If you’re ever looking for a counterexample to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous claim that “there are no second acts in American lives,” look no further than Shirley Temple. The beloved child star, who was Hollywood’s No. 1 box-office draw from 1935 to 1938, announced her retirement from film at the age of 22 in 1950. It was anyone’s guess what Temple would do next, but it’s unlikely that many predicted her eventual diplomatic career. After she ran (unsuccessfully) for Congress in 1967, President Nixon appointed her as a delegate to the 24th United Nations General Assembly in 1969, and President Ford named her the ambassador to Ghana in 1974.

Shirley Temple almost played Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.”

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Temple wasn’t just a huge fan of Frank L. Baum’s novel — she was also in the running to play the lead in the 1939 film adaptation. The role went to Judy Garland, a decision that Temple accepted graciously, writing in her 1988 autobiography “Child Star” that “sometimes the gods know best.”

Temple’s foreign service didn’t end there. In 1989, just before the Velvet Revolution, President George H.W. Bush made her ambassador to the former Czechoslovakia, a post she held until 1992, as the country became a parliamentary democracy. According to Norman Eisen, who held the same role from 2011 to 2014, the “sunny confidence and optimism” that made Temple a movie star also helped her “really infuse the United States’ role — as our representative here, in the Velvet Revolution — with that good cheer and that hope.”

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The Wizard of Oz featured more than 600 actors, some of whom were bigger stars than others. Near the top of that list was a cairn terrier appropriately named Terry. The pup who played Dorothy’s loyal companion Toto — and who, unlike the character she portrayed, was female in real life — received a weekly salary of $125 for her work on the perennial classic, which was more than many of her co-stars (including all the actors playing Munchkins, who were paid $50 a week). At about $2,885 in today’s money, the pup’s pay was also 10 times the minimum wage at the time.

“Over the Rainbow” was nearly cut from the film.

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Studio executives felt the now-classic song slowed the movie down, prompting associate producer Arthur Freed to give an ultimatum: “The song stays — or I go.” Evidently, his demand worked.

Terry had already appeared in seven films — Ready for Love, Bright Eyes, The Dark Angel, Fury, The Buccaneer, Barefoot Boy, and Stablemates — prior to 1939’s Oz, which helps explain her salary. She also performed her own stunts, which resulted in an injury when one of the Munchkin actors stepped on her paw. 

The pup was out of action for two weeks, during which time Judy Garland helped nurse her back to health. The actress was so smitten with her canine co-star that she attempted to buy her from Carl Spitz, her owner and trainer, but he refused.

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There are some things in modern culture that people just love to hate, like Nickelback, cargo pants, and the most derided typeface of all: Comic Sans. At first glance, this fun and childlike font — originally designed to mimic the script found in comic books — seems to serve a lighthearted purpose. But for more than a decade, it’s been derided as one of the worst typefaces ever. It turns out that Comic Sans doesn’t even hold a particularly warm and fuzzy place in its own creator’s heart — typographer Vincent Connare only used the font once in his life, in a letter complaining to his broadband internet provider. 

The word “italics” comes from the Latin word for Italy.

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An italic typeface was introduced by Venetian printer Aldus Manutius in 1501. Manutius first used this slanted type in a printing of the works of Virgil, which he dedicated to Italy. Hence, the word “italics.”

Connare originally created the font for Microsoft Bob, a short-lived operating system designed to make computers more user-friendly. The desktop resembled a family room with icons representing certain computer programs. When someone clicked on a pen and paper icon, for example, it opened a word processor. Users were assisted by a cartoon dog named Rover, and during the software’s development, Connare decided that dogs “don’t talk in Times New Roman” — so he created Comic Sans. Although the final version of Microsoft Bob didn’t include the font, it appeared as an additional typeface in Windows 95.

Yet Comic Sans slowly garnered derision in the years following its initial release, and was often perceived as overly childish, visually chaotic, and an affront to good typeface design. Hate for the typeface drove reliable traffic on Twitter (now called X), inspired entire websites, and even prompted one vitriolic manifesto — but maybe times are changing. One reformed Comic Sans hater (and co-author of the aforementioned manifesto) changed his Facebook group “Ban Comic Sans” into “Use Comic Sans” in May 2019, telling The New York Times, “It’s gotten to be so bad that it’s almost cool again.”

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