‘The program’s no good for people who just need help--there are plenty of those. It only works if they want help.’ : One Man’s Quiet But Relentless Crusade Against Drugs, Alcohol

Ted, a 36-year-old wardrobe man for a major studio, had been thrown out of his home by his wife and was living in a car while supporting a $1,000-a-day cocaine habit. He had been kicked off the set of several television shows, and now the studio he worked for threatened to do the same thing.

Then came a phone call from a man Ted had never met, telling him that, if he wanted help, he should come to a place called Studio 12 first thing Monday morning.

“If you aren’t there by 9 a.m.,” the voice said, “don’t bother showing up.”

The voice belonged to a man named Tom Kenny.

When film and television industry employees hear the name for the first time, it usually is because all of their other options have run out. Kenny is the substance abuse program director for the Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF). The MPTF is a charitable organization that for 65 years has provided financial, medical and social services to employees in the entertainment industry.

Since taking the position as substance abuse director five years ago, Kenny has launched a quiet but relentless crusade to help people in the movie industry kick their alcohol and drug habits and to help employers develop more effective treatment programs.

Founded Cocaine Anonymous

Kenny, a recovering alcoholic for 15 years, founded Cocaine Anonymous in 1981, responding to what he saw to be a growing national problem. Based on the Alcoholics Anonymous program, Cocaine Anonymous now holds 125 regular meetings in Los Angeles and has chapters in 22 states.

Kenny also was a consultant to other agencies around the country interested in establishing drug treatment programs. With his help, for example, Chicago has set up a successful program called Lifeline to combat cocaine addiction.

But the accomplishment that perhaps has given Kenny the most personal satisfaction was the establishment in 1981 of Studio 12, an in-house substance abuse treatment program for entertainment industry employees. The motion picture fund had just purchased the house when Kenny was brought on board to head its alcohol and drug abuse program.

3-Day Detox Program

“At the time, the MPTF had a three-day detox program, but that was about it,” he said. “For many of the guys, that was barely enough time to get the alcohol out of them. Most of them needed longer care.”

To get the program rolling, Kenny needed referrals. “I went out and talked with business agents and personnel directors, spoke at union gatherings and had flyers put up all around the studios that said to call me with drug or alcohol problems.”

Hospitals in Los Angeles and the Valley were alerted to the availability of follow-up care. Within a short time, the house had a list of people wanting to get in.

Kenny’s apparent ability to cut through tangled emotions and put people back on the road to recovery did not come through any formal training. Thrown out of a boys Catholic high school for what he calls “alcoholic drinking” at age 16, Kenny never graduated. Instead, Kenny said, he has advanced degrees from the school of hard knocks. Now 50, Kenny said that, for several years, he “bummed around the country getting in and out of trouble” because of his alcoholism. After returning to his hometown of Waterbury, Conn., he was in an alcohol-related car accident that killed the driver and required Kenny to undergo surgery 26 times over the next 13 years.

After achieving sobriety through a 12-step agenda that Kenny uses in his own recovery program, he was hired to direct a women’s alcohol rehabilitation center in Springfield, Mass. From there he moved to the West Coast, directing the substance abuse programs at Bellflower City Hospital and Costa Mesa Hospital before being offered the position at the Motion Picture and Television Fund.

From the outside, there is little to suggest that the two-story, four-bedroom house is not a typical family dwelling. Situated in a residential neighborhood in North Hollywood, Studio 12’s layout--with a large living room, dining room and pool in the backyard--is much like the houses that surround it. Studio 12 houses up to nine men for what generally ends up being a two- to four-week stay. The men share household responsibilities including cooking, cleaning and laundry.

Besides agreeing to use no chemical substances and to undergo random drug testing, the men must adhere to the house schedule of meetings and counseling sessions. A psychologist, marriage counselor, financial counselor and several therapists are on staff.

Tells of Advantages

Kenny believes that the program has several advantages over hospital chemical dependency units, both for those with drug or alcohol problems and the studios.

“For one, all of the people are from the same industry, and so what happens is, you end up building a strong support system for the person when he returns to work,” Kenny said. “If there are people you’ve gone through the program with who are working on the same show you are, there’s another clean and sober person to turn to if you need to. It makes it more difficult to slip and start using again.”

Even the ones who do “slip” sometimes get another chance, Kenny said. “I just took another guy back into Studio 12 who’d had six months of sobriety. He took one drink because he thought he could handle it. I give a man a second try if he has put some effort into it. But the program’s no good for people who just need help--there are plenty of those. It only works if they want help.”

