It was love at first sight for 22-year-old Shirley Temple, who met Hawaiian Pineapple Co. executive Charles Black at a party in Honolulu in 1950.
The party was at the Diamond Head home of Honolulu neurologist Dr. Ralph Cloward. Black reportedly came that afternoon only because the surf was flat.
Black had not seen any of her films and did not recognize her. "We were introduced," the former child star recalled, "and he said, ‘What do you do, are you a secretary?’"
She laughed. "I said, ‘I can’t even type. I make films.’ It was very refreshing to me — a handsome guy who wasn’t interested in Hollywood or anything about it."
"I fell in love with him at first sight. It sounds corny but that’s what happened. But I don’t think he did with me."
Shirley Temple was separated at the time from her first husband, Jack Agar. She and her new beau spent a lot of time touring Oahu and going for swims. Reporters spotted them kissing behind shrubbery at the Moana hotel.
Temple asked her friend, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, to run a background check on him. He told her that Black had been a naval intelligence officer during World War II and had been awarded a Silver Star. They married later that year and spent 55 years together until Black died in 2002.
The most famous child star in history came to the islands many times. The first was on July 29, 1935, 77 years ago this week. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression.
The year 1935 was an important one for Hawaii. Pan Am began mail service to the islands that year, and the radio show "Hawaii Calls" went on the air. Amelia Earhart was the first to fly solo from Hawaii to the mainland.
However, these events were dwarfed by the arrival of the 7-year-old movie star. Her activities monopolized the front pages of the newspapers for three weeks.
Temple arrived on the luxury liner Lurline. Ten thousand came to Aloha Tower to greet her ship, and the throng of people frightened her at first.
Then she saw famed Olympian Duke Kahanamoku in the crowd and called out to him. Soon the child star was on his shoulders.
She stayed at the Royal Hawaiian, which created a drink made with ginger ale, grenadine syrup, orange juice, a maraschino cherry and a slice of lemon. They called it a "Shirley Temple."
When she visited Gov. Joseph Poindexter at Iolani Palace, 20,000 came to see her. With the accompaniment of the Royal Hawaiian Band, she sang "On the Good Ship Lollipop" from the second-floor balcony.
She visited Pearl Harbor, surfed with the Waikiki beachboys, including a young Lex Brodie, and visited children at Shriners Hospital.
Temple broke into movies in "Stand Up and Cheer" in 1934 at age 5. She performed in five more films that year, including "Bright Eyes," where she first sang "On the Good Ship Lollipop."
Actresses Shirley Jones and Shirley MacLaine were both born in 1934 and named after her.
Temple retired from acting in the early 1960s. She served on the Disney board of directors. She ran for Congress as a Republican and lost, but was appointed U.S. ambassador to Ghana in 1974 and Czechoslovakia in 1989. She turned 84 this year and resides in Northern California.
