[2][3] She began her diplomatic career in 1969, when she was appointed to represent the U.S. at a session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she worked at the U.S. Mission under Ambassador Charles Yost.

Educational Pictures launched its Baby Burlesks,[16][17][18][19] 10-minute comedy shorts satirizing recent films and events, using preschool children in every role.

Her charm was evident to Fox executives, and she was ushered into corporate offices almost immediately after finishing "Baby, Take a Bow", a song-and-dance number that she performed with James Dunn.

Biographer John Kasson argues: In almost all of these films, she played the role of emotional healer, mending rifts between erstwhile sweethearts, estranged family members, traditional and modern ways, and warring armies.

Producers delighted in contrasting her diminutive stature, sparkling eyes, dimpled smile, and 56 blond curls by casting her opposite strapping leading men, such as Gary Cooper, John Boles, Victor McLaglen, and Randolph Scott.

Yet her favorite costar was the great African American tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, with whom she appeared in four films, beginning with The Little Colonel (1935), in which they performed the famous staircase dance.

[27]Biographer Anne Edwards wrote about the tone and tenor of Temple's films: This was mid-Depression, and schemes proliferated for the care of the needy and the regeneration of the fallen.

But they all required endless paperwork and demeaning, hours-long queues, at the end of which an exhausted, nettled social worker dealt with each person as a faceless number.

[28]President Franklin D. Roosevelt praised her performances, saying, "It is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles.

[31] She performed in a short skit in the film alongside popular Fox star James Dunn, singing and tap dancing.

Fox executives rushed her into another film with Dunn, Baby Take a Bow (named after their song in Stand Up and Cheer!).

To regain control over the use of her image and to negotiate with Fox, Temple's parents hired lawyer Lloyd Wright to represent them.

[45] In 1939, she was the subject of the Salvador Dalí painting Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time, and she was animated with Donald Duck in The Autograph Hound.

[46] In 1940, Lester Cowan, an independent film producer, bought the screen rights to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited for $80.

Fitzgerald thought his screenwriting days were over, and with some hesitation, accepted Cowan's offer to write the screenplay titled "Cosmopolitan" based on the short story.

After finishing the screenplay, Fitzgerald was told by Cowan that he would not do the film unless Temple starred in the lead role of the youngster Honoria.

Fitzgerald objected, saying that at age 12, the actress was too worldly for the part and would detract from the aura of innocence otherwise framed by Honoria's character.

Temple frequently attended school dances and extracurricular activities, and according to Lockhart, "students did not treat her differently despite her successful film career.

[62] John Kasson states: She was also the most popular celebrity to endorse merchandise for children and adults, rivaled only by Mickey Mouse.

[63] Alongside licensed merchandise came counterfeit items bearing Temple's likeness to capitalize on her fame, from dolls, clothing, and other accessories to even cigars with her face printed on the label.

Temple was actually losing her primary teeth regularly through her days with Fox—for example, during the sidewalk ceremony in front of Grauman's Theatre, where she took off her shoes and placed her bare feet in the concrete, taking attention away from her face.

She later said she wished all she had to do was wear a wig, bemoaning the nightly process she had to endure in the setting of her curls as tedious and grueling, with weekly vinegar rinses that stung her eyes.

In 1967, she ran unsuccessfully in a special election in California's 11th congressional district after eight-term Republican J. Arthur Younger died of leukemia.

[74][75] Temple got her start in foreign service after her failed run for Congress in 1967, when Henry Kissinger overheard her talking about South West Africa at a party.

While staying in Kansas City for the Republican National Convention, Temple and her husband were given a room with a White House telephone in it.

Writer Anne Edwards suggested that this was because Temple had supported Reagan's rival, George H. W. Bush, in the 1980 Republican primaries.

[83] She served as the United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (August 23, 1989 – July 12, 1992), having been appointed by President George H. W. Bush,[84] and was the first and only woman in this job.

She was in Prague in August 1968, as a representative of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies, and was going to meet with Czechoslovakian party leader Alexander Dubček on the very day that Soviet-backed forces invaded the country.

[86] She was ambassador when the United States established formal diplomatic relations with the newly elected government led by Václav Havel.

[98] Temple was a lifelong cigarette smoker but avoided displaying her habit in public because she did not want to set a bad example for her fans.