Will
Rogers:
Quietly
Taking Care of Its Own
by Alma Freeman
After 68 years assisting members
of the motion picture industry under the Will Rogers banner,
the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation heads
into the new year with a new name and a vibrant membership
campaign.
A social worker at the Will Rogers Motion
Picture Pioneers Foundation (WRMPPF) was having a routine
phone conversation
with “Eloise Franklin” (we’ve changed her
name to protect her privacy), who had been receiving financial
assistance for medicine and equipment from WRMPPF for some
time. Midway through the chat, Franklin casually mentioned
the latest in a series of scary spills she had taken while
alone in her Missouri home.
Sensing Franklin could be in danger,
the social worker decided to send out a home-care agency
official to Franklin’s
home to assess the severity of her living conditions. The
agent’s hunch was correct – on account of Franklin’s
physical ailments, she had been unable to keep up with cleaning
for some time and her home had grown unsafe. In response,
WRMPPF started sending out a home-care and cleaning agent
every week, and Franklin is able to continue living independently
at home.
Franklin’s story is one of thousands involving the
WRMPPF, which has been working for 68 years – under
a variety of names – to ensure that retired, troubled
or sick veterans of the motion picture industry are not forgotten.
Why Become A WRMPPF
Member?
Although the WRMPPF prides itself
in the ability to operate privately, this year the
group will conduct
the first membership drive under its new moniker – just
as a little reminder to the industry that the group
is still around, and why it’s important to become
involved.
In order to do so, says WRMPPF president
Chuck Viane, leaders from distribution and exhibition
have been
selected to campaign on behalf of the group. The campaign
kicks off Oct. 25 through Oct. 28 at the ShowEast convention
in Orlando, Fla.
“It is one of those hand-in-hand
situations, where neither one of us could do this alone.
It takes this wonderful
camaraderie of people having a common cause,” says
Viane, who also serves as Buena Vista’s motion
picture distribution chief. “I compete with seven
other studios in a given day, and yet we can go out
and raise funds together to protect people in our industry,” says
Viane.
Benefits of becoming a Pioneer include: Associate
Pioneer ($25 annual contribution)
• 100 percent tax deductible contribution
• Personal medical information identification card
• WRMPPF notepad and pen
Industry
Pioneer ($50 annual contribution, must have
completed five years of full-time employment in the
theatrical community before being eligible)
• Newsletter and Website recognition
• Qualification for Golden Movie Pass (donor must give
a minimum of $50 per year for 10 years to qualify)
Producer
Pioneer ($100-$499 annual contribution)
• Exclusive WRMPPF Polo shirt
•
Complimentary subscription to “Health & Fitness
Magazine”
• Complimentary book on the life of Will Rogers
Legendary Pioneer ($500+
annual contribution)
• Special recognition Pioneer plaque
• VIP invitation to special events
• Public recognition at Pioneer of the Year Dinner (held
annually)
• Exclusive assistance with appointments to medical professionals
•
Exclusive invitation to the chairman and president’s
dinner.
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The concept behind the organization
can be traced all the way back to the spread of tuberculosis
in the Vaudeville
halls of the 1920s and ‘30s. In 1927, the National
Vaudeville Artists (NVA) founded a lodge at Saranac Lake,
N.Y., as a convalescent home for actors afflicted with the
disease. Prospering at first, the lodge would undergo its
own financial hardships during the Great Depression as Vaudeville
entertainment fell into decline. In dire straits, the NVA
transferred the responsibilities of the hospital to the pre-existing
Will Rogers Memorial Commission, formed in 1935 and named
in memory of the late entertainer and humanitarian. A year
later, the group decided to rename itself The Will Rogers
Memorial Fund and changed the hospital’s name to the
Will Rogers Hospital, as a monument to “the man who
loved all mankind."
In order to raise funds for the hospital,
the group was soon screening in cinemas nationwide its
first public service
announcements, which featured entertainment personalities
such as Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Shirley Temple and
Bing Crosby.
As the Memorial Fund expanded in the
1950s and ‘60s
to include teaching and training programs for medical research,
pulmonary research was also gaining national attention. Soon
a treatment for tuberculosis was discovered and the hospital’s
raison d’être was lost. The Will Rogers Hospital
shuttered.
In 1977, the Memorial Fund’s board
of directors chose to redirect its efforts into a nationwide
health education
campaign, which led to the establishment of the Will Rogers
Institute in White Plains, N.Y.
In 2002, the Will Rogers organization
merged with the Foundation of Motion Picture Pioneers,
another charitable organization
founded by showbiz professionals, this one tracing its long,
rich history to 1939.
The organization that would become known as the Pioneers
was originally a social enclave, but soon adopted as its
mission the creation of a “self-perpetuating fund to
assist pioneers of the motion picture industry who find themselves
in need; the assistance to consist of direct financial aid,
medical care and temporary business subsistence during periods
of unemployment for eligible applicants.” In 1951 the
organization opted to broaden the scope of its assistance
program, and formally took the name Foundation of the Motion
Picture Pioneers.
The groups combined two years ago into
the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation, which
today operates both the
Will Rogers Institute, which still functions primarily as
a pulmonary research and educational program, and the Motion
Picture Pioneers Assistance Fund, which provides assistance
to veterans of the movie industry. Last year, the WRMPPF
officially established an office in Toluca Lake, Calif. – right
around the corner from the home of the late entertainer Bob
Hope.
To many in the philanthropic community,
the 2002 merger seemed an easy fit. “We were doing the exact same things … a
lot of the clients were the same, and we kept bouncing them
back and forth … it made sense to be able to broaden
our scope and help them on a grander level,” says WRMPPF
development and communications manager Noelle Nelson.
With a charity whose work closely resembles
that of a superhero’s,
quietly swooping in and helping out, it’s easy to wonder
how a group that assists an average of 80 recipients a month
manages without bloated self-promotion or advertising.
Explains executive committee member
Jerome Forman, “a
committee reviews all recipients and we have certain guidelines,
[but] when we help people it’s not public knowledge.
That’s not the purpose of the organization.”
“We don’t toot our horn very much,” confirms WRMPPF
president Chuck Viane, who says this understated style is
precisely what makes the group special. “Teddy Roosevelt
once said, ‘Walk softly, and carry a big stick.’ For
us, the big stick is the example of what we do.” 
