User:BulldogAtFSU/The Blue Bird (1940 film)

NOTES

One thing that I would like to contribute is the products and promotions that went on for the movie before and after it. Shirley temple blue bird dolls were made in a few different releases. They also had more products like figurines and ornaments.

A great source to info on these are the Shirley temple collector books.

Blue Bird 1940 Film Products

Dolls

Shirley Temple Blue Bird dolls were first made in the 1940's to coincide with the film (although composition Shirley's had started in production in 1934). These dolls were dressed to look like Mytyl (Shirley's Character). They could come in many variants, different sizing's, costumes and face molds. Older face (chubbier with less rosy cheeks) older Shirley face (Slimmer head mold with make up by the eyes)  Each doll is marked with "Shirley Temple" either on the head or the body (There are many variants to the marking but they will always say Shirley) and comes in a cardboard box with a Shirley Temple doll button on the dolls outfit.

13 inch doll with a light blue dress with white sleeves and white section on the front where a felt bluebird can be seen in the middle, she can be found wearing white shoes with a button strap with white socks (many turned off white over time).

16 Inch Shirley doll with a dress with a white top half and a bottom blue skirt section. This skirt section has a white pinafore lied over it with one blue bird on the side of the bottom of the pinafore. On top is a red tie up vest/bodice. Again with the white/off white oil cloth shoes and whitish socks the same as the 13 inch.

18 Inch Shirley doll is much like the 16 inch but the differences lie in the birds being on both sides of the pinafore and no lace up on the bodice as well as a much lighter skirt section and much darker birds.

20 Inch Shirley dolls outfit is exactly like the 16 inch, she also wears a blue ribbon in her hair.

Its important to remember that these are the most common variations. Since the dolls clothes were made a lot of the time with extra fabric and by housewives (since the Ideal toy company couldn't keep up with the dolls high demand they had woman working out of their homes to help them finish with production) they have many valid slight variations caused by this "non factory" setting. Most Shirley clothes you will be able to find marked with her name on the inside tag to verify if its legit.

Danbury mint for a dress up Shirley temple doll also made a Blue Bird outfit. It comes with a dark blue jacket bodice and dress piece with white on the top and a skirt with dark blue with some dark red and thin white striped mixed in. Also came with it were moccasin type brown shoes.

Shirley Temple Blue Bird Figurines

After the ending of the one and only official company licences to produce Shirley Temple toy merchandise Ideal was dissolved, Danbury Mint soon took over. Creating many Shirley items. One being the Shirley Blue Bird resin figurines.

The November Figure- As part of a month line up there is a Shirley figure in a blue dress with a blue ribbon in her hair smiling while holding a bluebird on her wrist close to her face atop of a stand marked November.

A figure from their Silver Screen Collection Depicts her standing in the grass and flowers holding the bluebird up high on one finger looking at it in awe.

Shirley Temple VHS and DVD

Coming in both a cardboard cover and a plastic hard shell was the VHS Shirley movie set release of Blue bird. The front featuring an up close shot of Shirley holding a bluebird on her finger looking to the left at it. On the side it is marked 17 and has a full body image of Shirley holding her bluebird in a small basket cage.

For the DVD version there is only one, it is a pink case (Number 13 out of the DVD collection) it features a smiling Shirley looking outward holding a bluebird on her finger.

The Shirley Temple Blue bird ornaments produced by Danbury Mint. From 2012 is features a profile photo of Shirley from the movie and it has a star at the top saying Shirley Temple.