Shirley Temple

Former child star Shirley Temple travelled to communist Romania in 1970. Her Hollywood days long since over, she was serving at the time as a United States representative to the United Nations.

Cristina Mateescu, 07.02.2025, 14:00

Shirley Temple began her acting career in 1932, when she was 3 years old, to become one of the greatest Hollywood stars before she retired at the age of 22.

By November 1970, when she travelled to communist Romania, she had already carved out a new career for herself in international relations and was now serving as a US delegate to the United Nations. Only a few weeks earlier, in October 1970, she had accompanied Romania’s leader himself, Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife during their unofficial tour of the West Coast of the United States, as they had flown to America to attend the 25^th anniversary of the UN General Assembly.

Shirley Temple was a passionate environmental activist, and her views back in 1970 were in many ways ahead of time, as can be seen from her press conference in Romania: “We can no longer take our human environment for granted. […] What the world needs, concerning problems of the human environment, is management. We need solutions from the scientists […] and then it will be up to individual governments to pass legislation as they choose. We must protect our environment, our ecology, it’s the only one we have.”

Romanian journalists were also eager to ask Shirley Temple about cinema and television, her children, the role of culture, and… Charlie Chaplin, so tune in to this episode of Voices from the Archives to find out more.