome, Shirley took a little house on Kalianiole Road with five cats to keep Susan company and the Pacific right at her lanai. She swam in the soft surf every day, sunned lazily on the beach. She revisited all the places she'd known as a child, the Ichii Gardens, Waikiki, Honolulu's famous shops, the sugar cane and pineapple plantations, Pearl Harbor. She made friends with Margo, a lady hermit up the road, and took bones along for her dogs. She visited the leper colony on Molokai and Father Damien's grave. She learned the Tahitian hula and bought a ukulele and a book of instructions. Wherever she went, guitars serenaded her, and when one island emcee coaxed her into a floor show, Shirley remembered "Little Brown Gal" and hulaed until her knees shook. Her scores of Hawaiian friends treated her as if nothing had happened, as if she were the same Shirley Temple they'd always known and loved. She was entertained at beautiful estates all over the Island, escorted by handsome naval officers and young Honolulu men about town, one of whom, Charles Black, I think you'll be hearing much more about in Shirley Temple's life. She danced, romanced and had fun for six wonderful weeks. But all vacations come to an end and Shirley's did, as she wanted it to, once she'd gotten a grip on herself again. Shirley is no escapist. She knows she has responsibilities to assume and problems to meet. One is her career. I asked Shirley about that. Her contract with Selznick winds up this June, then she'll be free, "at liberty." Before that she has a picture to make at Warners. She told me she'd been reading a script the night before, one that made her cry. It's a sequel to A Star Is Born, Janet Gaynor's greatest, and she'd like to do it. "I'd like to make a good picture for a change," she said. "I always want to work and do something worthwhile. But maybe it won't be pictures." "Look, now — " I began. "I mean it," said Shirley seriously. "I'm not so sure I want to keep on in this business. It's a beautiful one and it's certainly been wonderful to me. But I always said if it ever stopped being fun, I'd quit. Now I'm not too sure it's fun any more." She waved aside my. interruption. "My last five pictures have been awful," stated Shirley bluntly, "and now all this." Maybe her lower lip trembled just a bit. I asked her what she'd do. another life . . . "I'd like to write a book about myself and Hollywood," Shirley confessed, "only, I don't know, it might hurt a few people. I always wanted to study languages too and learn to paint. I could study surgery— " "Be a doctor?" "No," she answered, "but I could be a nurse. I want to help people." A girl like that isn't going to flinch — as Shirley certainly hasn't — at even the crucifying ordeal which her bad luck in the choice of a first mate has brought her. Moreover, she has a saving sense of humor which flashes through whenever she starts to sag. In the midst of our talk about her current setup and the headaches it posed for her private life, she told me she had a habit of always buying something alive whenever she was in the dumps, the way some gals buy a new hat. "I saw Sands of Iwo Jima, the other night," she said wryly, "and got pretty depressed. I went out and bought a Great Dane — that's how depressed I was!" (John Agar is in Sands of Iwo Jima.) But Shirley admits no bitterness toward John. She told me, "I hope he becomes a big star now, a very big success. I Mm Can /Wore/ THIS LUXURY <3 CALO CURL CLIPS Of course, you can afford this luxury of real beauty in hairstyling. Just roll curl on finger, slide Calo plastic curl clip over curl and presto — beautiful waves and curls you've always dreamed of. Calo Plastic curl clips can be used with any type home permanent.Buy a card at your 5& 10, Drug or Notion store, or write : Calo Co. Massapeq ua, L.I. 87