According to Time magazine, Shirley Temple was out in a restaurant with her parents and was annoyed that she couldn't drink the old-fashioneds they were drinking. To appease the young Temple, the waitstaff came up with a non-alcoholic version for her, adorned with a maraschino cherry.
There are conflicting stories as to where the mocktail was invented, with some recollecting that it was first mixed at either Chasen's or the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel has also claimed their bartenders were the ones that initially came up with the drink, as Temple was a regular visitor there. "It's true," bartender Vincent Lassoff told Hawaii News Now. "Do a full glass of ginger ale, dollop of grenadine. Top it off with a few cherries and that there is the Shirley Temple just as we used to create it for her."
However, Temple herself told NPR in 1986 (via Daveland) that it was created by the Brown Derby Restaurant in the mid-1930s and that she "had nothing to do with it." She also wasn't a huge fan of the drink either. "All over the world, I am served that," she went on to explain. "People think it's funny. I hate them. Too sweet!"
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