The MOTION PICTURE & TELEVISION FUND's Wasserman Campus provides a place to thrive for retired industry professionals.
The campus is entered at Stephen Spielberg Drive. The 22 acre site is beautifully maintained with walking paths through manicured gardens, Koi ponds, topiary, statuary, cottages, apartments, a state of the art movie theater, there's even a small production studio, exercise facilities, pool complex, library, medical facilities, dining rooms, and much, much more.
Eligibility requires years of activity in the motion picture and/or television Industries. You must be 70 years or older to register; to be able to share "war" stories with your funny, warm, and brilliant colleagues. (Certain medical conditions allow for earlier entry.)
I registered at MPTF at 70 years. Thirteen years later, I updated my application from inactive to active.
Then the process got serious.
Admission required supplying years of medical and financial records. Even our dog's vaccination records were required. (Pets are allowed.)
After analysing our records, we were invited to 3 hours of meetings with a social worker, nurse, recreational therapist, and the move-in coordinator. Each listened to our personal experiences and painted a picture of what to expect at MPTF. Several hours later, a telephone call notified my wife and myself, that we were invited to join the community.
We hired a downsizing expert to help with the move. Seems that living for years in the same home leads to collections of many, many things.
After days of packing and donating, Precision Moving, led by a team headed by Jose, moved us in a couple of days. (Not a single item was broken.)
It is common knowledge that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth. Well, I’ve reevaluated. Here, everyone is welcoming. Quite honestly, it feels as though we had joined a production on the first day of a shoot. We are greeted by welcoming, warm people, both colleagues and MPTF's staff.
The campus is beautifully manicured. We have moved into a modern, comfortable cottage.
The dining room is comfortable. The menu changes daily. The meals are delicious and well presented. I'm doing a bit of vegan cooking in our cottage's tiny kitchen, although the Chef's encompassing menu includes several vegan dishes.
Today, at a community meeting with Chef Dan and members of MPTF staff, the residents discussed additions and changes to the current menu. I'm told, after these meetings, many of the suggestions are followed. An electric cart carried us to the event across campus.
I'm writing this review after our second week as residents. I'll update.
If you're wondering how MPTF came to life, the story.
The glare of electric current arcing between carbon rods produced choking smoke. Movie making required unwieldy, dangerous equipment. Production hours are impossibly long. Stunts are often too real. The "below-the-line" workers, the "little people" lived and died in poverty.
Something needed to be done.
Relief began with coin boxes on production stages and commissaries where employed industry workers could drop spare change to help support their unemployed colleagues.
Over a hundred years ago "The Motion Picture Relief Fund" came to life by the actions of "above-the-line" actors, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and director, D.W. Griffith. They realized the need to reach out to those, in the business, who fell upon hard times.
Today, top industry professionals (i.e., director, Steven Spielberg and actors, George Clooney, Tom Cruise and Jodie Foster) support and help grow the renamed The Motion Picture & Television Fund.
October 2024 by Susy Q
A wonderful place to life
October 2024 by EB VR (K76)
Excellent
September 2024 by J.A. Sanders
The MP&TF has done so much to help a dear family friend in her twilight years, and every time I've come to visit has been wonderful. I really wish I could move in, too, because this is such a fantastic place. I don't get to visit as much as I would like, because most of my year is spent living in Greater Cincinnati. I try to make up for it by my monetary contributions to the MP&TF. I'm proud to be a donor to this great organization, and I thank them for all that they do for their residents, guests, and to the motion picture community in Los Angeles.
June 2024 by Dorinda Carey
My People....
April 2024 by Simon N
Nice place
November 2023 by Laurella Fead
My father is a patient there and they take wonderful care of him ❤️ ♥️
November 2023 by CLee Vincent
I hope this place has great people working there..if I lived closer, I would work there..
November 2023 by Roberto Perez
Nice place for elderly care
June 2023 by Giannina Roggiero
Wonderful wonderful organization and people. ❤️?
May 2023 by Mandy S
They do not "take care of their own" as they claim.
December 2022 by Maria Marquez
Honestly love the way staff treats the residents and the way the company treats their staff. Amazing hospital.
December 2022 by NEIL ELLIOTT DORVAL
I have performed at the Motion Picture Fund for many years. The staff is fantastic, and take great care of the resident patients. The facility is extremely clean. Neil Dorval
November 2022 by Rachel Berman
Great community ?
April 2022 by Jerry August
Very nice area. The studio bungalows are tiny, 310 square feet but the common dining room is nice and the menu was enticing. Didn't get to see the pool area or the movie theater due to COVID restrictions. The bungalows are kept up beautifully. It's hard to believe that they were built in 1942. Amazing history.
