12. Shirley Temple

    Shirley Temple was born in 1928 in California. She was a very cute little girl. She had blond curly hair and dimples in her cheeks. But she was also a good actress, singer, and dancer.

    By age three, Shirley was making movies and soon became a famous movie star. When she was six, she made some big movies. By the time she was eight, she was making $500,000 a year. The people who made the movies called her "Little Miss Miracle."

    In the 1930s, life was difficult in the United States. Many people did not have jobs. But thousands of poor people paid money to go to the movies to watch Shirley Temple. People felt happy when she sang and danced. Mothers wanted their daughters to have curly hair like Shirley Temple. Little girls played with Shirley Temple dolls.

    Everybody loved little Shirley. People sent her gifts. On her eighth birthday she got 1,000 cakes. Her fans sent her 5,000 letters a week. But her mother did not spoil her. Little Shirley only got $4.25 a week and had to eat her spinach.

    When Shirley Temple grew up, she did not make any more movies. She got married to Charles Black and had two children. In the 1960s, Shirley Temple Black went into politics. In 1974, she was U.S. ambassador to Ghana, a country in Africa. Then in 1989 she was U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia.

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