“Being a child star is great. It’s being a former child star that sucks.” – Danny Bonaduce
Macaulay Culkin, Drew Barrymore, Judy Garland, Amanda Bynes, and so many more. All were child actors, and pretty famous ones at that. When we think of child actors, we tend to recall tragic tales of abuse, substances, and what could have been. There is definitely a reason one of the first thoughts when people hear “child actor” is “what ever happened to them?” This is usually answered by asking Google only to find a tragic headline. Drugs, alcohol, and exploitation are usually to blame. The theatre is also a place where children take the spotlight. But what has changed as of recent years? Who is helping these kids?
The 1930’s-1960’s is considered the golden age of movies. Something about their charm will always draw people back no matter how old the film is. That charm was not always behind the scenes.
There were no safety regulations for child actors, usually being overworked, starved, and exploited. Judy Garland is a famous example of this; her mother was abusive, made her take pills, starved her, and overworked her. She was called “a fat little pig with pigtails” by producers and was physically abused as well. The pills she took her whole life eventually led to an early death. She is not even close to the only one.
How were these children protected? By those who were brave enough to see the injustice in the industry. The most famous one, actually coming from a former child star. The famous law passed for child actors in the golden age of cinema was called “The Coogan Act” named after child actor Jackie Coogan. When he reached adulthood, he found his mother and stepfather spent nearly all of his 3-4 million dollars of earnings from his performances. He sued his parents and went to court, advocating for himself and other child actors who had suffered the same thing he did. So now the law is that children are required by law to keep 15% of their earnings. Another safety measure is “The Hays Code” (1934-1968) which restricted and limited what children were allowed to perform in/be exposed to in Hollywood. Specifically, in children starring in rated R films. Despite these measures, there were many loopholes and a lot of the time these laws and codes were simply ignored.
What are laws and precautions like nowadays? Strict limitations apply based on age. Infants under 6 months are typically limited to 20 minutes of filming per day, while school-aged children have capped hours (often 3-6 hours) depending on school sessions. Children must have a parent or guardian within “sight and sound” at all times, or a certified studio teacher overseeing their welfare. But what about places like the theatre? What about the kids not on the screen, but on the stage?
For children in shows like plays and musicals, there are people called “youth guardians” or “child wranglers” who are hired to make sure the kids are taken care of, safe, and know their lines. I spoke to Debbie Armstrong, a youth supervisor for the Seattle Rep Theatre’s production of Appropriate to gain more insight.
“My responsibilities here are making sure they understand how to write down blocking, being at the right entrance, and understanding even greater things like how to take a note.” Essentially every show done professionally involving children requires someone like Debbie.
“My primary goal is just to make sure nobody gets injured and nobody dies.”
Compared to how things were to how things are now, there has been a drastic and necessary change for kids on the stage and screen. These mediums are important for kids to express themselves but it’s up to those higher up to make sure they are protected, safe, happy, and in the words of Debbie, “not dead.”