Update from Bob Beitcher, MPTF President and CEO (April 27, 2020):

I have always considered MPTF as being “owned” by the entertainment industry. Technically not, we’re a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, but for all intents and purposes we’ve been serving our community for nearly 100 years now thanks to the generosity of industry members like you, so it’s really yours!

Today we are staring down the single most daunting existential threat to MPTF, the COVID-19 virus. We’ve gotten through the transition from silent films to talkies, from black-and-white to color, from analog-to-digital, through a Depression and a World War, from film to TV and film to TV, film and streaming, from recessions and consolidations but never anything like this pernicious, invisible, sometimes lethal, droplet-transmitted infectious disease that has brought our industry to a grinding halt, sent us all to hunker down at home, and invaded the residence of our most frail and vulnerable industry seniors on the Motion Picture campus. At times, it feels like a sci-fi movie come to life, or a nightmare that we can’t quite wake up from, or now, that we’re even sure what the safe way to wake up from is.

We’ve lost 6 residents, six kind and loving souls with family roots in the entertainment industry, who leave family members and staff with sadness in their hearts. We have been nursing an additional 11 through the disease course, 24×7 care in an isolation unit that feels to the staff like a virus soup. Thankfully, with great celebration from our health care heroes, the first positive-tested resident has returned to his home on campus. We hope to have several others soon who will share in that glorious moment of knowing they are safe once again. And we have had 11 members of staff laid low by the virus. They too are challenged but returning to campus one at a time.

It is the knowledge that our mission of “taking care of our own” is embraced by so many not only on our campus but in our wider community that keeps us going when times are the darkest. It is the generosity of so many who have contributed to the MPTF COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund or many other funds, who have dropped off PPE at our security gate, who have produced beautiful masks for our residents, who have made entertaining videos for our residents, who have placed care calls to our seniors in the community, who have shopped for and delivered groceries for those without access or without fund, who have participated in our Channel 22 livestream show, who have sent meals to the staff or posted gratitude on social media, that helps us understand that there’s a greater force guiding us through this tangle of silent spreading, PPE shortage, staffing shortage, and persistent stress.

We thank you all for being by our side, on our side. We are grateful for everything you do, including a little thought of care and compassion during the day, and we most definitely plan to be here for you for another 100 years!