Shirley Temple, Hollywood's quintessential child star during the 1930s and 1940s, became a diplomat in later years, serving as Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia and as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under her married name, Shirley Temple Black. But it is the diminutive smiling moppet with golden ringlets that most older Americans remember from the Saturday afternoon matinees of their own childhoods. Her unique appeal and immense popularity were without precedent and have never been equaled by the junior members of the Hollywood acting fraternity. The child star who acted, danced, and sang her way into the hearts of millions was the sun that shone through the clouds of the depression years. In a series of box-office smashes, Little Shirley Temple dispensed sweetness and light, beguiling her adult audiences and upstaging her adult co-stars in a series of films specially concocted...