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Life & Times Transcript

09/26/06

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

In an era of lawsuits and agents, being Santa Claus takes a lot of training.

Santa Ric Erwin>> I've been an entertainer for thirty years and I've seen fads come and go, but Santa is like disco on steroids with no end game. It is just getting bigger.

Val Zavala>> And then, it's a far cry from iTunes. What happens when you raise the curtains on "Tosca" for teens who have never seen an opera?

These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times.

Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val Zavala>> You may think it's strange that we're doing a story about Santa Claus this time of year, but what you may not realize is that being Santa these days is serious business and, if you don't know what you're doing, you could get sued. Hena Cuevas takes a look at what Santas have to learn before they go to work.

Hena Cuevas>> There's no snow, reindeer or mistletoe, but for one day, this conference room in San Dimas is Los Angeles's branch of the North Pole. This is Santa Claus University, or SCU, where these men and women come to learn the secrets of being Santa.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> "We're going to cover a lot of things today. Today is like the tip of an iceberg, okay? There's a lot to be learned."

Hena Cuevas>> It's Dave Blau's first class. He came all the way from Sacramento.

Santa Dave Blau>> I've only done it in so much as I'm walking through Costco or the grocery store, that type of thing. Little kids will look at me and they'll say to their sister, "That's Santa Claus". You know, that's how I've done it, but I've never done it professionally.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> "Knowledge of toys. Very, very important. How many of you started watching Saturday morning cartoons? Okay (laughter)."

Hena Cuevas>> Teaching in the class is fifty-eight year old Tim Connaghan, or Santa Tim. He's been playing Santa Claus for almost forty years.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> "You create happiness. That's what our job is. We create happiness."

Hena Cuevas>> He's part of a group proudly calling themselves the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas. There's over a thousand members worldwide who get together at least once a year. They consider themselves Santa's ambassadors, helping the big boss accomplish his Yuletide mission.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> I won't say there's a chip on our shoulder, but a little pride that we've taken the time and the energy to grow a real beard and to carry on this persona year-round.

Hena Cuevas>> For them, Santa is serious business with high earning potential. Top-notch Santas can make as much as a hundred thousand dollars a year, but getting to that level takes time.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> An average Santa will make eight to ten thousand dollars if they're working in a mall, let's say, but it takes a lot of work to get there. They're not just going to hire a guy off the street. They want someone with experience, someone who has credentials, who can pass a background check.

Hena Cuevas>> But playing Santa nowadays has its liabilities and Santa Tim wants to make sure his students avoid any suspicion of child abuse.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> "The other way is, of course, is the parents bring the child on your lap because this eliminates you having to put your hands under their armpits, things like that. Years ago, that was fine, but now people don't want Santa being that touchy-feely with kids with their hands."

Hena Cuevas>> Also, never ask a child for an address or any other question the parents might find objectionable.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> "Same thing is that your hands are always in the photo. Hands are never behind the child. So if you end up having three children in the picture and you've got a little one here and a couple of kids over here, this hand is way over here. If you can't get your hand over here, bring it back in front and put it right here. This has become a very important thing because liability-wise, some people don't see the hand in the picture and they wonder where is Santa's hand. We don't want to give them any doubt of where Santa's hand is, okay?"

Hena Cuevas>> This is information that Ric Erwin and his wife, Victoria, of Ontario find very useful. They've been working as Mr. and Mrs. Claus for three years.

Santa Ric Erwin>> The touching, I guess, is the evolution that I'm noticing the most. That really wasn't even a part of the business and even quite recently it wasn't even a part of the business, but now we're having to pay a lot more attention to it. That's what I'm paying attention to today.

Hena Cuevas>> Santa Tim also covers insurance issues. What happens if you drop a kid or, even worse --

Santa Tim Connaghan>> "What if you find who's been battered and has come up here? How do you handle things like that? These are things that sometimes you can't be involved with and it's hard."

