Academy to honor Shirley Temple

HOLLYWOOD -- Shirley Temple is probably the most popular child star in cinema history. During the 1930s, the golden-haired mop top sang and danced the Depression blues away in a series of musicals. She even won a special juvenile Oscar in 1935 in "grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution of screen entertainment during the year 1934." Temple, who would later become the U.S. ambassador to Czechoslovakia, celebrates her 80th birthday this year. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences celebrates the event Aug. 22 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater with newly restored prints of her 1937 drama "Wee Willie Winkie," based on the Rudyard Kipling story and directed by John Ford, and the 1938 musical "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," with Randolph Scott and Gloria Stuart of "Titanic" fame.

On Wednesday, the academy celebrates the centennial of fantasy film director, producer and animator George Pal with a screening of a newly restored print of his 1953 classic production "War of the Worlds" and a discussion hosted by director Joe Dante with several actors and technicians who worked with Pal, including Alan Young, Ann Robinson, Barbara Eden and Russ Tamblyn

Shirley Temple in an undated publicity photo.