Spanking Shirley temple.

WALTER ABEL, 88, ACTOR IN THEATER AND FILMS By Jeremy Gerard March 28, 1987 Walter Abel, an actor who appeared in the earliest plays of Eugene O'Neill in the 1920s and who continued to work on stage and in films for more than 50 years, died Thursday at Chesterfields Nursing home in Essex, Conn. He was 88 years old. Mr. Abel played major and featured roles in a wide variety of Broadway comedies and melodramas before a role in the George S. Kaufman-Moss Hart play ''Merrily We Roll Along'' won him a contract with RKO in 1934. Known for his rugged looks and husky voice, Mr. Abel appeared in some 60 movies, among them a 1935 screen version of ''The Three Musketeers'' in which he played D'Artagnan, ''Arise My Love'' (1940), ''Hold Back the Dawn'' (1941), ''Holiday Inn'' (1942), ''Mr. Skeffington'' (1944), ''Kiss and Tell'' (1945), ''Dream Girl'' (1948), ''Bernardine'' (1957), ''Mirage'' (1965) and ''Grace Quigley'' (1985). A 1917 graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Mr. Abel made his professional debut in ''Forbidden'' in 1919 and quickly became part of the theater crowd in Greenwich Village, where O'Neill was staging his first works. In November 1924 he played simultaneous roles in O'Neill's ''Bound East for Cardiff'' - one of four one-act plays performed under the collective title ''S.S. Glencairn'' - at the Provincetown Playhouse and in the O'Neill's ''Desire Under the Elms'' at the Greenwich Village Theater. In their biography of O'Neill, Arthur and Barbara Gelb wrote that Mr. Abel ''demonstrated both his acting talent and his sprinting ability by doubling the role of Olson in 'S.S. Glencairn'; he would speak his last line (in Swedish dialect) in 'Bound East for Cardiff' from the stage of the Provincetown -''Nothin' but yust dirty weather all dis voyage. I yust can't sleep when wheestle blow'' - then sprint over to the Greenwich Village Theater, make a few slight changes in his costume, pick up the rifle he carried as his prop, assume the hard-bitten visage of a New Englander and utter three lines, including the curtain speech: 'It's a jim-dandy farm, no denyin.' Wished I owned it!' '' Mr. Abel played Olson a number of times. Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times recalled Mr. Abel's performance as ''deeply sincere.'' Appeared With Top Actors In his many radio and television appearances, the actor was most often cast as prosecutors or crusading district attorneys. Throughout his career, he shared billing with most of the top actors of his time. In 1935, he played opposite Spencer Tracy in Fritz Lang's ''Fury.'' In 1950 he appeared on Broadway with Helen Hayes in Joshua Logan's production of ''The Wisteria Trees.'' His last New York theater appearance was in 1976, in the New York Shakespeare Festival at Lincoln Center production of ''Trelawney of the 'Wells.'' In the 1950s, Mr. Abel served as vice president of the Screen Actors Guild under the union presidency of Ronald Reagan. In the 1960s, Mr. Abel was the president of the American National Theater and Academy during a major expansion of the organization. Mr. Abel is survived by two sons, John, of Alexandria, Va., and Michael, of Ivoryton, Conn. His wife, Marietta Bitter, a harpist, died in 1979. A service will be held at 5 P.M. today at the First Congregational Church of Essex, Conn. A memorial service, to be held at The Little Church Around the Corner in Manhattan, is being planned.

Born to Gertrude Temple (homemaker) and bank employee George Temple, Shirley was the youngest of 3 children. She had 2 older brothers , John and George Jr. A classic stage mother, Gertrude encouraged Shirley to learn singing, dancing, and acting and in 1931, enrolled her in Meglin's Dance School in Los Angeles. This is when her Gertrude started styling Shirley's hair in ringlets. Her first contract was in 1932 with Educational Pictures. They made "Baby Burlesks", featuring pre-schoolers as the actors. Some of Shirley's roles were in "She Done Him Wrong" (a parody of the Mae West film), "Kid 'n' Africa", and "The Runt Page" (kids' version of The Front Page). She was so popular that she was promoted to a 20 minute comedies series called "Frolics Of Youth". And then, she was loaned out to Universal Studios , Paramount, and Warner Bros for various parts. Her first movie was Stand Up and Cheer! in 1934 - her contract was $150/wk , guaranteed for 2 weeks. (Remember, this was in the Depression!) Then she filmed "Baby, Take a Bow". This was followed by "Curly Top" "Dimples" "The Little Colonel" and "The Littlest Rebel. (and more)" Her films all incorporated traditional values: good over meanness and evil, wealth over poverty, marriage over divorce, a booming economy over a depressed one. FDR, the US President during her childhood years once said: "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." Her biographer Anne Edwards put it this way: "This was mid-Depression, and schemes proliferated for the care of the needy and the regeneration of the fallen. But they all required endless paperwork and demeaning, hours-long queues, at the end of which an exhausted, nettled social worker dealt with each person as a faceless number. Shirley offered a natural solution: to open one's heart." After her booming childhood success, her teen year films were less influential. Two of her movies in 1940 were flops. She moved from 20th Century Fox to MGM to United Artists - none of these moves resulted in a successful return to films. Moving in 1944 to a collaboration with David O. Selznick, she had 6 hits in the next few years but none of them rivalled the successes in her childhood career. A radio career (brief), merchandise endorsements (everything from dresses to Shirley Temple dolls to cigars with her face on the label), to persistent rumors (that she was a 30 yr old midget, that adjustments to her teeth made her look younger), to a tv career in the late 50s and early '60s followed. After a short marriage to actor John Agar (1945 - 1950), Shirley married Charles Aiden Black in 1950 and took the name Shirley Temple Black. They had 3 children and they remained married until she died. A new career began when she was appointed to represent the United States at a session of the United Nations General Assembly, From 1989 - 1992, she was US Ambassador to Czechoslovakia, from 1974 - 1976, she was US Ambassador to Ghana and from 1976 - 1977 she was the Chief of Protocol of the United States.