Entertainment Industry Retirement Home Plans $115-Million Expansion
Hal Riddle waited seven years before a spot opened up at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s retirement home in Woodland Hills. But his efficiency cottage, the place he has called home for five years, was worth the wait.
“No one is thrown out,” said Riddle, 80, who lives alone and has no immediate family. “It’s a feeling of security that goes a long way when you tend to be our age.”
That feeling may spread to more people when the fund completes a $115-million improvement project, including three new buildings--two assisted-living “villas” and a new community health center--at its 20-acre Wasserman Campus on Mullholland Drive just south of the Ventura Freeway.
Last week, workers poured concrete for the first villa, where steel columns have been erected. The three-story, 60,000-square-foot building will contain studio apartments and one- and two-bedroom units, said Ed Malinowski, the fund’s administrative director of facilities management.
About 90 people will live in the villa, which will include a beauty salon, health spa, greenhouse, indoor and outdoor dining areas and a business center outfitted with computers and a stock market ticker, where residents can monitor their investments, he said.
There will also be a film and TV production room, where retirees from the behind-the-scenes end of the business can keep up their skills.
“So people can dabble in their old craft,” Malinowski said. “Our goal is to have them do their own production.”
The villa is scheduled for completion in fall 2001. Officials hope to finish another villa for about 100 residents in three years if they can raise enough money.
The new community health center will offer outpatient care and include an aquatic center and a fitness center. A specialized unit to treat patients suffering from dementia will be renovated and will offer more outpatient services.
The construction will also include earthquake retrofitting, and workers will improve surrounding portions of Calabasas Road, Mulholland and Valmar Road by adding sidewalks, gutters and trees, officials said. In the meantime, an organic farmer is still growing strawberries and tomatoes on the undeveloped acreage.
Construction at the Woodland Hills campus began in 1941. The facility has a 256-bed hospital, 62 small cottages for independent living and a 64-bed facility for residents who need some assistance with daily tasks. Altogether, the campus houses 300 to 400 people, officials said.
They expect an increase in the number of residents as baby boomers age. Eventually they hope to develop an additional 20 of the campus’ 40 acres. The seven-year waiting list will not be completely eliminated with construction of the first villa.
Looking Forward to Bigger Facility
Residents are looking forward to the increased capacity for more of their retired colleagues, Riddle said.
“By the time we get here, this is all we want,” he said last week from his cozy bungalow, its walls covered with framed, signed photographs of Hollywood stars and movie posters. “I never get tired of my cottage. It’s my little corner of heaven.”
Riddle decided as a 9-year-old boy in Kentucky that he would one day head for Hollywood. He played small roles in about 20 films and numerous TV shows and commercials.
In 1957, when Riddle began working in Hollywood, he started donating 1% of his salary to the nonprofit motion picture fund, which provides health care to entertainment industry workers. Those savings now help pay for his cottage, which costs $70 a day.
In 1999, 28,000 patients visited the campus’ health center. The fund, which operates five health centers and a child care facility, has an annual budget of about $72 million, officials said.
In the past year, the fund has collected $32 million toward the expansion project, and last week it announced two major donations that will finance the construction. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, established by the Microsoft chairman, gave $500,000.
The donation is unprecedented for the motion picture fund, said Ken Scherer, chief executive officer of the fund’s foundation, because, unlike most of its major donors, the Gateses do not have ties to the entertainment industry.
“It’s really critical to help us achieve our goal,” Scherer said.
The Thomas and Ruth Nagel Jones Trust also gave $500,000, in memory of Conrad Nagel, an actor and a founder of the fund.
