hits, and the going gets good. These idioms apply to
the making of “Meet Me in St. Louis,” a nearly perfect movie. The tetrad responsible for this delicacy of
War II.
1894, had a happy childhood. The eldest of eight
children, his family was privileged and middle class.
MGM as a lyricist. Ten years later, in 1938, Freed
convinced Louis B. Mayer to let him produce films.
Judy Garland signed with MGM at age 13. Garland’s
upbringing and tragic life. Needless to say, at 13 she
age two with her siblings as The Gumm Sisters. Although Mayer and the studio have deservedly taken
for late-night shows and alcohol to calm her nerves.
Once signed by MGM, Garland and fellow adolescent crooners Mickey Rooney and Deanna Durbin
of Oz” (1939) in which she was cast at age 16. It
was Arthur Freed who pushed Mayer to cast Garland; Mayer had wanted Shirley Temple.
Freed’s ambition helped and hindered Garland. He
came to be known as the “Freed Unit” at MGM. This
group of writers, composers, designers, and choreographers working in Hollywood, many of whom
Freed gathered in hopes of boosting Garland to superstardom. He worked her non-stop, simultaneously developing his own incredible career.
born in Chicago and grew up in the Midwest, traveling with his parents who were tent show musicians
and performers. As a young man, Minnelli decorated
and directed musicals. This led to work at Radio City
Music Hall and eventually, Broadway. It was Freed
who brought Minnelli to Hollywood and to MGM.
Red Skelton and the more successful, and interesting, “Cabin in the Sky” (1943), starring Ethel Waters
and Lena Horne. Yet by 1943, Minnelli hadn’t solidified his position with the most powerful studio in Hollywood, and like Freed, was hungry to advance.
In 1942, Freed came across a charming set of stories in The New Yorker written by Sally Benson. Entitled “5135 Kensington,” the stories were based on
Benson’s childhood in turn-of-the-century St. Louis.
Freed thought these stories would make a fine musical. Initially, Freed thought of George Cukor to direct, but he was called to service, so Freed turned to
Minnelli.
Margaret O’Brien. Courtesy Library of Congress Prints
& Photographs Online Catalog.
Judy Garland was made to do “Meet Me in St. Louis,” and she was not initially in love her role. At 21
she wanted to play an adult, and told Mayer so. For
to handle it. Freed, in turn, set up a meeting with
Minnelli. Regarding the role of Esther and the plot in
it’s fine. I see a lot of great things in it. In fact, it’s
magical.” Still doubtful, Garland agreed to start rehearsals on November 11, 1943.
“Meet Me in St. Louis,” America had been at war for
two years. During that year the U.S. Military personnel consisted of a staggering 11,623,468 troops, triple the amount of enlisted personnel in 1942. In
casualties. Families would lose fathers, sons, and
brothers. Women would enter the work force, en
masse. Daily life across the country was dramatically
altered. Food, gas and clothing were rationed. Popular entertainment often demonized the enemy, but
worries. This was MGM’s cultural backdrop in 1944.
family, one lovely summer day in 1903. Eldest son,
Lon, arrives home by bicycle. Mom, Anna, and maid,
Katie, are in the kitchen making ketchup. Daughter
soon to be oft-heard ditty “Meet Me in St. Louis,” as
she bumps into Grandpa coming out of the bathroom. Esther (Garland) arrives home by buggy,
glowing from her tennis game. Soon beautiful eldest
sister Rose and father, Alonzo, arrive. Within the first
home and the milieu for the entire film.
St. Louis is preparing for the 1904 World’s Fair. Yet,
this isn’t really what the film is about. The film is
potentially disrupted. We see few other locations besides the beautiful Smith house, as nothing else is as
important. All the action takes place in the hearth, or
close to it. Esther falls in love with the boy next door,
a good, safe thing to do. The family celebrates the
holidays in the house, and food is plentiful. The real
Tootie (played by the remarkable Margaret O’Brien).
create harmony once again.
characters’ absence mirroring life in 1944. Equally, if
is to make the home comfortable.
“Meet Me in St. Louis” opened five months after DDay. The unspoken purpose of World War II wafts
be in the future are all worth the fight.
for the film will be its enduring legacy: producer Arthur Freed, who created the modern musical as we
know it, i.e. that songs are utilized to move the narrative forward, rather than merely interrupt it; Vincente
of color, costume, design and harmonious movement; and of course, Judy Garland, who never
of song resonated with unparalleled sentimental immersion.
Introduction
In contemporary Western culture the term child star has become synonymous with a
deviant
Images
type
particularly
of precocious young performers, monstrous
of childhood.
disastrous
'lost'
stage parents,
childhoods and
adult lives have all become part of the way
child stars are commonly perceived thus often rendering them objects of pity, ridicule and
disdain.
Popular accounts of child stardom to date have focussed on the supposed detrimental
in
dysfunctional
business
the
psychological effects of early success show
and
parent/child
relations which allow such children to become commodities. The idea that it is parents
projecting their unrealised hopes and dreams onto their off-spring which creates the
impetus for children to be pushed into the limelight is a common perception of the dynamic
behind child stardom, as is the idea of such children as being ruined by the experience. In
essence the story about child stars so far has been one of vulnerable children being
by
their parents and the fickle world of entertainment, and then suffering
exploited
breakdowns
in
form
drug
the
psychological
of
and alcohol addiction and
most commonly
disorders.
figure
famously
This
the
tragic
eating
child star as a
was most
construction of
in
film
Jane?
(1962)
Bette
1960s
Whatever
Happened
Baby
the
to
which
starred
embodied
Davis as a grotesque ageing one-time child performer, still dressed in baby doll clothes
trapped both by her past and her sadomasochisticsister. This image of former child stars as
figures of parody and derision continues to be reinforced in Western culture by various
bad'
former
'child
For
the
star gone
child
means.
example,
stories and
media sensationalise
in
has
tales
television
of woe what
stars appear on chat shows and
programmes recounting
been described as 'the has-been-circuit' (Bonaduce 1991).
Characterised by phrases such as 'too much too young' and 'scarred by success',
interviews
feature
also work to reinforce this negative
articles, obituaries and
newspaper
foriner
dies,
tries to make a come-back or gets cast in a
child star
stereotype whenever a
is
loud
The
does
film
the
message
role.
and clear;
responsible parent
not even
major
become
their
to
child
a professional performer.
consider allowing
I
Within this largely
middle-class discourse then, being a 'proper' parent involves protecting your child from the
entertainment industry and being a 'proper' child involves not perfort-ningfor money:
The horror stories of young actors whose childhoods end in parental
estrangement, drug addiction or suicide are enough to terrify any
into
sensible parent
giving stageand screen a wide berth. (The Guardian
22.11.00)
These 'horror stories' have become part of the popular imagination, a litany of failure of
demises
promising youngsters whose
are recounted, embellished and exaggeratedover and
over again to the morbid fascination of readers, listeners or viewers. They are the tales of
'America's least wanted' as Ryan (2000) describes former child TV stars, forever hapless,
inadequate individuals, children who have lost their only saving grace
their
cute
appeal,
-
in a less than fi7iendlyadult world.
Some stories have become almost legendary, their victims eliciting as little, if not less, real
compassion as the misadventures of one of their screen characters might; Judy Garland's
hands
the
pill popping ruin at
of MGM, Margaret O'Brien being told her pet dog had just
died to ensure she cried on cue, Macaulay Culkin throwing $20 bills out the window to try
friends,
firmly
dope
Drew
Barrymore
the
and entice new
on
party sceneand smoking
at age
his
fortunes
Phoenix
Jackie
Coogan
for
his
River
nine,
collapsing
suing
as an adult,
mother
and dying of a drug overdose outside a New York nightclub, the entire cast of Diffrent
Strokes being arrested for various misdemeanoursand one of them dying of an overdose,
Lena Zavaroni starving herself to death in a desperateattempt not to grow up. The list goes
on and on and is a sorry account of adult betrayal, false hopes, exploitation and excess.
Such individuals are often referred to as 'lost' in adult life, for example; 'Little Girl Lost'
(The
Guardian
06.03.00),
Langford
34
Bonnie
the
title
was
of an interview with a
year old
Jones;
in
'Child
Star
be
Anissa
dead,
TV
'found'
the
to
obituary
of
only
when
such as
Found Dead' (New York Daily News 1976) suggesting a lifetime in a wilderness of failure
death.
because
tragic
a
of
and rejection, with public recognition now only possible
it is interesting how the audience is never implicated in such accounts of failure and
is
demands
the
culture
nor
wider
which
child stars as a media product and
rejection, and
2
By
from
their
then writes them off as they grow up and away
endearing childhood selves.
centring accountsof child stardom on the individual pathology of the young performers and
the adults who are supposed to be looking after them it has become accepted that child
stardom is a kind of deviance which activates the worst characteristics of children
(precociousness and arrogance), and their parents (greed and ruthlessness). That the
trajectory for all child performers is one of disaster and regret has also become a standard
expectation for child stars, even given some research which suggeststhat the majority of
'
individuals
live
happy
such
go on to
and productive adult lives.
This study aims to both challenge the narrow view which such reductive psychological
accounts of child stardom provide by investigating the social nature of the child star and
also to question why child stars have traditionally been conceptualised in such a negative
way. In order to do this I will be examining the way in which the category 'child star' is
constructed by the media and will consider the symbolic value of child stars as a culturally
significant phenomenon. I wish to relocate the child star as emblematic of our fraught
both
beginning
first
the
the
twenty
relationship with children at
of
century whereby we
fear
image
By
to
the
they
the
grow into.
romanticise
what
are going
of
child and yet
industry
both
the
conceptualising child stars as
and a
a product of
entertainment
intend
I
desire
'special'
to
the
to
manifestation of
see
children reified and adored
universal
demonstratethe complex nature of the child star as a social category which is informed by
influences as diverse as mythology, the media, the economy, sexual politics and social
policy.
I aim to show that, far from being an example of individual deviance the child star is in fact
a manifestation of much wider cultural contradictions surrounding childhood. Indeed, I will
in
is
demanded
that
the
culture
symptomatic
and constructed our
argue
way child stars are
is
defined
being
in
'child'
the
the
who
as
contemporary society
of
complex status of
different in all ways to the adult whilst being persistently commodified, sexualised and thus
'adultified' in the media. Cute they may be, but the idea of a child who has become a
1A 1998 Wayne State University survey of former child stars found that three-quarters of the participants felt
they led 'normal' lives with 'normal' relationships with their parents. (Rapport 1999)
3
commodity does not sit happily with accepted standards of childhood experience in our
culture.
The child star therefore has to be understood in relation to the way in which children today
bound
are
and regulated by sharednormative ideals about appropriate activities, behaviour
homogenise
to
and appearanceswhich work
and control childhood. As Rose notes:
The modem child has become the focus of innumerable projects that
it
from
to
purport
safeguard
physical, sexual or moral danger, to ensure
its 'normal' development, to actively promote certain
of
-capacities
intelligence,
attributes such as
educability and emotional stability. (Rose
1989:121)
Within this protectionist and aspirational concept of childhood, the 'child' functions as an
index of civilisation and modernity with those who fall outside the normative definitions
being pathologised and subject to the regulating authority of institutional holders of power.
For instance, the child who is not deemed to behave 'properly' at school is subject to the
dictates of medicine and educational psychology which seek to return the child to
drugs
behaviour
through
the
normative standards of
administration of
or therapeutic
intervention. The media too work to demonise certain versions of childhood which threaten
the social order - the frequent tabloid denigration of 'wayward' teenageparents who live on
benefits for example bears testamentto this, as does the construction of traveller children as
deviant. In this sensethen the 'child' has come to be one of a select group of persons and
phenomenawhich symbolise:
a range of social anxieties concerning threats to the establishedorder and
traditional values, the decline of morality and social discipline, and the
downward
in
firm
to
to
take
a
spiral into
prevent
steps
order
need
disorder. (Rose 1989:123)
This concept of the child as symbolic of something more than itself is a key theme of this
study which investigates the cultural significance of one tiny sub-section of childhood,
investigation
demonstrate
I
Through
to
the usefulness
such an
intend
namely, child stars.
in
illuminating
the
the
the contradictory status of all
status
of
child
star
of exploring
both
hope
futurity
largely
in
are
society
our
'ývho
of
and
powerful symbols
and
children
4
In
this sensechild stars, although viewed as very
powerless subjects of adult manipulation.
different to 'normal' children, are also an extreme embodiment of the 'child'
as a
identified
in
Thus
conceptual entity.
processesof reification and subjectification which are
relation to child stars can be understood as micro examples of macro Processeswhich work
to subjectify all children but which are generally more obscure and diluted than they are in
the caseof the publicly accessiblechild star.
The child star then is used in this study as an analytic tool with which to examine some of
the tensions and power struggles which are inherent in our current construction of
4-:)
childhood, as well as being the subject of investigation as a distinct social category.
First, however, it is necessaryto define more specifically what I mean by the term child star
and, as such, set the boundaries of the subject of this research.
1.1 Defining the Child Star
The term child star is commonly understood to have been invented to describe the young
performers in Hollywood films of the 1920sand 30s such as Shirley Temple, Judy Garland
and Jackie Coogan. Such stars provided the prototypes for subsequentchild actors and
singers although, as will become evident in the social history chapter, the figure of the
special performing child has a legacy which reachesfar beyond this time and continues to
the present day. Therefore, in this study 'child star' is conceptualised as a much wider
in
definition
Hollywood
than
the
category
narrow
would allow order to encompasschildren
have
before
found
in
the
who
and since the so-called 'Child
success
entertainment world
Star Era' and also to include children who have become famous through singing as well as
acting.
Although the definition of child star should logically involve a neat definition of 'child'
definition
'star'
to create a clear and unambiguous new category, as
a
neat
with
of
paired up
has
define
tried
to
either will testify, no such straightforward simplicity is
anyone who
Definitions
delineations
the
of
child
are,
of
course, culturally specific as are
possible.
as to
kinds
ends
and
what
of activities and experiences are considered
when childhood
5
appropriate for those in the early stage of life. I explore the historical antecedentsof the
dominant Western version of childhood in the Literature Review, but for the purpose of this
definition it is sufficient to say that the 'child' is understood as a person under sixteen years
of age, although most child stars are in fact under twelve. The incongruity of the child star
with normalised definitions of the child and childhood as they are constructedin our society
is a central theme of the study and therefore, the child stars investigated in this researchall
2
emanatefrom Western culture.
As well as being a special kind of child, the child star is also, of course, a particular kind of
star. Definitions of what a star is are nearly as slippery as definitions of what a child is due
Ellis
to the fact that the star is both a symbol and a commodity as well as a human being.
4:-)
(1982) describesa star in purely functional terms as:
a performer in a particular medium, whose figure enters into subsidiary
forms of circulation and then feeds back into future performances.(Ellis
in
quoted Cook 1985:5 1)
and views stars as primarily a marketing device and an 'invitation to cinema' highlighting
how their appeal is diffused through media reporting which:
both
the
that
ordinary
stars are
plays upon
central paradox of stardom:
both
both
like
a person and a
and glamorous,
us and unlike us,
(ibid:
both
intimate.
52)
both
public and
commodity,
real and mythical,
However, in his definitioný Friedberg (1982) focuses on the semiotic value of the star which
fih-n
fantasy
the
to
the
of
narratives:
allows
audience enter
The film star is a particular commoditised human, routed through a
...
system of signs with exchange value..... the star image carries powerful
fictional
both
the
codes of character
exceed
cultural connotations which
into
fictional
bind
identification
the
to
world of the
us
and work
and
film. (Friedberg quoted in Cook 1985:50)
2 Due to the limitations of this project it was not possible to take child actors and performers from all over the
full
a
understanding of the way in which childhood is constructed in each culture
world into consideration as
familiarity
inform
languages
be
the media
the
as
well
as
a
with
codes
which
and
serniotic
required
would
communications of each country.
6
In relation to classic Hollywood child stars such as Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney and
Freddie Bartholomew, it will be demonstratedin a later chapter how their definition as stars
was due to the same process of establishing their 'star quality' and charisma which
Clark
Gable
Rita
Hayward
However,
to
propelled adult stars such as
and
popular success.
Hollywood's
this
as
study will make clear,
child stars also had another element of appeal,
namely their power to symbolise all of the 'good' attributes of childhood such as innocence
and natural wisdom. In this sensethe child star of stageand screencoincided with and was
informed by the child star of mythical adventure, thereby elevating the child star to a
from
its
is
It
this construction of the
separaterealm of existence
adult star counterparts.
beyond
both
'normal' childhood and generalised
child star as an entity above and
definitions of stardom which render child stars such a unique group to investigate.
The fact that the term child star has been appropriated from its original commercial usage
to denote children who were part of the Hollywood star system of the early twentieth
century and has since become a common phrase to describe any and all children who
in
achieve even a modicum of success the entertaim-nentworld serves to complicate the
definition further.
For the purposes of this study then a tautological definition applies,
(as
long
in
is
is
described
the
as their
such
media
as
whereby a child star
anyone who
definition
Although
in
the
such a circuitous
achievements are
popular performing arts).
highlight
first
insubstantial
the arbitrary constructed nature of the
to
appears at
it serves
be
has
to
the
term
the
come
associatedwith a certain negative
child star and
way in which
disastrous
future
brat
the
with pushy parents and a
stereotype of
precocious, over-confident
be
for
by
image
the
them
which
will
media
reasons
and
reinforced
created
ahead of
an
explored in later chapters.
Finally, I wish to differentiate the child stars in this study from early achievers in other
fields of endeavour. The term 'child star' has become an increasingly popular short-hand
do
describe
for
to
the
particularly well at something
any and all children who
press
way
thus losing some of its unique correlation with stars who perfonn on the stage or screen.
Although 'child star' is still primarily associated with young actors and singers then we
footballers
have
tennis
and mathematicians
players, chess champions, pianists,
young
also
7
being described as 'stars'. Howeverý interesting though investigations into such Individuals
would be, this study does not include these children in the central analysis although they do
pop up from time to time in discussion over the nature of genius or the definitions of
4normality' in relation to childhood. This study is about child stars of the stageand screen
and the significance that their very presence and the way they are categorised and
conceptualisedhas in our culture.
Therefore, I use the term 'child star' in two different ways in this study. The first is used
when describing a juvenile individual who acted or sang in a primary role in a stage or
screen production. It is purely a descriptive ten-n and is alternated with terms such as
'young performer' and 'child actor'.
A child star then is a young actor or singer who has
achieved some degree of fame and recognition and who is paid for his or her professional
services.
The other use of the term refers to the category of child star as distinct from the material
experience of any one perfon-ner and denotes the socially constructed nature of the
phenomenon.
The child star is also, of course, a temporary rather than a fixed, social category despite the
lifelong repercussionssuch a label often brings. Therefore, the collective term 'child stars'
is often used in this study in a manner which necessarily disregards temporal conventions
to refer to a social group connected only by their extraordinary childhood experiences as
they have passedthrough their child stardom at varying historical moments.
.2
The Anomalous Child Star
One of the main reasonswhy child stars are a particularly interesting group to investigate is
their apparently anomalous status in relation to accepted,dominant tenets of contemporary
Western childhood. Indeed, the question of how the child star has managedto continue to
find a niche in our popular culture, given the protectionist attitude towards children which
has characterised social and educational policy in the West in the last hundred years, is an
intriguing4-:) one.
8
For example, the messageabout child labour is unequivocal in societies such as ours and
is
it
that
that
morally, physically and emotionally
states
children should not work,
damaging for them to do so and that adults who do allow or encourage their children to
for
The
today's child is
proper place
undertake paid employment are unfit parents.
for
be
in
being
instructed
home
being
the
to
and
cared
generally accepted
classroom
or at
the law in the UK upholds this view. Dictates on child employment state that children and
in
limited
for
jobs
young people can only work
a
and
a specified time until they
number of
fourteen
date.
leaving
For
thirteen
the
may
and
minimum school
reach
example children of
day
be
in
light
for
five
hours
to
on which they are not
only
employed
on any
work,
up
including
hours
to
to
twenty-five
each week, not
expected attend school, up a maximum of
Sundays and all children must also now obtain permits to work from the education and
leisure services of their borough which is signed by employers and parents.
Although children who work in the entertainment industry are also subject to exacting rules
3
and regulations intended to safeguardtheir well-being they are still regarded as a separate
is
industry
from
For
'ordinary'
the only industry
the
entertainment
children.
example,
case
for
to
is
twelve
allowed
to
are
children
which
and
children
under
allowed
employ
which
hours
have
long
days
three
they
their
of
to
as
regular education as
a year of
miss up eighty
daily tutoring on set. There also seemsto be evidence of a somewhat lackadaisical attitude
financial
huge
due
hours
the
to
and
towards regulations over the
young performers work
is
'rule-bending'
This
time pressures which surround most productions.
commonplace
former
from
in
following
the
child actor:
a
quote
recalled
I can't rememberbeing taken off the set becausethey'd gone over hours.
I think a lot of chaperonesare quite liberal. I remember being on set till
2 o'clock in the morning, with 6 o'clock starts. (Quoted in SingletonTurner 1999:50)
Unsurprisingly, in an adults' world, adults' rules apply.
' For example children under 5 may work for a maximum of 30 minutes and may be at the place of
Singleton(Source
4.30pm
for
hours,
hours
between
9.30am
2
being
those
and
only
performance or rehearsal
Turner 1999:44)
9
Those who attend stage schools are also treated differently from 'normal' children as a
large part of the educational day is spent practising performance skills such as singing,and
4:)
dancing rather than the literacy and numeracy which most schools focus on. That success
for such children is more aligned to getting auditions and winning parts than achieving
academically is a common perception which no doubt stageschool owners would dispute.
The young performer is also separatedfrom 'normal' children in other more subtle ways.
For example, in general children are no longer expected to contribute to their family's
income in Western society and yet it is acceptedthat children who find successworking in
the entertainment industry will raise their family's standard of living through their
economic activity.
Furthen-nore, the vast majority of children are not encouraged or
expected to start their careers when still receiving their formal education and children on
the whole are expected to be 'natural' and unaffected and are not required to maintain and
managea professional persona.
Against the background of our current dominant definitions of what childhood should and
should not entail then, the experience of the child star begins to stand out like a beacon as
incongruous
utterly
with the innocent and protected space in which all other children are
be
to
supposed
growing up. The child star is, to all intents and purposes,an anachronismof
an earlier time when the welfare of the child was not a priority and childhood as a special
So
the
period of education and security was not seen as
right of all children.
why are child
be
it
demanded
fulfilling
Presumably
they
stars still
are
some need,
and still appearing?
by
in
by
is
children
adult
social, cultural or psychological, which not met either
general or
performers.
Therefore, the first question to be addressedin this research is 'Why do we have child
filled
by
do
in
be
'
What
they
other
play
our culture which cannot
satisfactorily
role
stars?
have
found
fame
in
treacherous
those
the
apparently
early
of
who
given
experiences
means
life and our dedication as a society to protecting children from all possible danger and from
the commercial adult world in general?
10
The second question relates to the way in which stories about famous child perfon-ners
image
in
be
framed
in
to
to
of
the media order present an overwhelmingly negative
seem
the child star and the former child star. This also appears anomalous with our general
hard
try
encouragementand support of children who
and achieve something special. The
first
in
into
little
back
little
Tommy
the
turns
pat on
comes
a
race
a sneer when
when
Tommy lands the lead role in a movie. This sentiment, when naturalised through the print
becomes
media,
a powerful tool in creating a stigma around the child star and former child
star which can blight the individual's life and career until the very end. Indeed, as one
haunted former child star puts it:
4
The words 'child star' will be on my gravestone.
