Image by Keith Roper via Creative Commons
Earlier this week, I saw that "animal crackers in my soup" was a trending topic on Twitter. Sure enough, this referenced a lyric from a song that Shirley Temple sung in the film Curly Top (1935). People were recalling a late-night commercial for a DVD set of her films. (See IMDB for a list of her films.) This started me on a trip down memory lane.
In the late 1960s, my sister Julie and I would scour the TV Guide to see what movies would air on Sunday afternoons. I remember watching a handful of Shirley Temple films on this lazy afternoons: Little Miss Marker (1934), The Little Colonel (1935), Captain January (1936) and a half dozen or so other films.
I was between 7 and 10 years old at this time--older than Shirley Temple but still mesmerized by her singing, dancing and acting abilities. I also enjoyed the props, costumes and fanciful dream sequences imbedded in many of her movies.
I remember sympathizing with this tiny protagonist and imagining all the highs and lows of her characters' story arcs: pining for her father, freezing in attics, crying out for her grandfather and so on.
My own situation may not have been as dire, but I certainly felt the depths of injustice as I experienced them at home.
My sister even acted out some scenes, such as the one in Heidi where Klara demonstrates how she has learned to walk with Heidi's help.
I also dreamed of having someone like the kindhearted Ram Dass neighbor instruct his servant to redecorate a little attic room with as much extravagance as the one in The Little Princess. Here is a clip of the attic before it's filled with blankets, food, warm clothes and more.
What movies do you remember watching when you were a child? What movies did you imagine entering?
