been digging into the John Landis Twilight Zone trial from 1987. found some interesting things, notably a mental health/child actors connection. Donna Schuman's husband, psychiatrist Harold Schuman, helped find the child actors in the Twilight Zone film through his mental health work in LA's Asian community. the casting director Marci Liroff also worked on ET, Poltergeist, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which all featured child actors.
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long article worth reading here: washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1987/03/18/risk-and-reality-hollywood-on-trial/af2e50bb-dd76-4edd-be1c-921d83281314/
"That Landis conceived this idea and sold it to Warner Bros. is not under dispute, but what happened next, in large measure, is. It is agreed by both sides that a production secretary named Donna Schuman asked her husband, who worked at a mental health center that served Asian immigrants, to help Landis find the children, and that the two selected were a 6-year-old Taiwanese girl named Renee Chen and a 7-year-old American-born Vietnamese boy named Myca Dinh Lee.
It is agreed that the children were hired illegally, with the permission of their parents, but without the work permits required by the state. It is agreed that they were hired to work at night, considerably past the curfew normally set for child actors. It is agreed that they died, as did Vic Morrow, when the helicopter crashed on them in the midst of a series of mortar explosions, one of which had been set off by a technician who did not look up and note the position of the helicopter as he fired. It is agreed also that Morrow was killed before he was able to utter his principal line in the scene being filmed: "I'll keep you safe, kids," Morrow was supposed to have said. "I promise. Nothing will hurt you. I swear to God."
Marci Liroff, the casting agent who was helping Landis select speaking actors for his picture, testified that she told Landis the hiring of the children would be illegal for the night scenes, and that the plan sounded dangerous. Virginia Kearns, a hair stylist on the set, testified that she overheard a script supervisor tell Landis the shot should not be done, that it was dangerous, and that Landis told the supervisor to " 'shut up.' " Donna Schuman testified that she overheard two of the codefendants discussing an assistant director's worry about the children, and that one of them laughed and said Landis would not stand for any substitute for the real thing."
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Harold Schuman's obit: legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?pid=186227028
"November 25, 1925 - July 21, 2017 Hal was a husband, father, grandfather, brother, cousin and friend. USNR 1943-46, USC Medical School, licensed in Psychiatry 1950. He loved cooking, sailing, rodeos, wine, jazz, show business and animals. Requested that his only memorial be remembering him with a smile.
Published in the Los Angeles Times from July 28 to July 29, 2017"