Since I live in a “company town” called Los Angeles, this weekend everyone is a buzz with the Academy Awards. With this years films (The Artist and Hugo) telling the story of film making, it seemed only fitting to tell the story of the non-profit that started 90 years ago with the advent of silent films.
The Motion Picture & Television Fund began with a simple coin box in Hollywood where industry workers would deposit spare change for their fellow colleagues. Right from the start, their mission was “We Take Care of Our Own.”
Industry legends as Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks realized the need for reaching out to those in the entertainment industry who fell upon hard times. In 1921, the Motion Picture Relief Fund (MPRF) was incorporated to provide help to those in the motion picture industry who were in need.
An acting couple ( a character actor and his chorus girl wife ) were the first recipients of this new organization. The husband became partially paralyzed and was unable to work. MPRF paid their $40 hotel bill, arranged rent, and helped to find work.
The advent of talkies in the late twenties brought many changes to the film industry. While talkies launched many new careers, hundreds of actors, directors and writers who had not foreseen the change to the industry or their livelihood, became unemployed. MPRF came to their aid.
As more requests for assistance were made, celebrity-packed benefits were held to raise the needed funds. What started out as the Motion Picture Relief Fund has today developed into a comprehensive service organization which operates six outpatient health centers throughout the greater Los Angeles area; a children’s center; a retirement community, health plans and much, much more.
The Motion Picture & Television Fund mission remains the same today as it did during the advent of film, to protect and preserve the health and quality of life of those who devote so much of their lives to a career in the entertainment industry.
So for all of those who have entertained us both in front and behind the cameras. Thank you. The magic of film making and the magic of caring for one another simply never grows old. Charity Matters.
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