The question to be asked then is 'Why are child stars and former child stars frequently
is
denigrated
I
in
'
the
this
the
that
ridiculed and
question
possibility
will explore
media?
because
it
issues
to
particularly salient
of managementand manipulation of children
relates
into
beyond
'childhood'
the
the
the
star
and
world of
child
and of
category
which resonate
in
in
lives
By
the
examining
way
every aspect of children's
and experiences our society.
last
have
been
definitions
'non-nal'
the
which shared
child
socially constructed over
of a
two centuries in the literature review it will hopefully become clear that certain strategiesof
in
by
the
control are employed
media order to maintain the status quo, to reinforce certain
in
Furthermore,
'keep
their
to
children
place'.
collective values concerning childhood and
due to their location outside of mainstream ideas and practices around raising children, I
investigating
by
Therefore,
be
the
to
consider child stars
a minority group in our society.
by
the media, wider processesof
they
are marginalised and stigmatised
ways in which
insidious and overt techniques of discrimination may be identified which relate to other
fall
'norm'
the
outside
groups which
The following section outlines what will be included in the proceeding chapters and how
the central questions of the researchwill be addressed.
Benedictus Leo quoted in The Guardian Friday Review 28.05.04
II
Chapter 2.
Literature Review
The literature review examinesthe historical antecedentsto the creation of the notion of the
(normal' child in Western culture and highlights the arbitrary nature of such a defiruition.
The social constructivist approach to studying childhood, emanating from Philippe
Ari&s'(1962) seminal work, is evaluated in terms of explaining the invention of the 'child'
as a cultural category. Having established the dominance of a shared social definition of
childhood, the child star is shown to be 'abnormal' or deviant and therefore a challenge to
the ideal category of 'child'. Researchabout other groups of children who fall outside the
dominant definition of the ideal child because they are exceptional in some way is
in
considered an attempt to place the child star in a social context. However, it becomes
clear that even though they share a degree of common ground with other disenfranchised
children, child stars inhabit a unique category due to their association with precocious
sexuality and eroticised innocence - controversial elements which are often evident in their
on-screen representations . The paucity of academic research in the area of child stars is
noted and the significant gap this leaves in understanding the current status of childhood in
our media saturatedculture is identified.
Chapter 3.
A Social History of Child Stars
This chapter aims to contextualise our current construction of the child star as a result of
social, political,
beyond.
last
hundred
influences
the
two
economic and artistic
over
years and
The history of the perforining child will be described in reference to changing
forms
from
the
as
child star moved
street to
ideas about childhood and shifting cultural
stage to screen over the twentieth century.
The way in which child stars have always been
be
issues
have
to
to
symbolic
of
wider
come
and
subject
adult control and manipulation and
fears about the moral order of society will be explored and thus the child star as an
be
figure
established.
of cultural significance will
enduring
12
Chapter 4.
Methodology
In order to explore the status of child stars in our society it was decided that a method of
analysing cultural documents pertaining to the group in question was appropriate. Given
the multitude of stories and articles about child stars in newspapers and magazines it
seemed a particularly useful source of secondary data that would not only provide a
tellability index as to the status of child stars now, but which could be compared and
contrasted to articles from earlier publications allowing an element of historical analysis as
well.
The analysis is divided into two sections. The first approaches the data using the
techniques of discourse analysis as defined by Wetherell and Potter (1987,1992) and works
from the assumption that meaning is created through text. Due to the way in which stories
about child stars are almost overwhelmingly denigrating, and also due to the lifelong stigma
that many former child stars report feeling about their early success,this section of the
analysis focuses on the powerlessnessof child stars to control the social defmitions created
for them in the wider culture. This powerlessness is related to the powerlessness of
children more generally who are bounded and subjectified by cultural and social forces.
The second stage of the analysis approaches the same body of data from a broadly
structuralist perspective in order to gain a wider understanding of why the child star
occupies such a significant position in our cultural landscape, given the challenge such
individuals present to our dominant definition of childhood. Using ideas from Kerenyi and
Jung (1969), Leach (1963) and Propp (1969) the timeless appeal and power of the child star
to elicit emotion and provide hope for the future is explored. This power of the child star is
impact
to
the
to
on adult sensibilities.
also related
power of all children
The two qualitative approachesemployed to investigate the sociological status of the child
data
forin
basis
described
the
the
analysis chapters which
of one of
above each
star as
follow.
By designing a dual Methodology in order to investigate both the power and the
is
the
to encompassas much of the complexity of the
the
child
star
aim
powerlessnessof
13
category as possible, whilst still focussing the researchon the specific characteristicsof the
child star.
Chapter 5.
Data Analysis I- The Powerlessnessof Child Stars
This chapter of the analysis examines the way in which 'child star' as a social construction
both
to
works
subjectify the members of that group and to reinforce collective normative
standardsabout children and childhood. Concepts of transgressionand stigma in relation to
the child star are identified and techniques of dealing with what Goffman (1990) terms a
'spoiled identity' are considered.
Chapter 6.
Data Analysis 11- The Power of. Child Stars
Drawing on the work of Carl Jung on archetypes and the unconscious, the idea that the
child star is a modem day expression of the 'wonder-child' motif is explored and
connections between ancient examples of that archetype, such as the Christ child, and
day
modem
representationsand descriptions of child stars are made. The way in which
narratives about child stars follow certain mythological and fairy-tale like conventions is
identified through a case study of stories about Charlotte Church, and certain universal
themes and features are highlighted which suggestthe significance of the child star may go
far beyond its current culturally specific construction.
Chapter 7.
Conclusion
The conclusion brings together the strands of analysis in the preceding chapters and
in
in
findings
to
the
the
the
the
relation
initial questions posed
considers
of
research
introduction.
The argument will be made that in order to understand the current complex status of child
is
important
beyond
Western
to
go
a purely social constructivist approach
culture it
stars in
to researching childhood, and to draw on wider ideas pertaining to the universality of
certain themes and motifs which continue to shape and infon-n our representations of
14
children.
The ramifications of the research findings in relation to wider contemporary
issues surrounding childhood will be outlined and the techniques of media subjectification
which work to stigrnatise child stars will be identified as relevant to future studies of other
'transgressive' children as well as minority social groups in general.
The cultural
significance of the child star will be highlighted and the sociological value of researching
this unique group will be reiterated. Finally, suggestions will be made as to potential
further researchin this area.
1.3 Conclusion
The overriding aims of this study are therefore twofold:
to provide a substantive,sociological account of the child star as it is constructed in
Western culture which goes beyond a purely social constructivist reading by
encompassingmythological and structuralist elementsof analysis.
to contribute to the current debate on the complex status of Western childhood by
highlighting
the contradictory demands we make on children to be both
deferent.
symbolically powerful and socially
The following chapter reviews literature pertaining to the social construction of a particular
brand of 'nonnality'
in relation to Western childhood and locates the child star as
boundaries
the
of the category.
occupying a position outside
conceptual
15
Chapter 2: Literature Review
In the next chapter on the Social History of Child Stars I will demonstratethe malleability
and tenacity of this unique band of children to be reinvented for every new phaseof cultural
production and to provide entertainment in whatever form is required of them by the adults
define
who
and desire them. For such a colourful and curious troupe however, a surprising
lack of academic research into their status and cultural significance has been undertaken
due in a large part, I would imagine, to the inherent difficulty of conceptualising such a
disparate and temporally disjointed set of individuals as a distinct social group. Although
as will be seen later in this chapter, there has been much reporting of the individual lives
and experiences of such performers and also much textual analysis of film and television
roles played by child actors, the consideration of the child star as a social category existing
beyond the experiencesof individual children has not been directly addressed. However, in
order to provide a theoretical background for the rest of this study, it is important to
establish the child star as a sociological and cultural construct as well as a way of
describing individual juvenile performers. To this end the following review brings together
several strands of researchall of which have a bearing on how the category 'child star' is
defined and conceptualisedin our culture.
The first section of the review deals chronologically with literature which relates
theoretically to the study of children and childhood referring to work by writers such as
Mead (1936),
Ari&s (1962), Jenks (1996), Cunningham (1995) and James and Prout
(1990). There will be specific emphasis on the origin and naturalisation of the modem,
Western concept of the 'normal' child and on the ways in which contemporary theorists
have attempted to synthesiseapproachesto childhood studies in order to facilitate a shared
understanding of the category 'child'.
The aim of this section is to demonstrateboth the
highlight
fears
definition
'normal'
to
the
the
child and
and
arbitrary nature of our
of
definition,
those
of which child
children who challenge such a
concerns which surround
stars are one example.
Having established that the category 'child star' derives meaning through the difference of
its members to 'non-nal' children, I go on in Section 2.2 to explore the nature of this
16
difference in reference to writing by and about children involved in the entertainment
industry and in relation to empirical studies of other groups of extraordinary children such
as child prodigies and geniuses. The work of Higonnet (1998) and Kincaid (1992) on the
innocence
be
images
discussed
then
eroticised
of childhood will
of
in reference to the
subversive association of child stars with precocious sexuality and paedophilia -a synergy
further
which
complicates the status of this group. Finally, research into media
representations of children on screen will be presented as evidence of the child star's
in
central role reinforcing and embodying certain idealised versions of childhood.
Through the inclusion of literature relating to issues such as the homogenisation of
innocence
definition
the
the
childhood,
social
of extraordinary children and
politics of
intended
it
is
the
that this review will show that the child
the
surrounding
child,
image of
star is a category which connects a -diverse range of research in childhood studies and
which can be used to investigate wider cultural processeswhich work to contain and exploit
it
hoped
Indeed,
that the proceeding analysis
children and childhood more generally.
is
focus
for
the
the
child star as a
understandingthe ambiguous
chapters reflect
usefulnessof
in
status of childhood
our media saturated society, as well going some way towards
rectifying the paucity of researchon this specific group of children.
The following section then reviews literature relating to the idea of the 'normal' child in
Western society, a social construct which has been unquantifably powerful in dictating how
in
be
do
is
defined
to
and
our culture
and what we expect children
contemporary childhood
both
on and off screen.
2.1 The Creation of the 'Normal' Child
Although the idea of studying childhood as a valid and important time of life is generally
(1962)
following
Aries'
in
in
interest
this
seminal work relating
the
to
area
surge
attributed
here
it
be
Ages,
Middle
in
Europe
that
the
'invention
argued
will
to the
after
of childhood'
from
to
theoretical
anthropological
childhood emanate
the actual roots of our
approach
30s.
1920s
from
the
and
studies
17
For example, Ruth Benedict's (1938) comparative study of child rearing, in Native
American and European communities identified
discontinuities in cultural conditioning.
the concept of continuities and
Rather than simply observing differences in
socialisation techniques, Benedict explored the fundamental differences in how children
were conceptualised and the impact that expectations of their skills and abilities had on
their behaviour. She found that the 'dominance-submission' power relation of adult/child
interaction which is so entrenched and naturalised in Western culture was alien to many
Native American communities who were 'especially explicit in rejecting the idea of a
child's submissive or obedient behaviour' (Benedict 1938:25). As such communities
believed that the attitudes and behaviours in childhood set the pattern for the adult self and
that docile obedience was not a desirable characteristic for adults, Benedict explains how
independenceand responsibility in young children can be encouragedso that the childhood
is
self
on a continuum to the adult self and not sharply demarcated from it as it is in
Western cultures. To illustrate this point she gives the following example of an observed
incident while sitting with a group of Papagoelders in Arizona:
The man of the house turned to his little three year-old granddaughter
and asked her to close the door. The door was heavy and hard to shut.
The child tried, but it did not move. Several times the grandfather
repeated, 'Yes, close the door.' No-one jumped to the child's assistance.
No one took the responsibility away from her It was assumedthat the
...
task would not be asked of her unless she could perform it, and, having
been asked, the responsibility was hers alone just as if she were a grown
(Benedict
23)
1938:
woman.
When compared to the discontinuity in conditioning as is the norm in Western culture, it
becomesapparent that Western childhood is built on a different set of presumptions, beliefs
being
fact
The
that
and ideals.
our concept of a child is of a
who is submissive to adult
authority, non responsible and an economically non-contributing member of the family
doesn't necessarily mean the child embodies these characteristics, but that they are
live.
fact,
him
her
by
in
In
they
the
working as a
onto
or
social
world
which
projected
between
discontinuity
far
Benedict
to
that
the
as
suggest
childhood
went so
psychiatrist,
lead
distress
behaviour
to
severe mental
in adulthood when
which
and adulthood could
18
least
irritating
becomes
to
or at
used
could explain the
please others
inappropriate and
turbulence of adolescence:
The -adolescent period of Sturm und Drang with which we are so
familiar becomes intelligible in terms of our discontinuous cultural
institutions and dogmas rather than in terms of physiological necessity.
(Benedict 1938:29)
Working at the same time Margaret Mead was studying children and childhood in Bali.
She noted that in Bali, children were called 'small human beings' and that the whole of life
was seen gas a circular stage on which human beings, born small, as they grow taller,
heavier, more skilled, play predeten-nined roles, unchanging in their main outlines,
endlessly various and subject to improvisation in detail' (Mead 1936:40). In contrast to the
Western conception of the life cycle as sequential and consisting of a series of defined
stages related to various ages, it was clear that the experience of childhood in various
cultures was fundamentally different and that such differences could be observed,recorded
framework
the
and understood within
of researchprocedureswhich were acceptableat that
time.
In light of such early anthropological research,Ari&
assertionthat Western childhood as a
invention
less
seemssomewhat
startling and more a
separateprotected spacewas a cultural
logical next step from previous comparative studies such as the ones mentioned above.
Such early studies were already challenging the idea of childhood as a universal,
homogenous experience for young human beings and yet because such findings were
development
(eg
into
Piaget
field
the
child
of psychological research
rising
competing with
1932, Gesell 1925, Burt 1935) and because they were incompatible with such rigid,
'scientific' definitions of the 'normal' child, they became somewhat peripheral to central
debatesabout childhood for the next few decades.The idea that there was certainly nothing
fundamentally 'normal' or 'natural' about all children was firmly off the agenda as the
1940s
dominated
literature
50s.
the
throughout
the
and
child
psycho-medical model of
However, the discontinuity of Western childhood from adulthood as identified by such
basis
biological
Mead,
Benedict
the
than
this
and
and
cultural
rather
of
as
anthropologists
19
separation is a recurring and important theme in the Sociology of Childhood and was
picked up again by the social constructivists in the 1980s.
2.1.1 Developmental Psycholoa
The
Definition
'Normal'
Child
the
of
-
The pre-cursor to developmentalpsychology proper was intelligence testing which was first
by
Galton in 'Hereditary Genius' (1867) and was subsequently developed in the
proposed
UK by Spean-nan(1904,1915) and Burt (1935) and in the USA by Cattell (1936) and
Eysenck (1953).
The potential dangers of such invasive psychological testing became clear when the
arbitrary association of intelligence with virtue (or lack of it) was used to justify
sterilization programmes in the USA between 1900 and 1930, during which time more than
8000 people were sterilised for activities as diverse as chicken stealing and car theft as well
for
as
prostitution. H. H. Goddard, a member of the Eugenics movement in America at that
time, and a respected educationalist, ensured that the Binet-Simon test (1908) was widely
used throughout schools to identify the feeble-minded and went on to publish The Kallikak
Family (below) which clearly presented the dangers of the 'feeble-minded' reproducing
themselves and served to reinforce stereotypical ideas about certain children being born
'bad' thus justifying their treatment as subhumanor at least as inferior membersof society:
20
MARTIN
KALLIKAK v
He married a
Quakere,
3
worthy
He dallied with
feeble minded
tavern girl
she bore
seyen upright
worthy children
She bare a Son
known as ' Old Horror
who had ten chiiclren'ý'ý
I
ý V-
From thtie sefen worthy
children came hundreds
of the highest rypes
of human beings
1ý
from ' Old Horror's
ten children come hundreds
pi the lowest type3 of
human beings
k
Fig I- The influence of heredity is illustrated by the 'good' and 'bad'
Kallikaks in Garrett (1955)
The idea that intelligence could and should be used to determine andjustify the life-chances
of Mdividuals and that mental capacity was an intnnsic facet of a child which could be
I: )
1=
measured, compared against
others and which was unchanging
and
Z:)
unchangeable
into
by
politicians who saw an opportunity to justify stratified
adulthood was soon poached
21
educational and social systems,on the basis of 'scientific' fact. The fact that the dominant
group of educationalists, scientists and policy makers had the power to define those
characteristics necessary for entry into
certain social positions and educational
establishments served to reinforce racist attitudes as well as establishing concepts of
normality and thus abnon-nalityamong children.
The fragility of such classifications, and the power which is inherent in the way that certain
modes of seeing become taken as 'true', has been demonstratedby post-structuralists such
as Foucault (1961,1969,1977,1979) in relation to sexuality, criminality and madnessand,
later by Rose (1985,1989) who argues that even our subjective lives are moulded and
determined by social and political forces.
The power of psychological theory to shape lives could not be more clearly exemplified
than by the techniques of intelligence testing which were utilised by Piaget in the 1920s.
This 'ages and stages' theory of cognitive development was generatedin responseboth to
the need to categorise and control the population after World War 1, and to concernsabout
the welfare and education of children in general. Piaget's approach to testing, assessing
and classifying children's mental and motor abilities formed the basis of the French school
system and was soon adopted, with modifications, all over Europe, and indeed still
underpins much of the school structure in the Western world today.
Whereas the anthropological model of studying childhood had been leading towards
acceptance of difference and a respect for diverse cultural traditions, in less than two
decadesthe psycho-medical model of the child had led to the institutionalised superiority of
a white, middle-class, Christian childhood above all others, which fon-ned the basis of a
particularly pervasive standardisedideal of the 'normal' child in Western culture.
The drive towards establishing normative standardsof physicality and behaviour reached a
hold
in
USA
to
the
the
the
when psychology was considered
peak in
post war years
scientific'
domain
local,
to
the
questions which were previously in
answers
of
female
knowledge.
'amateur',
therefore
and
It)
predominantly
This paved the way for
Dr
Gesell,
Arnold
to publish generalisedyet very specific
respected psychologists, such as
22
different
following
behaviour
The
'normal'
C)
the
statements about
of children at
ages.
conclusions were drawn by Gesell from his study of just 50 middle class American children
in each age group:
At 2 years: There is little give-and-take in play, but much physical
kicking
snatch-and-grab,and
and pulling hair.
The typical 4-year-old: Quarrelsome; boasts and threatens.
The typical 6-year-old: Highly emotional. There is a marked
disequilibrium between the child and others. Lack of integration. Tends
to go to extremes;oscillates. (Gesell 1946 quoted in Valentine 1956:3 1)
Adjunct to such narrow definitions of how children do and should behave, came much
how
best to discipline and raise one's child (Burt, Isaacs, Winnicott,
to
expert advice as
Klein). One of the most influential practitioners in the 1950s and 1960swas John Bowlby
(1953) who wrote of the absolutely crucial relationship of the infant with his/her mother
lack
behavioural
in
later
to
the
and attributed many psychological and
problems
childhood
it).
bond
(maternal
depravation
Bowlby
termed
of a proper mother/child
as
at an early age
By putting the responsibility for happy, healthy children squarely on the mother's
family
ideal
Bowlby
the
the
as the only suitable
closed nuclear
shoulders,
reinforced
of
home
bring
The
to
environment was unquestionably the
environment in which
up a child.
only way to provide children protection from the outside world. The concept of children as
facet
dependant
of this construction of the
malleable,
and vulnerable was clearly a central
(eg
Europe
America
by
informing
throughout
and
child and was
researchand policy
now
The Children's Act in Britain in 1948 and the Children and Young Person's Act 1969).
Although the classify and control approach to social and educational policy was born out of
developmental
for
desire
the
tenets
to
psychology is
on
which
children,
protect and care
a
based have been widely discredited. For example, Burman (1994) objects to the way in
draws
which tools of measurementproduce research objects and research subjects and
developmental
by
descriptions
in
provided
which normative
attention to the way
She
sees psychological investigation as
psychologists slip into naturalised prescriptions.
ignores
the
theme
psychological context which
which
of
regulation
wider
reflecting a
individuals inhabit, and views developmental psychology as constructed within social
than
area
of
enquiry.
an
as
independent
rather
agenda,
political
a
with
and
practices
4
23
Burman, along with other theorists such as the Stamton- Rogers (1992), finds the
overriding aim of developmental psychology, that is, arguably, to define the 'normal' child,
as an unacceptableand pointless exercise:
The normal child, the ideal type, distilled from the comparative scoresof
age-graded populations, is... a fiction or myth It is an abstraction, a
...
fantasy, a production of the testing apparatus that incorporates, that
constructs the child, by virtue of its gaze.'(Bunnan 1994:17)
The Marxist educationalist David Ingleby has similar concerns regarding child psychology
and extends the account of the child as regulated and controlled to the moment of its birth
before:
and even
I start from the belief that practically every act in relation to a
child ... reflects constraints dictated by that child's place in the political
system... In psychology, however, this determination is not simply
ignored, but the evidence about it is suppressedby the very methodology
of the profession. (Ingleby 1976:153)
That there is nothing neutral about scienceand scientific practices is now widely accepted',
and yet the concept of the child as passing through set stages as he or she progresses
towards adulthood and of the dangers of either missing a stage, transgressing the
boundaries of a given stage or not being provided with what he or she needs at a certain
stage continue to inform and characteriseour understandingof childhood.
Even if we accept that there are some universal biological and psychological needsthat are
common to all children, Woodhead suggests that what are often taken as 'fundamental
'
(1996:
91)
contextual
needs.
needsare actually about socially constructed,
It was largely in responseto this construction of the child as passive subject of their own
field
began
by
defined
that
to
a
new
of
study
adult experts
socialisation, controlled and
80s
970s
I
the
and
which placed the child in the centre of their own social world and
grow in
For example Latour and Woolgar's (1979) analysis of the social construction of scientific knowledge.
Cý
24
which started to listen to the child's voice and to reconstruct childhood in terms of
children's agency.
2.1.2 Social Constructivism
The publication of Ari&(l
962) Cenmries of Childhood openedup a new way of theorising
about childhood by challenging the very concept of there being a universal, 'natural' state
for children to inhabit and experienceas they grow up.
The central argument of Ariýs' work, (which was based on French culture but which has
been generalisedto encompassthe rest of the Western world) is that up to and including the
Middle Ages there was no concept of childhood as we think of it, and that children were not
perceived.as being tangibly different from anyone else:
In medieval society the idea of childhood did not exist; this is not to
suggest that children were neglected, forsaken or despised. The idea of
childhood is not to be confused with affection for children: it
corresponds to an awarenessof the particular nature of childhood, that
particular nature which distinguishes the child from the adult, even the
young adult. In medieval society this awarenesswas lacking. That is
why, as soon as the child could live without the constant solicitude of his
mother, his nanny or his cradle rocker, he belonged to adult society.
(Ari6s 1962:125)
Although Ariýs doesn't give a clear reason as to why children were not treated as special or
distinct at this time he does assert that such neglect most likely stemmed from a certain
barrenness
lack
terms
to
cultural
of
attributing
in
meaning childhood and a
of value placed
on education, rather than Erom incompetence or incapacity on the part of adults. As he
baldly explains; 'there was no place for childhood in the medieval world. '
However, theorists such as Pollock (1983) and Bel Geddes (1997) have challenged Ari&
thesis on the grounds of primary material such as diaries and letters which demonstrate
between
during
Middle
Ages and before, which
the
affection and care
parents and children
they claim prove that children were Prized and treasured as special and different people
even then.
