J. Edgar Hoover gave Shirley Temple a fountain pen that emitted tear gas

Shirley Temple–Hollywood’s most famous child star–could not be protected from such real-life intrusions as kidnap and extortion attempts, death threats and an attempted seduction by a Hollywood producer when she was only 12 years old. The threats weren’t reported at the time, she said, for fear that they would stimulate more threats.

The FBI was called in numerous times to investigate these death and extortion threats against her. She and J Edgar Hoover became friends through it all. In 1949, J. Edgar Hoover gave Shirley Temple a strange FBI souvenir– a fountain pen that emitted tear gas.

Shirley Temple’s autobiography.