75 YRS AGO THIS WEEK: #OnThisDay Shirley Temple wears her 1st long dress to her 11th b-day party.

75 YRS AGO THIS WEEK: #OnThisDay Shirley Temple wears her 1st long dress to her 11th b-day party. http://bit.ly/1K9i3JX

"On April 23 Shirley Temple was 11 years old. To celebrate the occasion, she went to a party given in her honor at the Bel Air Country Club. Present were classmates from the Westlake School for girls and members of the Trentwood Camp Fire Girls to which she belongs. Parties were no new experience for Shirley Temple. But decidedly new and exciting was the sensation of wearing her first long party dress. It was a fluffy frock of marquisette trimmed with a dubonnet ribbon. With it she wore a matching hair ribbon, pearl necklace, gold bracelet and silver slippers. That night Miss Temple stayed up till 10 p.m."

NOTE: In 1940 Shirley Temple was 12 years old, but her contract said she was 11 so she could have a longer onscreen childhood.