Whether such evidence can substantiate the argument that childhood existed
25
then or simply confirms the obvious fact that children existed then and were subject to a
degree of special treatment and care due to physical necessity is debatable. What gives
Ari6s' thesis a weight which his critics perhaps lack is the way in which his interpretation
located
in
is
of what childhood
a wider social and cultural context than simply on a
is
review of common practices within the family.
The way in which Ariýs achieved this broad perspective on attitudes towards children and
He
from
in
look
Middle
Ages
this
the
the
to
period.
at
cultural artefacts
childhood
was
baby
(although
the
the
even
mother and child
noted that, with the exception of the motif of
Jesusappearedas a small shrunken man rather than as a rounded cherubic figure) children
were largely absent from twelfth century art:
Medieval art until about the twelfth century did not know childhood or
did not attempt to portray it. (Ari&s 1962:3 1)
and that this suggestedwider truths about the absenceof childhood as a separate,special
2
period at that time.
Ari&s' work is accredited with stimulating a new paradigm about childhood, which moved
from biological to cultural definitions of the early period of life, and which was to form the
basis of a huge body of research in the new field of Childhood Studies. Allison James
describesthe paradigm like this:
be
regarded as
that childhood and children's experiences cannot
determined simply by their biological development. Instead....children
and young people's experiencesof growing up are mediated significantly
by culture, which produces a diversity, rather than a commonality of
time
both
through
and
cross-culturally
childhoods
and that within this paradigm;
the
kind
of
childhood
in
tellability
state
about
index
of
some
that
represent
Aries - idea
cultural artefacts
disappearance
debates
in
the
has
is
about
subsequent
weight
gained
which
one
societies
and
various cultures
Cý
Meyoritz
(1994)
Postman
(1998),
Higonnet
(1998),
Giroux
of childhood and children and consumerism eg
Cý
Cý
(1985) - all works which will be considered in a later section.
26
the term childhood became used as a conceptual classification open to
interpretation, and thus variation, rather than a simple and unproblematic
description of a universal developmental phase. (James2004:28)
Although the malleable character of childhood had already been identified by writers such
as Jenks (1982) who described childhood as a state of being within cultures rather than as a
4natural' state, Hoyles (1979) who argued that childhood is a 'social convention' and
Kessen (1979) who identified the American child as a 'cultural invention', this awareness
of the socially constructed nature of childhood was made explicit in James and Prout's
(1990) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood.
This edited collection brought
together, for the first time, researchfrom a variety of disciplines which centred on the ways
in which the child is a constructed subject and which rendered the child and childhood valid
topics of social, and especially ethnographical, enquiry in their own right. Historical (eg
Hendricks 1990), anthropological (eg Glauser 1990) and sociological (Qvortrup 1990)
strands came together in this new interdisciplinary approach to childhood which aimed to
overcome the separatistthinking about the area which had characterisedprevious research.
Within Childhood Studies a main element of concern which has dominated the field of
has
been the desire to make children's voices heard and to presenttheir experiences
enquiry
of constructing their own social worlds in terms of their agency. Studies such as Smith and
Barker's (2000) investigation into children's experiencesof out of school care demonstrate
the child centred focus of the approach. In this study the children were involved at every
from
being
the
stage of
research,
consulted about suitable researchmethods to being asked
if they agreedwith the inferences drawn from content analysis of the gathereddata.
This careful two-way researchprocess works to empower children and to challenge narrow
ideas of what childhood is and how it is experienced, and ties in with another key concern
(eg
Archard 1993, Murray and Hallett
the
that
of
of children's rights
new paradigm 2000).
Archard argues that concepts of age-linked competence are arbitrary and that
individual rights should be granted in accordancewith maturity and social context. In his
for
indicator
huge
the
of
age
and
significance
children
young people as an
of what
view
they should be allowed to do and when is a further example of their domination and
27
it
this,
oppression by adults and that in order to justify
1
the interests of the powerful
group to ensure that by its very definition childhood is inferior to adulthood:
Childhood is defined as that which lacks the capacities, skills and
powers of adulthood. (Archard 1993:30)
Such concerns as to the political nature of the boundaries placed around childhood relate to
a wider set of arguments around the very definition of a child which have been debatedfor
decades. Neil Postman (1994), writing in responseto concernsabout the negative influence
of television on American children in the 1960s claimed that childhood had disappearedas
the necessity of leaming to be literate in order to have accessto the adult world had become
defunct thanks to television's immediate accessibility. His fear was that children were
being transported back to medieval times where the boundaries between childhood and
adulthood were fluid or non-existent and where there was no educational apprenticeshipto
be served as a rite of passagebetween the two statesof being.
However, Cunningham points out that Postman's 'vision of a good childhood is not one in
is
freedom
the
which
essence
and happiness; rather it is good behaviour, a deference to
adults, and a commitment to learning skills essentialfor the adult world. ' (1995: 180)
This idea that children need to be contained and obedient first, and happy second, reflects
an underlying fear of children in Western culture which Jenks (1996) attributes to a certain
from
'little
concept of children as
savages'which originated
early nineteenth century ideas
into
being
human
being
be
born
than
the
to
socialised
rather
as
as such.
of
child needing
Indeed, harsh Victorian child-rearing methods can be attributed to this perceived need to
break the child's will and thus allow the civilised individual to emerge. Analogies between
beliefs
'savages'
far
that
time
to
at
relating
primitive
in
such practices and wider social
identify.
difficult
to
away places are not
However, Jenks does not accept the placement of the 'savage' child as purely historical, but
for
that
are always alive and vying
supremacy
as one of several constructions of childhood
'Dionysian'
For
'rests
the
child
on the
contexts.
example,
which
in various cultural
28
assumption of an initial evil or corruption within the child' (1996:70) competes with the
image of the 'Apollonian' child who is 'angelic, innocent and untainted by the world'
(1996:73)
Jenks' analysis of media stories and reports following the tragic murder of Jamie Bulger in
Liverpool in 1993 by two ten year old boys brought to light the complicated, contradictory
ideas and beliefs about childhood which make up our shared definition of the category.
The main problem of classification was as follows: If children are by definition innocent
then they can't be murderers,and vice versa, so what are they?
The way to solve the problem was through 'conceptual eviction'.
In effect, the children
who committed that dreadful crime were removed from the category 'child' altogether and
were referred to in the media as 'freaks', (monsters', 'demons' and such like. In order to
preserve the category 'child' the transgressorswere denied acceptancewithin it, thereby
reaffirming to the public the essenceof what a child is - that is; not evil, not an adult and a
hope
for the future and/or nostalgia for good times past.
symbol of
Jenks' analysis of media reactions to the murderers of JamesBulger reaffirms the strength
four
the
tenets on which the dominant Western ideal of childhood is based as identified
of
by Hockey and James in their historical account of the emergence of contemporary
conceptions of childhood. They are:
1. That the child is set apart temporally as different, through the calculation of age
2. That the child is deemedto have a special nature, determinedby nature
3. That the child is innocent
and
4. therefore vulnerably dependent (Hockey and James 1993)
However, radical theorists such as Edelman (2002) consider such romantic definitions of
but
to
to
also
childhood,
render
of
other
versions
only
repress
not
childhood
and
children
29
the 'child' as a signifier of values which preclude any deviance from middle-class right
wing edicts of 'nonnality':
The Child marks the fetishistic fixation of heteronon-nativity: an
...
in
investment
the rigid samenessof identity that is
erotically charged
central to the compulsory narrative of reproductive futurism. And so, as
the radical right maintains, the battle against queers is a life-and-death
struggle for the future of a Child whose ruin is pursued by feminists,
queers and those who support the legal availability of abortion.
(Edelman 2002:2 1)
That the 'child' in its current construction has such a profound status in the justification and
reinforcement of a conservative social order is testament to the strength of the concept of
the 'normal' child and also indicates the urgent need for the dominance of such 'normality'
to be challenged.
The next section begins by examining literature which deals with children who fall outside
our constructed definition of 'normal' childhoods in one way or another due to unusual
gifts, talents or experiences, and considers research which has attempted to locate these
transgressionsin a cultural rather than individual context.
2.2: Exceptional Children and Child Stars
In light of the literature reviewed in the previous section it seemsreasonableto assert that
child stars are not 'normal' children in our society. The very fact that they work in a
professional capacity negates their dependence on adults and challenges the modem
concept of the 'emotionally priceless yet economically uselesschild' (Zelitzer 1985). The
is
in
status of child stars as children
contemporary society also challenged by entrenched
is
dangers
It
too
the
of precocity and of growing up
soon.
not surprising then
ideas about
that writing about child stars tends to cast them a'svictims of adult greed and cruelty, in
Erom
'conceptual
the category of 'child' altogether.
to
their
order perhaps avoid
eviction'
Literature directly concerning child stars of the stage and screen falls into two main
biographies
former
follow
The
tend
to
and
autobiographies.
categories a 'Whatever
30
happened to
'shocking'
lives
the
about
adult
style expose
of child stars (for
example; Lamparski 1967, Yallop 1976, McNeil 1996), whilst the latter are usually
preoccupied with telling the 'true' story of the behind the scenestears which under laid the
terminally cheerful performances of the tormented star (e.g. Coleman 1981, Barry 1999,
Cary 1997, Rooney 1965). The most successful of this genre was undoubtedly, Child Star:
An Autobiography (1989) written by Shirley Temple Black when she was 61 years old and
which was on the bestseller list for months as the public greedily devoured the 'shocking
details' of her seemingly perfect early life. As the blurb states:
All was not always sugar-sweetaboard the Good Ship Lollipop: she was
made to perform in exploitative movies by unscrupulous studio bosses;
there were numerous kidnap threats and even a murder attempt against
her; she made a disastrous teenage marriage to an incorrigible
womaniser...
Zierold (1965) also lifted the lid on many Hollywood scandals in The Child Stars which
reported in full the trials and tribulations of performers such as Jackie Coogan, Judy
Garland, Freddie Bartholomew and Jackie Cooper. Putting paid to any doubt as to the
detrimental effect of early stardom on young actors Zierold quotes forlorn former child
stars at length such as Bobby Driscoll who won an Academy award as the best child actor
of 1949 and then fell into obscurity:
I really feared people. The other kids didn't accept me I tried
...
desperately to be one of the gang. When they rejected me, I fought
back, becamebelligerent and cocky and was afraid all the time I have
...
found that memories are not very useful. I was carried on a silver
cushion and then dropped into the garbage can. (Quoted in Zierold
1965:246)
Whilst the neglect of the education and well-being of many professionally performing
during
in
Hollywood
those
the child star era, is
children, particularly
who worked
does
have
become
it
that
incontestable,
seem
something of
writings about such experiences
a stylised genre with a standardrags to riches (to rags) narrative and a cast of ghastly pushy
parents and Taganesque' agents and directors. Indeed even children who worked in the
later
decades
of the twentieth century seem
presumably much more enlightened
31
be
desperate
to
by
part
pen-nanentlyscarred the experience that so many were, and still are,
of. For example, Drew Barrymore's autobiography Little Girl Lost (1990), written when
she was just fourteen years old and also a bestseller, identifies her dysfunctional family and
her drug and alcohol addiction as the causeand effect of her need to act and be the centre of
attention on a film set. Similarly, Angela Darvi's Pretty Babies (1983) describes her own
and her contemporaries' experiencesas child stars in the 1960s and 70s as exploitative and
mercenary, even though she admits that the thrill and enjoyment of the lifestyle for those
few that were successful made it worth all the stress and sacrifice
- until, of course, one
became too old or too big for the roles. To illustrate this point, Darvi quotes a diary entry
she wrote when she was fifteen to convey the pain of being a has-beenwhen still a child:
I have reached an in-between stage - too old for a child, too young for
an adult. Acting was my outlet, my distinctiveness from others, my joy
and emotional expressiveness. Now I'm just like everybody else, and I
can't bear it. I'm dying! (Darvi 1967 quoted in 1983:165)
The genre of writing by or about former child stars clearly works to reinforces the dramatic
long
impact
term
that child stardom has on an individual's life and tends to depict
and
becoming famous as a youngster as a dangerousexperience.
Interestingly, this idea that exceptional children are destined for unhappiness is not a new
be
kinds
to
to
the
the
twentieth
the
one and
subject
child stars of
century seem
same
of
concerns which permeated writing two centuries ago about the perils of pushing children
before
their time.
into adulthood
For example, the eighteenth century enlightenment
thinker Rousseauheld strong views on the importance of ensuring children did not mature
too quickly:
Nature wants children to be children before they are men. If we
deliberately pervert this order, we shall get premature fruits which are
decay
has
childhood
neither ripe nor well-flavoured, and which soon
...
be
itself,
feeling
to
thinking
peculiar
nothing can
and
ways of seeing,
for
(Rousseau
foolish
theirs.
that
to
quoted in
substitute our ways
more
Jenks 1996:3)
32
Furthermore, in his appraisal of Victorian manuals on pedagogy and child-rearing, Kincaid
(1992) notes that any kind of precocity was viewed as dangerousto the future health and
moral well-being of the child and experts issued the severest of warnings to parents and
educators,for example;
Children who are prodigies in learning, music and other pursuits, are
generally destroyed by premature disease in the brain. (Quoted in
Kincaid 1992:121)
Given the prevalence of such spurious medical opinion it is no wonder the prodigious child
feared
by some of the more conservative and religious sectors of Victorian
was reviled and
society who needed to believe and have confirmed the 'naturalness' of the rightful place of
the child - below and behind adults in every possible way.
Kincaid argues that the Victorian distaste for the precocious child emanatedfrom a fear of
sexual precocity more than anything else, a fear which he claims is still alive today in our:
knowing
to
the
strong even if sneaking aversion
self-assured,
child, the
brat. (Kincaid 1992:123)
In a rare attempt to analysecurrent hostile public reactions to child stars Joal Ryan (2000)
explores the issue of why child stars are so often conceptualised as being cursed by their
early success and why their attempts at adult careers are met with mocking disdain or
indifference and their trials and tribulations with glee. The title of her book; Former Child
Stars: The Story of America's Least Wanted captures the irony and the tragedy of the
into
mutated versions of their perfect childlike selves and
adored child stars who grow up
become publicly reviled for their inability to stay (cute' and 'natural'. For example, Gary
Coleman, aka 'The Nation's Favourite Kid' who was the terminally tiny younger brother on
the huOrelypopular US sitcom Diff'rent Strokes in the 1980slost all hope of an adult career
he
1999
Working
1986.
assaulteda
as a security guard in
when the series was cancelled in
laughing
became
him
'washed-up
a national
stock via
child star' and
a
woman who called
his
lived
having
His
from
to
the trial.
the publicity
childhood potential and
up
pain at not
33
his inability to disassociatehis adult self from his childhood personahas clearly become his
personal cross to bear:
I long for days where I'm not recognised. I look forward to days when
I'm not recognised. But since I've been on TV in practically
every ... country in the world there's really no place that doesn't know
in
(Coleman
Ryan
2000:
3)
me.
quoted
Despite many accounts of child stars who have grown up to lead successful, or at least
comfortable adult lives (such as Jodie Foster and Ron Howard), Ryan explains our
fascination with stories about child stars 'gone bad' as a rather sinister way of reaffirming
that we don't need them anymore, that their time has come and gone and that without us,
without our support and adoration they are nothing.
Whilst there is undoubtedly an
element of schadenfreude, perhaps infused with jealousy, about the way in which
scandalousmedia stories about child stars are presented,Ryan's theory cannot account for
the way such stories become powerful tools of control in naturalising certain versions of
childhood and criminalising others, and also does not explain how these stories work in
relation to wider power structures which define and uphold the boundaries between
childhood and adulthood.
Following on from the literature reviewed in the previous section, this concept of what is
in
is
fundamental
definition
to
the
normal childhood experience clearly
and creation of the
category of exceptional children in general, and of child stars in particular.
After all
without a benchmark of what is 'normal' how are we to know when to label someone as
literature,
However,
the
and almost all peer reviewed studies,
exceptional?
most of
existing
on gifted children are about the academically, sporting or musically talented rather than
interests
fields
firmly
located
the
the
of
of
child actors or singers, and are
within
research
developmental
Psychology.
educational and
This body of work is enormous, (much of it published in specialist journals such as Gifted
Child Quarterly) and ranges from advising parents and professionals how to identify a child
),
be
how
(Adams
1985
1988)
(Grinder
to
to
to
advice
on
encourage
a
child
a
genius
genius
to analysis of differences between gifted and nongifted children (Alexander 1985), to
34
longitudinal studies on the subsequent lives and careers of child prodigies (Bamberger
1982) to the provision of specialised education for the gifted child (O'Brien (1985) and
concerns over the psychological and emotional well-being of gifted children who may be
'hothoused' (Gallagher and Sigel 1987).
Unsurprisingly, given the centrality of the nature-nurture polemic in developmental and
educational research, one of the major issues of debate in the psychological literature on
child prodigies is whether geniuses are made or born, and what kind of hereditary or
environmental factors may influence the gifted child. Howe (1988), for example, contests
the idea that 'natural' genius will flourish in any conditions and argues for the importance
of intellectually stimulating home and school environments in engenderingspecial abilities,
whereas celebrated stories about child prodigies from earlier eras, including those about
Mozart (1756-1791) who played the harpsichord at three and publicly performed his own
compositions at age five, have tended to rely on the 'genius from nowhere' explanation
which explains the prodigious child's talents as a mysterious gift from the divine
Radford's (1990) Child Prodigies and Exceptional Early Achievers, although dealing
largely with the psychological causes and consequencesof early achievement and the
bafflingly inconsistent adult lives of so-called child prodigies, also includes some limited
sociological insights into the function and role of such children in society and places the
slippery, social nature of 'genius' at the centre of his study:
Genius shows itself as the capacity to do something much better than
it
is
defined
by
human
beings can do. This
thus
most other people;
what
in turn is not fixed but constantly changesas we continually change our
environment. (Radford 1990:34)
Even given the changing parameters of what is defined as exceptional talent, the key
be
the
to
the demonstration of aptitudes and abilities which
element of
gifted child seems
are considered unusually good for a child of a particular age in comparison with other
In
be
in
being
then,
that
this
terms
age.
can
children of
sense
child prodigies
understood
of
developmental
being
to
the
tenets
the
of
psychology, with
stigma of
abnormal according
35
extraordinary deriving from the modernist urge to uniformity which characterises
contemporary educational policies.
However, as Radford points out, there seems to be a much more emotional investment in
the exceptional child than such a narrow scientific definition would allow and the notion
that certain, special children have supernatural powers or are 'sent' to earth to teach us
something about the mysteries of life has persisted for centuries and surprisingly continues
to hold currency even in our secular, scientific age. For example, Feldman's (1986) study
of six child prodigies concentrates more on the why questions about exceptional early
achievers than the hows, and concludes that high IQ alone is not a sufficient reason to
explain such 'distinctive and revealing phenomenon:
I believe that the prodigy has something special to tell us about the
psychological purpose of human development - in effect, how potential'
is fulfilled The prodigy gives us a hint about why we are here and
...
...
what we are trying to make of ourselves. (Feldman 1986 in Radford
1990:28)
Furthermore, a child does not have to be extraordinary in an academic sensein order to
generate this kind of reaction. Indeed as Michael Newton (2002) describesin his study of
feral children, the 'savage' child who is found living at one with nature becomes at once
fascinating and frightening for what he/she can tell us about what it really means to be
human and the negligible robustnessof what we consider to be our essential selves. Tying
in
Jungle
fictional
(eg
feral
Mowgli
Book)
Romulus
Remus,
the
true
and
in
and
stories of
children such as Kaspar Hauser and the Wolf-Children of Mindapore, Newton demonstrates
how such narratives cross the line between art and life again and again as the protagonists
become vehicles for debate about profound spiritual matters rather than being treated as
in
become,
They
a sense,more than simply children- a potential which
actual, real people.
boundaries
break
the
through
of childhood seemto possess.
accepted
all children who
From the existing literature then it appearsthat exceptional children can be exceptional in
defies
long
different
that which is considered
their
experience somehow
as
ways, as
many
36
'normal', and the very fact that they stand apart from the crowd seemsto ignite all sorts of
speculation and interest as to the implications of their wonderful 'gift'.
However, even though the child star is usually exceptional in terms of his/her talent for
performance there seemsto be a certain hostility in our attitudes towards such youngsters
that is not evident in public attitudes towards, for example, young chess champions,
footballers or mathematicians. This is also implicit in the notable absenceof any academic
studies relating directly to the psychological and social characteristics of child stars,
suggesting that as a focus for researchthey have been overlooked for some reason and are
be
to
taken seriously. To all intents and purposes they are all but invisible in the
not
literature
academic
on gifted children, as if they are not real people but simply charactersin
the stories they act out and whose own lives become nothing more than stories themselves,
to be published in biographies and autobiographies and discussedon talk shows, but never
collated or analysed as documentsof cultural or social importance.
However, far from being irrelevant to discussions about children and childhood I think the
child star sits at the centre of, and potentially connects, several fields of researchrelating to
our understanding of childhood in contemporary culture. For example, the contradictory
responses of adoration and suspicion which seem to complicate and stigmatise the
be
being,
having
been,
experience of
a child star can
seen as symptomatic of wider
or of
haunted
have
the
concerns about
commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood which
the entertainment industry since the explosion of electronic media and with it the
proliferation of images of the child, in the mid twentieth century.
The next section
considers literature which relates to images of children, paedophilia and the politics of
fraught
discourses
how
innocence
the
to
these
construction of
are connected
and
childhood
the child star in late modem society.
2.2.1 The Politics ofInnocence
In Pictures of Innocence (1998) Anne Higonnet reviews the changing symbolic value of the
innocence
both
history
the
through
as
construction of childhood
and sees
image of the child
individualism.
family
As
the
to
and
about
a commercial and social reaction modem ideas
37
with Ari&s, Higonnet identifies the mid eighteenth century as a time of major
transformation regarding the status and corresponding visual history of childhood. Before
this time she notes that children were portrayed, in appearanceand behaviour, simply as
small adults indicating their future social status,be they Kings or beggars.
The image of childhood innocence, she claims, first appearedin the work of British portrait
Gainsborough,
Reynolds and Raeburn who created visual representations
painters such as
Romantic
of a
childhood (the most famous piece of work being Gainsborough's Blue Boy
1770)
for
the elite, which later became immensely popular as prints and
c.
as commissions
adverts due to the burgeoning massmarket of industrially produced illustration. In contrast
to the stem faced small adults of earlier paintings, pictures of the Romantic child told no
story about ftiture adult life, with its cherubic subjects languishing in a wholly carefree,
beautiful, innocent and, of course, completely fictional, world of childhood. Such images
were so successful, according to Higonnet because they embodied the following new
life:
to
attitudes crucial modem
block
building
family
the
of society
a private, nurturing middle-class nuclear
as
domestic
feminine
between
spheres
a capitalist opposition
masculine public and
in
belief
in
innate
the
the
a political
individual which was also reflected
worth of
literature of the time, most famously in Rousseau's Emile (1762)
ferninised
longings
because
the
and idyllic versions of childhood
such
of
nostalgic
and also
engendered:
The modem child is always the sign of a bygone era, of a past which is
distinct,
being
the
so sheltered,
so
past of adults, yet which,
necessarily
lost
inevitably
is
innocent,
past, and therefore understood
a
also
so
through the kind of memory we call nostalgia. (Higonnet 1998:27)
Higonnet explains how the modem conception of the child is built on such mythic
how
images
such
eighteenth century values of childhood innocence and naturalism and
buying
by
feminine
'norm'
became
the
of
practices
consumer
reinforced as
proliferated and
delighted
innocent
Clearly
the
the
and continues
child
image of
prints of romantic children.
