Head of Movie Retirees’ Home Acts to Improve Quality of Life

The burly furniture mover, unloading the van that was double-parked outside the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital, was apologetic.

“We’ll be out of here soon,� he promised. “We’re just moving a lady in. There’s not much here for us to move. There’s not much space in those little rooms for them to bring much with them when they come here.�

John M. Pavlik winced at that remark. He is executive director of the Woodland Hills retirement home. Part of his job is to make the compact apartment and hospital rooms as comfortable as possible for the more than 250 film industry veterans who live there.

But the mover did not recognize Pavlik. The man placed a small table on the pavement and pointed to an older car parked nearby.

“See that Pontiac over there? I drove it up here for the lady. It’s cherry--the kind of car I’d love to own. It’s only got 47,000 miles on it. They’re not going to let her keep it,� he said.

Car Use Touchy Issue

Pavlik winced again. The question of whether motion picture home residents should be allowed to keep and use their own autos is a touchy one.

“We’re getting younger residents, 65 and 70, coming in here,� Pavlik said. “People who have driven all their lives want that mobility. It’s a tough one. How would you decide who can drive? Do you really want 85-year-olds driving out of here?�

The automobile issue is only one of many that Pavlik, 45, of Thousand Oaks has grappled with since taking over 2 1/2 years ago as chief administrator of the show business-supported facility.

He was still learning his way around cottages and clinic buildings that sprawl over 20 acres at the intersection of Mulholland Drive and Calabasas Road when directors of the Motion Picture and Television Fund launched a campaign to double the size of the place.

Raising $50 Million

Four months ago, they started a $50-million fund-raising effort to finance the expansion. That effort, in turn, has focused new attention on the 42-year-old facility and its services.

Pavlik acknowledges being a novice at medical and convalescent hospital administration. Before his appointment, he had served three years as administrator of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and 11 years as a lobbyist and public relations man for the Assn. of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

“I think it was a terrific advantage, coming in here without experience like I have,� he says now. “All I can do is ask stupid questions. It forces people to answer those stupid questions.�

The result has been some changes at the motion picture home.

When Pavlik asked why the home’s comfortable library was rarely used, he found out that its interior lighting was too dim for older people to read by. That is being remedied.

When he noticed that the home’s plush 210-seat Louis B. Mayer Theater did not have a popcorn and candy stand as regular movie houses do, he was told that such refreshments made it harder to sweep up after twice-weekly screenings of first-run films. That policy is being changed.

Pavlik learned that patterned carpeting used in the past to brighten the home’s recreational rooms and hallways has a “vibrating� effect on the eyes of some senior citizens. The floor covering will be replaced with something just as colorful--but less jarring.

When he asked why some residents occasionally got lost on the grounds, he was told that the uniform beige color of the similar-looking low-brick buildings offered no landmarks for disoriented persons. That problem will end when it comes time for the scattered clumps of cottages to get a new coat of paint, he said.

“Not one of our ideas is original,� Pavlik said. “I’m just an idea-stealer. I think this place is going to be real exciting in five years.�

Other changes have already taken place.

Adding Life to Entrance

Gardeners have used pruning shears to shape a row of turkeys from a line of shrubs and add life to the entrance to a dining hall.

Construction is almost completed on a new shortcut across a courtyard between retirees’ cottages and their dining hall. But instead of being the standard concrete sidewalk that was first proposed, it is being built to resemble a wooden bridge that spans a rocky stream bed.

Work will begin Monday on a $150,000 “wanderer’s garden,� an enclosed setting for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. It will include a sidewalk that curves past raised planters and connects with an old-fashioned-looking porch.

“We heard about it at an environmental gerontologist’s talk,� Pavlik said of the garden. “People with Alzheimer’s are very active. They like to walk but they don’t know where they are.

“We have an ‘open campus’ here and we’ve always worried about people walking out onto Mulholland Drive. In the past, we’ve had to send patients who developed Alzheimer’s off to some other facility,� he said.

“I just don’t want to move people. That’s one of the beauties of this place--people like to feel when they come here they won’t have to move again.�

Long Waiting List

That’s important to a growing group of aging actors, cameramen, art directors and sound and lighting technicians--many of whom were first-generation television pioneers. There is a 300-person waiting list for the motion picture home’s 54 cottages, 61 lodge rooms and 138 long-term hospital beds. That translates to about a three-year wait.

The expansion is expected to cure much of that.

Another 138 cottages, 100 lodge-style apartments and 80 hospital beds are shown on the architect’s drawing that hangs on a hallway wall near the motion picture home’s front office. Most of the new structures will be built on a fund-owned 20-acre strawberry patch and corn field south of existing buildings.

The first phase will be an 81-bed long-term hospital. Its single-patient rooms will be designed to resemble apartment living rooms that open onto outside patios. Instead of stark hallways in the front, they will have parlorlike sitting rooms where wheelchair-bound patients can socialize.

Open House April 20

Officials of the motion picture home have scheduled an April 20 open house for residents and their families to learn about development details, which will involve the demolition of some buildings.

First-phase construction is expected to begin in about two years, when fund officials expect to receive building permits and hope to have raised the $17 million needed for the work.

According to Pavlik, such a sum is hard to come by, even for an industry that is renowned for its moguls and megabuck business deals.

Although it is home to such former acting stars as Mae Clarke, Regis Toomey, Mary Astor and Lincoln Perry, who played Stepin Fetchit, about 82% of its residents are the more anonymous studio grips, drivers, writers, office workers and technicians. To be eligible, they must have worked in the industry for 20 or more years or had a spouse who did.

$20-Million-a-Year Budget

The facility operates with a staff of 529 and a $20-million-a-year budget. About $11 million of that comes from insurance and Medicare payments and voluntary Hollywood studio payroll deductions. The other $9 million comes from an interest-earning endowment, Pavlik said.

Residents who have assets are also asked to help pay their living expenses, he said.

The facility’s beginnings in 1941 were much more modest. Leaders of the old Motion Picture Relief Fund bought the old John Show Ranch for $850 an acre and built cottages for 24 residents and an 18-bed clinic.

A 21-bed convalescent building was opened in 1955. By 1959, when 70 beds were added, the investment in the facility totaled only $2.5 million, according to fund historians.

Was a ‘Country House’

In those days, the isolated West Valley site lived up to its “country home� name.

But the Woodland Hills and Calabasas areas have grown rapidly since then. The Ventura Freeway, about 100 yards from the home’s main entrance, is now the state’s busiest highway. The Mulholland Drive-Calabasas Road intersection frequently draws complaints by motorists of near-gridlock.

That is bad news for the woman who surrendered her Pontiac last Wednesday and for other retirees living at the motion picture home.

“I’m in favor of those able being able to drive,� Pavlik said. “But the board of directors isn’t convinced. There is a real safety concern about traffic out here.