Hena Cuevas>> The day-long class has been given plenty of information, including a short history of Santa and how the modern day image of the jolly guy in the red suit was spread around the world by Coca-Cola in an ad campaign in the 1930s. Santa Tim also covers those sensitive questions that kids ask. "Does Santa really exist?" "How do reindeer fly?" And --

Santa Tim Connaghan>> "What if you don't have a chimney?" Well, when you don't have a chimney, a lot of Santas have magic keys, okay?"

Hena Cuevas>> One of the main things Santa Tim emphasizes about the business of being Santa Claus is realism because, let's face it, the more realistic Santa looks, the more he can charge. But getting that look isn't cheap and it isn't easy. That's why they get help from specialty shops like this costume store in Hollywood.

Theresa Saidy>> This is the most popular color and the most popular traditional style of Santa.

Hena Cuevas>> Theresa Saidy is the owner of Adele's of Hollywood. Her store specializes in costumes and Santa suits central.

Theresa Saidy>> The Christmas part is more than sixty percent because we have all these shopping centers where we make all these huge numbers of suits which they use throughout the year.

Hena Cuevas>> She estimates they make between six to eight hundred Santa outfits a year.

Theresa Saidy>> This one is a special item. It has the long cape with the imitation rabbit fur imported from England. Then you have the vest and the pants and the hat.

Hena Cuevas>> How much would one of these cost?

Theresa Saidy>> Well, one of these costs about eighteen hundred complete because you have a white shirt. Then you have the vest, the pants, the hat, this cape and then there's another cape if you want to wear two capes.

Hena Cuevas>> Her most expensive one? Almost three thousand dollars, and Santas are demanding more and more detail.

Theresa Saidy>> This Santa came from Georgia to bring me these buttons to put on his suits.

Hena Cuevas>> Oh, it has the names of the reindeer.

Theresa Saidy>> Uh-huh. They're fifty dollars each.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> "A lot of it, though, is what you learn in the chair. What you learn when you're sitting in that chair, when you're talking with the children, when you're working with the families or the photographers, all those things. That's where you really get it. It's on the job training."

Hena Cuevas>> Connaghan's first Santa role was decades ago back in 1969 when he was a soldier in Vietnam. He was only twenty-one when he got his first real Santa job in a department store a few years later. He now has one of the most coveted jobs in the Santa business, the official Santa of the Hollywood Parade.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> "Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone at home! Ho, ho, ho!"

Hena Cuevas>> And in case you're wondering, yes, the beards stay on year-round and take a good amount of primping and plenty of bleach.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> I think I'm more careful sometimes, you know. If somebody cuts me off on the freeway, all I do is wave. I'm a different person. Santa is a different person and you have to be that way all the time.

Hena Cuevas>> Now you may be thinking that Santas can make good money, but it's seasonal work at best. Think again. This year in the middle of a warm and sunny September, the Los Angeles County Fair set up a Winter Wonderland with beach sand and an umbrella for a vacationing Santa Ric.

Santa Ric Erwin>> "Everybody, big Santa smile and say Christmas tree!"

Santa Ric Erwin>> It is just unbelievable how this business is growing. I'm in it. I've been in entertainment for thirty years and I've seen fads come and go, but Santa is like disco on steroids with no end game. It is just getting bigger.

Hena Cuevas>> If vacation Santas catch on, Santas could be working summers as well. But all legalities and business aside, these men say the essence of being Santa hasn't changed.

Santa Tim Connaghan>> That's where the memories are built. The kids build their memories on what they've experienced and you have to give them that experience.

Santa Ric Erwin>> When you put those boots on and you start clomping, clomping, clomping, and you've got that big outfit and that fur swishing and you got these big hand movements, people are getting out of your way and traffic is backing up, man, I'll tell you what, it's a good thing they don't let me near tall buildings because I might try to fly.

Santa Ric Erwin>> "Have fun. I'll see you at Christmas. Bye-bye."

Hena Cuevas>> I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times.

Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times".

