“Shirley Temple’s $50K Salary,” and “Gaynor’s I Will Survive,” - This Day in History – Feb 27th

Seven-Year-Old Shirley Temple makes $50,000 per film

Back in 1936, 20th Century Fox gave 7-year-old Shirley Temple a movie contract for $50,000 per film.  The Santa Monica, CA native had been appearing in movies since the age of four. The success of the 1934 movie, “Stand Up and Cheer,” “Little Miss Marker,” “Change of Heart,” and “Bright Eyes,” earned her this staggering salary. 

According to history.com, “Knowing they had a cash cow on their hands, 20th Century Fox refined the terms of Temple’s contract in 1936, paying her the unprecedented sum of $50,000 per picture. They also famously altered the year on her birth certificate, making it appear that she was a year younger in order to prolong her adorable child-star status. By 1938, Temple was the No. 1 box-office draw in America. The public loved her, and she routinely upstaged her adult counterparts on the big screen. Over the course of the 1930s, the box-office success of her more than 40 films, including Poor Little Rich Girl, Wee Willie Winkie, Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, went a long way towards helping Fox weather the depression.”

According to the shirleytemple.com, “In all Shirley starred in 14 Short films, 43 Feature Films and over 25 storybook movies in a career that spanned 30nyears from 1931 until 1961.”

When Ms. Temple was an adult she married and became Shirley Temple Back.  She would publish her autobiography in 1988 called; “Child Star.” Later on in her life she would serve on the Institute of International Studies, battle and win Breast Cancer and receive the lifetime achievement medal in 1999.

“I Will Survive,” wins only Best Disco Grammy

Back in 1980, the first and only Grammy awarded for a Disco song was awarded to singer, Gloria Gaynor’s popular song, “I Will Survive.”  

According to history.com, “The choice of I Will Survive as the winner that night was unassailable, even given the competition. Also nominated in the Best Disco Recording category were: Earth, Wind & Fire for "Boogie Wonderland;" Michael Jackson for "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough;" Rod Stewart for "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"; and Donna Summer for "Bad Girls." If there was anything surprising about the award, it was that it was being given at all, considering the anti-disco backlash that was already well underway.” 

The negativity of Disco helped to eliminated this category to the Grammy’s the following tear.  Examples of bad press included according to history.com was,  “One of 1979's biggest acts, the Knack, was being marketed explicitly as the group that had come to destroy disco. At a Chicago White Sox game the previous July, tens of thousands of marauding disco-haters forced the cancellation and forfeit of a game at Comiskey Park on "Disco Sucks" promotion night. And then there was Ethel Merman's disco version of "There's No Business Like Show Business," a sure sign of the coming apocalypse that the Academy chose to ignore.”

All History facts provided from the link below:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/quoti-will-survivequot-wins-the-first8212and-last8212grammy-ever-awarded-for-best-disco-recording?catId=13