38
to delight adults -a fact that advertising agencies have capitallsed on for many years.
Higonnet also considers the ubiquitous Kodak moment snapshots of happy, healthy,
smiling children found in every Western household as modem day reflections of the
qualities embodied in paintings of Romantic children. In effect, she argues, we take the
fulfil
shots which
our expectations of what childhood should be and the image of the child
invented in eighteenth Century Romantic art has become the standardised norm and
inherited ideal on which we base our own visual culture.
Higonnet observesthat the way in which images of Romantic children firmly differentiate
the child from the adult and place them in a separate, wonderful, mythical world of
childhood createsa desire for the child and for childhood based on the innocence which is
portrayed.
Romantic children don't 'know' adults and are also unconscious of adult
desires, rendering it possible for adults to project whatever they need and want to see onto
the image of the child.
However, Higonnet claims that the last decadehas seennew images of children appearing
in the media which are much more physical and challenging than the Romantic ones and
in
which portray
children a certain knowingness of their 'innocent' appeal. Controversial
in
pictures of children smoking cigarettes and posing provocatively, such as the work of
Sally Mann, flaunt the very sexual innocence that was at the core of the Romantic child
ideal and, to a lesser degree of controversy but with a higher degree of exposure, many
hinge
to
on the sexual appeal of children.
advertising campaigns and popular images seem
Higonnet concludes her study by identifying the legacy that the cult of childhood innocence
has left us with and voices her concerns about the consequencesto the child when that
inverted
is
as a slick marketing ploy:
and
innocence exploited
th
Century has run its course,
18
The image of childhood created in the
The
by
being
another way of picturing childhood ...
replaced
and is now
image of childhood innocence is now in jeopardy not just becauseit is
being violated, but becauseit was seriously flawed all along... innocence
ideal
The
be
highly
to
to
turns out
of the
susceptible commercialisation.
into
has
the concept of
too
turned
easily
all
child as object of adoration
the child as object, and then into the marketing of the child as
194)
1998:
(Higonnet
commodity.
39
In contrast to Higonnet's view that cultural representations of children have transcended
into new territories, Marina Warner (1994) considers that the nostalgic worship of
childhood innocence is more marked today than it has ever been becauseof our 'nagging,
yearning desire to work back to a pristine state of goodness'. Warner explains how the
difference between the child and the adult has become a dominant theme in contemporary
due
to children's 'observable, active fantasy life, their fluid make believe play'
mythology
and their supposedpreternatural wisdom. In effect, she arguesthat children provide us with
certain sentimentsand feelings of hopefulnesswhich we can't find elsewhereand which we
desperately need in an increasingly commercialised, fragmented and secular society.
However, she warns,that the consecration of childhood to such an extent renders ordinary
children failures becausethey can't live up to such exacting standards:
Children aren't separatefrom adults they can't live innocent lives on
...
behalf of adults Nor can individuals who happen to be young act as the
...
living embodimentsof adults inner goodness,however, much adults may
it
in
little.
Children
(Warner
1994:48)
wish ....
are our copy,
Warner warns how the reification of childhood purity and innocence in our culture
because,
as she so
paradoxically puts children more at risk of sexual abuseand exploitation
describes
forbidden
like
in
it;
'pornography
to
the
the
aptly
clusters
sacredand
wasps' nests
chimneys' (ibid: 46).
Kincaid (1992) also views the artificial separation of children from adults as central to the
between
how
divisions
in
He
adults and
explains
our culture.
eroticisation of children
ignorance
binary
distinctions
built
and
such as innocence and experience,
children are
on
knowledge and incapacity and competence, arbitrary divisions which all derive strength
from the culturally defined sexual differences between the two groups:
the division between adult and child ... has been for at least the last 200
free
heavily
that
the
of sexual
specieswhich is
child is
eroticised:
years
feeling or response;the adult is that specieswhich has crossedover into
insists
it
discourse
base
is
definitional
The
on
erotic and our
sexuality.
by loudly denying its importance. (Kincaid 1992:7)
4:)
40
Kincaid considers that without such a disassociation our position and identity as adults is
seriously threatened and thus we continue to turn a blind eye to the way in which our
instead
'evil
to
thus
eroticises
children,
preferring
vilify
paedophiles
as
monsters'
-culture
turning attention away from complex issueswhich challenge our family structure and social
system at large. Kincaid argues that paedophilia is a necessarycultural position conjured
up as the perverted 'other' against which 'we' can judge ourselves as 'normal'.
The
paedophile then is the logical extension of our child-loving culture which not only presents
innocent and pure qualities as being embodied in the child, but also forbids desiring the
child sexually:
The child has been made desirable, and we must blame someone,
namely the paedophile, as much a necessarycultural construction as a
real-life criminal. (Kincaid 1992:184)
Kincaid draws attention to the huge amount of chattering about paedophiles and
paedophilia in newspapers,magazines, novels, TV dramas, films and news programmes
which, he claims, suggests an obsession with child-love about which there is only one
acceptableopinion - it is evil and its perpetrators are heinous. Whilst in no way condoning
the activities of paedophilesKincaid makes an important point here about why it is that the
between
inherent
in
power structures
children and adults which are
our society create the
need for certain images of children as naIve, innocent and cute on one hand and why we
seem to have an insatiable desire for information about abused, abducted and mistreated
children on the other.
With such uncomfortable contradictions in our cultural and
it
is
little
feel
the need to shift all
psychological relationship with children
wonder we
blame and responsibility onto a few monsters from whom our children need to be protected.
Henry Giroux (1998) also questions the helpfulness of locating the site of child sexual
looking
'evil
than
the
of
perverts'
rather
minority
abuse within
realms of a marginalised
in
general and at our projections onto and representationsof
more carefully at our culture
beauty
in
he
US
in
In
the
to
the
of
child
pageants
popularity
reference
children particular.
highlights the growing tendency to conflate childlike beauty with adult beauty. Giroux
desire,
hold
to
that
and then castigate those who respond
children up as objects of
suggests
firmly
for
to
that
abuse
with the perpetrator without
stimulus places responsibility
sexually
41
in
creating, reproducing or
also sharing that responsibility among all who are involved
enjoying images which present children as innocently beautiful.
Giroux considers the myth of childhood innocence to be disempowering and dangerousto
children as it:
not only erases the complexities of childhood ... but it also offers an
for
excuse
adults to evade responsibility for how children are firmly
by
to
the social and cultural institutions run
connected
and shaped
largely by adults. Innocence in this instance makes children invisible
except as projections of adult fantasies.(Giroux 1998: 3 1)
This idea of the child as a blank canvas or empty vessel, powerless in the face of adult
is
control central to Kincaid's extreme constructivist understanding of the 'child' as a mere
textual category which can be filled with or assignedany meaning which suits adult society
and sentiments at the time. In such a figuration then, the child;
is not, in itself, anything but a cultural formation and an object of adult
desire, a ftinction necessaryto our psychic and cultural life. (Kincaid
1992:5)
Given the potential emptiness of the category 'child', it becomes fascinating to see what
kind of appearances,behaviours and qualities children are imbued with in popular cultural
films
TV
and advertising campaigns as such representations
products such as
programmes,
may be extremely telling as to our collective definition of the meanings which we ascribeto
childhood and children. Indeed the child on stage or screen is surely the emptiest of them
into
its
by
design
the
and speaking only
words put
mouth
all, consisting entirely of adult
key
following
The
research studies on media representations
adults.
section reviews some
of children.
2.2.2 Media Representations of Children
It is important to make the distinction here between research on children as media
focuses
in
that
on
representations
which
of children the media.
consumers and
42
Contrary to early fears about the adverse effects that watching television may have on
in
development,
that
children are,
children's moral and social
contemporary studies suggest
fact, able to clearly separatefantasy from reality at a very young age and that they are
For
Buckingham's
television.
than
extensive
example,
active, rather
passive consumersof
in
has
(1987,1993,1999)
this
shown that children construct mearuingas they
work
area
becomes
that
television
talking
watch, and
about
a way of reinforcing their social identities
distancing
from,
themselves
themselves
and of aligning
with, or
peer groups.
Oswell
(1998) also challenges the concepts of the child-as-victim and the child-in-danger in
in
internet
his
In
to
the
technologies.
study of
reference
media
place of childhood
he
in
is
figured
discursively as a problem, and
the
regulation
opposes
way which childhood
by
limiting
interests
that
their access
argues
protection can actually work against children's
to the 'world' outside the domestic bubble.
However, studies on representationsof children in the visual media suggest that the 'real'
is
home
'ideal'
the
the
child sitting at
child whose image projected
as part of
audience and
in
demonstrates
linked,
Research
this
area
on screen,although conceptually
are poles apart.
that the manipulation of the image of the child in the media appearsto be both predictably
for
in
is
little
the actual experiencesof, or consequencesto,
that
there
concern
mercenary,
(real' children, and surprisingly uniform, as children tend to be used to fulfil the samekind
of emotional and psychosocial needsin various cultures.
For example, Valerie Walkerdine (1997) studied portrayals of little girls in a variety of
did
history.
found
She
in
in
USA
Britain
that
the
not
only
certain periods of
media
and
fantasies
fulfil
Orphan
Annie
Little
the
self-made underdog
about
adult
characters such as
Annie
'deeply
but
dream,
American
to
the
that
were
the
ascribed
qualities
achieving
Instead
(p84).
traditional
the
to
the
of
embodying
child'
of
model
normative
resistant
female qualities such as gentleness,vulnerability and domesticity, Annie was essentially a
big
tough
the
a
savvy,
with
the
edges, smart and
child with
mind of an adult, rough round
heart, totally without family, education or social status and yet utterly incorruptible. In
Little
her
the
to
social and psychological conditions which produced
question as
answer to
Orphan Annie, Walkerdine concludes that the emotional appeal of the character lies in her
is:
that
and
she
autonomy and moral strength
43
The apotheosis of a particular version of American-ness, the one which
know
takes immigrants and children of immigrants who may no longer
Z-)
their own histories, but who can create their life opportunities through
guts and hard work even in the toughest of situations. (Walkerdine
1997:89)
Roland Marchand (1985) in his study of the role of children in the still advertisements
which appearedin the USA in the 1920s and 1930s also found that the i-mageof the child
can be used to reaffirm desirable social attitudes:
Of the supporting actors and actressesin the social tableaux, few were
more stereotyped than the children. Two children invariably meant a
boy and a girl, never two girls or two boys. Virtually never were
children described or depicted in such a way as to suggest distinctly
individual personalities. Except when the selling messagespecifically
dictated otherwise, children were healthy, fastidiously groomed and
attired and impeccable in behaviour. (Marchand 1985: 191)
Unsurprisingly, as Marchand points out, these scenesdepicting the family circle had more
to do with the public's need for a sense of stability and security in a rapidly changing
society than with the social reality of childhood or family life:
In an age of anxieties about family relationships and centrifugal social
forces, this visual clich6 was no social mirror; rather it was a reassuring
pictorial convention. (Marchand 1985:254)
That images of children are laden with social significance is also recognised by
Wolfenstein (1954) in her analysis of the image of the child in film and literature. Through
comparing representations of children from several European countries and the USA she
concludes that specific cultural ideals are reflected in child characters:
Children as they appear in art, literature, drama or films embody a
complex mixture of fantasy and reality. They represent memories and
dreams of adults about their own lost childhoods, as well as feelings
beings,
(Wolfenstein
those
their
about
mysterious
own children.
1954:277)
44
For example, Huckleberry Finn expressesan American ideal of the 'good, strong,
4-:) selfindependent,
Dickens's
Oliver
Twist
is
sufficient child' who
and
whereas
resourceful
representsa noble if vulnerable and weak child in need of protection and gentlenesswhich
Wolfenstein suggests corresponds to a major theme in British culture- that of the
worthiness of the adult in comparison to the pure nature of the child. In Italian literature
film
there is a recurring image of the child as a saviour, reflecting strong associations
and
between the redemptive power of the Christ-child and the potential of all children to bear
the cross of mankind and show adults the power of love, whereas in French films the sad
and yearning child whose dreams of love are bound to be disappointed standsin contrast to
the adult characters who already know this disappointment but are given renewed hope
through contact with the nalve child.
However, even given the differences in nuance in the representationsof children in these
due
literary
to
cultures
varying religious,
and historical traditions, Wolfenstein identifies a
common thread in the portrayals:
Children in the films of the four cultures considered here all have
something in common. They are noble characters, usually nobler than
the adults around them in one way or another, they represent moral
...
demandsand ideals. (Wolfenstein 1954:291)
Kenway and Bullen (200 1) in their study Consuming Children also found that certain stock
images of children as embodiments of fundamental values and purity abound in popular
in
(1990,1992
Home
1997),
Alone
They
the
that,
typified
and
culture.
movies
explain
as
the particular niche which children occupy in film and TV shows is often one of the quickimmoral
irresponsible,
foolish
or
adults,
witted, wise and moral child who easily outwits
thus exposing the artifice and/or corruption of the social order. This role of the child as
is
fairy-tales
in
the
to
a staple of
and
clever and good
contrast
greedy or wicked adult
innocent
ideals
literature
the
wisdom of childhood and the
about
classic
and reinforces
inherent differences between children and adults.
Ironically however, as Kenway and Bullen explain, changes M the ways contemporary
between
differences
that
child and
childhood is marketed, experiencedand consumed mean
45
adult culture may now be much less tangible than in the past. They point out that the image
of the child as selfless, honest and morally above adults:
is not always the case in the particular world of children's consumer
culture of which the Home Alone films are representative. Young
It)
people today are offered identities as pleasure-seeking,self-indulgent,
tD
decision
autonomous, rational
makers. They are more often precocious
than innocent. (Kenway and Bullen 2001:86)
The idea that the very cultural images which reinforced the constructeddifferences between
children and adults and helped perpetuate the cult of childhood innocence may now be
responsible for its collapse is taken up by Kinder (1995). In her analysis of American
televisual culture,, Kinder describes the way in which the illusory empowerment of the
infantilised
is
in
the
precocious child and
adult reflected consumerist culture which works
to encouragechildren to illicitly indulge in adult culture and to provide the meansfor adults
to retain their youth by both keeping up with pop culture's latest fads and by buying into
products which evoke a sense of nostalgia about lost childhoods. In a similar vein to
Postman's (1962) argument about the disappearanceof childhood referred to earlier in this
identified
blurring
(1985)
has
Meyrowitz
this
of the states of childhood and
also
review,
demystifies
the
adult authority and
media
which
adulthood as a consequenceof
electronic
both
knowledge.
He
that
as a result
adult
claims
wisdom and provides children with adult
'
'middle-region,
towards
all-age role.
a
and child roles shift
In their conclusion to Consuming Children Kenway and Bullen agree that childhood is
in
that
changing and
we are entering a new stage the construction and reconstruction of
between
demarcation
the
education, entertaim-nentand advertising
childhood and youth as
blur
boundaries
trans
and shift:
generational
collapse and
lives
has
forms
in
its
the
transformed
of
various
consumer-media culture
family
institutions
the
the
the
the
and,
ultimately,
school
and
of
children,
'nature' of childhood. (Kenway and Bullen 2001:9)
Although Kenway and Bullen's theory that the young are no longer constructed simply as
knowing
but
to
themselves
for
seems
consumers
and
as
powerful
adult pleasure,
sites
46
describe current social changeson one level, it could be argued that it underestimatesthe
strength of the myth of childhood innocence which is inherent in the cultural and political
institutions of our society and which is blatantly manifested in representationsof children
in the media.
Indeed, as Kincaid's (1992) analysis of media images of children demonstrates,the form
in
take
children
popular culture is startlingly homogenousand blatantly erotic, with icons of
childhood generally being, 'big-eyed, kissy-lipped blonde figures'.
He notes that Jackie
Coogan, Shirley Temple, Ricky Schroeder,Drew Barrymore, River Phoenix and Macaulay
Culkin all epitomised this Western version of the idealised child, with the white
skin/blonde hair combination signifying the ultimate in innocence. Kincaid arguesthat by
highlighting the very aspectsof children which appeal to paedophiles (such as their purity
and 'beautifully empty' look) this recurring image of the child in popular culture clearly
fulfils erotic longings for the child which are largely unremarkedupon. Kincaid documents
how the eroticisation of certain body parts of such children, the bottom in particular, is
included in many films which have gratuitous swimming, bathing or un-dressing for bed
scenesas well as scenesof spankingsor beatings:
the image of the cute, huggable, beatable child is likely so powerful that
we not only cannot do without it but cannot even recognise our own
has
become
It
need.
secondnature, this desire... in our minds and in our
art and in our lives. When somebody brings it to our attention therefore,
it seemsabsurd. (Kincaid 1992:375)
In his analysis of the appeal of Shirley Temple in the 1920s and 1930s, Bret Wood (1994)
also describes as peculiar the way in which a tiny child imbued with qualities of both
sensual precociousness and childish na1vet6 in her film roles was considered utterly
acceptable to the movie-going public.
In the infamous Baby Burlesques three year old
Temple stood in her panties winking, smiling and shaking her shoulders and at the age of
five she played a professional seductress dressed in black lace lingerie in Polly Tix in
Washington (1933).
'ý>
Embodying wifely
4D
devotion,
affection, generosity and
virtues of
feminised
became
Woods
Temple
that
the
argues
vulnerability
ultimate
movie star, rescued
47
from poverty by handsome sugar daddies in her films time and again and yet innocent
enough to be totally unthreatening:
Temple's. popularity was a distinct backlash against the gold-diggers
played by Mae West and Jean Harlow ... Such women were too
intimidating to the conservative, upper-middle-c lass male, so Temple
in,
stepped
a stunted figure of feminine sexuality in an era of economy
(Wood
1994:34)
and restriction.
This use of the performing child to represent that which is missing or lost in adult society
has also been recorded in a quite different social context by Steedman(1995) in her study
of child acrobats and actors in Victorian England. According to Steedman,the individual
and personal history that a child embodied came to be used to representhui-naninteriority
and the unconscious in this period.
The 'strange dislocations' of the child acrobat
in
drew
performing
public spaces
attention to debates around the proper treatment of
in
did.
However,
factory
the
the
children much
children
sameway as chimney sweeps and
fact that the acrobats were performing for the pleasure of adults complicated such
for
felt
The
an audience and the
sentiments.
pity
at seeing children perform contortions
desire of the audience to see such performances is identified by Steedmanas illustrative of
the inherent paradox of childhood which has so complicated the relationship between adults
and children since the eighteenthcentury:
desires
both
the
and
social
repositories of adults'
children were
....
beings, who lived in social worlds and networks of social and economic
imagination.
(Steedman
1995:
97)
in
the
adult
relationships, as well as
This duality of childhood as both a lived experience and an idea to be used by adults to
fulfil deep-seatedlongings seems as relevant to today's child stars as it did to the little
has
Steedinan
Indeed,
London.
the
Victorian
observes,
performing child
as
acrobats of
long had, and probably will always have, profound meaningsprojected onto it:
The search is for the self, and the past that is lost and gone; and... since
th
has
lost
18
the
come to assumethe shape
the end of the
object
century,
174)
1995:
(Steedman
form
of a child.
and
48
2.3 Conclusion
The literature reviewed in this chapter has explained how our concept of the 'normal' child
has been built upon a conceptual and material separation of adults and children over the last
two hundred years, and how the ideal of childhood innocence has been and continues to be
division.
to
this
central
The second section examined the implications of tl-iis arbitrary
separation to those children who fall outside the socially constructed boundaries of
by
being
childhood
exceptional in some way, and reviewed related researchconcerning the
sexualisation and commercialisation of the image of the child. By focussing on a cross
section of researchon gifted and precociously able children, paedophilia, consumerism and
media representations of children it has been shown that a multitude of competing
discourses underpin our current construction of the category 'child star'. This complex
range of influences renders such individuals objects of concern, desire, revulsion,
fascination, envy or pity depending on the angle of the lens through which we gaze at them
have
by
I
it
is
is
'emptiness'
their
that
to
this
and
shown
represent whatever required
very
audiencethat most comprehensively determinesand defines the child star.
It has been demonstrated that autobiographical and biographical literature pertaining to
in
has
been
but
the
that
there
child stars is abundant,,
way
which
no academic researchon
the category 'child star' is constructed in the media and how such categorisationmay carry
fill.
It
to
that
the
this
current researchis intended
significant meaning in our culture. is
gap
This chapter has contextualised the child star within existing theoretical understandings of
'normal' and 'extraordinary'
children.
It has demonstrated that the child star derives its
different
from
being
both
'normal'
from
children and
meaning and cultural significance
different from other 'extraordinary' children such as academic geniuses and feral children.
The next chapter considers the contemporary child star as a product of both its own
fame
ideas
and entertainment.
childhood,
about
changes
in
genealogy
and
wider
Z-:
)
The
Social History of the Child Star demonstratesthe universality and cultural specificity of
figures
hall
the
to
the
child
star
in
main
young performers and also provides a useful guide
fame.
of
49
Chapter 3: A Social History of Child Stars
The previous chapter identified child stars as 'abnormal' in relation to the constructed ideal
tenets of Western childhood due both to their unusual childhood experiences and their
association with precocious sexuality and the commerclalisation of childhood. This chapter
aims to explore the specific history of the child star in more detail by tracing the social,
cultural and economic influences which contributed to the emergence of the group as a
distinct and culturally significant phenomenon in the twentieth century.
Although the child star in our modem understanding of the term was a product of the wider
Hollywood star system in the 1920s and 30s, the concept of certain children as deserving
ZD
is
recognition and adoration an ancient and universal one. Indeed, one could argue that in
Western culture at least, the Christ child was the very first child star. Certainly the
overwhelming popularity of the 'Virgin and Child' and the 'Adoration of the Kings' as
artistic subject matter from the twelfth century onwards pays testamentto the fundamental
importance and endurance of the image of the reified, beautiful child as a symbol of
preternatural wisdom and redemption.
The association of the purity and hope represented by the baby Jesus with the adorable
child performer was one which Hollywood clearly seized upon with their troop of angelic
starlets such as Shirley Temple and Jackie Coogan. The impact of mythical and symbolic
influences on the creation and recreation of the child star is explored in depth in a later
chapter which examines the universal significance of the 'wonder-child' archetype. For the
present however, this chapter is concerned with the material rather than figurative
antecedents of today's child stars, namely the child actors and performers who have
degrees
of success and recognition, since antiquity.
recurred, with varying
Whilst a
instances
history
is
throughout
of
child
performers
comprehensive account of all recorded
beyond the scope of this study, what follows is a series of snapshotsof key periods when
due
in
important,
became
to
often
changes modes of
particularly visible or
child perfori-ners
demand.
cultural production or public
50
The metamorphosis of the child performer into the child star will be shown to be a process
involving a gradual shift in emphasisfrom what a child can do as well as an adult, to what a
child can do which encapsulates the romantic ideal of that which is charinIng and
'childlike'.
That this shift from the functional to the allegorical coincided with wider
in
changes the status of children over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries illustrates both
the socially constructed nature of the child star and the usefulness of analysing attitudes
towards child performers in order to gaugebroader opinions about childhood in general.
What I hope to demonstrateis the extent to which the performing child has never been a
neutral category and that attitudes towards children in general, the theatre in particular and
wider economic, religious and social issues have all played a part in their construction and
reconstruction over time. The culmination of this has been the modem image of the child
star, a cultural stereotypewhich has become enshrined in the collective consciousnessas a
peculiar mix of precocious talent, synthetic charm and unhappy misfortune.
