Hawaii would join other states in protecting earnings for childhood entertainers under a House bill that’s scheduled to be voted on today by the full Senate.
House Bill 874 would require parents and guardians of minors who work in Hawaii’s entertainment industry to create trust funds in their name, to be managed by a third party, until the child turns 18.
HB 874 would apply only to minors making $5,000 for an individual project or $20,000 in a calendar year and would require 15% of the earnings to be deposited directly by their employer.
The House version of the bill was amended in the Senate, leaving it up to both chambers to reach a comprise if it passes the Senate vote.
The bill was modeled after the so-called Coogan Law, which California passed in 1939 after 1920s-
era childhood star Jackie Coogan learned as an adult that his parents had mismanaged his
finances.
His experience, and the California law that followed, led other states to require similar protections for child entertainers in New York, Illinois, Louisiana and New Mexico.
HB 874 would protect the earnings of Hawaii’s childhood entertainers, including actors, models and social media
influencers.
Unlike the Coogan law, HB 874 would allow a parent or guardian to access the trust fund before the child turns 18 as long as the money goes to “the benefit of the minor.”
Mark and Joanne Parrish support passage of HB 874 because they saw other parents of child entertainers use their children’s money for themselves after they and their daughter, Janel, moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career.
“I don’t want to whitewash it and say that kind of thing doesn’t happen. It does,” Mark said. “We saw it personally, where kids lost all of the money that they had earned.”
“It was parents who maybe
did not have a lot of money and couldn’t afford to do what they were doing with their children
unless they took some of that money,” he said.
The Parrishes said they were financially able to support Janel after she was cast in her first major role, as Cosette at the age of 6, in the national tour of the Broadway musical “Les Miserables.”
Joanne Parrish was able to use vacation time as an occupational therapist with the state to take time off to tour with her daughter in the early days of her career.
Mark Parrish was an independent real estate broker in Hawaii and worked as his daughter’s business manager for the
majority of her early career.
Although her performance as young Cosette
began in Honolulu, the show was based in New York, which required that 15% of her earnings be placed into a trust, just as HB 874 would do.
“I’m for any laws that are passed that protect kids,” Mark Parrish said.
“‘Les Mis,’ that was the first time that account had to be opened before Janel started work,” he told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser outside the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall, where Janel Parrish had her first show on tour at the age of 6.
Eric Nemoto founded The Actors Group Theatre 30 years ago and has worked in Hawaii as an actor, producer and director for decades.
Nemoto hasn’t heard of anyone in Hawaii being financially taken advantage of as a child, but acknowledged it could be happening.
“I don’t doubt that there is an incident,” he said.
Nemoto supports HB 874 as long as it gives parents access to the money in order to cover out-of-pocket expenses that include their children’s education.
“If parents can access it for their benefit, I would assume that that would include using it for private schools, college, private tutoring for acting,” Nemoto said.
“That would be an appropriate compromise where you could safely assure that what the minor was earning, he or she could benefit from.”
Grace Hall has worked
on three seasons of “NCIS: Hawaii” as a full-time stand-in.
Hall submitted testimony in support of a version of HB 847 as an industry professional in Hawaii’s
television industry to “ensure they (child entertainers) are protected under the law.”
The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which represents over 1,400 recording artists and media professionals in Hawaii, also submitted written testimony in support of HB 874.
Mericia Palma Elmore, executive director at Hawaii’s local SAG-AFTRA, wrote that HB 874 represents an important step for Hawaii’s entertainment industry.
“Passage of this bill will help protect our most vulnerable performers.”
