For three years, from ’36 to ’38, Shirley Temple was the country’s top box-office star, and then Mickey Rooney had the title from ’39 to ’41. (And then it was Abbott & Costello.) Imagine. Temple and Rooney knew how to entertain, for sure, but the last thing you could call moviegoers back then, to judge by their six-year reign, was urbane or sophisticated.


Hollywood-s Top Ten Box-Office Stars — 1936 to 1945 — thanks to Bob Lascaro for providing the scan.
January 8, 2009by Jeffrey Wells116 Comments