Shirley Temple, actress and diplomat, RIP

An early influence?

Did you know that from 1935 through 1938 Shirley Temple was the top box-office draw in the U.S.? According to the LA Times, "She saved what became 20th Fox studios from bankruptcy and made more than 40 movies before she turned 12."

Hot tip for actors: 

"To learn her lines, Shirley essentially memorized the script as her mother, Gertrude Temple, read it aloud."

http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-shirley-temple-black-20140211,0,1264780.story#ixzz2t4CScDlT

From Wikipedia:

"...Temple became active in the Republican Party in California. In 1967, she ran unsuccessfully in a special election in California's 11th congressional district to fill the seat left vacant by the death of eight-term Republican J. Arthur Younger from leukemia.^[93][94] She ran as a conservative and lost to law school professor Pete McCloskey, a liberal Republican who was a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War.^[95][96]
She was appointed Representative to the 24th United Nations General Assembly by President Richard M. Nixon (September – December 1969),^[97][98] and was appointed United States Ambassador to Ghana (December 6, 1974 – July 13, 1976) by President Gerald R. Ford.^[99] She was appointed first female Chief of Protocol of the United States (July 1, 1976 – January 21, 1977), and was in charge of arrangements for President Jimmy Carter's inauguration and inaugural ball.^[99][100] She served as the United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (August 23, 1989 – July 12, 1992), having been appointed by President George H. W. Bush.^[33]"

^{A fun Wiki note:}

"Temple and her parents traveled to Washington, D.C., late in 1935 to meet President Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. The presidential couple invited the Temple family to a cook-out at their home in Hyde Park, New York, where Eleanor, bending over an outdoor grill, was hit smartly in the rear with a pebble from the slingshot Temple carried everywhere in her little lace purse (Edwards 81)."