The Motion Picture and Television Fund Looks Back on 100 Years of Giving
17.06.2022 - 20:13
/ variety.com
Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentThe Motion Picture & Television Fund, celebrating its 100th anniversary, might be the most active, admired — and most misunderstood — organization in Hollywood. Silent screen star Mary Pickford started the philanthropic org under the name Motion Picture Relief Fund (it was renamed in 1971).Over the century, entertainment’s biggest heavyweights gave support.
In 1965, Variety reported Elvis Presley’s $125,000 gift, the single biggest donation to that point. The fund has been supported by directors (John Ford to Steven Spielberg, to name a few), actors (Barbara Stanwyck to George Clooney, Jodie Foster and Hugh Jackman) and execs (Samuel Goldwyn to Jim Gianopulos).
Key donors and recipients are behind-the-camera workers; for example, nearly 10,000 individuals received help in 2020 as everyone was hit by COVID. “Part of my hope for the future: Communicating to the industry who we are and what we do,” says Bob Beitcher, MPTF president-CEO.
“Probably seven out of 10 people in the industry don’t know who we are. I hope we can get the word out, to provide services for people and help free up support for our programs.”Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, on the board of governors, adds, “A lot of people think the MPTF is just the Country House & Hospital.
That’s certainly the jewel in the crown, but it’s so much more than that.”Through their volunteer programs and financial programs, “they are providing food assistance, social services, physical therapy, mental-health services, elder care, child-care, financial aid, assistance to military veterans, all kinds of things. It’s important to get out the message that people in the industry have an opportunity to benefit from this organization in their time of
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