BACKSTORY: In 1940, Temple starred in two consecutive flops, "The Blue Bird" and "Young People." Temple's parents bought up the remainder of her contract and enrolled her at Westlake School for Girls. Within a year, MGM signed Temple makking plans to team her with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney first for the Andy Hardy series then for the musical "Babes on Broadway." Realizing Garland and Rooney could upstage her, MGM replaced Shirley with Virginia Weidler. Temple's only Metro film was "Kathleen," which was not a success and her MGM contract was canceled after mutual consent. In 1944, David O. Selznick signed Temple to a personal four-year contract. She appeared in two wartime hits for him: "Since You Went Away" and "I'll Be Seeing You." In 1943, Temple met John George Agar, an Army Air Corps sergeant. The two married on September 19, 1945 before 500 guests at Wilshire Methodist Church. On January 30, 1948, Temple gave birth to their daughter, Linda Susan. Agar became a professional actor and the couple made two films together: "Fort Apache" (1948, RKO) and "Adventure in Baltimore" (1949, RKO). Selznick's romantic involvement with actress Jennifer Jones caused him to lose interest in developing Temple's career. Her career limped along until 1949 with a number of loanouts. Her marriage became troubled and Temple divorced Agar on December 5, 1949. She received custody of their daughter and the restoration of her maiden name.
