Now that Shirley Temple and her parents are back in Hollywood from vacation, the Fox publicity department is settling down to complacent calculation of the newspaper space garnered by their "box-office-number-one." Accustomed as these press agents have become to the Temple phenomenon, even they are pleasantly amazed at the success of Shirley's stomach upset in Boston, from a pubplicity standpoint.
Behind this triumph in public relations is a tale of five sleepless days and nights for Shirley's staff. When the child was stricken at the Ritz-
Carlton Hotel in Boston, the di fraught Mrs. Temple conferred with the press agent in attendance and with Ed Wyner, owner of the hotel, and decided that the whole affair must be conducted in a high-class way.
Throughout the trip Mrs, Temple had been unflagging in her efforts to keep the public from being disappointed, and she didn't let them down now. Mr. Wyner turned the sample room of the Ritz-Carlton into a press office and served coffee and sandwiches hourly; and at 10 am. every day of the five days that Shirely was ill Mrs. Temple left her daughter's bedside briefly to hold a press audience in conjunction with Drs. Higgins and Lewis of Boston, the physicians in attendance.
Nightly Call by "Daily Mirror"
The Boston papers assigned men to three eight-hour shifts, and the wire services called incessantly for the latest bulletins. At midnight every night the London "Daily Mirror" inquired by transatlantic telephone as to Shirley's condition. Her temperature rose to 103.5 degrees, and even the "Christian Science Monitor" ran her picture on the front page.
The "Boston Globe" photographer set up a telescopic camera on the Common across the street and persuaded the children gathered under Miss Temple's window to set up a chant, intoning "We want Shirleece." The great-hearted child appeared and waved and the photographer got his picture from seventeen stories below.
Only one problem remained for the little band of intrepid souls at the Ritz-Carlton—the distribution of Shirley's first convalescent portrait The physicians ruled that no more than one photographer could be admitted to her room, so a press conference was held and a representative selected—the resourceful gentleman from the "Globe." He was admitted to the presence; she sat up in bed and travel lied; he shot Then the trouble began. The morning papers wanted the picture released in the evening and the evening papers wanted them in the morning. After long arbitration, 10 pin. was chosen as the hour, so that the home editions of the morning papers and the street editions of the afternoon papers would get the breaks. These pictures ran in so many jourals throughout the country that even the gentlemen at Fox cannot estimate the magnitude of their achievement.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.