Seated at a folding desk in a big sun-filled room, Melody Sherwood adjusted the moveable microphone stand and began to learn.
“One of Cary Grant’s favorite things to do was to tell stories,” she started in a voice like an old school schoolteacher. “He had an abundant supply. One of my favorite things to do was listen to him tell them.”
Sherwood, a detailed pal of Grant’s who spent 30 years working as Lew Wasserman’s government assistant at Common, went on to relay an only-in-Hollywood story involving Grant’s first time entertaining troops abroad, a sensible joke by the actor David Niven and why for the final 50 years she’s had an arrogance license plate with the letters GAFY printed on it, an acronym for “Go And F— Yourself.”
Jodie Mann, 76, on the assembly of the Gray Quill Society on the Movement Image Tv Fund campus in Woodland Hills.
It was a surprisingly spicy story for a seemingly buttoned-up 81-year-old lady, however bold-faced names and the occasional curse phrase are par for the course on the Gray Quill Society, a weekly memoir writing group for residents of the Movement Image and Tv Fund’s Woodland Hills neighborhood for growing older leisure professionals. That morning, the group had already heard from a retired character actor concerning the time Doris Day persuaded her to assist rescue a ravenous canine in Beverly Hills. A former Flamenco dancer shared a story about her nerve-racking stint working for Morris “Moishe” Levy, a music enterprise government with reported mob ties.
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Bob Beitcher, president and CEO of MPTF, who drops in on Gray Quill conferences at any time when he can, seemed up the Flamenco dancer’s former boss on his cellphone after she completed her story.
“Moishe Levy was a prominent subject of investigations into organized crime and was convicted for extortion just before his death,” he learn off Wikipedia.
“That’s my guy!” she replied, flashing a camera-ready smile.
Run by 40-year-old author and producer Victoria Bullock, the Gray Quill Society is a component writers room, half assist group and occasional stand-up present. Its roughly two dozen members vary in age from 65 to 95 and plenty of agree that the two-hour assembly is the spotlight of their week. Few of them knew one another earlier than transferring to the MPTF campus, however their shared expertise working in Hollywood offers them a simple rapport.
“It’s such a unique group of people because we have all spent our lives in the industry,” mentioned Sherwood, who moved right into a Nineteen Forties-era cottage at MPTF 9 months in the past. “Here you can tell your stories and people understand because they have their own stories too.”
The present should go on
Conceived by silent movie star Mary Pickford, the Movement Image and Tv Fund was based in 1921 to take care of folks within the leisure trade who had fallen on laborious occasions. In its early years the group was funded partially by a payroll pledge program for studio staff incomes greater than $200 per week and by a preferred radio program, “The Screen Guild Theater,” through which stars like Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart and Joan Crawford donated their salaries to MPTF for showing on the present. These income streams allowed the nonprofit to interrupt floor on a 48-acre campus in 1941 the place it might ultimately open a hospital and housing for 250 folks beneath the motto “We take care of our own.”
Touring the campus in 1948, famed Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper described the property as “like a fabulous country club beautifully situated amidst gardens, oak trees, and all kinds of flowering shrubs.”
“I’ve paid $30 a day at a country club or hotel for much less,” she wrote, including that she wished to submit her personal software.
The Movement Image & Tv Fund, a non-profit that gives housing for retired members of the film and TV industries.
(MPTF)
Right now the grounds function an intensive rose backyard, a canine park named Doggywood, a 230-seat theater with a pink brick “carpet” resulting in its entrance, the Jodie Foster Aquatic Pavilion and a trendy potting shed that has turn into a preferred place for residents to get pleasure from one other kind of “pot.” You’ll discover Mary Pickford’s ornate heirloom grandfather clock outdoors the communal library the place commerce magazines like Selection and the Hollywood Reporter are laid out every day. The tune “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was composed on a piano close to the doorway of one of many residing services.
MPTF gives a spread of housing choices together with unbiased residing in traditional Nineteen Forties cottages and fashionable condos, assisted residing residences, expert nursing services and reminiscence care. To qualify for housing most residents have to be no less than 70 years outdated and have labored for 20 years within the trade, or be married to somebody who did (there may be some wiggle room across the age requirement for folks in want of medical care). Those that can afford to pay for room and board do. Those that can’t are backed by MPTF for so long as wanted. At the moment about 50% of residents obtain some sort of subsidy. The waitlist for unbiased residing models is usually per week to 6 months. For reminiscence care and expert nursing it may be up to some years.
“I didn’t come here thinking I was a writer. I found out I am.”
— David Fast, MPTF resident
“Creativity is ageless” is one other motto on campus. Residents can select from an array of courses together with ceramics, piano, studio artwork and improv. There’s additionally an in-house manufacturing studio that gives neighborhood members the chance to conceive of and host their very own reveals and movie produtions.
The Gray Quill Society started in 2013 as a four-week memoir writing class that has continued indefinitely. The group has printed 5 essay compilations obtainable for buy at Amazon and celebrities like Jon Hamm, Matthew McConaughey, Billy Porter and Yvette Nicole Brown have learn a few of the Quills’ tales aloud as a part of a fundraiser. Hawk Koch, a movie producer and former president of the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences, is a daily attendee. He doesn’t reside on campus, however he makes the drive from Ojai every week to attend conferences and sometimes learn from his ebook “Magic Time” about his Hollywood days.
