The Little People

The Best Actress winner clutches her Oscar and basks in the adulation of her peers. She ends her acceptance speech by thanking "all the little people who made this possible."

Your Humble Blogger doesn't know if that line is from an actual Oscar acceptance speech, or if it's just one of those things that someone supposedly said, but really didn't. For example, Cary Grant never really said "Judy, Judy, Judy!" in any of his films.

But the "little people" in the movies are real. Whether in front of the camera, or well behind it, normal working folks are involved in all phases of movie production. In fact, you may know some of them. The Los Angeles Times reported on the difficult time that some movie industry support people have had finding work in recent years.

With Sunday's Academy Awards still fresh in our minds, let's hear from one of those little people. Dean Smith was a stunt man for four decades, doing the dangerous things that movie stars couldn't or wouldn't do. NPR reports.

Questions...

•There are fewer stunt men and women today than there were in Dean Smith's time. Why? Is the decline of stunt people a good thing or a bad thing?

•What are some of the less glamorous movie jobs that people have? How are these jobs good for the local economy?

•Movies require a lot of equipment and services that the studios and production companies have to rent or buy. What are some of the TV and movie-related businesses that exist locally?

•Are movie jobs really any better than insurance jobs or coal mining jobs or restaurant jobs? Is there any reason why California should give special attention to protecting movie jobs?

BONUS MATERIAL: Here is a page with some famous Oscar acceptance speeches.