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Shirley Temple and Jim Crow Reconcile North and South by Mary Moss | |
| 1 | When The Littlest Rebel premiered in December of 1935, the United States was in the middle of the Great Depression. Although President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs helped ease the economic devastation, they had not yet restored prosperity or brought an end to human suffering. Not since the Civil War had Americans endured so much emotional anguish - and not since the Civil War had recovery been so slow and painful. To the Depression-heavy heart, a Shirley Temple movie was a godsend. After watching this angelic little “curly top” cheerfully face a multitude of adversities on the silver screen, audiences were able to leave the theatre feeling that they too might be able to survive the bad times. Although this formulaic movie accomplished the task of uplifting audiences, it did so at a cost. The Littlest Rebel soothed its weary audiences by reinforcing black stereotypes and by minimizing the divisive emotions of the Civil War. |
| 2 | As the opening credits of the movie appear, first “Dixie” is played and then “Way Down Upon the Swanee River.” A broad panning view of cotton fields and slave quarters is shown and then the beautiful columns of a southern mansion. Inside, six-year-old Virgie Cary is busy entertaining about twenty white children who are guests at her birthday party. The children are being carefully attended and waited on by a group of well-dressed black house servants. One elderly slave named Uncle Billy has a particularly close relationship with Virgie. Upon Virgie’s request, Uncle Billy amuses the children with some fantastic tap dancing while another slow-witted and sleepy-eyed slave, James Henry, plays “Turkey in the Straw” on the harmonica. |
| 3 | After the entertainment, Virgie’s mother asks her to step outside where a black Mammy has gathered a group of slave children to wish her a happy birthday. Sally Ann, the oldest slave child, about twice as old as Virgie, has tried to memorize a short speech, but she bursts into tears when her simple mind won’t allow her to remember what to say. Gracious and well-mannered Virgie consoles Sally Ann, thanks the rest of the slave children, and promises them a piece of cake before returning to her party where all the white children are dancing the minuet. |
| 4 | The party is abruptly ended after a soldier rides onto the plantation to tell Mr. Cary that Fort Sumter has been fired on, and war declared. Captain Cary is to report to duty at once with horse and side arm. All of the parents express fear and shock as they hurry to collect their children and return home. This scene gives the false impression that the South has been attacked and forced into war when, in fact, it was the South who initiated the war by shelling Fort Sumter. |
| 5 | Virgie is left bewildered in midst of the remnants of her party. Uncle Billy tries to explain the purpose of the war. “I heard a man up North wants to free the slaves,” Billy says. Virgie asks, “What does it mean, free the slaves?” Billy answers, “I don’t know what it means myself.” This conversation suggests two things: first, slaves are so loved and well treated by their masters, they are completely satisfied with their way of life; second, Blacks are so ignorant and childlike, they need to be enslaved so that the white men can watch over them and manage their lives. |
| 6 | As the war escalates, Virgie sees less and less of her father. Because he has been very successful at scouting for the confederate army, the Yankees are constantly on lookout for him. One day as Virgie is playing soldiers with the black slave children, a Union troop rides onto the plantation. All the black children run and hide, but Virgie is not afraid. She stands her ground against the Yankees and even hits the commanding officer with a rock from her slingshot. Instead of getting angry with Virgie, Colonel Morrison is smitten by Virgie’s irrepressible spunk and personality. She refuses to give any helpful information about her father and taunts the Yankees by singing “Dixie” as they ride away. “Away! Away!” she chirps, throwing her arms out in front of her, pretending to push them off of her land. |
| 7 | One afternoon, Captain Cary is able to slip through the enemy lines and visit his family. He learns that his wife has had to sell almost all of their horses in order to put food on the table. In addition, the Union army has stolen much of their livestock. Mrs. Cary tells her husband, “This is the part of the war the women must fight.” After a short visit, the slaves warn Master Cary that the Yankees are coming. Virgie cries as her father leaves, but she manages to tell him, “Give all my love to General Lee.” Then they all rush inside the house to hide their food and valuables from the Yankees. |