Val Zavala>> It's been happening for decades. Small family-run farms are being eaten up by agribusiness or selling out to development. But is there really any way that a small farm can compete with a big corporation? Well, you'd be surprised. As Toni Guinyard tells us, a little creativity seems to be the ticket.

Toni Guinyard>> An occasional visit to a roadside produce stand is often the closest many southern California residents come to getting a taste of what farm life is all about. The visits give customers a chance to buy fresh produce and give farmers a chance to get to know their customers, but many family farmers say it's not enough. They've found they must alter the way they do business to stay in business.

Craig Underwood>> We started doing direct marketing as a consequence to the fact that we were having trouble competing with larger and larger producers in the produce business.

Toni Guinyard>> For many years, the Underwood Farm produce stand has helped do what Craig Underwood wanted so much to accomplish: connect people with their food. It's a classic example of direct marketing.

Judy Blue>> Direct marketing is selling directly from the farm to the consumers so they can get the best, the high seller.

Toni Guinyard>> But the business depends on the volume sold. Family farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to lure people from the city to the produce stand, so they're being forced to become more and more creative in finding ways to make ends meet.

Craig Underwood>> As we got into direct marketing produce, we soon discovered that people weren't going to be attracted out here just to buy fruits and vegetables because the supermarkets are doing an increasingly better job of marketing and quality. So we needed other reasons to get people out here.

Toni Guinyard>> Underwood is a fourth generation farmer. He's also a man willing to take a risk. He began using less than traditional methods to expand his farm operation, making it a destination for more than just purchasing produce. He has transformed a trip to the farm into a farm experience complete with the Farm Animal Center. It is the fastest growing segment of business at Underwood Farm, making the farm a rural oasis just a stone's throw away from city life. Behind you, you have two wagons of kids.

Craig Underwood>> Yeah.

Toni Guinyard>> Is that part of your entertainment?

Craig Underwood>> Part of the entertainment-education. You know, we bundle the two together because we feel that, in order to educate, you have to entertain.

Toni Guinyard>> It's called agritourism, farms becoming tourist attractions by providing a mix of entertainment while educating visitors about farming and of the farmers' role in the community.

Judy Blue>> Agritourism is sort of a new buzz word here. Underwood is doing a wonderful job where they have schools come out on field trips and they have animal farms and they have You-Pick.

Craig Underwood>> Well, right now it's up to a third of our overall business, so that's significant. It's a less risky venture than conventional growing which potentially you can lose thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in conventional farming.

Phil McGrath>> Farming is great, and this is the best farm ground in the world.

Toni Guinyard>> Miles away, another farm, a different approach to business. The three hundred acre McGrath Family Farm sits within view of the 101 Freeway in Camarillo. The family has been farming in the area since 1871, each generation responding to changes in the industry.

Phil McGrath>> Being fifty-five miles north of downtown Los Angeles and surrounded by development, we are now farming just thirty acres of the three hundred acres. But everything I grow is for direct marketing.

Toni Guinyard>> Direct marketing. It's a method of sales shared by McGrath and Underwood. Both men have taken very different approaches to boosting business, but farmers markets have been a mainstay for small family farmers for more than twenty years.

[Film Clip]

Toni Guinyard>> But the popularity of farmers markets comes with a cost.

Phil McGrath>> Competition at the farmers markets is very high right now. We definitely were learning to crawl in the 1980's, stood up and started running in the 1990's, and now there's a farmers market on every block, on every corner, every day of the week, anytime, anywhere.

Toni Guinyard>> Farmers markets only represent a fraction of McGrath's overall business. Restaurants are a significantly larger source of his income. McGrath Family Farms sells organic produce to more than forty area restaurants.

Phil McGrath>> When I walk into a restaurant and see my name, McGrath Family Farms, on the menu highlighting lettuce or strawberries, it's really cool.

Toni Guinyard>> The Rodriguez brothers aren't as fortunate. A decade ago, Tony and Reynaldo Rodriguez purchased an eighteen acre strawberry farm in Oxnard. It's the only crop they grow.