3.1 Early Child Actors
Putting aside the myriad forgotten and unrecorded amateur child street performers who
have doubtless danced, tumbled and begged their way through all the marketplaces of
history, the first tenuous evidence of children performing professionally on stage comes
from ancient Greece. Griffiths (1997) claims, from a textual analysis of Greek extant
tragedy, that child parts were cued in differently and more explicitly than adult parts and
indeed
by
that
characters
child
child
were
played
concludes, somewhat inconclusively,
individuals
be
biographies
the
can
only
speculated
of
such
actors, although
social status and
upon.
It is not until Elizabethan England that child actors are well documented both on and off
boys
played the parts of women and sometimes old men, as well as
stage, when young
Shakespeare's
Several
in
Shakespearian
plays capitalise on the effect of
of
plays.
children,
boys acting women, who then take on disguise as boys and the use of child actors was an
to
that
appear
on
stage
at
as
women
not
allowed
productions
were
of
such
part
intrinsic
time.
The Puritans, needless to say, disapproved of the theatre in general and were
51
particularly scandalized by boys cross-dressing as women.
However, regardless of
religious indignation, the young actors proved so popular that two whole acting companies
were created in London with solely child performers - the Children of the Chapel Royal
and the Paul's Boys. These boys' companies consisted of eight to twelve boys of various
ages and types, some of whom seemedto have been pressed into service against their will
due to their appealing looks and voice. There is evidence even from this time that certain
child actors had 'star' quality and were lauded for their individual talents. In 1603 Ben
Jonson wrote a moving epitaph of one such actor, Solomon Pavy, who had performed in
many of his plays. Pavy was pressed into service in 1600 at the age of 10 and died three
years later. Jonson's moving epitaph suggests that the child acted old age too well and
laments the cruelty of fate in taking him so young:
Yearshe numberedscarce
-thirteen
Whenfates turnd cruel,
Yet threefill'd zodiacs had he been
The stage'Sjewel.And did act, what now we moan, Old men so duly,
As, sooth, the Parcae [the three Fates] thought him one,
He play'd so truly
(Jonson 1603 quoted on www. ise.uvic. ca/Library/SLTnoframes/stage/childactors.html)
The boys' companies gradually fell out of favour as they were involved in various scandals
in the late sixteenth and early seventeenthcentury culminating in a disastrousperformance
by
Eastward
Ho
Jonson, Marston and Chapman in 1605 by the Children of the Chapel.
of
The play contained a passageabout Scots which offended King James so much that the
Children lost their royal patronage and the authors were briefly imprisoned. Apart from a
froml637-42,
interest
Beeston's
Boys
the
the time of the
short resurgenceof
company
with
later
have
children's companies was over - stage children of
periods would never
such a
respectedstatus again.
The shift from the use of children as actors to freshen up ensemble pieces to the idea of a
from
being
to
the realisation of
worthy of special attention seemed arise
particular -child as
the potential entertainment and fiscal value of an individual child who was in some way
in
form
This
the
came
of the eighteenth century musical prodigy,
revelation
extraordinary.
52
the most famous of this impressive and precociously talented group being Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) who began to play the harpsichord at three and at five
his
first
Allegro',
'Andante
composed an
giving
public performance at that age to gasps
and
it
Felix
Mendelssohn
(1809-47)
In
the
of wonden-nent.
was
next century
who most
impressed, giving his first concert as a professional pianist at nine and composing 'truly
remarkable' pieces at the ages of ten and eleven. Others in this illustrious category
included Paganini, Liszt and Beethoven, although the link between 'natural genius' and
indulgent
has
be
The
to
and
wealthy
parents
yet
explained psychologically.
popularity and
peculiarity of such child prodigies is apparent from the following excerpt of a letter to the
Royal Society of Music describing an eye witness account of one of Mozart's early
performances:
If I was to send you a well attested account of a boy who measured
it
he
feet
in
height,
than
eight years of age,
seven
was no more
when
Society.
be
Royal
the
the
notice of
might
considered as not undeserving
The instance which I now desire you will communicate to that learned
body, of as early an exertion of most extraordinary musical talents,
(Mozart)
I
to
their
to
a
attention...... carried
seemsperhaps equally claim
by
English
duet,
gentleman to some
which was composed an
manuscript
favourite words in Metastasio's opera of Demosoonte. My intention in
have
to
this
an
manuscript composition was
carrying with me
irrefragable proof of his abilities, as a player at sight, it being absolutely
impossible that he could have ever seenthe music before. The score was
in
he
began
desk,
his
the
to
than
symphony a
play
no sooner put upon
most masterly manner, as well as in the time and stile which
I
intention
the
the
mention this
of
composer.
corresponded with
in
fail
because
these
the
particulars
often
masters
greatest
circumstance,
I
His
first
trial.....
extemporary compositions also, of which was
on the
been
have
invention
his
to
most
genius and
a witness, prove
astonishing...
(Account of a very remarkable young Musician. In a Letter from the Honourable Daines
Barrington, F.R.S. to Mathew Maty, M. C. Sec. R. S. Received November 28,1769
net)
published on www. open-mozart.
There was evidently a place for prodigious children in- popular entertainment and the
The
in
is
identifying
this
discovering
way
piece.
palpable
wonders
young
or
of
excitement
'extraordinary'
'astonishing'
'genius',
described
Mozart
clearly
put
and
as
a
is
in which
53
him on a different plane to 'normal' children and such dramatic language set the tone for
the construction of the Victorian 'infant phenomenon' which is explored in the next section.
3.2 The Infant Phenomenon
Clearly, the public's appetite for remarkable children had been identified and it was
arguably the musical prodigies of the eighteenth century who paved the way for the
explosion of all manner of child performers in Victorian England, who consisted not only
but
'prodigies'
of
also acrobats, singers, dancersand actors. Waters (1996), in her study of
child performers in the early and mid-Victorian theatre notes three salient features of the
stage child which still seem relevant today, namely; 'the emphasis on the marvellous, the
publicity mongering and the parental shrewdness in exploiting a child's talent.' (Waters
1996:78).
Certainly all three elements apply to Master William
performer
Henry West Betty, the first child
to really take London and the provinces by stonn and who apparently
engendered mass hysteria among his audiences. Although his career only lasted three years
from his debut in Belfast in 1803 to his last in London in 1806 'Betty mania' provided
fodder
do
for
the
the
time,
much
now. There was
press of
much as stories about child stars
even one famous occasion when the Prime Minister, Pitt, apparently adjourned the House
boy
Commons
be
in
Betty's
Hamlet.
The
to
that
time
star was
of
see
so
members might
his
(Playfair
On
have
1967).
Bonaparte'
'divided
there
the
to
one
side
was
said
world with
him
'Infant
Rosclus'
by
the
the
and, on
masses who named
royal patronage and idolisation
the other a more sceptical assessment of his talents by professional actors and actresses
him
described
Mrs
Siddons
the
witheringly
who
such as
indomitable
'a
as:
very clever,
79).
Waters
1996:
(1874
boy,
but
quoted in
pretty
nothing more'
In Betty's wake came a host of 'young wonders' or 'Infant prodigies' including the Infant
Hercules, whose gift seemsclear from his name, and the more obscure Infant Candlesnuffer
like
however,
One
be
attracted audiences
element
guessedat.
whose special talent can only
image
the
the
'naturalness',
of
child
romantic
characterised
which
an
attribute
no other -
54
which was gaining currency at this time through the work of poets and artists such as
Wordsworth and Blake:
As far as one can judge, what attracted audiences to child performers
was the apparentspontaneity of their performances; from Betty onwards,
the searchwas for untaught, natural genius. (Waters 1996:86)
Ironically however, such 'natural genius', especially in the arenasof acrobatics and dance,
was often the result of fierce rearing and training techniques. As Steedman(1995) notes in
her study of Victorian street and stagechild acrobatsand contortionists:
The child-acrobat was used to articulate ideas about child nurture and
...
cruel and improper parental treatment of children in the same way as
chimney sweepsand factory children were. (Steedman1995:16)
The harsh training techniques employed by parents or the stereotypically heartless
showmen who bought children from their families were recorded in detail and
immortalised in literature, fixing forever the image of the abusedand exploited performing
in
child the collective psyche:
(he) beat her when she would not dance the rope, and starved her when
did
her
to
she
growth.
prevent
(Sir Walter Scott, Peveril of the Peak 1820 quoted in Steedman1995:16)
Lee: this here is my boy Johnny, and he's going to do a spring and jump
double
then
turn
somersaulton the ground
a
onto my shoulder, and
Crowd: And what are you going to do with yourselfT
Lee: Why, take the money!
(G.R Sims, Master and Man. Play 1889 quoted in Steedman1995:16)
The mistreatment of such children also brought up difficult,
and to this day still
body
the
the
the
the
of
parent over
and
rights
child's
of
ownership
contentious, issues about
Or
do
belong
they
Did
to
the
to
wished?
the child
with as
the rights of the child.
parent
had
to
individual
the
to
protert'?
a
responsibility
state
the
whom
rights
with
was
child an
The shift towards the latter viewpoint had already begun in Victonan society with the
for
(1876)
Act
Education
which rendered schooling compulsory
establishment of the
55
children under 10 and the Factory Act (1833) which limited child labour. Lord
Shaftesbury's last campaign to rescue child workers was the 'Children's Dangerous
PerformancesAct of 1879' which outlawed putting a child under 14 through a performance
that was likely to endangerlife or limb.
However, the image of cruel parents submitting their underfed children to hours of
torturous training in order to line their own pockets persisted even though the training of a
in
child
a family craft was generally regarded as 'the epitome of symbiosis, trust and
responsibility' in Victorian society (Steedman 1995:102). To be a performer was somehow
being
already
cast as incongruous with being a 'proper' child with 'proper' parents.
Another common sight on Victorian streets were the Italian child street musicians whose
Neapolitan
families were paid a fixed sum for the services of their child by 'Padroni'
poor
with the assurance that their offspring would be clothed, fed and taught a musical
instrument. These 'little slaves of the harp' (Zucchi 1999) were the subject of much
scandal all over Europe and America, associatedas they were with child prostitution and
the white slave trade, and the evil Padrone 'was to become the stock-type of socio-fiction
and campaigning melodrama.' (Steedman 1995:106). As far as the social reformers were
concerned then the messagewas clear: child performers had to be protected from adults for
their own safety.
And it was not only children who performed on the street who were objects of concern.
Back in the theatre, a particularly successful infant prodigy was Jean Davenport whose
father launched her career in the mid 1830s and who ensured she successfully appearedas
incredible
different
feat
in
the
six
same production - an
of stamina and
characters
her
have
is
Charles
it
Dickens
thought
confidence which
may
seen
perform (Waters
1996:81).
Indeed it seems certain that Dickens' seminal depiction of the 'Infant
is
kept
forever
little
in
Nickleby,
Crummles
Nicholas
Ninetta
who
on a diet
phenomenon'
Crummles
based
is
Davenport.
Dickens'
tragic
portrait of
as quoted
of gin and water,
on
below, very much fed into subsequentsocial concerns about the welfare of performing
image
to
the
emerging villainous
of the evil stageparent:
children, as well as contributing
56
'This, sir, ' said Mr Vincent Crummles, bringing the maiden forward,
'this is the infant phenomenon- Miss Ninetta Crummles'...
'May I ask how old she is?' inquired Nicholas,
'You may, sir, ' replied Mr Crummles
ten
she
is
years
of
age,
.......
sir ........
'Dear me! ' said Nicholas, 'it's very extraordinary.'
It was; for the infant phenomenon, though of short stature, had a
comparatively aged countenance, and had moreover been precisely the
same age - not perhaps to the full extent of the memory of the oldest
inhabitant, but certainly for five good years. But she had been kept up
late every night, and put upon an unlimited allowance of gin-and-water
infancy,
to prevent her growing tall, and perhaps this system of
since
training had produced in the infant phenomenon these additional
phenomena.
(Dickens Nicholas Nickleby 1838)
However, the earnest concerns of largely middle-class social reformers over the safety of
child performers were somewhat overshadowed by the boom in the number of licensed
theatres and the popularity of public entertainment in the mid-Victorian era. A large
dancing
theatres
this
time,
number of children worked in
at
particularly in pantomimes, and
displays.
It seemsthat the pitiless treatment of child performers as recorded
and gymnastic
in literature, had become romanticised, perhaps even eroticised at this time. Indeed, a
resonant stereotype of the child perfon-ner to emerge from this era was that of the 'tears
behind the make-up', embodying the theatrical tradition that the show must go on, despite
in
A
disparities
between
the
suffering.
reviewer
any
professional public image and private
the Pall Mall Gazettereported the pathetic back-stagesight of:
the young gentleman in pink tights and spangles... his sallow cheeks
30
March
Gazette
1885)
(Pall
Mall
'
smearedwith rouge.
fairies
becomes
'what
the
the
when
of
elves and
and another asked:
...
1885)
9
Gazette
February
(Pall
Mall
performance is over?
Fears began to surface about the ftitures of these children that are still being voiced in
reference to child performers today:
do
they
these
that
not get ruined
the evidence is
unfortunates, if
industrial
down
to
occupation.
any
entirely ... never settle
(Bradlaugh 1889 quoted in Steedman1995:106)
457
The reformers were clear as to their purpose; theatrical children had to be 'rescued' just as
children working in factories and up chimneys had been. Ironically the stageperformances
dressed
fairies,
as
of children
up
elves or
endearingly cute, vulnerable and 'childlike'
contributed to the wider process of the sacralisation of children in the late nineteenth
fuelled
century which
reformers' idealist visions of children and childhood, whereby as
Zelitzer has described 'having become economically useless to their families, children
became emotionally priceless.' (1981: 1036). This confusion between the actual qualities
has
'ideal'
the
the
qualities required of
of children and
child representedon stage/screen
long been, and continues to be, an underlying tension in relation to child performers.
Far from the 'unnatural' contortions of the street acrobats,the pantomime elves and fairies
ideal
innocence,
to
the
time
vulnerability
of childhood as a
of
romantic
were much closer
looking
to
they
of
at children and
a
new
way
closeness
nature
and
as
such
represented
and
'natural'
As
the
with
on-going obsession
mentioned above,
conceptualising childhood.
Little
A
be
by
this
time.
traced
to
reviewer of a production of
performances children can
Lord Fauntleroy in 1889 makesthis priority clear:
We must accord our tribute of praise to Miss Vera Beringer for the most
London
(The
Playgoer,
have
ever seen.
natural child performance we
May 1889)
in
1888:
Minnie
Terry
describing
the
performance of
and another
free
from
little
the
this charmingly artless
maiden was conspicuously
be
derived
to
the
that
pleasure
usually mar
precocious airs and graces
from juvenile performers. (The Era 12 May 1888)
In tandem with this valuing of the natural qualities of children came worries as to the
life
themes
the
influence
training
of
entertainment,
world
theatrical
in
and
of
corrupting
t:)
Such
the
to
was
child
performers.
contemporary
relevant
which again, are very much
investigate
the 'terrible
to
Parliamentary
degreeof concern that a
report was commissioned
knowingness' of stage children which was euphemistically aligned to child sexuality and
prostitution:
58
(child actors are taught) to accompany every word by studied gesture
look
to practise the various expressions of passions and
made
and
...
love,
hatred,
pride, contempt,
pleasure, etc - until each can be assumed
at command. (British Parliamentary Papers,Third Report 1887 vol 30)
It was further claimed that all stage children had an 'insatiable thirst for admiration' and
were used to being watched and seeing themselves 'as objects of someone else's
contemplation.' (ibid all quoted in Steedman1995:136))
However, an illuminating article in The Playgoer from 1889 entitled 'Children on the
Stage' presents a different point of view, claiming that the life of a stage child was
preferable to alternative ways of making money thus comprehensively locating 'child
performer' as a working class occupation. The description of poor children as 'creatures'
'infest'
the streets stands in stark contrast here to the 'angels' and 'fairies' of
who
theatreland.
Few who knew anything of the lives of children engaged in theatrical
performances will speak against it, for it is infinitely better that these
little creaturesshould be put in the way of earning an honest livelihood,
be
and placed under the supervision of trustworthy people, than that they
should spend their lives playing in the gutters of our wretched
slums... Stage children are well paid, and their salaries must make a
beneficial
difference
home
to
the
most
economy... it would be a blessed
thing if all the poor little ones who infest our streets could obtain
theatrical engagements.(L. S in The Playgoer, May 1889)
However, L. S moves on to less philanthropic ground and makes no attempt to disguise his
contempt for the 'unnatural' stagechild, when he assertsthat:
The employment of children on the stage is excellent for children but
...
how about the audience? a chorus sung by children, how shrill,
...
tuneless and unpleasing, and last, but by no means least - in fact, by far
the greatestinfliction of all - the child actor or actress-Every attitude is
the result of laborious study and practice.... It is not the children on that
it
is
doomed
that
the
to
playgoers
need
our
sympathy...
unfortunate
stage
deserving
these
of commiseration.
sit out
pigmy efforts who are really
(ibid)
59
This association of child performers as low-grade, unsophisticated entertainment for the
massesgoes some way to explaining the decline in popularity of child wonders in the latter
part of the nineteenth century. As standards of production, performance and -dramatic
composition rose so did the cultural influence of the middle-class audience and the cheap
home-made spectacleof the infant prodigy was no longer either impressive or entertaining.
For example, in the late 1850s, the critic Morley wrote a scathing account of the laboured
meticulousnessof the performancesof Kate and Helen Bateman, aged six and eight:
(Who are) both pretty and clever, but whose appearance is a nuisanceby
...
no means proportioned to the size of its perpetrators'. And he describes
the 'wearisome absurdity of such big words in such small mouths. (Quoted
in Waters 1996:90)
Marie Bancroft, who herself had been a child performer who remembered, 'only work and
responsibility from a very tender age' wrote jubilantly, if not somewhat prematurely, in
1886 that the fashion for child prodigies was finally over, declaring portentously;
'Fortunate children, fortunate public! ' (quoted in Waters 1996:89). That she was so very
demonstrates
the seemingly insatiable public desire to be entertained by
wrong
'marvellous' children, coupled with a growing dissent for the practice of allowing children
to perform in such a way - an uneasydichotomy which has endured in relation to children
who work in the entertainment industry.
From this account of child performers in the Victorian era then, several salient themes can
be identified which still seem relevant to today's child stars and which indicate the
dominant
discourse
to
the
the
incongruity of
category
on childhood as a prolonged period
of protected innocence which was emerging at the time. These are;
*
tensions surrounding ownership of the child (does a child 'belong' to its parents,to
the state or to itseIP)
*
the negative image of the parents/guardiansof performing children (as cruel, selfseeking, greedy and so-on)
o
4-:) a performing child with being a 'normal' child (in much
the incongruity of being
the same way as factory children were not 'normal' children)
60
the perception of performing children as objects of pity and ridicule
the perception of performing children as objects of hope and nostalgia
9
the fundamental importance to the audience of a child's performance being
Z-:
ý
4natural'
the uncomfortable association of performing children with child sexuality
concernsover the moral welfare and future lives of performingt: ) children
9
the identification of being a child perforiner as a working classprofession
These conflicting views and attitudes towards child performers, and the cultural stereotypes
of such children and the adults who were connected with them carried through into the
twentieth century as child performers moved from the stage and street to the big screenand
then onto television.
3.3 American Vaudeville
If English theatre had become, temporarily at least, somewhat too sophisticated for the
child performer to reach the levels of successprodigies such as Betty and Davenport had
previously achieved, it was a different story in America where cheap, sentimental,
travelling entertainment was very much in demand. In the mid nineteenth century male
dominated audiences at remote gold rush camps were reduced to tears (and generous
financial gestures of appreciation) by all-singing, all-dancing dolls or 'fairy stars' who
reminded them of the families they had left behind.
One famous such 'fairy star' was Lotta Crabtree (born 1847), the child of a miner and a
very ambitious mother who saw in her tiny, copper haired daughter a way out of the
isolation and privation of life in the remote town of Rabbit Creek. Encouraged by the way
in which miners in the street would reach out just to touch the little girl's hand, 'drinking in
the presence of this child who symbolised the home and family forsaken in their lonely
devised
for
(Cary
her
dance
'
1997:
Mary
Ann
5),
quest
mother
a song and
gold,
routine for
Lotta which made the most of her childish exuberance and angelic appearance. Lotta's act
Z:)
by
locals
Mary
Lotta
Ann
the
that
such
adoration
set
with
off
with
was received
on a mule
61
wagon around America to take the show to the outermost camps where small communities
of men 'starved for diversion and loaded with gold', welcomed them with open arms. Not
surprisingly overwhelmed by the frightening strangenessof her surroundings Lotta often
became deeply despondentjust before a show and Mary Ann would apparently cajole and
boost up the child by any means possible to ensure Lotta would perfonn well so that there
be
would
plenty of coins thrown on stage at the end which Mary Ann could collect up in
her apron.
The perilous journeys involved in reaching outpost camps added to the young
girl's senseof disorientation and anxiety and she told years later of 'waking one night as
her mule picked his way along a thread of canyon trail to see, far ahead, a lone horse and
rider plunge soundlesslyover the edge into the purple mists below. ' (Cary 1997:15)
Lotta went on to appear at 'bit' theatres, road shows and in melodeons (an early form of
before
becoming
in her early teens 'Miss Lotta, the San Francisco Favourite',
vaudeville)
irresistible
innocence
by
devised
Mary Ann with which she won
an
confection of wicked
large audiencesin Boston and Chicago. In classic melodramatic fashion, Lotta still looked
and acted like a child on stage at the age of thirty-five and her mother never let go of the
her
dependent
fully
had
Lotta
her
daughter's
life
that
on
remained
iron grip she
on
ensuring
without a husband or close friends.
It is easy to see how Mary Ann became as famous for being the archetypal pushy parent as
Lotta did for being the original fairy star of the gold rush camps. Ma Crabtree became a
legend amongst American would be stage mothers and many admired her forthright
determination in managing her daughter's career. Although the image of the stage mother
has become a monstrous stereotyped inversion of the 'normal' parent/child relationship
financial
fulfil
be
to
their
the
to
the
own
and emotional
child
using
whereby
parent is seen
had
be
fierce
in
doubt
Crabtree
like
Mary
Ann
is
to
that
no
women
worth noting
needs, it
in
their
to
such a rough and ready environment as pioneering
children
order
protect
American theatre, especially as their livelihoods dependedon their prot6g6esremaining, or
'natural'.
least
and
at
appearing, na*fve
Clearly the concept of the child as the property of his or her parents to be directed and
to
the
taking
actually
wished
child
or
not
consideration
whether
into
manipulated without
62
be a perfon-ner, was the dominant attitude towards such children at the time.
It is
for
immigrants
life
harsh
that
the
poor
understandable
in nineteenth century
reality of
given
America a somewhat hard attitude to child rearing was part of the culture and that
exploiting potential sources of income overrode the ideal of protecting children and
childhood from the economic, adult world. Perhaps it is becauseit has always been the
have
in
became
being
the
that
children of
poor who
worked any capacity
a child performer
being
from
distanced
so associated with
a working class profession and as such was
burgeoning middle class ideals about the 'normal' role and place for children in their own
separateworld of childhood.
However, the next generation of child performers in American Vaudeville continued to
ideal
living
life
far
from
the
exploit
sentimental
of childhood whilst
a
which was
removed
the sensibilities of the delicate children they represented. Performers such as Baby Gladys
Smith (who later becameMary Pickford) and little Elsie Joneswrung all available emotion
busied
love
loss
their
out of audiences with maudlin songs about
and
whilst
mothers
themselves ensuring their prodigy's success. Elsie Jones rememberedthe day in 1898 that
from
$125
by
Buffalo
that
then on
theatre
she was offered a salary of
owner and
a week
a
her cold mother found a new dedication to her child:
Mother marched head up, eyes front my hand in hers, her life in mine.
