2006-12-11 12:41:42 · 8 answers · asked by Jessica Ivy 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Theater & Acting
Mae West...nah it was Ms.Temple-Black as a young Shirley Temple.
2006-12-11 12:45:16 · answer #1 · answered by Joe Schmo from Kokomo 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Shirley Temple? Nah. Not really. From the beginning, The Movie was meant by LeRoy and Freed to be a vehicle for Judy Garland. Garland had been on contract at MGM for about four years, and the movie-going public was beginning to take notice. She'd already had success in some second-string MGM pictures, and The Movie seemed an ideal vehicle to show off her talent and really launch her into stardom. However, the New York-based executives of MGM's parent company, Loews, realizing the scope and expense The Movie would require, got nervous about a relative unknown carrying such a big picture, and wanted a proven big name star to ensure box office success. So 20th Century Fox was approached — after The Movie and Garland's casting had already been announced to the press — about loaning Temple to MGM for The Movie. (One story claims that MGM offered to loan Jean Harlow and Clark Gable to Fox for the filming of In Old Chicago as compensation, but this is probably not true, as Harlow died in 1937, before work ever began on The Movie.) Fox didn't want to loan the biggest box-office attraction in America out to anyone, however, and LeRoy and Freed were not impressed with her abilities. There are some stories that MGM also tried to borrow child stars Deanna Durbin from Universal and Bonita Granville from Warner Bros., but if true, the studios turned MGM down, and so the executives settled for Garland. But the earliest press releases, when the project was first announced, all list Garland in the cast, so there is no truth to the notion that she was the studio's second choice, winning the part by default. It also appears that some of the talk of Temple as Dorothy was wishful thinking on the part of some Hollywood columnists. Fox would later feature Temple in their own big-budget Technicolor fantasy, The Blue Bird, in answer to similar projects from the other studios, but it didn't do nearly as well as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or The Movie.
2006-12-12 08:15:54 · answer #2 · answered by tristanrobin 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Shirley Temple
2006-12-11 23:33:41 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, I believe Judy Garland was the original choice. Studio executives started to get second thoughts and considered Shirley Temple briefly -- but that was definitely after Judy Garland had been chosen for the role.
2006-12-11 20:57:21 · answer #4 · answered by jackbutler5555 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Shirley Temple was considered for the role since she was a bigger star at the time and she was closer to the age of the character in Baum's novel, but Judy Garland got it because she had a better singing voice.
2006-12-11 21:31:13 · answer #5 · answered by angel s 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Shirley Temple
2006-12-11 20:43:41 · answer #6 · answered by Renee C 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Shirley Temple was who the powers-that-be wanted - she was a shoe-in for a box office success. Sure Mervin Leroy and Arthur Freed wanted it to be a vehicle for Judy, but Louis B. Mayer was always opposed to who he called "The Fat Kid" having the part. This is also the same guy that wanted to cut "Over the Rainbow" because he didn't one of his stars singing in a barnyard.
2006-12-13 22:36:40 · answer #7 · answered by Keavy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Shirley Temple is who they wanted
2006-12-13 03:48:24 · answer #8 · answered by rossini 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