https://www.google.com/amp/www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/04/24/erin-morans-final-days-fellow-former-child-stars-were-trying-to-help.amp.html
Erin Moran who played Joanie on happy days committed suicide Saturday. The head of the child star group comments a lot in the article. Says things like:
we were like family. We tried to help her. The past week half a dozen of us were doing what we could with the resources we had. She was in a dark room and couldn't find the switch.
I found the title interesting and the child advocacy guys comments interesting - as if they all struggled with child stardom. Is abuse the reason why?
Last paragraph talks about her writing a memoirs titled happy days depressing nights.
Here's the article:
The final days of Erin Moran’s life were plagued with instability as the star shuffled around various locations in Indiana’s Harrison County while her fellow former child actors tried in vain to get her the help she needed.
Moran, 56, was found dead Saturday by emergency responders after a dispatcher for the Harrison County sheriff's department received a 911 call.
An autopsy is pending.
According to the Indianapolis Star archives, the actress who played Joanie Cunningham on “Happy Days” was last known to be living at a Holiday Inn Express in Corydon, where she was spotted in September 2012.
Before that, it was reported the star had been staying in a trailer park with her husband Steve Fleischmann and his sick mother. The couple first settled in Indiana in 2011, the local paper reports.
Her distance from her California support system of former child stars may have contributed to her struggles, according to Paul Petersen, of the child-actor advocacy group A Minor Consideration.
“She was so far away in Indiana,” Petersen lamented in a Facebook post early Sunday morning. “The help she ran from was right here, as close as a call.”
Petersen, himself a former child star on “The Donna Reed Show,” said the group did its best for Moran.
“I am proud of our efforts over the years to help Erin Moran whose troubles were many and complex. Don’t doubt for a moment that we tried…sincerely tried through time and treasure…to give comfort to one of our own.
“At least a half-dozen [former child stars] were actively reaching out to Erin in the last week of her life... From Paris to London, from New York to LA, our members were in there pitching, doing what they could to help. Do not doubt that for a minute.
“Erin had friends and she knew it. Abandonment was not the issue... We did our best with the resources available to us, but it was a very dark room. Some don’t find the light switch in time.”
Moran admitted in past interviews that she struggled after “Happy Days” and “Joanie Loves Chachi” came to an end.
Still, she said in 2009 she had fond memories of her time on the shows and she seemed to harbor no ill feelings toward her famous cast mates.
"What happened with all of us was like we were this family," Moran told Xfinity in 2009. "It was so surreal with all the cast members. ... They were my family, get it?"
In 2011, she and former "Happy Days" stars Marion Ross, Anson Williams and Donnie Most sued CBS, saying they were owed money for merchandising related to the show. The lawsuit was settled the following year.
Moran told Xfinity that she had been working on a memoir, called "Happy Days, Depressing Nights."
"OH Erin... now you will finally have the peace you wanted so badly here on earth," co-star Henry Winkler, who played Fonzie, tweeted Saturday. "Rest In It serenely now.. too soon."
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Forgetmenot ago
At some point there needs to be a class action law suit on the child endangerment that goes on in Hollywood. it is obvious that there is institutional child abuse in the entertainment industry. So many children in Hollywood end up sexually and emotionally abused but also financially destitute and often their own parents are the ones putting them in harms way. I myself would advocate banning the use of anyone under the age of 18 in Hollywood. It would severely limit their ability to push their pedo and sexual deviant agenda on the masses.!
Tyranny-News-Network ago
I'm absolutely on board with you there. And I've been researching the employment of children by the media in recent months as part of a bigger media reform project. But, if there's one specific issue that's most concerning and a part of the "system" most broken it's exploitation of children.
I can't hire a 9 year old to work in my factory. But, if I'm a Hollywood producer I can hire them to work for my studio, in my film or TV production. WTF? Child labor laws allow this under certain conditions, but can I hire a child to work in my factory under "certain conditions?" Hell no.
Forgetmenot ago
You bring up an interesting point. Wow. Historically children's age of consent was tied to labor laws regarding children. There was a movement to raise the age of consent but also to protect children from abusive labor practice. It was called the purity movement. B cause of the activism of a small group of fanatics who demanded the age of consent be raised to I believe 16 children were then entitltled to schooling and shorter working hours. Interestingly enough up until that time pedofilia was a common and accepted practice. It's interesting that you made the connection between child labor laws and child exploitation in Hollywood. Bravo.