Tony Rodriguez>> We have to sell a lot of berries in the farmers market here and there. Ten years ago, it was real nice and enjoyable. We don't have a lot of competition. But right now, we have like thousands and thousands of acres like in Ventura County and you got to fight with the big companies and it's pretty hard to survive. Real tough.

Toni Guinyard>> Now forty percent of their income is made by selling strawberries at farmers markets.

Reynaldo Rodriguez>> Before, it used to be like only two or three strawberry growers selling theirs in farmers markets. Now it's like seven to ten different booths with the same product.

Tony Rodriguez>> We make less a month and we can't afford it.

Toni Guinyard>> But yet you continue doing it.

Tony Rodriguez>> Right now, probably it's our last year.

Judy Blue>> As soon as the farmer has no more business, they'll be selling their land to developers and then this will all be gone. This way of life will be gone.

Toni Guinyard>> Judy Blue is on a mission to make sure that does not happen. As General Manager of the Gold Coast Growers Collaborative, Blue is the marketer, public relations representation and spokesperson for more than thirty southern California family farms.

Judy Blue>> All around us is housing developments and, without the small family farmer, one, we have urban sprawl.

Toni Guinyard>> Blue is out to change the way the public thinks about farmers and buying produce. She's an advocate of direct marketing and a supporter of new ways to deal with the old issue of farm survival.

Judy Blue>> We need to look at other avenues. One is agritourism which is a wonderful one, and I would love to see expanded here in Ventura County into other farms. The other is into schools and institutions.

Toni Guinyard>> The Gold Coast Growers Collaborative is helping forge a relationship between local family farmers and schools.

Jim Churchill>> We wanted to build a local direct market for local growers, so it seemed like all of those things would work together if we could sell to school lunch programs.

Judy Blue>> It's really important for people to realize that, if they buy local produce, they'll be able to get the best tasting fruits and vegetables for their money and they'll be able to preserve the land.

Phil McGrath>> You can get your fruit from Chile, Australia, Spain, Mexico, or you can actually try and be conscious of the California seasons. Everybody thinks this is the endless summer. Well, it's not.

Tony Rodriguez>> If the government brings vegetables from Mexico, from all over, they don't support us to keep growing.

Toni Guinyard>> And that's the goal: to keep going and stay in business. They may define success differently, but these family farmers have all embraced one slogan.

Phil McGrath>> Buy fresh, buy local.

Toni Guinyard>> Convincing the public to forego convenience and go the extra mile for fresh produce is the challenge. I'm Toni Guinyard for Life and Times.

Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address:

Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val Zavala>> It's the definition of culture clash, three thousand restless, fidgety teenagers coming to the opera, but that's exactly what happens twice a year here at the Music Center and you'd be amazed at the results.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> Backstage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In less than an hour, the curtain will rise and one of Puccini's most popular operas, the tragic story of "Tosca".

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> And outside, an eager audience. But these are not your typical patrons. They are three thousand excited, noisy teenagers, middle and high school students who usually get their music fix from Napster and MTV, but today will be different. Today they will see their first opera.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> Twice a year for the past fifteen years, the Los Angeles Opera has invited students to the Music Center for a free performance.

Stacy Brightman>> Not just a dress rehearsal, but the full-on production, full orchestra, sets, costumes, cast, everything.

Val Zavala>> Stacy Brightman is in charge of the Los Angeles Opera's youth program. Their message is simple.

Stacy Brightman>> We are so excited that you are coming to the opera. We can't wait to see you at our opera house.

Val Zavala>> Their dress may be more casual and they may make more noise, but don't be fooled. These kids have been preparing for weeks. The Los Angeles Opera spends several hundred thousand dollars on the program. Teachers must apply and agree to design lesson plans.

Stacy Brightman>> After all of this, after the teachers do their lessons, we've given them all these materials, a gift from us for them to keep, our volunteers go, these kids are ready. They come as one of the most prepared audiences you're ever going to see at an opera house.