| 8 | The Yankees are rough and rude as they storm through the house looking for Captain Cary, the Rebel spy. They manage to locate the secret closet where the food, silver and liquor are hidden. Virgie is hiding there too, covered with black shoe polish so that she will look like one of the slave children. One of the Yankees orders her to take his boots off for him and she defiantly pushes him over backwards in his chair. When Mrs. Cary tries to protect her child from the angry Union soldier, he carelessly pushes her down the stairs. Just then, Colonel Morrison steps inside the mansion and puts a stop to all the looting. He orders his men to give the offending Union soldier 25 lashes and then humbly apologizes to Virgie and Mrs. Cary. This scene suggests that only unruly Union soldiers looted from southern civilians when in fact, General Tecumseh Sherman made it Union policy to confiscate or destroy all civilian crops, livestock, supplies - anything that might serve as a resource to the Confederate Army. |
| 9 | As the battle looms closer and closer to the Cary plantation, shells drop in the yard and Mrs. Cary and Virgie are forced to abandon their home. Uncle Billy tries to take them to the slave quarters, but the crossfire leaves them trapped outside in the pouring rain. Mrs. Cary and Uncle Billy cover Virgie with their cloaks and expose themselves to the elements. Several weeks later Uncle Billy locates Captain Cary’s regiment and tells him about the devastation. The house has burned to the ground and Mrs. Cary is extremely sick. Most of the slaves have run away and Mrs. Cary lingers near death in one of the slave cabins. Captain Cary and Uncle Billy travel at night through the swamps, past Union camps, in order to reach Mrs. Cary before she dies. |
| 10 | Virgie has been a brave little Confederate, cheerfully caring for her dying mother. Captain Cary reaches his destination just in time to have Mrs. Cary die in his arms. All of the slaves mourn with the Cary family as they bury the beloved wife and mother. After the funeral, Captain Cary decides to take Virgie to the safety of his sister’s home outside of Richmond, but the trip requires passing through dangerous enemy territories. Before they get a chance to begin the journey, Union troops arrive looking for Captain Cary, the infamous confederate scout. |
| 11 | Although Virgie and Uncle Billy make a valiant effort to distract Colonel Morrison by dancing and singing, he eventually detects Captain Cary’s hiding place in the attic. After Cary tells Morrison of his wife’s death and his desire to get Virgie into safer surroundings, the Union officer has compassion on him and his child. After all, he has a child of his own and he “doesn’t think [his] country expects [him] to make war on babies.” He gives Cary a spare Union uniform and writes him a pass that will allow him to cross Union lines. Captain Cary promises not to take notes or remember anything that he sees. The plan is especially risky because if Cary is caught, both men could be charged with espionage and treason. |
| 12 | Eventually Captain Cary is caught when the nasty Union soldier, who had previously looted the Cary home, recognizes Virgie and becomes suspicious. Cary tries to outrun the Yankees with his horse and buggy, but is ultimately surrounded and captured. Colonel Morrison and Captain Cary are put in a military prison and sentenced to death. Uncle Billy, Virgie and James Henry stay in a boarding house near the prison. There is no mention of where they have obtained their money to pay the rent or to buy the new clothes they are wearing. Perhaps some generous Yankees contributed to their cause. By singing and dancing and by being a precious little angel, Virgie has captured the hearts of many of the Union soldiers and civilians. During one of her visits to the prison, Virgie tells her father about a friend that she has made: Virgie: There’s a little girl who lives across the street and she has a pony and she let me ride on it. And she gave me some candy and she’s a Yank. And she said she didn’t care if I was a Rebel or not. And I said I didn’t care that she was a Yank. Even if there is a war she was awful nice to me…When she was so nice and Colonel Morrison is so nice…why do the rest of the people have to kill each other? Captain Cary: I don’t know honey. We grownups haven’t as much sense as you children.This scene suggests that reconciliation between North and South is a simple matter. It also trivializes the serious grievances that brought about the war and the hatred the South felt for the North after their homelands were destroyed. |
| 13 | Another scene of reconciliation takes place in President Lincoln’s office where Billy and Virgie have gone to seek a pardon for the two condemned men. Uncle Billy stands before the great emancipator in stupefied awe. He wipes his hand clean on his jacket before shaking the President’s hand - a sign of respect, and unworthiness. Virgie tells her sad story to Lincoln while sitting on his lap. He peels an apple and shares it with her while she begs him not to let them shoot Colonel Morrison and her Daddy. As Lincoln comforts the crying child, the film portrays Northern kindness toward a contrite South. But in truth, after the Civil War ended, the North was not particularly kind and the South was far from contrite. |
