In 1939, not everybody did know when celebrity birthdays were, however Shirley Temple was not just any celebrity.

Beginning in 1930 as an MGM player and then moving to Fox in 1933 with a contract of $150 a week, Shirley was quickly showing her abilities to please movie audiences. By 1934 she had her first breakout hit with "Stand Up and Cheer!" quickly followed by "Bright Eyes" at Paramount. Shirley was starting to make Fox a lot of money, which by 1936 brought her a $50,000.00 per movie payday.

In order to capitalize on their investment in Shirley, Fox (and other studios) publicity departments went into overdrive. They took full advantage of every possible product they could put Shirleys picture on and never missed an opportunity to do an event.

Starting in 1935, the studios arranged for the local theaters across the country to celebrate Shirley Temples birthday. Promotional events were held at theaters across the country on the Saturday closest to her actual birthday with prizes and giveaways for those who attended. Theater advertisements about her birthday party was accompanied by newspaper articles about Shirley and what she was doing to enjoy her birthday in almost every city in the nation.

On April 23rd, 1939, the Los Angeles Times printed just such a story on page 15. On April 24th, so did The Hollywood Citizen News on page 14. The woman with the gun would have also easily known Shirleys birthday from 4 years of movie theater birthday parties for her, plus yearly newspaper articles describing in great detail how Shirley Temple spent her birthday.

On December 26th, 1939, Ed Sullivan headlined his syndicated column with Shirley Temple performing "Silent Night" on the radio for the first time along with bandleader Nelson Eddy. This was her first radio performance and indeed was for charity. Interestingly enough, Ed Sullivan nor any other member of the press that I can find seems to report on the story of her assassination attempt at that time.