MPTF Board Member Explains Long Term Care Closure Decision
I’m Joe Sutton. For those of you who don’t know me, I have been in the entertainment business for 50 years as a publicist, talent manager, music executive, radio talk show host and consultant.
My radio/podcast program, The Heart of Hollywood, features interviews with the people who make Hollywood work, talking about how it works and why. I talk to people at all levels of our industry, from studio heads to aspirants trying to get a foot in the door. We not only discuss their professional lives and desires but the service and charities they support and provide to out entire community and their hopes for a better world at large.
My love for this business is deep and enduring. I have been privileged to work with both moguls and superstars. I was involved with the careers of Bill Cosby, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Neil Diamond, Lou Rawls, Martin Lawrence, Patty Duke, Sean Astin, Jerry Seinfeld, The Beachboys, to name a few and I worked as an Executive Vice President at MCA Records for two giants, Lew Wasserman and Ned Tanen. I was also consultant for many years to The American Film Institute, and am proud to be associated with the Motion Picture & Television Fund.I have interviewed over 100 residents of the Motion Picture & Television Fund for our in-house Channel 22. Each interview is a treasure for the interviewee, their respective families and the other residents who get to see and hear their stories. My passion and love for these people is obvious and sometimes painful. Many have passed away within months and sometimes weeks of our interviews. Their stories will never be lost however due to our priceless conversations caught on video for our MPTF Channel.
I believe every human being on this earh is due dignity and respect in their life and especially in their elder years. It breaks my heart that MPTF has to close the long term care unit and hospital. But I feel joy and confidence when I am on the campus almost weekly and see the work of the professionals and staff who care so deeply for the residents. I have no doubt this compassion and devotion will follow residents of MPTF as they transfer to new facilities — I believe that they will be taken care of with the same dignity and respect off campus as on. The social services and medical personnel who will continue overseeing their care will make sure of it!
I only stand for what I truly believe in and I believe in the Motion Picture & Television Fund with all my heart. My deep passion for MPTF is matched by the man it is my privilege to feature here. Hawk Koch, a successful producer and a board member of the Fund, as well as the Motion Picture Academy and the Producer’s Guild speaks to you about the difficulty of making the decision to phase out the long term care unit and about the reasons it was the only decision that could be made — a decision he says NO ONE wanted to make. He highlights important information including:
- MPTF is committed to serving 60,000 entertainment industry workers and their families
- The 84 Long Term Care patients are NOT being abandoned
- MPTF doctors and social workers will oversee their care after they are transferred
- Hawk’s own mother was a resident of the MPTF retirement community at the time of this decision
I hope you will take a few minutes to listen to his explanation.
I am an eligible person for the Fund, its services and perhaps its living facilities in my future. I accept the changes that are necessary to keep MPTF alive. Change is constant in life and I accept those being made by MPTF.
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How much of the $1,000,000 loss is attributable to the hospital and how much is attributable to the long term care unit? Would it not be possible to close one without closing the other?
SOUNDS LIKE BAD MANAGEMENT. WHY COULDN’T THE FUND JUST PHASE OUT THE SENIORS BY NOT ACCEPTING MORE INTO THE HOME? BUT TO MOVE OUT THE SENIORS WHO ARE PRESENTLY IN CARE DOES NOT SEEM RIGHT.
I suggest that if a one time, “big name” film, done gratis, by everyone, from the drivers, to the grips, to the actors, to the writers, to the production company(ies) and every studio in town (which would produce and distribute it as a joint venture), this would pull the Motion Picture Home out of the red (and volunteering for a non-profit is tax deductible). In these terms $24M isn’t a lot of money considering a big name film can make that return quickly.
As for sustaining the Home, a continuing fee can be imposed. Broadway tickets have a $1.50 Restoration Fee. The racing industry has a voluntary $2 starting fee for the horses’ retirement (they’re currently trying to make that mandatory). If a fee is attached to a movie ticket, and matched by the Studios (again, tax deductible), it would be a continuing flow to sustain the Home.
Using 2008 as the example, according to NATO the average movie ticket was $7.18, and the highest domestic grossing film of that year was The Dark Knight, at $533,316,061. That would be 74,780,003 tickets sold for this one film, in one year. Adding two pennies to the ticket price would bring in $1,495,600. Multiply that by 7 studios and the total is then $10.5M, which is a little more than the current $10M annual operating deficit of the two facilities that are slated to be closed.
The fees collected and donated to the MPTF, as an annual sustaining contribution, would keep the Home afloat. Also, the amount of the fees would be adjusted for COL, and take into consideration the highs and lows of a particular year’s domestic gross.
Each studio would donate annually in proportion to its gross ticket sales from the prior year. And, if a shortfall should occur for the Home, in any future year, another “donated” project could be produced, and the profits again be donated to the MPTF.