The Santa Monica History Museum is celebrating their favorite local daughter, Santa Monica-born actress Shirley Temple, with an extensive exhibit of artifacts from her life and career. Avid fans may note this is actually the second time the museum has staged a Temple-focused show; Shirley Temple: Santa Monica’s Biggest Little Star follows up on a 2015 exhibit that primarily showcased her well-known early years.
This new exhibition, pulled in large part from a family collection started by Shirley Temple’s prescient mother, certainly includes many pieces from her youthful on-screen days, but, as LA Weekly reports, this time curators also set out to delve more deeply into her off-screen life.
An assortment of officially-licensed dolls and products attests to Temple’s status as one of the first entertainers to turn their likeness into a merchandising franchise. Letters from Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt thank her for her outreach work during the Depression and World War II era and press clippings chronicle her political life, including serving as an ambassador and even making an ultimately-failed run for Congress in 1967.
All of which raises the question of if any current young stars will remain relevant enough to merit the same historical archive treatment in decades to come? Can we expect galleries in 2100 to be lined with Miley Cyrus’ outlandish costumes or video screens scrolling the youthful Tweets of Jaden Smith (make that future Ambassador Smith, perhaps)?