"The Little Colonel" with Shirley Temple
By the time "The Little Colonel" movie premiered in Louisville at the Rialto Theatre on February 22, 1935, Annie Fellows Johnston, the author who created the beloved character, had been dead for four years. It was her stepdaughter, Mary G. Johnston, who sold Fox Film Studio the movie rights to the "Little Colonel," published four decades earlier in 1895.
Annie, along with the inspirations for many of the beloved characters from the novel -- Rebecca Flournoy Porter, who inspired Mom Beck, the Little Colonel's mammy; Walker Hardin, the inspiration for Walker, the Old Colonel's manservant; the model for the Old Colonel himself, George Washington Weissinger; and his daughter, Amelia Weissinger Cochran, the model for the Little Colonel's mother Mrs. Sherman -- didn't live to see the story on the silver screen. John Hoadley Cochran -- the model for the Little Colonel's father, Papa Jack -- died a year later on July 16, 1936.
Included in the negotiations for the film rights was a portfolio of photographs compiled for the managing director of the movie, Mrs. Thomas Moore, to assist with set and costume design. The cover letter accompanying the scrapbook explained:
Annie, along with the inspirations for many of the beloved characters from the novel -- Rebecca Flournoy Porter, who inspired Mom Beck, the Little Colonel's mammy; Walker Hardin, the inspiration for Walker, the Old Colonel's manservant; the model for the Old Colonel himself, George Washington Weissinger; and his daughter, Amelia Weissinger Cochran, the model for the Little Colonel's mother Mrs. Sherman -- didn't live to see the story on the silver screen. John Hoadley Cochran -- the model for the Little Colonel's father, Papa Jack -- died a year later on July 16, 1936.
Included in the negotiations for the film rights was a portfolio of photographs compiled for the managing director of the movie, Mrs. Thomas Moore, to assist with set and costume design. The cover letter accompanying the scrapbook explained:
The following portfolio contains the photographs which I have been able to collect pursuant to my agreement with your company following my negotiations with you while representing Miss Mary G. Johnston, Executrix under the Will of Annie Fellows Johnston, deceased, for the motion picture rights of "The Little Colonel" story. Since the author created neither the environment nor the character, but made them living and vital for the rest of us through her accurate portrayal of real people and real places, it occurred to me that actual photographs of such characters and places might be a medium through which a clever director would find the essence of what has made "The Little Colonel" such a potent factor in the lives of two generations of Americans. The Photographs were not obtained by a cameraman but by climbing attic stairs and having reproductions made of dusty treasured bundles.
Every year since the book was first published, thousands of children have come to Pewee Valley to see where the Little Colonel really lived. For their sake, I cannot but fervently hope that the motion picture will faithfully follow the book. Children are peculiarly literal and loyal and demand what they love and remember...
Although it's been rumored that the movie was actually shot in Pewee Valley, it was not. During her lifetime, Shirley Temple never visited here, although she was invited to the Pewee Valley Historical Society's 2008 Little Colonel event. Unfortunately, her health prevented her from coming. She died on February 11, 2012 at age 85.
Every year since the book was first published, thousands of children have come to Pewee Valley to see where the Little Colonel really lived. For their sake, I cannot but fervently hope that the motion picture will faithfully follow the book. Children are peculiarly literal and loyal and demand what they love and remember...
Although it's been rumored that the movie was actually shot in Pewee Valley, it was not. During her lifetime, Shirley Temple never visited here, although she was invited to the Pewee Valley Historical Society's 2008 Little Colonel event. Unfortunately, her health prevented her from coming. She died on February 11, 2012 at age 85.
Characters and Locations from the Movie and Their Real-Life Counterparts in Pewee Valley
Enthusiasm for the Little Colonel and her chums hadn't waned in the decades between the novel's publication and the movie. According to Annie Fellows Johnston expert and re-enactor Sue Lynn McDaniel in her April 1, 1991 paper The Little Colonel: A Phenomenon in Popular Literary Culture, the February 23, 1935 Louisville Times reported that the movie's debut was wildly successful:
Proof that interest in Annie Fellows Johnson’s [sic] ‘The Little Colonel’ has not declined with the years was offered Friday when thousands of children from dozens of communities near Louisville came on interurbans, in private conveyances and in school busses to see what Hollywood has done to one of the most lovable characters created by a Kentucky author. . . .The paper noted that "the attendance record of the house was broken" by a crowd "estimated at something like 15,000."
