DeCordova's telescopic fallacy

Ethnographic and Exhibition: The Child Audience, the Hays Office, and Saturday Matinees by Richard DeCordova and "The Telescopic Fallacy"
DeCordova's article discusses the commencement of the matinee movement in the United States. His emphasis focuses on the "set of initiatives that attempted to 'place' the child at the movies- the children's matinee movements of the 1910 and 1920s, and particularly the Hays Office efforts if 1925." (DeCordova, 235) The movement that DeCordova speaks of is not as simple or as small as he portrays it to be. The concept of the matinee and "childhood as a construction" are notions that fall under a much broader topic. DeCordova's view is quite myopic as it references the telescopic fallacy in "Historian's Fallacies" by David Hackett Fischer. In the telescopic fallacy- "a long story is made short. It appears in interpretations which reduce an extended trend to a momentary transformation." (Fisher, 147) As we pull back from the matinee movement a much bigger issue is illuminated. This issue is directly correlated to the matinee movement but is not mentioned in DeCordova's article.
The matinee as a concept was not a spontaneous venture; there were many factors that contributed to its existence and permanence. Looking at this issue from a governmental perspective, the construction of childhood has been slowly forming since the 1800s as more and more states begin to adopt and enforce policies to protect children. Child labor laws must be taken into account when speaking of the construction of childhood and its impact on the motion picture industry. The only way that matinees and "children's movies" could survive is if children are functioning as a demographic that is inherently unemployed. Therefore, if I were to retrospectively analyze the matinee movement again, I would focus on the timeline of child labor laws in the United States. I think that there would be an interesting parallel as the establishment of child labor laws also signifies the foundation of a child audience for the cinema.
-Leila Estes