bjgreen
By Betsy J. Green
Santa Barbara kids were happy to be in the “Flying A” movies, and it was all fun and games until an official from the State Labor Commission came here in October 1915 at the request of the Santa Barbara superintendent of schools. Apparently, only children aged 12 and up were allowed to work in movies.
The president of the studio responded, “The work of children in moving pictures is play, not labor . . . It is a form of education and recreation in itself . . . Furthermore, the children who have worked for the American [film studio] in Santa Barbara have been as well paid as the grownups.”
(I occasionally hear from folks who talk about their parents or grandparents working for the “Flying A” as kids. I wonder what those former kids said about their experience in the movies?)
