A Woman Tried To Assassinate Shirley Temple For ‘Stealing Her Daughter’s Soul’ 

Child star Shirley Temple had to deal with a lot of bizarre things as one of, if not the most successful, child actors Hollywood had ever seen. Although she managed to survive the darker trappings of the industry and grow up into a life of public service before her death at age 85 in 2014, Temple revealed in her 1988 memoir Child Star that there had been at least one assassination attempt on her life when she was at the height of her pre-pubescent fame.

In 1939, Temple was off the midst of her box office domination, which lasted from 1935 to 1938. It was that year, when she would have been about 10 years old, that she made her radio debut with baritone singer-actor Nelson Eddy — and narrowly escaped death.

A pivotal time in Temple's career

The time period was a turning point in her career as publications referred to her age at 10 as "the awkward stage" and asked questions like, "Can radio bridge the gap between child and adult stardom for her?"

She was also getting comparisons to another contemporary: Temple's turn in The Blue Bird essentially pitted her against Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, she notes in her book. (Temple had also been up for the role of Dorothy before losing out to Garland).

Temple expounded on the battle the studios behind the two films created. "Just as Europe had hostilities, Hollywood had its own 1939 warfare, a highly personalized battle between MGM and Twentieth Century Fox," she wrote in her book. She then reflected on how Blue Bird never touched the staying power of The Wizard of Oz: "Their wizard against our blue bird. In the end, it was more a battle between their canon and our cap pistol."

The fateful night

On December 24, 1939, Temple was in her dressing room preparing to sing a "Silent Night, Holy Night" medley with Eddy on the radio for the first time as promotion for The Blue Bird. "Although shielded from extensive tours sponsoring the film, I did what I could locally," she wrote.

It was in front of the live audience for the broadcast that Temple would have the scare of her life — but her almost-assailant made her presence known even earlier than that.

"My upstairs theatre dressing room faced directly onto a parking lot," Temple wrote, "Standing at the window I looked out while Mother fussed around with the back of my hair, and I saw a scruffily dressed woman carrying a large handbag come along below, peering up into each window as if searching."

Temple wrote that the woman had tried to say something to her from the window. "When she saw me, her face lit up with recognition," she continued. "Scowling, she raised her fist and shouted something unintelligible."

Temple got her mother's attention, curious about what the woman was saying. Her mother closed the blinds and told Temple to concentrate on preparing for her performance, but Temple wrote that her mother alerted theatre officials, who alerted the police — who then alerted the FBI to the woman's strange behavior. Her mother's caution would save Temple's life.

When it was time to record, Temple joined Eddy on stage in front of the audience. By that time, the woman's gestures were "out of my mind" she wrote.

But as she began to sing, Temple saw the woman again: "I swept the applauding audience with my warmest smile. Suddenly, there she was."

The woman was still scowling, Temple remembered. "The same frumpy, angry-eyed woman was seated in the front row directly beneath me, hardly an epitome of Yuletide spirit."

Temple recalled seeing "two forms moving slowly down each aisle and glancing from side to side," as she was singing — and then she noticed that the woman reached into her bag.

"Slowly the woman rose, like one transfixed, raising her gun until it pointed directly at me," she recalled in her book about the harrowing incident. "Now the two men had spotted the woman, and both came crowding and stumbling past the extended legs of seated patrons."

Temple wrote that the woman would have had time to shoot before the police reached her, but she didn't: "Why the woman did not pull the trigger before being roughly seized by the two men is hers to answer and mine to bless."

FBI shares the women's chilling intent (and explanation) with Temple

It wasn't until the next day that Temple and her mother would find out why the woman did what she did. "Next day an FBI agent called," she wrote. "The woman's gun had been loaded and she had indeed intended to kill me, for stealing her daughter's soul."

The woman believed that since Temple was born the same hour that her own child (who was born just hours before) had died, Temple must have stolen her baby's soul. "To avenge the theft, she had set out to kill my body," Temple wrote, but also notes that the woman's logic was based on incorrect information.

"My birthdate the woman was using was 1929, the one fabricated," she wrote. "In truth, it was off by one year, so somebody else had stolen the soul."

Perhaps the woman second-guessed herself when she hesitated to pull the trigger — but Temple would never find out.