Men meant nothing to her unless they were interested in me, and if they
(Quoted
for
I
them,
in
as was ever present.
were not, it was unfortunate
Cary 1997:24)
The widespread misery causedby childhood death due to epidemics of scarlet fever and
diphtheria in American cities at this time was also used to dramatic advantageon stagein a
featuring
Cabin
Uncle
Tom's
inspired
Dickens'
the
child
ubiquitous
plays and
multitude of
dying
By
Howard.
Cordelia
Gish
Lillian
children as
presenting
and
actresses such as
innocent babes, who were transformed into 'angel children, powerful intercessorsbefore
'
(Cary
brothers
tears,
for
this
heavenly
vale of
the
throne
and sisters still caught in
parents,
1997:9), the performances of the child actors comforted and reassured their audiences.
Uncle
death
Tom's
Eva's
Little
Cary,
Indeed, according to
the redemptive nature of
in
American towns:
Cabin altered the very position that theatre occupied in many god-fearincr
1:)
63
(the) play also qualified as a genuine religious drama, thereby breaking
the long-standing preacher's ban on 'Satan's Palace', as the faithful
referred to the theatre. Attending a performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin
became an obligation of conscience for thousands of devout Christians
who had formerly shunned the proscenium as the very gate of Hell.
(Cary 1997:10)
This power of the child performer to bring people together by symbolising hope and
eliciting emotion was seized upon by the Hollywood movie makers in the early twentieth
began
to realise the fortunes that could be made by presenting the public with
century who
the right kinds of 'star'.
The popularity of Vaudeville entertainment in the early 1900sprovided fertile ground for a
huge variety of singing, dancing, contortionist and comedy acts to hone their skills all over
America. Variety magazine which started in 1905 is an interesting source of information
on such acts, yet children do not feature heavily in their reviews as regulations passedby
the children's society at the turn of the century prevented many from performing at all.
Indeed such was their scarcity on stagethat the pull of one advert for a seasonalpantomime
greal,
live
was
children, real, live monkeys' (Primary 23 advert Variety, Dec 1906).
Perhaps this lack of 'real' children explains the appeal of the 'childlike' Eva Tanguay,
arguably the most successfulperformer in vaudeville history:
'I want so much to be understood!' That little plea sums up all the
childlike sincerity of Eva Tanguay. She likes, dislikes, is pleased and
happy;
her
heart
is
by
flashes
touched,
the
made
with
acute
sensibilities of a child .... It is this childlike appeal that has made Miss
Tanguay nationally popular. The gleefulness, the half impudent
is
distinctly
Her
humour
the
assurance,
childlike.
- each quality
but
be
but
they
costumes might easily
startling never seem anything
delightftilly comic. Miss Tanguay is a sort of girl-who-wouldn't-growis
in
life.
30
She
Peter
Pan
(Variety,
Jan
1915)
up.
real
However, some child performers did slip though the net and travelled round the country as
family)
it
from
limited
initial
(usually
that
the
this
vaudeville acts, and was
pool
part of
films
days
Interestingly,
the
early
of cinema acting in
in
child cinema actors were selected.
by
boards
did
the
treading
the
those
as
poor
performers
relation
of
and
who
was considered
64
act on camera were certainly not proud of it. For example, Mary Pickford, who went on to
be America's first real movie star, initially only went looking for studio work becauseroles
Broadway
in
her
1909
had
for
fourteen,
dried
the
on
and,
at
age
of
up
she had outgrown her
incarnation
baby
Gladys
Vaudeville
the
previous
on
as
circuit. Cary describes Pickford's
success as due to her ability to connect with a wide audience and represent the allAmerican values which were beginning to characterisethe era;
Mary personified youthful America on the threshold of a century of
promise, peace and scientific progress. She was a spunky girl, someone
that the immigrant, the country folk and the self-made man could all
believe in. Obviously America and the girl who became America's
sweetheartwere born to win. (Cary 1997:35)
However, Pickford was also among the first to discover the lifelong repercussionsof being
known
a well
child actor on film,, commenting when she finally retired that:
The little girl made me. I wasn't waiting for the little girl to kill me, I'd
already beenpigeonholed. (Quoted in Thomson 1995:585)
3.4 The HollMood Child Star Era
Although, as demonstrated earlier, occasionally particularly talented or popular child
performers had been recognised throughout the nineteenth century, the concept of the
(child star' in our modem understandingof the term was not viable until the age of cinema.
Previous to this time the height of fame for a child (or any) performer would be to be
featured in an article in a review publication such as Interlude in the UK or Variety in
America. Such publicity would ensure a full house for the next perfon-nanceand perhaps
guaranteea run of bookings for the coming season. From the available evidence it appears
that the quality of the perfon-nance was all that mattered - nobody was particularly
fascinated with the actual child and his/her offstage life.
The child as a 'star' was something altogether different - an invention of the film industry,
had
been
delight
Once
to
the
audiences.
created,packaged and presentedin order
potential
film
for
those qualities of childhood which were perceived as
capturing on
established
65
particularly endearing in the early twentieth century, all that was necessarywas to find the
children who embodied, or mimicked, such qualities more than most.
The seminal performance that sparked not just the beginning of the most successful child
actor's career of all time, but which also started the phenomenon of the Child Star Era as
characterisedby personalised and obsessionaltributes to an individual performer, was that
of the six year old Jackie Coogan as a charming ragamuffin in The Kid (1919). Coogan was
discovered by Charlie Chaplin, who was himself a former child performer in British
vaudeville, and Cary describes the significant and symbolic moment when four year old
Coogan, who had fallen asleep while Chaplin and his father discussed the terms of his
contract, woke up to find himself.
in another world, where he, the hoofer's son, had been transformed into
a veritable angel child, complete with luminous spirituality and truly
awesomeredemptive powers. (Cary 1997:55)
The height of fame to which
Coogan shot was unprecedented,indicating perhaps that
American audienceswere more than ready to embracechildren (the cuter the better) as the
new stars of the cinema:
Jack Coogan has achieved cinemagraphic fame more suddenly and at a
...
younger age, probably than any other screenplayer. (New York Times
February 1921 quoted in Ryan 2000: 17)
Coogan supported his entire family with the fortune he made Eromappearingin a dozen or
more films and they lived a privileged lifestyle splitting their time between a ranch in
California and a house in Hollywood. In a 1923 deal with Metro, Coogan received 64% of
the profits from his films making him one of the highest earnersin the US. However, with
the onset of puberty Coogan's appeal diminished and although he made some films in his
teens and early twenties they weren't very well received. Believing that a large portion of
the money he had earned was in a trust fund to be accessedon his 2l't birthday, Coogan
$1000.
He
discover
the
the
time
that
to
was
actually
sum
just
came
was shocked
when
took his mother and her husband (his manager) to court and sued them for $4 million. His
had
before
he
Coogan
had
to
that
she
was
entitled
everything
earned
mother claimed
66
become an adult. He quoted his mother as saying: 'It's all mine and Arthur's and so far as
we are concerned you'll never get a cent.' (quoted in Ryan 2000:24)
Eventually Coogan received just $126000, and in 1939, his wife Betty Grable left him
saying that they 'hoped to return to each other when his financial troubles were
(quoted
in
'
Ryan 2000:25). Later that year what was to becomeknown as
straightenedout.
'Coogan's Law' was approved which stated that in future a child's earnings should belong
to the child in order to protect young performers against parasitic parents or guardians.
Even though Coogan went on to have a fairly successful and long television career, rehave
marry and even
a reconciliation of sorts with his mother, he is still presented as a
failure and a tragic figure in contemporary retrospectives:
(his) tragedy was that, throughout his life, he was defined by a part he
he
played when
was just six years old. His only other career high point
came in the 1960s when he played Uncle Fester in the cult TV show
'The Addams Family'. He once said: "I used to be the most beautiful
in
hideous
I'm
the
child
world and now
a
monster". (The Herald
22.11.02)
Coogan's unfortunate relationship with his parents and the subsequentwell publicised legal
battles that ensued may go some way to explaining why being a successfulchild (even an
extraordinarily successful one) is automatically assumedto be a negative experience. The
for
his
in
the
troubles
the
reporting of
precedent
reporting
press and gossip columns set
impact
because
in
former
the
to
such stones carry,
of
scandal
relation
child stars
family
life
both
'normal'
do
they
and childhoods and the
confounding as
expectations of
image of perfection which the actor representedon screenas a child.
inspired
However, the huge successof The Kid and Coogan's
4-:)
immense childhood wealth
fame
for-tune.
families
American
to
their
and
children as potential sources of
many
view
Many legendary child stars originated in this era, including Shirley Temple, Mickey
Rooney, Freddie Bartholomew and Judy Garland. Diana Serra Cary, a former child star
during
1920s
Baby
Peggy,
famous
became
thus:
the
the
situation
explained
as
who
67
Although the child star business was a very new line to be in it opened
,
up a wide choice of jobs for many otherwise unskilled workers, and it
grew with remarkable speed. Speedwas, in fact, the name of the game.
Parents, agents, producers, business managers, and a host of lesser
hangers-on were all engaged in a desperaterace to keep ahead of their
meal ticket's inexorable march from cuddly infant to graceless
adolescent. (Cary quoted in Price 2002:2)
The child had become a commodity again in an otherwise financially unproductive period
life.
of
For the possibility of wealth and fame it seems it was acceptable to disregard
,
social conventions regarding education and schooling, the privacy of childhood and the
place of the child as a dependentwho is protected by the family. This is in stark contrast to
the vision of 'the century of the child' which attracted reformers for most of the first half of
the twentieth century. As Cunningham describes:
Their overriding aim was to map out a territory called 'childhood', and
in
put
place frontier posts which would prevent too early escape from
what was seen as desirably a garden of delight. Within this garden
children would be cared for and would acquire the 'habit of happiness.'
(Cunningham 1995:164)
Given this, the question then arises as to how the Hollywood machine was able to
counteract the unsavoury image of buying and selling the cutest children to the highest
bidder to work in an industry which had ostensibly no honour, tradition or responsibility.
The answer appears to be by creating an image of the child star as totally unlike other
children - as gifted, wise, with almost magical qualities - children who were 'too good' for
a normal life, whose purpose was to bring joy and happinessto audiences(for example, 6
year old Margaret O'Brien was described in a 1943 Photoplay feature article as 'this
amazing piece of humanity. ').
Such children were 'angels' on screen and off, the child
actor became the child on screen and vice versa, the removal of the child star from the
category of 'normal' children had begun in earnest,and the greatestscreenangel of all time
was undoubtedly Shirley Temple.
The Great Depression was a boom time for the American film industry, representing
Z-:
) as it
did a form of escapism from the harsh realities of the daily lives of the audiences. Shirley
Temple was the top box office attraction from 1935-38 and represented, for many, the
68
epitome of childhood goodnessand sentiment, a beacon of hope for the future of America
and the physical embodiment of the perfect child:
Her bouncing, blond curls, effervescence and impeccable charrn were
the basis for a Depression-era phenomenon. Portraying a doll-like
model daughter, she helped ease the pain of audiences the world over.
(Baseline Encyclopaedia of Film quoted in Price 2002:2)
Throughout her career, Temple always played the part of the redemptive child in films,
providing comfort to flawed and corrupt, usually male, adults with her charm and naive
For
wisdom.
example in Dimples (1936), Temple plays a rough diamond in a cyano,
of
street urchins who takes the blame for a theft that was actually carried out by a wealthy,
elderly Professor. His revelation of the 'true meaning' of goodness as taught him by
Temple's selfless act is facilitated through her undemanding, simple demeanour and
unconditional love for the old man. He calls her his 'little angel' and a 'remarkable child'
and rescuesher from the street to come and live with him in his opulent mansion. Temple
is thus rewarded for her natural goodness and the old man has become a better person
through his association with this 'angel child'.
The sexual undertones of Temple's films which often included her sitting on men's laps,
touching their faces and being the object of their adoration and fascination make
.
uncomfortable viewing today. However, they can be read as symptomatic of the way in
which Temple was idolised at the time and elevated beyond the 'normal' parametersof
childhood, whereby acceptable adult/child relations no longer applied. In effect within
that construction of Temple as a perfect doll child, it was acceptableto seemen fondle her
becauseshe was. 'Shirley Temple' who belonged to everyone, whose role was simply to
make people happy and whose distinctness from 'normal' children was part and parcel of
her appeal. Indeed the strength of Temple's performances emanated from her ability to
elicit emotional reactions from her audience who were content to sit through similar plots
1930s.
throughout
the
4-=ý
acted out again
and again in various scenarios
Interestingly Graham Greene, recently returned from Mexico, and watching Temple's
films with fresh eyes, was less than impressed by her saccharine, studied performance.
69
Alleging in a review of Wee Willie Winkie (1937) that
she was an 'adult impersonating a
child' (quoted in Thomson 1995:743) Greene threatened the very fantasy of the real yet
ideal child that Temple representedand the subsequentlitigation bankrupted the
magazine
I
his
which carried
article. Clearly, in relation to child stars, only one kind of article was
acceptableto the extremely powerful studio bosses- the kind which reinforced the image
of the child which was presentedon screen.
Photoplay magazine was one of several publications who were happy to bolster the
manufacturedprofiles of all Hollywood stars, including children. In a feature article about
'The Little Rascals' (also referred to as 'Our Gang', a popular fictional group of scruffy yet
endearing children who appearedin many films in the 1920s and 30s) it is clear that there
is to be no division between where the child actor ends and the character he/she plays
begins with Jackie Condon being presentedas identical to the 'rough' characterhe played:
Jackie Condon of "Our Gang" is the tousled hair youngster who is
always tagging along after any neighbourhood gang. He's a sympathetic
character and is always serious. A few months ago Warren Doane,
general manager of the Hal Roach studios, was leaving for New York on
business
trip:
a
"What shall I bring you Jackie?" he asked.
"Bring me a rabbit, a little live rabbit," Jackie answered
and then after some thought, added: "And bring me a gun to shoot it
with. "
(Photoplay, May 1925)
The pressureon child actors to maintain the image created for them by the studios proved
too much for many to bear.
Judy Garland is a classic example of someone who
in
in
happier
than
reality. After all how could Dorothy
experienceda much
childhood print
from The Wizard of Oz (1939) be anything but carefree and innocent? Who would have
believed she was desperately unhappy, addicted to the diet pills and amphetamines
have
denied
her
by
to
the
the
which
education
may
access
supplied
provided
studio and
with some senseof self worth?
Freddie Bartholomew (born 1924) is another example of a child star whose real life
film
his
to
persona, most critically
poised and graceful
experienceswere in stark contrast
70
in
by
his
Fauntleroy
1936.
Lord
Havmig
been
he
Little
acclaimed when
abandoned
played
looked
he
by
his
Aunt MyllIcent who
toddler
and
after
over-burdened mother when
was a
later took him to America, Freddie went on to achieve an outstandingly successful and
lucrative career as a child star. The subsequentreappearanceof his long lost parents and
the battles over money and ownership of the child which followed must have been utterly
bewildering for the young actor. The mercenary Mrs Bartholomew debarkedat New York
her
love
her
found
interest
in
due
that
to
and that she
solely motherly
new
son was
claiming
bond
financial
the
truly
gain such a close
might engender:
unconcernedwith
was
My visit here is not actuated from a monetary standpoint, nor do I wish
to deprive his Aunt Myllicent of any of the rightful and proper benefits
desire
do
his
I
her
to
to
not
success.
a
of
accrue
as
result
which may
love
his
boy's
but
feel
that
and affection should
career,
embarrassmy
th
8
(Lillian
Mae
Bartholomew
from
his
be
parents.
weaned -away
not
April 1936 quoted in Zierold 1965:181)
Unfortunately for Freddie however, it seemedthat motherly love did come at a price and
by the time he was fifteen he had been in and out of court an average of twice a month
having
fees
lawyers'
had
in
Having
in
1934.
America
to
and
pay so many
since arriving
had to share out his earnings amongst his aunt, mother, father, grandparentsand even his
brother,
juvenile
believed
their
initially
had
the
that
movie star was
not even
sisters who
Freddie ended up with little to show for his early film successand was certainly not living
in
depicted
he
life
as on screenand
the privileged
of an upper class youth as was so often
the media.
The conflation of fantasy and reality regarding the lives of actors and actresseswhich was
(and to some extent still is) perpetratedby the Hollywood film industry in order to create
between
further
in
the
the
star
and
child
'star
separation
the
vital
ingredient
a
was
system'
horror
However,
in
stones
when
the early to mid twentieth century.
the 'normal' child
became
knowledge,
became
a
Bartholomew's
stars
child
Garland's
public
and
such as
Hollywood
them
wanted
ever
the
machine
than
star
much more complicated phenomenon
had
living
being
embodiments of perfect children, child stars
to be. Rather than simply
become cultural icons of both hope and sadness. They were the stars who represented
be
their
terms
appearance
and
to
on-screen
of
their
in
children
everything people wanted
71
behaviour, and yet nothing they wanted their children to be, at the sametime. Once again
the tensions surrounding child performers emanating from Victorian times seemedto be in
evidence as issues of ownership, 'normality' and concerns over the moral welfare of the
child came into play, along with the ubiquitous stereotype of the pushy parent of the
crowd-pleasing child who is both adored and pitied.
3.5 Child Stars on Television
The studio system, and with it the classic Child Star Era, began to crumble in the 1940s
improbability
the
when
of a child like Shirley Temple solving adult problems no longer
seemedacceptableto a war hardened audience. Coupled with the growing popularity and
affordability of television and the post war focus on domestic life and consumerism, the
scenewas set for a new kind of child star who was more kid next door than angel, and by
the 1950s child actors had become part of the cultural landscapeonce again in America.
This time they were part of solidly middle class, two parent nuclear families in sitcoms
such as Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet. The stereotypical gender roles of mom
dad
(often
and
comically inverted) and the 'cute but cheeky' kids reinforced old-fashioned
family
values of
cohesion and togetherness which characterised post-war American
idealism:
They were wholesome, clean-cut, Wonder Bread kids who were living
the American dream as much as they were creating it, week in and week
out, on their beyond reproach TV series. (Ryan 2000:55)
A different set of criteria was used in their selection, and a new context was provided for
their perfon-riances,and yet once again the overriding demand was for child actors who
be
'natural':
could
to be a successful kid star of TV's Golden Era you had to look and
days
lines
Even
Even
were
were scripted.
if your
sound natural.
if your
be
but.
had
You
if
lives
Even
to
natural.
your
were anything
produced.
Naturally. (Ryan 2000:39)
72
Andrea Darvi, herself a child star of the 1960s describes the ruthless casting and audition
from
hopefuls,
the
the
many, many
were chosen
processeswhich ensured
right children,
for the right parts on TV shows and adverts in America. She explains how most agencies
4D
due
'in
ten'
to the superior selling power of children in
to
the
at
adhered
at six, out
motto
that age range who are generally old enough to read scripts and yet are still far away from
the dreaded adolescence. However, what was even more important than chronological age
being
being
follow
directions
to
small,
able
was
and fitting the physical specification of the
WASPy
blond
but
Mexican
which
was
a
all-American
role,
usually
child,
sometimes a
waif or a 'street-wise' kid from the ghetto
Whatever the appearanceof the child though
the 'type' had to be the same:
fresh, innocent, the inexperienced kid untainted by overexposure, either
by success or failure... [Directors] say "Send us a real kid, not a
Hollywood kid. " (Darvi 1983:79)
Ironically however, the behaviour demandedof such 'real' kids was of a truly professional
it:
Iris
As
Burton,
that
time
of
put
standard.
a powerful children's agent
You have to give them today's kid, one who can get out, put in eight
hours of work, know his lines, not be restlesson the set, and behave like
in
1983:
73)
(Quoted
Darvi
a professional.
Even if a child fulfilled all of the casting directors conflicting criteria and landed a coveted
longevity
drama,
in
TV
the
ticking
the
of
on
clock was always
well-paid part a sit-com or
their suitability for the role. Darvi describes how painful it was when her acting career
came to an end at the relatively advancedage of sixteen:
My specialness faded as quickly and inexplicably as it had arrived. I
believe
been
led
had
I
total
than
the
to
of my
sum
more
was nothing
fragments
became
they
of an ever-distant past, my present
roles, and as
became ever more inconsequential. My life seemed as empty and
has
last
blank
the
television
rolled
credit
screen after
meaningless as a
by. (Darvi 1983:197)
73
Although the majority of former child stars from the 1960s managed to find alternative
careers as adults often within the entertainment industry as agents or directors themselves,
and a few were even able to continue acting, others found it extremely hard to accept that
the most successfuland lucrative period of their life was very probably behind them.
This may explain why many golden child stars of 1950s and 60s American television
involved
in drugs and crime in later life, further contributing to the
shows ended up
received wisdom that 'too much too young' is never a good thing and providing evidence
for the enduring myth that somehow child stars are 'cursed'. For example, Tommy Reltig
had
been
the original dog's best friend in Lassie for several years (until he was
who
by
replaced
a younger actor) ended up making headlines in 1975 as he was sent to prison
for five years for dealing cocaine:
LASSIE'S FIRST MASTER ACCUSED OF COCAINE
(Village Voice 1975 quoted in Ryan 2000: 85)
KARMA
A few other examples (although there are many more) are Danny Bonaduce from The
Partridge Family who was arrested and charged for drugs related offences several times
throughout the 1980s,Mackenzie Phillips, star of One Day at a Time who nearly died twice
from overdosesand Anissa Jones, 'Little Buffy' in Family Affair, who was found dead in a
friend's pool house in 1976 aged 18 from 'one of the most severe casesof drug overdose
ever seen in San Diego County' (Coroner Creason quoted in Ryan 2000:77).
Trent
Lehman the '100% real boy' from Nanny and the Professor, a show which one TV guide
had described as a 'half hour bit of fluff,
hanging
himself
leather
belt
ended up
with a
from a chain mail fence in 1982 aged 20 after failing to find work after he was let go from
the show for getting too big. As his agent commentedpragmatically:
SometiMes the older kids have trouble finding work. The little kids are
in
90)
(Quoted
Ryan
2000:
cuter.
For example Ron Howard (born 1954) who as a child and teenager starred in the long running US comedy
Happy Days for nearly a decade and went on as an adult to direct many successful films.
74
Similarly, Rusty Hamer who became a huge star when he was seven in Make Room for
Daddy and was described by an adult co-star as, 'the best boy actor I ever saw in my life,,
died
In
1966
he,
failed
it
to
at age nineteen
after
also
nearly
make as an adult actor.
he
42
in
killing
himself
himself
in
then
the
at age
succeeded
shooting
with a
stomach and
357 Magnum.
.
The child stars of TV shows in the 1970s and 80s didn't seem to fare much better and the
juicy
for
'child star turned bad' story seemedto be insatiable. The most
a
public appetite
famous troubled kids were the stars of the inter-racial American sit-com 'Diff rent
Strokes', Gary Coleman, Dana Plato and Todd Bridges who ended up respectively as a
laughing
dead
national
stock,
of a drugs overdose and in prison for selling crack cocaine.
In the UK as well the child star became a popular TV curiosity, with the singers Lena
Zavaroni and Bonnie Langford having their own prime time show in the 1970safter having
body
it
big
Huey
Green's
Opportunity
Knocks.
Zavaroni's
adolescent
emaciated
made
on
dressedup in little girl bows and frills makes extraordinarily uncomfortable viewing in
her
in
1998
her
death
from
as yet
renders
anorexia nervosa
retrospect, and
premature
in
doesn't
It
'curse'
the
tragic
always end
of
child star.
another
casualty of the supposed
tears of course. For example, Aled Jonesthe choir boy with the beautiful voice who shot to
fame in 1983 with Walking, in the Air has gone on to have a successful career as a
television presenter and simply regards his early fame as an amusing and slightly
2
embarrassingexperience.
