The Princess Blog

Most people are familiar with  Shirley Temple and Shelley Duvall , but few are aware of their passion for fairy tales and how they used their fame and success to create new adaptations of classic stories and share them with the world. Both were successful actresses who had prolific careers during their lifetimes. After they became established in Hollywood, each of these women produced, hosted, and occasionally starred in a self-titled anthology series covering well-known and obscure fairy tale stories with celebrity guest stars from different decades. Though their fairy tale adaptations are not as well-known as Disney's, they played a key role in contributing original live-action fairy tale media  to the public that generally stayed close to the source material, aside from a few creative liberties. Shirley Temple's Storybook  premiered in 1958 when television was still a fairly new medium. Shirley Temple's talents were mostly used by Hollywood directors and producers whe...

We all know the story of a spoiled princess who rewarded a frog for returning her golden ball by then throwing him against the wall in a fit of rage. Or do we? The Brothers Grimm tale known as  "The Frog King"  has gone through so many iterations over the years that while many are familiar with the story, few are aware of its roots. It is commonly believed that the frog's curse was broken with a kiss from a beautiful princess, but the Grimm version is a great deal darker. The princess was so disgusted by the frog that she threw him across the room, when he transformed into something more appealing to her. The version of the story with the kiss is believed to be a later  development inspired by Edgar Taylor's translation , which made the princess begin to care for the frog over the course of the story. The best adaptation of this was the one by Jim Henson in 1971, featuring Kermit the Frog and his nephew Robin. In the Muppet version of "The Frog Prince,...