This 27-inch Shirley Temple doll has on a white dress with red polka dots, like the one that appeared in the 1934 movie Stand Up and Cheer!
A small Shirley Temple doll is dressed like her Curly Top character.

By Judith Izen
Photos courtesy of Theriault’s Doll Auctions, except where indicated

Child star Shirley Temple sang and danced her way into America’s heart during the 1930s Depression. She be­came Hollywood’s highest-grossing star for four con­secutive years. The Ideal Novelty and Toy Company of New York saw how successful the young actress was and obtained the rights to produce a Shirley Temple doll in 1934.

The doll proved to be as popular as her namesake. By the mid-1930s, Ideal’s line of Shirley Temple dolls accounted for al­most a third of all dolls sold in the U.S.

Shirley Temple appeared in The Little Colonel, and this 27-inch doll wears a similar organdy dress with a hooped petticoat, pantalets, and a bonnet with a feather.
An outfit similar to this was worn in The Littlest Rebel (1935). The cotton dress has a blue print and is topped with an organdy apron. Photo courtesy of McMasters Harris Apple Tree Doll Auctions.

She is all composition (basically wood pulp, glue, and resin), with jointed limbs and head, a blond mohair wig with ringlet curls, hazel glass sleep eyes, and an open mouth with six upper teeth and a felt tongue. She was sculpted by Bernard Lipfert, a prolific doll sculptor. The doll came in nine sizes, ranging from 11 inches up to 27 inches. The most popular sizes were 13, 16, and 18 inches. On her head and body, the doll is marked “Shirley Temple.”

One of the selling points was that the doll had costumes that were identical to those Temple wore in her movies. Ideal con­tinued making costumes as new films were released, and there ended up being more than 40 outfit designs for the doll. Even­tually, Ideal had to outsource production of the doll and cloth­ing because their in-house resources could not keep up with the consumer demand. The doll was manufactured until 1939.

Shirley Temple poses with a Shirley Temple doll wearing the same Curly Top striped dress.
A larger doll wears the Curly Top dress in a blue variation.

In 1934 alone, Temple starred in eight movies for 20th Century Fox. The first replica costume was from Stand Up and Cheer! It was an organdy dress with red polka dots on a white background.

For some of Temple’s movies, Ideal re-created dresses from several scenes. For example, from 1935’s Curly Top, Ideal made a knife-pleated organdy dress that came in different colors, a striped cotton dress with buttons, a pleated daisy dress also available with embroidered flowers, a black velvet and yellow taffeta dress with glued-on duck appliques, and a white fur coat with a tam and muffler. A child could reenact the entire movie with their Shirley Temple doll wearing miniature versions of the original outfits.

Pictured is the original dress Shirley Temple wore in Curly Top.
Reminiscent of the outfit in Curly Top, this 25-inch doll wears a black velvet top with glued-on duck appliques and a yellow taffeta skirt.

The first dresses from 1934-1936 were designed by Mollye Goldman, who had her own doll company. Later dresses were designed by Mary Meidenbauer, Ideal’s head doll dress design­er; these were produced in-house.

Early clothes were marked “SHIRLEY TEMPLE / DOLL DRESS / REG.U.S. PAT. OFF. / IDEAL NOV. & TOY CO.” with an eagle and “N.R.A” at the end. Later tags read “Genuine / SHIRLEY TEMPLE / DOLL / REGISTERED U.S.PAT OFF. / IDEAL NOV. & TOY CO. / MADE IN THE U.S.A.” The doll came with a pin that read “Genuine Shirley Temple Doll / The World’s Darling.”

Demand for the doll led to it being sold in several other countries, including Canada — where she was made by Reliable Toy Company, Ltd.

This 13-inch doll wears the Wee Willie Winkie outfit, which includes a wool skirt and a cotton twill jacket with epaulets and brass buttons.
The 13-inch doll looks adorable in this striped cotton dress from Curly Top.

Because production was so great, there were often shortages of materials, so variations were introduced. For instance, the Stand Up and Cheer! dress came in white with either red, blue, or green polka dots. Completing the outfit was a combination organza slip and undies, white rayon socks, and imitation leather shoes.

Some of the movie outfits were made in more lim­ited quantities and are therefore more desirable to col­lectors. These include pieces from The Little Colonel (1935), Wee Willie Winkie (1937), and Heidi (1937).

There were also clothes not from Temple’s movies, such as school dresses, party dresses, coats, jumpsuits, and bathing suits. They were made of cotton, organdy, and dimity. Coats were made of fur, felt, and velveteen. An example of one such design is the blue-and-white-checked dress with cherries on the front. Additionally, there was a special Texas Ranger Cowboy outfit to cele­brate the Texas Centennial. Some outfits sold for 98 cents.

The Shirley Temple doll stands in her trunk, which houses her silk pajamas from Poor Little Rich Girl (1936). She is wearing a blue-and- white-checked dress with cherries down the front. Photo courtesy of Loretta McKenzie.
A 27-inch Shirley Temple doll shows off her Texas Ranger outfit, which was designed for the 1936 Texas Centennial.

Shirley Temple doll trunks full of wonderful doll clothes were available for the popular 13-inch, 16-inch, and 18-inch sizes.

Temple had a stunning wardrobe thanks to the talented designers from the 20th Century Fox studios. In turn, the doll named for her acquired beautiful fashions courtesy of the designers at Ideal and Mollye Goldman. You can recapture some of Temple’s sparkly magic by re-creating scenes from her movies with the extensive, well-made doll clothes.

Judith Izen is a doll historian and author of several books on dolls. You may contact her at jizenres@gmail.com.