| 14 | The movie ends with Captain Cary, Colonel Morrison and the rest of the Union soldiers celebrating their freedom while gathered around a dining table. Virgie sings “Polly Wolly Doodle” to the adoring crowd. Uncle Billy, who played such an eminent role in keeping Virgie safe and helping to obtain a pardon for his master, is painfully absent from the party scene. Although Lincoln emancipated the slaves during the Civil War, Uncle Billy still couldn’t sit at a dinner table with other white men, even when they owed him such a great deal of thanks. |
| 15 | In 1935 when this movie was made, black men were still not allowed to eat at the same table with white men. Bill Robinson, who played the role of Uncle Billy, had a 5-year contract with 20th Century Fox for $6500 a week (Edwards 84). During the Great Depression, this was a tremendous amount of money. Although Robinson was wealthy and a huge box-office attraction, he was still met with prejudice on the Fox lot. He had to enter through rear doors, could not eat in the same restaurants as other white cast members or use the same toilets (Edwards 85). But the worst discrimination that Bill Robinson received was that of being cast in the stereotypical roles of the Jim Crow Negro. Today many Blacks fail to appreciate that he was one of the greatest tap dancers of all time. Instead, Robinson is often only remembered as the black man who played the definitive “Uncle Tom.” |
| 16 | The Littlest Rebel portrayed three of the movie industry’s most popular black stereotypes: the loving and loyal “Uncle Tom,” the lazy and dimwitted “Stepin Fetchit” and the gigantic and protective “Mammy.” Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Willie Best, and Bessie Lyle made their livings playing these types of roles. Black historian Donald Bogle states, “During this period of breadlines, of labor problems… and intellectual Leftist activities, Blacks in films were used to reaffirm, for a socially chaotic age, a belief in life and the American way of living itself” (qtd. in Edwards 84). In other words, although everything else in America had been turned upside down, and backwards, “white folks” could still go to a movie and find that Jim Crow was keeping “colored folks” in their place. |
| 17 | Incredible profits proved to 20th Century Fox that cliché characters and formula plots were what the public wanted. In its premiere week at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, The Littlest Rebel grossed one half of its total production cost of $190,000 (Black 126). Sheet music sales of the movie’s theme song, “Polly Wolly Doodle,” were over 400,000. This outdistanced the sale of sheet music introduced in the same period by Bing Crosby, one of the most popular vocal artists of the 1930s (“Pee Wee”). Furthermore, during 1935, Shirley Temple topped the box office charts as the most popular star in the world (Edwards 85). |
| 18 | President Roosevelt made the statement, “When the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time during this Depression, it is a splendid thing that for just fifteen cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles” (qtd. in Black 59). Psychologists who try to explain the cause of prejudice give another clue to why The Littlest Rebel was so popular: One way people protect themselves from threat is to strongly identify with their own ethnic, cultural or social group and to reject, dislike, and even punish anyone who is a member of other groups…Members of an in-group often see all members of out-groups as less attractive and less socially appropriate and may thus treat them badly. In other words, prejudice results when people’s motivation to enhance their self-esteem causes them to derogate other people. (Bernstein 585) |
| 19 | Although the Great Depression and the Civil War were incredibly sad times in American history, their memories become even sadder when recalling the senseless prejudice endured by black Americans. It is a shame that before and many years after the Civil War a whole race of people continued to be stereotyped and discriminated against. Movies like The Littlest Rebel show Americans how difficult and slow the fight against intolerance can be. As long as people try to lift themselves up by bringing other people down, racism will continue to be a sore spot on the American conscience. |
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Berstein, Douglas A., Alison Clarke-Stewart, Edward J. Roy, and Christopher D. Wickens, eds. Psychology. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. Black, Shirley Temple. Child Star. New York: McGraw, 1988. Diller, Frank. “Mythification of the Mammy.” Aug. 1999. University of Virginia American Studies. 13 Jan 2000. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA99/diller/mammy/fiction.html. Edwards, Anne. Shirley Temple: American Princess. New York: William Morrow, 1988. Kaufman, Sarah. “Shirley Temple: Remembering Curly Top.” The Washington Post . 6 Dec. 1998. 7 Feb 2000. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/daily/dec98/temple6.htm (page no longer available). Littlest Rebel. Dir. David Butler. Per. Shirley Temple, Bill Robinson, Willie Best, Bessie Lyle and Hannah Washington, 20th Century Fox, 1935. Videocassette. Fox Video, 1994. “Pee Wee’s Progress.” Time 27 Apr. 1936: 36-38+.
Nominated by Dr. Jackie Flowers, History Instructor
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