Val Zavala>> The house has gone from empty to full and finally the time has come for the curtain to rise. "Tosca" is a classic crowd-pleaser. The setting is Rome, 1900. It's the story of a singer, Floria Tosca. Her lover hides a political fugitive in a church and, over the course of three acts, Tosca is forced to give in to a nefarious police chief who plots to find the fugitive and forces Tosca to give in to his lustful desires.

Stacy Brightman>> The idea is, you know, we want to share a love and knowledge of this art form that brings in all the art forms together, incorporates all the art forms, and there is no better way to bring people into it but literally to bring them into it, to have them experience it in its most grand, beautiful, sweeping fashion.

Val Zavala>> The stage is getting set for the next act and here's something even season ticket holders won't see. The curtains are being left open so you can see the set changes between acts. That's so the students get a chance to see what's going on behind the curtains.

Stacy Brightman>> Any time there's an opera performance, it's an event. It takes so many people, you know, whether it's sixty-five or eighty-five people in the orchestra, another one hundred people on stage, another hundred fifty people backstage, all doing their jobs at exactly the right moment.

Val Zavala>> And what do these first-time opera goers think so far?

Stephanie Mercado>> It's great.

Val Zavala>> Why do you like it?

Stephanie Mercado>> Because you can actually see all the action happening and you can actually feel or sense things that are happening.

Ralph Corrales>> I think the opera was good because, when Tosca killed Scarpia, I think Scarpia actually deserved to die.

Val Zavala>> Was that the most exciting part?

Kenya Darden>> For me, I think that was.

Val Zavala>> What character did you like best and what is she
feeling?

Kenya Darden>> Tosca.

Val Zavala>> Why?

Kenya Darden>> Anger, misery --

Val Zavala>> -- jealousy?

Kenya Darden>> Disappointment.

Val Zavala>> Have you ever been jealous of somebody?

Kenya Darden>> No.

Val Zavala>> No? Never?

Kenya Darden>> Well, one person.

Val Zavala>> It's time for the dramatic final act. Tosca and her lover, Cavaradossi, are reunited. She has bargained for his life and gotten the police chief to promise that the execution will be a mock execution. She tells her lover to fake his death, but what Tosca doesn't realize is that the evil police chief, Scarpia, has gone back on his word.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> Tosca realizes in horror that her lover is dead. She makes the ultimate decision and climbs to the top of the parapet.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> It doesn't bother you that everybody ends up dying at the end?

Ralph Corrales>> I know that it's fake, but I could go along with it.

Ruben Ruiz>> Floria Tosca fights for her love and, at the end because she couldn't have him, she lived for her music and love. And because she didn't have love, she died.

Val Zavala>> But for some students, the performance isn't over. There's a special treat in store for the kids who had to watch from the balcony. This is not a place for anyone who's afraid of heights.

Stacy Brightman>> We're able to bring our three leading artists and only the kids up in the balcony get to have this kind of, you know, special question and answer time. They really get to feel like they know who the artists are and actually even our Tosca started to speak (laughter).

>> "All right, one note."

[Film Clip]

>> "You notice, or maybe not, when we're singing on stage, we never sing directly in someone's ear ever."

>> "Or you're not supposed to (laughter)."

Val Zavala>> The three leads are a hit on and off the stage, but will this day at the opera make an impact long-term?

Stacy Brightman>> I'm getting college students that are volunteering for us today because it's the same thing. They came as a student five years ago and maybe they got hooked.

Val Zavala>> What will you tell them when you go home tonight?

Stephanie Mercado>> It's going to look like a huge palace with lots of people in it and all the sounds will come to them and they will feel like they're really in it.

Val Zavala>> Do you think you could sing like they could? You could grow up to be an opera singer then.

Kenya Darden>> I know.

Stacy Brightman>> We're starting to actually have that generation of people who can grow up with opera and that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to make it possible for people to grow up with opera in Los Angeles.

Val Zavala>> If you'd like to learn more about the Los Angeles Opera's outreach program, you can go to their website at losangelesopera.com. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Sponsored in part by:


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