Shirley Temple's Childhood Slingshots

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6" (15 cm.) and 7". Of nicely aged patinated woods, the classic toys were favorite playthings of the tomboy side of Shirley. Easy to take along on travel, they provided hours of amusing and, often, mischievous play. The smaller of these two was the culprit of the Eleanor Roosevelt story told below. Shirley Temple wrote in her 1945 memoir, My Young Life: "My first slingshot was presented to me by Uncle Billy Robinson...I [played] with it on the set all day, and it certainly was a miracle I didn't knock anybody out. Then I practiced at home and became really good. It was a priceless break when I actually had to use a slingshot in ïThe Littlest Rebel'... John Boles, my Confederate father remarked that he was ïglad to be a Southern gen'leman instead of a dam Yankee so he wouldn't have to stand up to that slingshot.' " However, Shirley's most infamous slingshot episode concerned Eleanor Roosevelt. In her 1988 autobiography, Child Star, Shirley wrote of her visit with the First Lady at the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, New York where Eleanor Roosevelt presided over a barbecue grill for the afternoon picnic, and "...when she did, her sundress hiked up in the back. The target was irresistible, the range only a few paces...Edging backward a step, I slowly stooped and picked up a small rounded pebble. The slingshot was easy to slip out of my lace purse. Everyone was watching her, not me. Taking a quick sight along the fully-extended elastic bands, I let fly. Bulls-Eye!"