The music industry in America too has produced its fair share of child stars since the
1960s,,the most infamous being Michael Jackson who was born in 1958 and had his first
hit with his brothers (The Jackson Five) in 1969 with I Want You Back. Jackson's solo
into
he
in
began
1972
adulthood with albums such
and
enjoyed stratospheric success
career
50
(1982)
Thriller
than
million
more
as
selling
life
his
However,
and
personal
copies.
bizarre
became
over the years, culminating in a well publicised
more and more
appearance
later
found
he
2005
innocent of, sexually abusing
was accused, and
in which
court case in
2CharlotteChurchis anotherUK singerwho becamefamousasa child andwhowill be discussed
at lengthin
a laterchapter.
75
the young boys who he often had to stay over at his Neverland ranch. Jacksonjustified his
unusual lifestyle by claiming he preferred the company of children to adults and that he
considered himself to be a Peter Pan character - the boy who never grew up.
The
temptation to connect Jackson's 'idiosyncrasies' with his early stardom, which seems to
have been driven by a particularly abusive style of parenting, is difficult to
resist and the
overriding consensus on Jackson's oddness is that it is due to him not having had a
'non-nal' childhood.
The link between early successin the entertainment world and future unhappinessas an
had
been
adult
well and truly establishedby the press by the 1970s and the thrilling shock
value of such stories of despair and disappointment has ensured their continuing presence
as a stock newspapernarrative ever since. The reconstruction of the child star as an object
of pity and ridicule in the late twentieth century can be seento have its antecedentsboth in
the depiction of poor Victorian stagechildren and street performers with pushy parents and
unscrupulous managers, and in the casting of adorable child actors as objects of poetic
misery and suffering (who always somehow pull through due to their ability to melt adults'
hearts) in Hollywood movies of the Child Star Era. That there is an erotic element to the
4punishment' of the 'naughty' child star who has not been as good as gold or, perversely,
has tried too hard to please, appearsto be a plausible explanation for the enduranceof this
image and the fact that child stars occupy a position which has a cultural significance
beyond their performances seemscertain.
3.6 Later Child Stars of the Cinema
Whereas the children on the small screen were designed to embody wholesome family
values and deliver cute 'kids' wisdom', those on the big screen seemedto be fulfilling a
different role entirely. The popularity of films in the 1970s featuring 'demonic' children
has been interpreted as a reaction to the wholesome image of TV kids Eromthe 1950sand
60s as well as an expression of fears about the breakdown of the nuclear family and
permissive styles of parenting (Hogan 1997). Films such as The Exorcist (1973), The
Omen (1976) and Poltergeist (1982), all dealt with murderously possessedchildren who
Child
in
the
the
actors
saccharine sweet child stars of earlier eras.
completely inverted
76
1970s also became associatedwith something even more horrifying than violence - sex.
Brooke Shields and Jodie Foster causeda moral outrage in middle America by playing teen
(1978)
Taxi
Driver
(1976)
Baby
in,
Pretty
Tatum
O'Neal
and
prostitutes
and
respectively
shocked audiences by exhibiting sexual awarenessand swearing in The Bad News Bears
(1976) and Little Darlings (1980). However, the very fact that children acting out scenes
fascinated
of violence and sex were greeted with such
awe and controversy only served to
for
behaviour
boundaries
the
to
shared public consensus as
reinforce
appropriate
and
heralding
from
Far
a new era of emancipatedchildren such films
children and childhood.
inverted
simply
expectations of children on screenfor the shock value. Later films such as
Kids (1995) and City of God (2002) which focused on the harsh reality of the lives of 'real'
have
living
lives
due
breakdown
the
to
the
often
of
social order
children
chaotic and violent
failed to achieve the same levels of mainstream commercial success,suggesting that the
in
of
children
role
cinema is to reinforce certain images of childhood and not others.
However, even though the image of the innocent child star had apparently passedits sell by
date by the 1970s, the 1980s and 1990s brought a new wave of wonder children who
knowing
bring
to
the
to
cinema, albeit in a more
an air of purity and goodness
continued
30s.
from
1920s
than
the
the
and
style
starlets
For example, Drew Barrymore's role as the wide-eyed, adorable Gertie in Spielberg's E. T
(198 1) at the age of six, catapulted her to child stardom, and she later describedmaking the
film as the best time of her life.
Unfortunately, the rest of Barrymore's childhood
descendedinto chaos as she becameheavily involved in alcohol and drugs until at thirteen
Her
the
at
written
was
to
which
autobiography
a rehabilitation centre.
she was admitted
honest
be)
is
the
(as
fourteen
confusion
of
account
a
painfully
only a child star's can
age of
being
between
disparity
felt
the comforting experience of
part of a
she
as a child and the
'family' on film sets, only to be an outsider in her own dysfunctional family and a stranger
to her peers at school. As sheputs it:
I've always grappled with the clash of image versus reality. The public
I
Barrymore,
Drew
quite
myself
viewed
star,
while
movie
saw me as
differently - as a sad, lonely and unattractive girl with not much to her
77
advantage...I wanted to shout "Hey, I didn't want to be famous. I just
want to be loved." (Barrymore 1990:6)
Barrymore's complicated relationship with her parents surely didn't help this low selfesteemas her mother, a failed actress,was determined to have her moment in the spotlight
4-n
back
Drew's
the
on
of
successeven if that meant taking her child to nightclubs and parties
from the age of seven, and her father, the actor John Barrymore, himself an alcoholicaddict, would appearperiodically in Drew's life demanding money.
Given these elements of neglect and self-destruction, Barrymore's story fitted neatly into
the tradition of 'child star gone bad' media expos6swhich started in the 1960sand 70s, and
yet also resonateswith the pathos of Victorian depictions of child perfon-nerswhose value
is seenas solely economic and whose personal happinessis of no particular concern to the
adults around them. That Drew managed to recover from her addictions and went on to
have a successfuladult career in film is testament to her ability as an actressand the clever
,
in
way which she reinvented herself as an adult version of her childhood screenpersonaby
playing kooky comedic parts in light-weight 'feel-good' movies.
However, the most famous child star of the 1980s was Macaulay Culkin, the nine year old
star of the Home Alone movies, who was the very incarnation of the superior, redemptive
child.
His 'natural goodness' stood in sharp relief to the greed and ignorance of the
criminal adults he managed to outwit in the films, having been literally (if accidentally)
behind
by
his
disordered
family
life
Culkin's
The
abandoned
and
private
miseries
parents.
trademark boyish grin were not to become public until the inevitable fall from grace of the
dried
film
he
became
the
roles
up.
young actor as
an awkward adolescent and
The fact
that in 2005 Culkin was called as both a witness for the defence and the prosecution in the
Michael Jackson child abuse court case goes some way to indicate the strangenessof
Culkin's childhood and his subsequentlife, let alone those of Jacksonhimself.
At the time of writing, two of the most successful child stars in America are Haley Joel
Osment and Dakota Fanning both of whom with their frail fair bodies and huge, innocent
foils
to
the
corruption of adults in a
the
as
children
goodness
of
supernatural
eyes, represent
78
Culkin
had done a decadeearlier. Osment (born 1988)
than
much more sophisticated way
has been described as the best young actor of his generation due to his sensitive portrayals
in films such as The Sixth Sense(1999) in which he played a child with the gift of being
his
in
I
(2001)
dead
A.
he
taught
to
see
able
which
people and
was the robot child who
human mother the 'real' meaning of love. Clearly mindful of the time limit of his appeal
had
he
Osment
future
the
one eye on
when commentedthat:
as redemptive child on screen,
For me it's most important to find the films that will last.... choice is the
because
be
important
I'm
to
thing
an adult actor pretty soon.
going
most
So I've got to be choosing the right roles now so that by the time I ZP
cretto
in
2002
(Osment
be
that age there will
quoted
wide options available.
Haley Joel Osment biography www. lmdb.com)
Dakota Fanning (born 1994) whose extensive credits include playing a troubled alien in
(200
1)
Sam
in
I
Am
daughter
(2002)
a
Taken
of a mentally retarded man
and the
for
be
became,
to
for
the
nominated
youngest person ever
eight,
at
she
which
performance
being
dangers
is
Guild
Award,
the
Actors
Screen
stigmatised
of
of
aware
evidently
also
a
as a child star, claiming;
in
2005
(Fanning
love
just
kid,
I
to act.
I'm just a normal
quoted
really.
Dakota Fanning biography www. lmdb. com)
her
her
level
her
as
However, the fact that
the
portray
consistently
success
of
and
roles
her
somewhat
child
but
'normal'
extraordinary
as
an
identity
early
make
may
anything
hard to escape.
in
Potter
Harry
1989)
(bom
Radcliffe
have
Daniel
starring as
And currently in the UK we
the filmic versions
In
by
J.
K.
Rowling.
of the phenomenally successful children's novels
due
to
heroic
to
is
Harry
adults
superior
truly
and naturally
the best wonder-child tradition
his innate senseof right and wrong, his loyalty to his friends, common sense,courage and
individualistic
increasingly
in
materialistic
and
duty
secular,
an
attributes
real
senseof
in
brought
Harry
and
unloving
fictional
cruel
a
up
Even
the
was
though
society.
destiny,
that
are
you
Vvhat
you
the
is
of
he
concept
reflecting
caring and good,
envirom-nent
Harry
In
deserve.
this
sense,
love
you
the
encouragement
and
are with or without
79
represents the romantic ideal of the natural goodness of the child, born without sin to be
tested and tempted by the cruel world of adults. Again and again it seems,despitepolitical
and social changes,films starring children carry the messagethat the child makes a better
adult and the child star can't help but be caught up in the expectation of perfection. As for
the actors in the Harry Potter films, time will tell whether or not they will live to regret
their early successor be grateful for it. Either way, it will almost certainly have been a life,
identity,
and
altering experience
Recent years have also seen the emergence of a new breed of ch-ild star; the media-savvy
'child-adults' who seem unconcerned about the potential pitfalls of early success due to the
control they have over their professional and financial lives. The most extreme example of
this is the incredible success of the Olsen Twins (born 1986) who have been appearing in
US sitcoms, kids shows and films since they were babies and who were titled 'executive
producers' of their own entertainment company, Dualstar Inc, at the age of seven. By the
time they were thirteen Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had earned more than Macaulay
Culkin and Shirley Temple combined and had saved and invested prudently with the help
of their parents and a trusted circle of lawyers and managers. Having launched a huge
range of products on the back of their TV personas including internet sites, dolls, DVDs,
CD-ROMs, books, posters, clothing, make-up and accessories the girls' appeal seemed to
lie both Juritheir familiarity
(they had after all grown up on television) and their innocent
prettiness which made them acceptable role models for pre-teens the world over.
The
being
quirkiness of
identical twins also gave them novelty value and especially appealed to
the common little girl fantasy of always having a best friend to play with and confide in.
Michael Stone, the chairman of the company which produced the girls' clothing line sums
up their continuing success in starkly clinical terms, encapsulating the way in which child
how
'natural'
being
their
to
to
matter
a
commodity
no
stars always seem
reduced
end up
Z_:
ý
appeal seemsto be:
For an entertainment property to be successful over the long term, we
believe it has to consistently deliver a fantasy to the core audience.
Mary-Kate and Ashley fulfil for girls the fantasy. Girls want to be like
Mary-Kate and Ashley. (Stone quoted in LA Times 30.01.00)
80
A Journalist writing in 2000 when the girls were thirteen cominented that despite their
impressive confidence and success 'Mary-Kate and Ashley probably won't understand
fame's impact on their lives until they're adults' (Ramsay LA Times 30.01.00) and given
the tone of Stone's assessmentof the twins as an 'entertairurnentproperty' it does seem
unlikely that, even if they wanted to, they would ever be able to disassociatethemselves
brand-name
the
they have become.
with
At the time of writing the twins are eighteen and have continued to deliver, on screen at
least, the fantasy image of perfection that made them so popular with young girls, and in
2005 they took full control of their billion dollar media empire. However, Mary-Kate's
battle
well-publicised
with anorexia and alcohol over the last few years has somewhat
sullied the wholesome girls-next-door image which was so fundamental to their initial
appeal. It seemsthat the pressure of having to live up to early successis one element of
child stardom which no amount of media-savviness, protective parenting or prudent
financial investment can avoid,, and that the thought of growing up and away from a
has
defined
that
childhood image
you can be a very frightening prospect indeed.
The fact that the Olsen twins were packaged and marketed to appeal to children rather than
grown-ups sets them rather apart from other child stars whose main audience has
traditionally been the amusedor moved indulgent adult. That children are now a consumer
group in their own right with money to spend on merchandisewhich connects them to the
products and people they like (or at least the pester power to get their parents to buy it for
them) probably explains the new breed of child star who is in effect 'from the children, for
the children'. However, this shift in audience demographic for some child stars is more an
it.
their
than
of
extension of
a reduction
appeal
Child stars will always be required
be
image
idealised
for
is
to
there
of childhood
representedon screen,
an
whenever
a need
ideal
be
like
be
that
or a child's
of what
whether
an adult's ideal of what children should
they aspire to be like.
81
3.7 Always Different, Always the Same
This chapter has traced the history of children in the entertaim-nentbusiness Erom the
in
to
antiquity, through street, stage and screen
earliest recorded references child actors
performers, up to today's multi-media, globally marketed child stars of film and television.
I have described how social concerns over children working as acrobats and actors in
Victorian times coupled with a growing literary tradition of depicting such children as
tragic characters and the adults responsible for them as monsters, set in place stereotypes
in
day.
Hollywood
The
to
this
endure
way
which
redefined the child performer as
which
the child star in the early twentieth century by drawing on romantic ideals of special
in
be
having
demonstrated
the
theme
to
an enduring
angelic qualities was also
children
contemporary appeal of children on screen.
The connection between Elizabethan boy actors, Victorian
infant prodigies and
level,
but
film
the similarities are also
tenuous
on one
contemporary child
actors may seem
importance
The
of pleasing an audience, the coercion of some
staggering.
overwhelming
being
the
to
the
a child
of
experience
concern of others all seem characterise
adults and
derives
'child
have
done.
The
the
term
star'
controversial nature of
performer and always
from this very polarity of opinion regarding the acceptability of putting a child in front of
both
be
judgements
their performance and their moral
to
on
made
an audience and allowing
character.
Even given these similarities though, it is undeniable that the role of the child performer
from
twentieth
small
the
centuries
nineteenth and
changed profoundly over the course of
from
bom
the
thus
The
seemingly perfect
to
was
star
classic child
actor
screen angel.
Hollywood
dolls
fairy
Vaudeville
the
infant
Victorian
star
with
prodigies and
marriage of
for
for
television
the
age, again
system. The way the child star was reconstructed again
for
lucrative
children,
role models
more recent cinematic roles and yet again to provide
for
demand
demonstratesthe malleability of the subject and the on-going
child perfon-ners
in a variety of guises.
82
The inherent 'differentness' of the performing child from the majority of children,
both
in
terms
the
with precocious sexuality and with
especially
contradictory association
of
highlights
the extreme reactions which child stars
innocence and naturalness,underpins and
seemto elicit.
3.8 Conclusion
As emphasisedat the start of this chapter, the child star, or even simply the child performer,
has never been a neutral category and the frequent oscillations between adoration and
denigration in public attitudes towards them seem to be inconsistent and unpredictable.
What does appear to be consistent, however, is the constant objectification and
manipulation of the perfon-ning child to fulfil adult desires. The consumer of the child
defines the child - as true now as it was in Ancient Greeceand Elizabethan England.
The following chapter outlines the Methodology for the analysis which follows in which
both the constructed nature of the child star and its universal appeal are explored.
83
Chapter 4: Methodolou
4.1 Backaround to the PresentStud
The original intention for this research was not that it would be about child stars. My
idea
preliminary
was that I would explore the relationship between popular culture and the
way that children construct their identities by, for example, talking about television,
incorporating cartoon characters into their play and stories, copying the behaviour and
language of pop stars and how they may or may not use shared culture to enhance
alignment with their peer groups. As a primary school teacher I had become interested in
how important popular culture seemedto be in the talk of children and their acceptanceinto
certain friendship groups and wanted to try to analyse the processesby which this occurred.
With these general objectives in mind, I conducted a focus group pilot study with a group
of young girls (seven to eight years) in which we watched a popular children's programme
together and I asked them their opinion of it. We then had an informal discussion whereby
I askedthem about their favourite shows and what kind of gamesthey played and what they
enjoyed doing both at school and in their free time.
When analysing the transcribed tape it became apparent to me that although some
interesting themes arose and the interaction between the girls was fascinating, it would be
impossible
to draw any theoretical conclusions about which cultural products
almost
influenced which elements of the identity of which individual. The project was just too
ambitious and given the nebulous nature of 'culture' almost impossible to define. I also
found that children as research subjects bring their own challenges too. For example,
children don't just watch children's programmes, children sometimespretend to have seen
things that perhaps they haven't, some children say what they think an adult wants them to
in
being
deliberately
to
try
say and others
shock and most children aren't at all interested
have
done.
they
consistent or reflecting on what
seenor
Although I don't think the problems were insurmountable and that a narrowing down of the
have
been
for
data
the
collection
may
well
research question or a more naturalised setting
4n
84
the way forward, my feeling was that the project wasn't going to work in the way that I had
I
Going
back
focus
had
I
to
the
that
to
wanted
achieve.
envisaged and
what
over
rethink
in
data
interested
behaviour
became
I
the
responses
group
and
of one of the
particularly
children in the group who was certainly the dominant, if not the oldest, participant.
This child was very interested in performing and frequently mentioned that she attended
drama school on Sundays and in the school holidays where she learned singing, dancing
and acting. Her confidence and attention seeking tactics renderedher the focus of the other
in
her.
Whether this child's pretentious persona
children who seemed somewhat awe of
her
drama
it
her
disposition
training
was a consequenceof
school
or whether was
natural
her
hard
discern
to
to
which made
so suited performance activities was
and yet there was a
definite difference between her and the other girls. Her confidence in herself and her
abilities made me think about the children who actually appearon television and who make
their careers in show business and consider questions such as; What is so special about
does
being
impact
What
to
them
perform?
certain children which makes others want watch
do
How
friendships?
have
'normal'
and
childhood activities and
a child performer
on
justify
become
to
their
public property?
parents
allowing
children
It became apparent that taking the child star as the object of enquiry for my project would
not only condensethe field of researchto a more manageablesize, it would also provide an
from
to
theory
a study of a specific, unique group of children
opportunity
generate
Furthermore, the fact that such children are mere images to their audience and exist in the
the
them
the
as
potentially
renders
actually
media
of
public sphere only as products
identity
between
and popular culture which
childhood
ultimate example of the relationship
I was initially interested in. With this in mind I started to think about ways in which I
image
taking
the
the
also
into
star
whilst
the
child
of
of
nature
could explore
constructed
have.
likely
identity
to
individual's
which child stardom was
account the impact on an
The more I found out through reading biographies and autobiographies and searching
became,
I
for
the
not oril y" in
more intrigued
stories about child stars,
newspaper archives
history
but
former
the
of
social
also in
child stars
the experiences of child stars and
85
performing children, the controversy which has always surrounded them and the way in
which they have always seemedto signify something larger than their small selves could
justify.
I also realised that rather than simply serving as background reading to a project that might
involve some in-depth interviews with former child stars or focus groups of children who
attend stage school, the texts I was reading about child stars were actually valuable data in
themselves. It became clear that it was within the press that the child star was created and
destroyedand it was in the autobiographies and interviews that former child stars struggled
to justify their experiencesand re-claim their authenticity as adults. Not only would textual
analysis of secondary data allow me access to more subjects than I could ever hope to
contact personally, but given accessto newspaper archives it was also possible to add a
historical element to the analysis which would allow a tracing of attitudes towards and
discourses surrounding child stars and popular culture which would be invaluable in
contextualising our current construction of the child star.
Before embarking on the current project my knowledge of and curiosity about child stars
like
was,
most people's, extremely limited. I had a vague recollection of child actors on
shows I had liked as a child such as Diff'rent Strokes, and had heard a few shocking stories
about the fates of former child stars such as River Phoenix and Lena Zavoroni who met
untimely, grisly ends but gave them no more thought than that. In pop culture, it seems,
child stars are the ultimate bubble gum product - used, enjoyed and spat out when they lose
their flavour. Forever replaceable, eminently forgettable and ultimately irrelevant to their
audiences' lives and concerns. Child stars seem to have always occupied a position just
below the eye-line of reality, as soon as they are focused on they are gone, grown up and
away into awkward adolescence.
However for performers who merely flit in and out of our popular culture they seem to
both
in
their
as children and as adults which
experiences
generateenon-nouspress interest
When
I
disproportionate
to
the
to
their
world.
entertainment
contribution
seemssomewhat
became
former
for
looking
stars
child
it
started
newspaper stones about child stars and
know
to
to
that
this
about, to gloat
apparent
was a group who people wanted read about,
86
It
deviant.
to
seemed that the child star carried a slooficance
over and often
castigate as
that went beyond the career of the individual, and that the juxtaposition of the child in the
industry
dominated
interesting
opened
up
a
whole
adult
network
avenues
of
entertainment
of exploration relating to attitudes towards childhood and children which may otherwise be
too oblique to analyse. That these children occupy a position in public life and are well
known outside of their own families and communities renders them if not unique, then a
I
key
group
and
one
would
argue,
challenge
very select
which,
certain
assumptionsthat we
take for granted regarding the proper place and position of children in our society.
As noted in the literature review there have been no published academic studies of child
in
the annals of social and cultural research -a
stardom
be
can
state of affairs which
hand
On
both
the
to
the
one
current study.
a positive and a negative in relation
viewed as
investigation of virgin sociological territory gives rather free rein to the methodological
hand
it
but
less
happily,
by
the
this
rendersthe
on
other
researchproject,
approachadopted
inquiry
fruitless
false
avenuesof
starts and
study vulnerable to all the errors of judgement,
that are possible to be made.
Indeed, the child star as an object of enquiry is potentially open to as many different
For
there
example, one could collect
are unanswered questions.
research approaches as
in
have
former
how
data
find
show
to
an adult career
child stars
many
out
statistical
business, or conduct an ethnomethodological study of child actors on a film set to assess
their social competence, or run focus groups of children who attend stage school and
compare their self representations to children who attend regular school, or conduct a
be
to
based
work in
allowed
should
children
or
not
attitude survey on whether
questionnaire
the entertainment industry - the list of potential avenues of sociological enquiry seems
into
the
let
limitless,
of
child
effects
the
investigations
psychological
myriad
alone
almost
be
family
individual's
and peer relationships which could undertaken.
stardom on an
None of the above approaches,however, would have been appropriate for examining the
between
the
identities
and
the
childhood
relationship
and
role of the media in constructing
in
interested
I
exploring.
themes
particularly
was
which
media more generally,
87
Therefore, the methodology was designed to address the following three objectives which
constitute the central themesof the project:
1. To understand why our society demands and produces child stars and to explore the
historical antecedentsto our current construction of the child star.
2. To understandwhy child stars are presented in a particular way in the press and to relate
this to a wider consideration of how all children whose experiences fall outside of the
(nonnal' sphereare dealt with on a cultural level.
3. To challenge the limitations of the social constructivist paradigm of research which
dominates
Sociology
Childhood
the
currently
of
and to explore the usefulness of a
in
to
the
structuralist approach contextualising and explaining
status of children our society
with particular referenceto the child star.
