Shirley Temple: the guardian angel of Prague / Shirley Temple: prazsky andel strazny

When remembering Shirley Temple Black one cannot forget that she spent way more time actually as the US ambassador than an adored movie star. Did you know she was and ambassador to the Czech Republic from 1989 to 1992? What is even more interesting is that those were the country’s most volatile times. You may say I forgot about the spring of 1968 – but guess what? She was there at that time too – this time at a conference about multiple sclerosis. Perhaps we could call her the guardian angel of Prague….

Shirley’s likeable personality attracted not only the leading dissidents like Vaclav Havel (she accompanied him on his first visit to the USA) but also the communist leaders like Gustav Husak who had been a big fan of her old movies.

You can tell she had a great sense of humor when she insisted that the license plate on her care fetures her initials “STB”, which was the acronym for the communist Czech secret police :).

 CZ: Vetsina z nas si pamatuje Shirley Temple Black jako roztomilou kudrnatou holcicku z cernobilych filmu, ale vedeli jste, ze byla tri roky ambasadorkou v Ceske Republice? A behem tech let se tam opravdu nenudila. Nastoupila v ‘sametovem’ roce 1989 a svuj termin doslouzila v roce 1992, tudiz zakusila i rozpad Ceskoslovenska. Ze pry zmeskala Prazske Jaro v 68′? Ani nahodou! Byla v tu dobu v Praze na konferenci o roztrousene skleroze. Dalo by se rici, ze byla jakysi prazsky andel strazny…

Behem te doby si ji oblibili jak znami dizidenti jako Vaclav Havel, ale take posledni komunisticky prezident Gustav Husak.

Jeji smysl pro humor se nezaprel, kdyz si na sve pracovni auto dala SPZ se svymi inicialy “STB” :).

Source:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/02/11/shirley_temple_black_s_unlikely_diplomatic_career.html