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Family. No less startling than the effect which cinema success has had on Shirley Temple is the effect Shirley Temple's success has had on her family. The Temples have already moved once since Shirley became famed. They are now building a new house which has a hill on one side and a wide lawn on the other to prevent Shirley's admirers from pressing their noses against the windows at odd hours. Mrs. Temple gets some $500 a week for spending the days with her daughter.
Shirley has two older brothers, Jack (20) and George (17). Jack was given a job in Twentieth Century-Fox's publicity department. Feeling that he was paid solely for being a prodigy's brother, he asked to be sent to Stanford. He was promptly made manager of Stanford's dramatic club. George Temple, now at the New Mexico Military Institute, has not yet been much influenced by his sister's fame, but Mr. Temple's life has been revolutionized. From his modest job in a bank cage, he was elevated to manager of California Bank's branch at Washington Street and Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles. The bank showed a marked gain in children's savings accounts. Last week he was transferred to the more pretentious cream-colored branch at Hollywood and Cahuenga Boulevards. Mrs. Temple, who devotes all her time to Shirley, is dark and taller than her husband. Mr. Temple, short, plump and dimpled, looks more like his daughter. Consequently, he is considered responsible for her genius, receives occasional offers from ladies who feel that with his assistance they could produce a replica. Mr. Temple declines such invitations. He spends his time investing his daughter's earnings in sound securities.
The question about Shirley Temple which seems to disturb people most persistently is whether she is "spoiled" or "unspoiled" by her life in the cinema. She is "unspoiled." This does not prevent her from being fresh. When, preparatory to meeting H. G. Wells, she was informed that he was the most important man in the universe, she chirped: "Oh no, he's not! God is the most important and Governor Merriam's second." In Palm Springs she showed General Pershing her autograph book and asked him whether he knew the Hollywood notables whose names were in it. On learning that he knew none of them, she lost interest in him, disrespectfully inquired later how he came to be a general. She likes vaudeville jokes, frequently repeats an impudent riddle she learned from Bill Robinson: "How's the tailoring business?" "So-so." On sitting down to a game of squares, she humiliates her opponents by saying, "There're no spots on your suit, but you're going to the cleaners."
Friends, In the life of a normal child celebrity, it is not contact with the adults whom she meets in her work which is dangerous but encounters with children of her own age. Accustomed to celebrities, her studio acquaintances treat Shirley Temple like an ordinary child. Ordinary children, by being shy and filled with awe, sometimes give her an exaggerated sense of her importance.