All three aims emanated from observations of the strangenessof public reactions to the
famous
incongruity
in
the
the
the
of
working,
child star in
press and popular culture and of
life.
In
dominant
time
to
an age
of
child
our
ideals about childhood as a protected, sacred
both
homogeneity
in
our construction of and expectations of children and
of supposed
be
highly
little
to
this
an anomaly which merited attention
group seemed
childhood
visible
demanded
and
explanation.
The next section explains the Methodology for this study in light of the objectives outlined
above.
4.2 A Dual Approach to Data Analysis
As noted above, one of the central aims of this project is to demonstrate the potential
limitations of a purely social constructivist approach to understanding how childhood is
literature
in
discussed
As
the
review, social constructivism
given meaning in our culture.
has been the dominant paradigm in the sociology of childhood for the past two decadesand
has been invaluable in demonstrating the culturally defted nature of childhood. Focussing
88
institutional
the
than
on
experience of the child, rather
on
and professional voices which
for
the child, the movement has sought to understand how children are active
speak
participants in creating their own social worlds.
Using methodologies such as
ethnomethodology and conversation analysis many studies have demonstratedthe way that
children achieve social competence (e.g. Hutchby and Moran-Ellis
1998). Another
methodology employed by social constructivism has been discourse analysis which has
illuminated the way in which a certain Western discourse on childhood whereby the child is
joyful, innocent, under adult control and inhabits a separate sphere of childhood, has
become dominant over the last two hundred years (e.g. Hendrick 1990). This discoursecan
be understood as emanating from the fields of developmental psychology, educational
reform and social welfare which characterisedprogress in the twentieth century, as well as
inheriting a specific romantic image of the child as possessingpreternatural wisdom and
beauty from the artists and writers of the eighteenth century. That 'the child' is a socially
constructed category is not under debate in this research. Indeed, discourse analysis is an
unparalleled method of understanding the way in which disparate social groups become
homogenoussubjects and therefore will be used as a method of deconstructing the category
of the 'child star' in the proceeding analysis.
However, it also became apparent through re-readings of the data that a purely social
constructivist approach was not going to be sufficient to tell the whole story of the child
star. The way that the stories in the data set were structured and the languageused in their
beyond
discourses
informed
to
the
them. The similarity of
presentation seemed go
which
some of the narratives to fairytales and the characterisation of the child star as an otherwordly being were themes that could not satisfactorily be explained by referenceto the text
alone. It seemed possible that there was another dimension to the significance of child
stars, and perhaps to childhood in general, which was universal rather than socially specific:
and which referred to a greater shared system of meaning than a social constructivist
reading would allow.
Therefore in order to explore the child star as a product of the duality of childhood as both
,
divided
into
data
two
the
and
a
universal
phenomenon
a socially specific
analysis is
discourse
first
how
to
the social category of 'child
the
analysis
uses
investigate
chapters;
89
for
functions
it
how
to
the members of this
star' is constructed and
create subject positions
group, and the second employs a broadly stiructuralist perspective in order to address the
way that media stories about child stars are structured to create meaning and to explore how
they relate to narrative themesemanating from myths and fairytales.
Although these two approachesare not mutually exclusive and there is necessarily some
in
findings,
it is hoped that looking at the data from both these angles
the
overlap
illuminates the child star more comprehensively than a narrower research focus would
allow.
The following two sections take each of these approachesto the data in turn and explain the
behind
the choice of researchmethods in relation to the aims of the study and the
rationale
data
the
nature of
available, as well as describing how the data analysis was carried out.
4.3 Discourse Analysis
4.3.1 A Theoretical Backaround
The idea that the aim of any research in the natural or social sciences is to uncover the
'truth' and find the essential underlying order to the world which characterisedthe project
of modernity has been comprehensively dismantled by the postmodern thinkers of the late
twentieth century (eg Lyotard, 1984, Baudrillard 1983, Lash 2001). Rather than moving
in
towards
steadily
postmodern
rationality and centralised power, society is understood
terms as fragmented with a decentring of power and many competing accounts of 'reality'
by
for
is
One
dominance
vying
of
in a social order which reproduced and constituted sips.
the overriding postmodern methodological shifts in sociology has been the rejection of
findings
in
favour
deconstructive
to
texts
whereby one's
empirical research
of a
approach
can only ever be described as one interpretation amongst many possible others.
One particularly influential theorist on the tenacious status of power and knowledge is
Michel Foucault. Better described as a post-structuralist than a postmodemist, Foucault
history
be
identified
that
to
the
an
underlying
order
can
idea
and recorded, and
rejects
90
instead focuses his attention on the discursive formations which constitute our social
historians
have
He
the
to
Cý
worlds.
way in which
attempted to categorise
particularity objects
and synthesiseevents into a chronological series:
it is
that one and the same form of historicity operatesupon
supposed
...
institutions
economic structures, social
and customs, the inertia of
mental attitudes, technological practices, political behaviour and subjects
them all to the sametype of transformation. (Foucault 2002: 11)
Foucault opposes structuralism's use of 'the categories of cultural totalities' to impose
history
order on
and instead presents an alternative way of understanding the social which
he describesas an 'archaeology of knowledge'. Within this framework, meaning is seento
from
discourse,
but to actually be constitutive of it.
not only emanate
The analysis of
discourse in this context then asks, 'how is it that one particular statementappearedrather
than another?' with the understanding of a text as a 'node within a network' containing a
'network of references' specific to its genre, aims and author. The aim of analysing
discourseis, according to Foucault, not simply to understandthe intention of the author, but
be
'to
rather
able to grasp other forms of regularity and relations' such as relations between
between
between
statements,relations
groups of statements and relations
statementsand
is
discourse
find
The
'use'
to
to
wider political and social events.
out about
aim also not
something, but to study the discourse itself, and 'make it emergein its own complexity'. In
this sense, Foucault treats discourse as practices that systematically form the objects of
which they speak and which can be investigated by asking questions such as; Who is
discourse
What
from
What
the
the
and
comes?
speaking?
sites
which
are
institutional
discourse?
in
to
the
subject positions are occupied relation
Foucault also emphasisesthe importance of contextualising discourse in relation to other
discourse
be
discourses
the
which may
related
complex nature of
and of appreciating
hidden beneatha 'smooth' exterior:
the rich uncertainty of disorder lays behind the visible faýade of the
in
density
but
immense
'life
an as yet uncaptured state'
of
an
system not
ities,
2002:
84)
(Foucault
tight
a
group
of
multiple
relations.
systematic
91
Although, traditionally, analysis of discourse has attempted to show how texts refer to one
historically
specific meanings,
another, converge with institutions and practices and carry
Foucault rejects this homogenousapproach and instead wishes 'to deten-ninethe principle
according to which only the 'signifying' groups that were enunciated could appear... to
(ibid:
Based
law
134).
'
on the assumption that everything is never said
establish a
of rarity.
Foucault's approach aims to weigh the value of statements, 'a value that is not defined by
their truth ... but which characterisestheir place, their capacity for circulation and exchange,
their possibility of transformation' (ibid: 136). Foucault conceptualises statements and
determined
by
his
exteriority and
analysis of statements operates without
utterances as
is
Foucault
'a
to
therefore opposed to structuralist theories which search
cogito'.
reference
for totalities and secrets of origin and describes himself as a positivist who is interested
in
be
described:
only what can
Archaeology tries to define not the thoughts, representations, images,
themes, preoccupationsthat are concealed or revealed in discourses;but
those discourses themselves, those discourses as practices obeying
certain rules. (Foucault 2002: 155)
The importance of recognising the complexity of discursive formations and not simply
is
Foucault's
identify
to
to
paramount
a unifying principle of cohesion
attempting
knowledge:
archaeology of
A discursive formation is not an ideal, continuous smooth text that
...
in
beneath
them
the
the
and
resolves
of
contradictions,
multiplicity
runs
is rather a space of multiple
calm unity of coherent thought-It
dissensions;a set of different oppositions whose levels and roles must be
described. (ibid: 173)
Although Foucault's argument for the precedenceof discourse as an object of study in itself
forms the theoretical basis for this section of the study, it is necessaryto refer elsewherefor
in
involved
techniques
such a methodological
a more practical explanation of the analytic
Potter
focuses
following
the
For
and
of
on
work
this reason, the
sub-section
approach.
Wetherell (1987,1992) who are particularly eloquent in their explanations of the slippery
business of actually doing discourse analysis.
92
The following section describes their
be
data
to
the
the
discourse
how
applied
will
analysis of
on
approach and explains
analysis
child stars in the present study.
4.3.2 Doing Discourse Analysis
The art of discourse analysis has been described by Wetherell and Potter as:
Charting themes and ideologies, exploring the heterogeneous and
layered texture of practices, arguments and representationswhich make
for
in
the
taken
up
granted a particular society. (1992: 1)
Wetherell and Potter make clear that although there is no definable method to discourse
in
broad
it
the
traditional,
the'
theoretical
analysis
experimental sense of
word, provides a
framework for understanding and interpreting the role of discourse in social life and is
flexible enough to examine a subject from a number of angles. Furthermore, as emphasised
by Foucault, discourse analysis is not seeking to uncover an underlying, external reality or
truth, but treats discourse as a reality in itself which is constructed and reconstructed
through social acts and languageevery day:
Participants' discourse or social texts are approachedin their own right
6
Discourse
'beyond'
text
the
to
things
is
and not as a secondary route
...
treated as a potent, action-orientated medium, not a transparent
160)
1987:
(Potter
Wetherell
and
infori-nation channel.
In their study of the legitimation of exploitation in the language of racism, Potter and
Wetherell (1992) identified three main aims of the discourseanalysis employed:
discourse
locate
historical
thus
within
some
to
contemporary
and
analysis
perform
changing, social, economic and political context
ideology
to
the
and
justification
as
of
rationalisation
power
examine
-
-
identity
how
types
and subject
of
to examine
ideologies actively construct and create new
positions.
93
In relation to the aims of this study then, discourse analysis provides a way of exploring
how the labels 'child star' and 'former child star' have been formed and applied, the origin
both
the
terms and the 'common-sense' principles on which
of
negative connotations of
they are based, and the creation and internalisation of subject positions for those individuals
fall
into
As
Potter
Wetherell
discourse
is
category.
and
who
either
explain,
analysis
in
both
the social and cultural mechanismsand processes
particularly useful understanding
in
the construction of subjects and the complicit nature of the subjects themselves
at work
in internalising and reinforcing sharedsocial norms.
Potter and Wetherell argue that the power of ideology is forceful, effective, has visible
results and is embodied in ideological state apparatusessuch as schools, churches and the
mass media; 'all places where people are subjected and trained to recognise themselvesin
particular ways.' (1992:29). From this perspective the category 'child star' can be seen as
define
belief
discourses
to
on children and childhood which
and
related wider
systems and
ideologies
justified,
Such
then
control what childhood means.
are
rationalised and
shared
Therefore,
through,
the
analysing media
naturalised
mass media.
among other channels,
ideals
dominant,
in
how
is
to
collective
stories about child stars one way
which
ascertain
fabric
become
in
in
the
to
of
part of
relating
children
general and child stars particular
social life and ceaseto be questionedor challenged.
As Miles (1982) observes in his analysis of racism, certain explanations, although purely
be
have
'practical
basis
having
to
acceptedas
adequacy'
enough
anecdotaland
no scientific
is
their
thus
taking
unrelated to the reality of a
own which
common sense,
on a power of
situation. Similarly, the way in which certain accepted truisms about child stars and their
in
be
have
kind
this
addressed the analysis.
parents
of currency will
According to Hamilton and Trolier (1986) our inherent and inevitable need to impose
(and
indeed
in
our
order to simplify and control our environment
categories on the world
minds) underlies the creation and reinforcement of stereotypesin society:
94
for
baggage
focus
become
an associated
a
of
social categories quickly
beliefs, thoughts and value judgements about the people within the
Potter
Wetherell
1992:
38)
Trolier
(Hamilton
quoted
in
and
category.
and
By looking at child stars and former child stars as social categories it is clear that certain
traits and types of behaviour are both attributed to and expected of the members of these
identification
Discourse
the
analysis allows
of the constructed nature of these
groups.
illuminate
define
how
beliefs
the
to
such shared
assumptions and can
serve position and
subject. The question of why child stars are presented in certain ways and not others will
be addressedin the analysis, along with the psychological impact of such presentationson
the individuals concerned.As Potter and Wetherell assert,discourseis 'actively constitutive
between
both
(1992:
it
is
59)
this
social and psychological processes'
and
connection
of
dominant collective beliefs and the individual's construction of identity which renders
discourse
for
analysis of
so appropriate
researchingthe phenomenonof child stars.
The crucial aspect is whose story will be acceptedand becomepart of
...
the general currency of explanation, whose version of events, whose
62)
1992:
(Potter
Wetherell
things
the
and
account of
way
are?
As Foucault argues in his genealogical approach to social history as described above, the
defmlng
discourse
develops
'normalization',
through
through
what is usual and
power of
habitual and to be expected as opposed to the deviant and exceptional, and people become
discourse.
identities
kinds
the
through
assumedin
of
subjectedand regulated
Attempting to ascertain how one version of the 'truth' becomesestablishedand alternatives
data
historical
by
the
to
is
same
relating
time
analysing
only possible
undermined over
from
the
includes
As
of
child
stars
this
and
reviews
on
articles
subject.
study
such,
Victorian era to the present day. It is hoped that this historical perspectivewill allow some
back
be
to
to
traced
stars
child
the
about
themes
of
and ideas which inform current stories
distinction
With
indisputably
this
for
contemporary.
their origins and
others to stand out as
it should be possible to identify the way in which discursive categoriesbecome constructed
in different social contexts and how some versions of
'reality' become established and
by
fall
the
'truth'
time
wayside.
others
whilst
over
acceptedas
95
4.3.3 Styges ofData Analysis
Much of the work of discourse analysis is a craft skill, somethinerlike
bicycle riding or chicken sexing that is not easy to render or describe in
(Potter
Wetherell
1992:
10
1)
and
an explicit or codified manner.
As implied in the above quote, the analysis of discourse doesn't involve a 'cookbook' style
has
described
being
been
However,
than
as
more of an art
methodology and
a science.
Potter and Wetherell (1987) have identified the main stages in the analysis of discourse
interchangeable
phasesthan clear sequential steps,provided a useful
which, although more
for
data
for
for
The
this analysis were:
the
this
analysis of
study.
relevant stages
guide
documents,
and
coding and
of
records
research question, sample selection, collection
be
discussed
below.
and
each
stage
analysis
will
The researchcmestion
The broad question asked in all discourse analysis is 'how is discourse put together and
For
is
by
'
to
this
the
the
this
question
central
study
of
purposes
what gained
construction?
be addressedwas how and why certain stereotypesof the categories 'child star' and 'former
become
how
be
time
part of
to
such subject positions
and
child star' came
naturalised over
an individual's constructed identity.
Sampleselection and collection of documents
The data for this study is textual and from secondary sourcesand representsa wide range of
broadsheet
diverse
tabloid
from
press,
and
sources such as
a variety of
writing and pictures
internet
books
news and gossip sites.
and
magazines,
The selection of material for the study was as inclusive as possible and all articles or
interviews about
incorporated
the
in
were
collected
to
were
which
child stars
or relating
Strauss
Glaser
by
Following
and
the
made
suggestions
coding.
of
preliminary stages
t:P
it
being
data
collected when
(1968) in their description of 'Grounded Theory'
only stopped
is
That
had
to
coding
new
no
when
say
'theoretical
felt
occurred.
that
saturation'
was
96
categories occurred, no new properties could be added to the existing coding categoriesand
when there also seemedto be enough instancesto constitute a pattern.
Although emanating from a huge variety of diverse publications the data
comprises two
main sets. The first is made up of newspaperstories about child stars and former child stars
and the second is made up of newspaper and magazine interviews with child stars and
former child stars (although there is an overlap with some
categories).
of the pieces falling into both
Much of the data is contemporary and was collected over the
period
September2002 to September2003, although using internet searchesit was also
possible to
collect newspaper articles from archives of British national papers from the last 5 years, as
well as from American and Australian publications. However, even after the main phaseof
data collection had been completed I found it impossible to ignore relevant articles I
daily papers and magazinesand frequently added new items to the datasetwhich
saw in
generally
complementedthe data already collected, but sometimes involved revisions to the coding or
new themes being included in the analysis. Therefore there is also some data from 2004
2005.
There is also a substantialamount of data from newspapersand magazinesfrom
and
the 1880sto the 1950swhich mainly takes the form of interviews with child stars or former
child stars but which also includes some editorial material. The inclusion of the historical
data is intended to allow a separationof themes which can be classedas consistent in the
framing and presentation of child stars by the media and those which seemto be specific to
our culture at this time. The historical articles on child stars from Victorian publications
such as Interlude and later from issuesof magazines such as Photoplay from the 1940sand
1950swere found at Colindale Newspaper Library in North London which holds archives
'
of such publications on microfilm.
As well as the data from newspapers and magazines I also used autobiographies and
biographies of child stars which were useful on two counts. Firstly, they often contained
from
in
to
the
quotes
star question which could then
newspaperarticles and reviews relating
be used as part of the analysis of how the child star is constructed by the media. Secondly,
I
References made to child actors before that time, such as the Elizabethan boy actors described in the Social History
chapter, are from historical studies which have already been carried out and do not constitute part of the data set used for
the analysis. Unfortunately, it was not possible to find ofiginal data referring to child performers before the Victorian era.
ZD
97
they also allowed analysis both of the narrative conventions at play in stories about child
stars and the pattern of techniques used by former child stars to justify and explain their
experiences. In this sensethe autobiographical and biographical data served to complement
the newspaper and magazine articles and also allowed the exploration of a more sustained
version of story telling by the child stars themselves.
Before analysing the stories which were published in the print media it was
important to
recognise that, of course, as in all areas of media publication a careful editorial selection
processtakes place as to what is and is not 'news' and so the stories about child stars in the
public realm are automatically those which are the most sensationalist,shocking or bizarre.
There are plenty of child stars who have gone on to have either a successfulacting career
or a 'normal' life and who never became an addict, a criminal or a serial 'wedder', and are
no more news worthy than anyone else. However, what was interesting for the purposesof
this analysis was why the exploits of child stars are framed and structured in the way they
are and how these stories reinforce conventional normative standards of behaviour for
children, and parents, with no referenceto the wider responsibility of the society which has
createdthe need for such children in the first place.
Indeed, what is chosen as news and how it is reported has a significant impact on the news
how
it is read and this in itself can be seen as contributing to a new version of
itself, and
creality', as so deftly describedbelow:
Journalism not only reports on the operation of appearances,and on
realities underlying appearances,but also creates appearancesor the
(Bensman
appearance of realities.
and Lilienfield 1973 quoted in
Chaney 1979:33)
That the media creates an 'appearanceof reality' is indisputable, but understanding why
certain 'realities' are created and not others is the key to identifying the dominant
discourseswhich inform cultural exchangesof a society at any given point in time. It is for
this reason that documentary data is so valuable as it is the tangible manifestation of the
discursive
formations
through which meaning is constructed and shared with the
shifting
wider society.
98
The use of documentary data for the analysis was therefore felt to be appropriate becauseof
the way that such secondary resources allow the researcher to stand outside the data and
develop theories about the social world without being directly involved with the subjects of
the researchand without creating an artificial situation from which the data emanates.
As Potter and Wetherell observe; 'one of the most important advantages of collecting
naturalistic records and documents is the almost complete absenceof researcherinfluence
data'
(1987:
162).
the
on
Although of course describing newspaper texts as 'naturalistic' is a rather misleading
nomenclature - as Chaney (1979) wisely observes, 'in all media there are no accidental
features'.
Another possible data collection technique for this study would have been to interview
child stars and /or former child stars directly and then code and analyse the transcripts
according to the themes of the research. However, for the reasonsgiven above, plus the
difficulties
practical
of accessing the relevant subjects, this method was rejected.
Furthermore, having read many interviews with child stars and former child stars it was felt
that certain stock responsesand modes of justification and explanation were so common as
to be predictable, suggesting that little could have been added to the findings from
by
In
directly
the
essence, unless the subject was a
interviews
researcher.
collected
have
interview
friend,
that
with a social researcher would
an
personal
it was unlikely
'public
to
that
the
the
than
of
questions and
standard range replies
elicited anything other
face' of the individual would have remained in place. In any case, what was being
discourse
in
to
the
the
create subjects and
works
itself
which
investigated was
way
meaning, not a psychological study on the child stars themselves.
Codine
Codes were identified by searching through the material for recurring themes. Although
framework
it
from
distinct
the
of issues which
the coding was
analysis itself, provided a
99
later
focussed on in detail. The main themes which presentedthemselvesat this stage
were
included; reasonsfor becoming a child performer, how the career started,parental attitudes,
the importance of being a natural performer, the stigma of being a child star and the
experience of growing up as a former child star. The coding process was cyclical, and as
the understanding of a particular theme developed it was frequently necessaryto go back
through the documents and refine the categories or include instances that had before
irrelevant.
seemed
The process was also flexible as themes would sometimes merge
together, disappear or split into distinct categories and new themes would also often
becomeapparentwith re-readings of the material or with the addition of new material.
The subjective nature of coding and of making decisions as to what is and is not important
or relevant to a particular study is perhaps an indefensible weaknessof this approach to
data analysis and yet it seemsan unavoidable problem. Although it renders verification of
by
results repetition of the study an extremely tenuous method of validation, it is hoped that
the inclusion of a multitude of representativeexamples in the analysis chaptersthemselves
will serveto corroborate the interpretations made.
Analysis
As noted previously, the analysis of data for this study is two-fold, with the first data
analysis chapter approaching the texts using discourse analysis and the second analysing
the data from a structuralist perspective. Although the data collection and coding stagesof
the researchwere common to both approaches,there was obviously divergencein the actual
analysis of the texts due to the different theoretical aims of each technique. Therefore, this
data
in
first
discourse
the
to
the
analysis chapter. An
section refers only
analysis employed
be
included
in
in
the next
the
the
techniques
structuralist analysis will
explication of
used
section along with a consideration of some of the underlying theories of structuralism.
The analysis of the coded material was based on the search for patterns in the data - either
in terms of shared features or differences in the stories and interviews. The overall goal
dominant
deconstruct
'taken-for-grantedness'
the
the
the
to
of
child star in
reading
of
was
in
by
identifying
frequently
This
themes
and
used words, phrases
was achieved
our culture.
100
the stories about child stars in the press which constituted them as a subject in a particular
way, and then to contextualise the stories in relation to wider themes and discourses
concerning childhood, celebrity, success,transgression and stigma.
Having described the social construction of the child star as transgressiveand deviant, the
aim then was to identify common methods of justification, rationalisation or interpretation
by
of experience the child stars themselvesas evident in the interviews and autobiographies
that formed part of the data set.
In order to develop hypotheses about the function and consequenceof the patterns of
language evident in the material it was useful to draw on theorists as diverse as Mary
Douglas (1966) and Erving Goffman (1963) on the themesof transgressionand stigma.
Goffman's analysis of the social taboo of stigma provided a particularly helpful theoretical
scaffold for the interpretation of the interview and autobiographical data.
By
conceptualising child stardom as a stigma it was possible to read the interview responses
and narratives of former child stars as attempts to display 'authenticity' and to realign
themselves with the social norms which had been transgressed-a pattern of justification
that could be read as a direct responseto the negative way in which they are constructedby
the mass media. It was this reading of the data as indicative of the child star as helplessly
decision
led
by
definitions
the
to
that
to
constructed and constrained
cultural and social
focus this section of the analysis on the powerlessnessof the child star, and by default, on
the powerlessnessof children in our society more generally to escapethe expectationsand