Another advantage to the program is its cost of $100 a day, contrasted with $400 to $500 a day for a more traditional stay at a hospital chemical dependency unit. Only 60% of the people who go through Studio 12 have insurance, and the Motion Picture and Television Fund picks up the tab for the rest. More than 500 men have gone through the program.

Not Medical Facility

Studio 12 is not a medical facility. Its purpose is to instill basic living skills into people whose lives are on the brink of disaster and to help them “learn how to live life on life’s terms,” Kenny said. Acute care, he said, actually is unnecessary in 95% of the cases.

“I’ve put 60 guys through Studio 12 this year, and only four of them really needed a hospital detox program. There’s a guy now at Studio 12 who’s been doing heroin for three years, and he’s in his third day of detox. He’s sweating, has some cramps and feels lousy. He wanted to take some medication to make him feel better, but that’s the addict / alcoholic’s main problem. He’s always looking for an easier, softer way.”

At the present time there is no comparable in-house program for women, which Kenny said is partially due to the 25-to-1 ratio of men to women in the craft industry. But Kenny believes the time has come to convince the Screen Actors Guild to purchase another house such as Studio 12, and to let the Motion Picture and Television Fund run it.

Although difficult to measure, the success rate for Studio 12 is estimated to be about 60%, Kenny says. Employee assistance managers outside the entertainment industry estimate the success rate for employees who seek help for drug abuse to be 70%. Kenny, however, believes that the actual figure is much lower.

‘Tough Love’ Approach

Many of those whose lives have been pulled out of their downward spirals attribute their recovery directly to what has been called Kenny’s “tough love” approach.

“I wound up in a hospital partially paralyzed because of my drug abuse,” said Greg, a cameraman who sought help at Studio 12. “I was sitting at home recovering, and the same people I had done drugs with started to come around again. My sister got wind of it and called Tom Kenny.”

Kenny placed a call to Greg and told him he was bound to end up back in the hospital, in jail or dead.

“I felt very weird about this stranger calling me,” Greg said. “I still didn’t want to accept the reality of the problem. But he was relentless, like a dog with a bone.

“He’s got this amazing tenacity, this ability to keep needling you and badgering you about where you’ve been, what you’ve been doing and why your life is showing signs of neglect. Some people call it tough love, but I think he’s seen life’s passing parade long enough to be able to spot a faint light in someone’s soul and to be able to go directly for that.”

Describes Philosophy

Kenny admits that his often stern approach doesn’t always win friends, but it usually influences people. “I deal mostly with men, and men like to be treated like men,” he said. “I don’t think of it as bludgeoning someone over the head. But I try to make sure that they understand that if they’re going to overcome their problems, they’re going to have to do certain things.

“The other day I saw a guy who’d come through the program and I said, ‘Hey kid, why don’t you get a job? Take any job. You’re a bum.’ He’s been in the industry 10 years but hasn’t worked for the last three. The guy went and complained that I’d been too tough on him, but the next day he had a regular, crummy job. He had to learn how to work again, and he can’t handle long hours in the industry yet.”

Although he has no illusions that his approach is accepted by everyone who comes through the program, Kenny believes it is one that works in the majority of cases. “If I see them being irresponsible or not following through on things, I confront that and come right at them. I try to do it with a sense of humor, though, and most of them get that. But there are some guys who don’t. They’re waiting in line for me to go to my grave so they can do something to my tombstone.”

Enjoys Good Reputation

Kenny is respected by both the entertainment industry and by other substance abuse programs. Roy Regan, an employee relations director for Consolidated Film Industries, a company that develops film for many of the major studios, said Kenny is known for getting results in what many have considered to be hopeless cases.

“The people who come to him know that if they want the help, it’s there, but that they’re going to have to work for it,” Regan said. “It’s that basically simple approach that helps these guys get well again.” Regan refers numerous employees to Kenny for help in overcoming drug addiction.

The U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare estimated in 1981 that 10% of the work force was impaired by drugs or alcohol. Kenny believes that figure now is much higher.

“The motion picture industry isn’t the only one that needs this type of treatment program,” Kenny asserted. “A lot of companies don’t want to think that they have any problems, which is crazy. The executives have as many problems as the line people. They just cover it up better.”

Most alumni of Studio 12 attend meetings regularly, taking care not to forget that they have been granted a second chance. The ones who do forget, says Kenny, often end up slipping back into lives they temporarily were able to leave behind.

“This is the house that Tom built,” said Ted, the wardrobe man, who now has been drug free for three years. “This place is helping people who were no longer employable and were losing families left and right.

“Today, we show up here on Saturdays when we’d rather be at home with our wife and kids, because we know now that this is more important. If we don’t come here, we don’t have our wife and kids. We lose it. It’s automatic.”