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Why The Catholic Church Investigated 10-Year-Old Movie Star Shirley Temple For Fraud
For a time, many people believed that the beloved child actress was no child at all
Actress Shirley Temple became one of the biggest stars the world has ever seen before she even became a teenager. Starring in numerous movies, her sweet visage, dimples and dancing ability have continued entertaining audiences to this day. However, she was so talented that some believed she might be a fraud lying about her background. This once included the Catholic Church, which investigated her when she was just 10 years old because they believed she might actually be an adult.
Shirley Temple (She took the last name Black as a married adult) was born in 1928. Based on the encouragement from her mother, she was enrolled in singing and dancing classes by the time she was a toddler. Her precocious talent, along with trademark curly hair, attracted the interest of a casting director and she was signed to her first Hollywood contract in 1932 when she was only four.
Temple’s IMDB page indicates that she had 60 television and movie credits to her name, but she also appeared in countless shorts. There were also constant advertising opportunities, especially as she became more and more well known. Although she was commanding around $10,000 per week at the height of her career, and earned more than $3 million as a child, it was alleged that her father frittered away the vast majority of the money before she was able to assume control of her own affairs.
20th Century Fox concentrated on making a seven-year-old Temple a mega star starting in 1935. Seeing how audiences reacted to the cute little girl, they specifically designed content for her to star in and turned her into an icon. They were so successful in their endeavor that she was the top box office draw in Hollywood between 1935 and 1938.
When it came to her abilities to sing, dance and act, few adults had such an array of talent, let alone a small child. It was for that reason that rumors persisted that Temple wasn’t a child at all, but was rather an adult dwarf who had managed to trick people into believing she was a youthful prodigy.
