CHILD FILM STARS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 April 1938, Page 10

CHILD FILM STARS

HOW THEY ARE EDUCATED. NOT GOOD SCHOLARS. While carpenters hammered and moved sets into position and a dozen men shouted orders on a huge sound stage at Universal studios at Hollywood Deanna Durbin, child singing star, and a group of other young girls, including two sisters of Mary Maguire, Australian actress, were trying to study geography. It was between scenes on the "Mad About Music” set, and amid the terrible din the children were attempting to squeeze in a little education. The schoolroom was a screened-off portion of the sound stage, and, movielike, was lighted by one of the huge Kleig lights used for illuminating the sets.

Deanna, who has just turned 15, was wrestling with a problem about the Pacific Ocean, and her young brow was wrinkled as she chewed the end of her pencil. She was all made up for the next scene, her face covered with ghastly-looking yellowish-brown powder, which photographs a natural skin colour.

A gleam came into her bright young eyes, and she bent her head and began to write swiftly. But hardly had she begun to write when an assistant director shouted, "Miss Durbin, on the set, please!” The young star dropped her pencil, hastily excused herself to the teacher, and dashed out of the makeshift schoolroom. She was wanted for another scene. The other children looked enviously after Deanna. It is under these conditions that movie children have to snatch fragments of education. They rush from

sets to schoolroom during days they are working on a picture, rarely getting a chance to complete a lesson in one sitting. The schoolteacher. Mrs Mary West, sighed as Deanna rushed out.

“It’s so difficult to teach under these conditions,” she said. "The children don’t get a chance to concentrate. I just start them off nicely and get their undivided attention when they are called back to the sets."

California State laws demand that every child employed in pictures shall go to school at the studios for three hours each day. The studios are supplied with teachers by the Education Department. Their salaries are paid by the studios, but through the department.

Mrs West has been at the studios for 13 years, and has had something to do with the education of every famous child star, including Jackie Coogan, Jackie Cooper, Baby Peggy. Shirley Temple, Jane Withers, Mickey Rooney and hundreds of other children use£ as extras. She thinks that film children are not as good scholars as ordinary children.

“They are just as bright, mind you.” she said. "In fact, they are probably much brighter, otherwise they would not be great artists. But they do not get the uninterrupted schooling so necessary to educate a child properly. “Their lessons are always being interrupted. and their lives are not their own. They get no chance to be really normal. They cannot concentrate long enough on any one subject to really master it.

“Deanna is not only making a picture, but she is appearing on the radio in a regular programme, for which she has to rehearse. She is studying singing, music, and languages, and in addition has to make special appearances jiere and there for publicity

purposes. Her day is full from early morning until she goes to bed at night.

"One day Deanna was showing signs of strain. I told her we would work hard for an hour, and then if she were not wanted on the sets she could spend a couple of hours playing in the sun. The poor child threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. She was so happy to be free of work for an hour or two io enjoy herself like ordinary children. She sent home for her bicycle and rode it round the studio grounds for an hour. Later in the afternoon she did her best scenes.”

The young stars are always studying something for the pictures—lines, parts, deportment, voice, music, dancing. These talented children do not have the fun other children do. They cannot mix with other children' and play in parks and playgrounds, because they would be mobbed by autograph hunters and fans. Then there is always the risk of kidnapping. They have to be kept apart, and they grow up too quickly. They become sophisticated while still in their early ’teens.