Movie Posters and Lobby Cards at the Pewee Valley Museum
McDaniel also noted the plethora of merchandise spin-offs that occurred after the movie came out:
Designers opened a line of Little Colonel fashions for girls aged two through twelve. A New York hotel presented a Little Colonel fashion showing. Macy’s opened a Little Colonel Shop. While newspapers and magazines devoted columns and photographs to the latest fad, store advertisements were covered with Little Colonel merchandise. “Little Colonel, Incorporated” granted licenses to twenty-five manufacturers to make “Little Colonel” clothing and other merchandise. In 1935, the Louisville Herald-Post announced that factories were producing dresses, coats, hats, shoes, tooth brushes, pocketbooks, handkerchiefs, jewelry, dolls, toys, watches, clocks, and games.
Designers opened a line of Little Colonel fashions for girls aged two through twelve. A New York hotel presented a Little Colonel fashion showing. Macy’s opened a Little Colonel Shop. While newspapers and magazines devoted columns and photographs to the latest fad, store advertisements were covered with Little Colonel merchandise. “Little Colonel, Incorporated” granted licenses to twenty-five manufacturers to make “Little Colonel” clothing and other merchandise. In 1935, the Louisville Herald-Post announced that factories were producing dresses, coats, hats, shoes, tooth brushes, pocketbooks, handkerchiefs, jewelry, dolls, toys, watches, clocks, and games.
Little Colonel Paper Dolls by Dorothy Wagstaff from Wee Wisdom Magazine March and April 1938
Annie Fellows Johnston's Little Colonel novels have been accused of perpetuating stereotypes of American blacks. Born and raised in Indiana in a minister's household without servants and married to a man who served in the Union army, she was no bigot. She simply wrote what she saw and chronicled the prevailing customs, language and conventions of the time and places in which she lived.
"The Little Colonel" screen adaptation, however, broke color barriers with its iconic scene featuring Shirley Temple and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson tap dancing hand-in-hand down the staircase at The Locust. It was considered so controversial in the 1930s that the scene was cut in the South. But it paved the way for three more tap dancing scenes featuring Temple and Robinson in subsequent films and a life-long friendship between the two stars.
"The Little Colonel" screen adaptation, however, broke color barriers with its iconic scene featuring Shirley Temple and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson tap dancing hand-in-hand down the staircase at The Locust. It was considered so controversial in the 1930s that the scene was cut in the South. But it paved the way for three more tap dancing scenes featuring Temple and Robinson in subsequent films and a life-long friendship between the two stars.
The "Love, Shirley Temple" Exhibit at the Frazier History Museum, Louisville. Ky., July 3-8, 2015 -- A Thierault's Auction Event
On July 3-8, 2015, the Frazier History Museum in downtown Louisville was one of only seven sites nationwide to display "Love, Shirley Temple." Sponsored by Thierault's Auction of Annapolis, Maryland, the exhibit consisted of the childhood star's personal collection of dolls, toys, costumes, autographs and autographed pictures, books and other memorabilia, all lovingly preserved by her mother, Gertrude Temple. Included in the collection, which was sold at auction several months later, were the costumes six-year-old Shirley Temple wore in "The Little Colonel" movie. According to a February 17, 1935 story about the movie that ran in the Courier-Journal, some of those costumes were made by a talented Louisville seamstress:
...A number of costumes in the production were designed by Mrs. Evelyn Scales Mercke, 1872 Trevilion Way. Some of the scenes were discarded and retakes made in Hollywood in order to incorporate the charming costumes designed by Mrs. Mercke...
Shirley Temple and Little Colonel fans who missed the exhibit can still purchase the lavishly-illustrated, 365-page catalog, "Love, Shirley Temple" directly from Thierault's.
...A number of costumes in the production were designed by Mrs. Evelyn Scales Mercke, 1872 Trevilion Way. Some of the scenes were discarded and retakes made in Hollywood in order to incorporate the charming costumes designed by Mrs. Mercke...
Shirley Temple and Little Colonel fans who missed the exhibit can still purchase the lavishly-illustrated, 365-page catalog, "Love, Shirley Temple" directly from Thierault's.
The "Love, Shirley Temple" Exhibit Program
Shirley Temple Forever Stamps Issued April 18, 2016
On April 18, 2016, the United States Postal Service honored child actress and United States Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia Shirley Temple Black by placing her on the 20th stamp in their Legends of Hollywood series. Artist Tim O'Brien created the painting based on a 1935 image from Curly Top copyrighted by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. The covers shown above are from the first day of issue for the stamps and feature scenes and photos from "The Little Colonel."
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