Report of the Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children as Film Actors, in Theatrical Work and in Ballet / presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Command of His Majesty, August 1950.

  • Great Britain. Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children as Film Actors, in Theatrical Work and in Ballet
Date:
1950
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Departmental Committee on the Employment of Children as Film Actors, in Theatrical Work and in Ballet / presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Command of His Majesty, August 1950. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    situation both “ Medea” and “Six Men of Dorset ’—to instance two plays far apart in time—need very young children, yet in the recent production of “ Medea” adolescent boys took the child parts. 46. Another point to be borne in mind is that the desire to find a child looking young enough for the particular part leads to a demand for a child who is under-sized. This may result in damage to the physical, and indeed the psychological make-up of the child employed. We learned that in one West End production which has recently concluded a run of several years, a part was taken by a very under-sized child, who had been sent to an open-air school when he was younger in an attempt to improve his physique. We do not wish to draw any particular conclusions from this case, but we see a danger that the present law may encourage the employ- ment of children who, by reason of their arrested physical development, ought to be the last children to enter the entertainment world. Upper age for licensing 47. The upper age for licensing is linked with the school leaving age. One effect of the present arrangement is that girls of 15, who may be still at school and are outside the licensing range, are free to take part in entertainments of any type, without the protection that the licensing system affords. Girls of this age usually appear, not in the chorus of children, but in the adult chorus, and they share the dressing-rooms of the adult members of the chorus. Periods of Work and Arrangements for Education 48. In 1919 it was found that the time-table of a licensed child who was not appearing in matinee performances was as follows: “ Rise at 7.45 a.m. Breakfast at 8.15 a.m. School 9 am.—12 noon with the usual break. After an interval for dinner, school again from 2—4.30 p.m. Tea and rest between 4.30 and the time fixed for starting for the theatre, which in some cases is as early as 5.30. Arrive home from the theatre at 10 or 1] p-m. Bed at 11 p.m. or midnight.’””* The time-table at the present time is approximately the same. A child’s School hours generally amount to about 27% in one week, and a licensed child may spend an equal number of hours at the theatre or in travelling. Thus a 12 year old girl may ‘be occupied, at school and in entertainments, for between 50 and 60 hours a week. There is no restriction on the number of hours in a week a child may be employed in entertainments, except such as the licence granted by the local education authority may impose in a particular case. It is not unknown for licences to penmit children who are attending school for nine sessions in the week to perform twice nightly at the theatre, with a matinee on one school afternoon and another on Saturday. The effect is that a child may be appearing (with matinees) in as many as 14 performances a week. This we regard as too exacting. We cannot agree that a twice nightly performance does not impose a greater strain than a single performance. It has been suggested that taking part in an entertainment is not “real work ” by reason of its con- nection with amusement and that “the children love it ”, but many people, * Cmd. 484, 1919, paragraph 18.
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