Shirley Temple Recalls Arthur Freed Exposing Himself at MGM

When I left Fox, I went to MGM for one picture.

Thank goodness, only one. And when I got there with my mother, we were

separated. She went into the office of Louis B.

Mayer, and I went into the office of Arthur

Freed.

And he was gonna talk to me about a, a movie he wanted to put me in.

I'm 12 years old, you know. And I thought he was a producer, but

instead he was an exhibitor.

And I'd never seen anyone naked before except myself, so I had no

clue about what was happening. And, um,

so it struck me so funny, I laughed at him, and I laughed

uproariously. I had tears, you know, and he got infuriated.

And he said, "Out, out, out. Go." So I-

Did you tell your mother?

Well, I went down. It was very quiet.

I went down and met her in the lobby of the administration building.

She came out very quietly from Louis B.

Mayer's office, and we walked hand-in-hand silently to the

car, which was

unusual. We got in the car, driving home.

I said, "Mom,

you won't believe what happened to me." And I told her what happened, and she got

kind of quiet, and she said, "Well, you don't know what happened to me."

And Louis, Louis B. Mayer wasn't as bad as, as Freed

was to me.

He tried to-

But he came onto my mother. And so we both decided that we didn't like

MGM much. It was, you know- It was better at Fox.