The group’s founding chief was volunteer Peter Dunne, a author, producer and writing teacher who labored on “Dallas,” “Melrose Place” and “Sybil.” Dunne taught the Quills that there’s a distinction between autobiography and memoir. If autobiography is a recording of info in chronological order, then memoir seeks to give attention to particular moments, episodes or individuals who modified the author — for higher or worse. He wished the group to endeavor for the latter.
Bob Beitcher, CEO of the Movement Image Tv Fund speaks on the assembly of the Gray Quill Society.
“During Peter’s days it was guys talking about their experience in WWII for the first time, women talking about experiences in their career that were very dark, people saying I never told this story to anyone,” Beitcher mentioned. “It was very therapeutic and amazing to see such a safe space where people could tell those stories.”
Bullock started attending the weekly classes after assembly Dunne at an appreciation occasion for MPTF volunteers in 2014. When Dunne left L.A. in 2019, Bullock took over the group. She sees her function as ensuring individuals really feel seen and heard, gently directing discussions and inspiring members to dig deeper of their writing.
“Some of them really think it’s about the writing, and of course it’s great when it’s good writing, but that’s not the most important part,” she mentioned. “There’s very much a sacred circle of Quills. They get real vulnerable, and I do too.”
A artistic retreat
Though a lot of the Quills didn’t work as skilled writers, many say that having the area to inform their tales has given them goal and pleasure within the later levels of their lives, in addition to a possibility to train the artistic drive that introduced them to the leisure trade within the first place.
“It’s just kind of keeping your foot in the door, because otherwise you get a little crazy when you have that drive,” mentioned Jodie Mann, 76. “This is the only place I have to be creative.”
David Fast, a former prop grasp, mentioned that the method of composing tales for the Quills and sharing them on the weekly conferences is crucial factor in his life.
“I didn’t come here thinking I was a writer,” he mentioned. “I found out I am.”
David Fast, 74, on the assembly of the Gray Quill Society on the Movement Image Tv Fund campus in Woodland Hills.
J. Rickley Dumm, 84, is among the few members of the Gray Quill Society who wrote for a residing earlier than transferring to the MPTF in 2019. He began his profession within the mailroom at Common and have become a author and producer for tv reveals like “Rockford Files” and “Magnum P.I.” When his Hollywood profession ended he started writing novels.
When Dumm first joined the group he advised Bullock that he was by no means going to write down about himself. Quickly, nevertheless, he wrote a bit a couple of stutter that plagued him throughout his youth. He’s been writing private tales ever since.
Dumm’s talking voice isn’t as robust because it as soon as was, so he usually asks his pal Guerin Barry, who sang with the American rock ‘n’ roll group Sha Na Na and is a talented voice actor, to learn his tales aloud. On a latest Thursday he shared a eulogy for his pal and fraternity brother John Stephen Dahlem, a highschool principal, ordained minister, wrestling coach and marathon runner who summited the tallest mountains on all seven continents, together with Mt. Everest twice.
After sharing the main points of Dahlem’s life, Dumm concluded: “I’d wager that if I had not written this about my friend and fraternity brother, you probably would never have heard of him. Now you have!”
After Barry completed studying, Bullock handed Dumm a microphone so he may share a number of extra ideas. “We never dreamed he would do any of these things at the fraternity house,” he advised the group. “He was a cut-up. He was a comedian. But for him, it wasn’t about the summit. It was about the climb.”
After he completed speaking, Bullock shared her suggestions. “That’s such a lovely metaphor for somebody who really understands life,” she mentioned. “You’re enjoying the climb. Because once you get there, it’s over.”
Victoria Bullock, proper, a volunteer who wields a gavel and phrases of encouragement listens with J. Rickley Dumm, 84, left.
Writing ‘the last chapter’
The topic of dying doesn’t come up in each assembly of the Gray Quill Society, but it surely’s usually there beneath the floor. Many Quills are of their 80s and 90s, and the group sometimes loses a member. Solely one of many authentic Quills remains to be alive.
Bullock mentioned grappling with the data that many within the group are nearing the top of their lives is among the hardest elements of the volunteer gig.
“You meet them, and you fall in love with them, and you are making a deal to break your own heart,” she mentioned.
The MPTF at all times holds a reminiscence service for residents after a dying, however the Gray Quill Society has its personal rituals when certainly one of their very own dies. Bullock picks a bit written by the member who handed to learn aloud after which talks about that particular person’s journey on the Quills. Different members share their very own recollections.
Over time Bullock has discovered that whereas the group doesn’t essentially wish to handle dying immediately, they acknowledge that for many of them, MPTF is the final place they’ll reside.
“We’re all very aware that this is the last chapter,” a pal from the Quills as soon as advised her. “But sometimes, the most interesting things happen in the last chapter.”
Tales reside without end
On my second go to to the Gray Quill Society, a retired character actor shared a narrative about enjoying a cop on a tv sequence and receiving a panicked cellphone name from her grandmother who was fearful she had taken a harmful job within the police pressure. A stage actor recalled the time she was in a manufacturing of “Arsenic and Old Lace” with Bela Lugosi, who she fearful wished to suck her blood. A former Shakespearean actor learn a bit concerning the pleasure of indulging in a lovely pair of Gucci loafers, which he wore round New York Metropolis. Sherwood had one other story to share about Cary Grant, this time, about how they met when he provided her a journey dwelling from the studio.
He advised her he wasn’t good at marriage. She quipped that the following time he apply for a learner’s allow as a substitute of a license.
Beitcher was there too, leaning towards the wall, having fun with all of it.
“They say you never die until the last person who knew you dies,” he mentioned. “I think they are extending their lives in some meaningful ways.”
