AFTER CAREERS SPENT IN FILMS AND TV, INDUSTRY'S AGING STARS, BEHIND-THE-SCENES WORKERS NEED A ... PLACE TO CALL HOME.

Byline: BRAD GREENBERG -- Staff Writer

Old and isolated in his large Woodland Hills condo, Milt Hoffman needed a change.

His children urged him to move into a community with people his age, with common interests. And because Hoffman had been a producer for Steve Allen, Dick Clark and Arsenio Hall, the destination was easily identified.

There's one retirement community above all others where Hollywood's former actors, cameramen, executives and everyone else move when they grow tired of keeping up their own home: the Motion Picture & Television Fund's Country House in Woodland Hills.

``People in the industry are a different bunch,'' said Hoffman, 85, who three months ago traded in his 1,750-square-foot condo for a cottage of 280 square feet at the Country House.

``This is a warm, happy place to be -- and you don't have to lose your independence.''

Hoffman is one of tens of millions of retired Americans -- a class that is growing as the first among a tidal wave of baby boomers turn 60 this year. With 78 million Americans fast approaching retirement, the impacts on health care and social services for the elderly are expected to be substantial.

In Los Angeles' entertainment industry, the issue is acute and the example clear.

``We've heard the numbers, but they are real,'' said Ken Scherer, CEO of the Motion Picture & Television Fund Foundation, the main social service provider to the entertainment industry.

Chief among the services is the Motion Picture Home, often referred to as the Country House -- which can't expand fast enough for the growing ranks of Hollywood past. And that's leaving some frustrated.

Barbara Kramer arrived in November after breaking her hip and suffering a bladder infection. It was supposed to be a temporary stay in the hospital attached to the Country House.

While there, she decided it was time to leave Pacific Palisades and move into the Country House's independent-living area. She said she was told a cottage would be open by Jan. 1, so she sold her home and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

``It's so depressing in the hospital,'' said the 82-year-old widow of a Columbia Pictures executive, who remains in a hospital room because nothing else is available. ``Nobody talks. Everybody drools. Everybody gets pushed around.''

Kramer has complained vociferously to the hospital staff. They've offered to cover her expenses at another nursing home where they have a partnership, but she doesn't want to leave -- not even if it means staying in a cramped room with little more than her possessions, a beige recliner and a hospital bed.

``I have no friends. I eat every meal alone,'' Kramer said. ``The hospital part is to come here to die -- and I'm not ready to die.''

Hospital officials said Kramer has been treated no differently than anyone else and that every attempt has been made to accommodate her. The only reason other than health that someone would be kept in long-term care is a lack of available housing, said Seth Ellis, chief operations officer.

``Our goal is to keep people independent, safe and satisfied,'' Ellis said.

The reprieve of additional housing from the Fran and Ray Stark Villa opening in 2002 has already passed. Demand is just too high.

So the Motion Picture Fund has launched an initiative that will allow it to help seniors even when space is not available at the Country House.

Partnering with the nonprofit Rebuilding Together, the fund wants to make it possible for people to stay in their homes longer by remodeling houses to accommodate the needs of people growing old.

Two houses have been remodeled so far, including the 1954 Reseda home of former television engineer Ben Lopp and his wife Myrna.

``We're kind of an experiment,'' said Myrna, 81. ``So far, it's working.''

Now, the Lopps are glad no independent-living cottages were available at the Country House when they contacted the fund.

Volunteers, including actress Jodie Foster, painted the outside of their house and hemmed and cleaned the drapes. A social worker from the Motion Picture Fund checks in on Myrna once or twice a week.

``I'm very pleased with my house,'' she said. ``I love it, and I'd like to stay in it.''

The fund plans to expand the home-rebuilding project. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently donated $5 million to that cause.

``That is what we as human beings are supposed to do for each other,'' said Academy President Sid Ganis. ``And that is what we as the Academy have the means to do and they as the Motion Picture Home have the ability to do. Oh, my, what a combination.''

The Country House itself is an ongoing gift from those in today's entertainment industry to those who came before them -- and to those still to come. Those who can afford rent, pay it. Others are supported by donors.

``We are a microcosm of America,'' Marcia Smith, executive director of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, which refers elderly actors to the Motion Picture Fund, said of Tinseltown.

``People who have been eligible for pensions and health benefits in our industry are very lucky. Then we have a huge population who never quite make it, and they have to rely on the kindness of others.''

Established in 1942 -- 21 years after stars Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin started the Motion Picture Fund for unemployed actors -- the Woodland Hills facility is the flagship of the fund, which also has health centers in Burbank, Hollywood, Toluca Lake and West L.A.

The Woodland Hills hospital gets passing marks from regulatory agencies, while the Country House gets mostly high marks from its residents.

In addition to the residents, whose jobs ranged from appearing on the silver screen to working behind the scenes, the Country House's buildings have obvious connections to Hollywood.

There's the Frances Goldwyn Lodge, Louis B. Mayer Memorial Theater and Samuel Goldwyn Plaza. Cottages bear the names of their benefactors.

And the hospital's halls have plaques and tributes to donors such as Cary Grant, Elvis Presley and Billie Dove. There's also one to Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle Sr., who was the cousin of Kramer's grandfather.

Set on 48 acres just south of the intersection of Mulholland Drive and the 101 Freeway, the Country House is home to 187 people. With its grassy knolls, impeccably trimmed hedges and ivy-covered walls, the complex has an almost collegiate feel to it.

``That's the thing about entertainment: It's such a lifestyle. It's like a little cult community,'' said spokeswoman Jennifer Fagen. ``That is why it is so hard to retire, because you stop being who you are, you stop hanging out with the people you know.''

Hoffman has found that the Country House has helped him keep his identity -- and his sanity.

He's acting as a consultant to a closed-circuit senior television station and attending poetry classes led by the likes of comedian Shelley Berman, who plays Larry David's father on HBO's ``Curb Your Enthusiasm.''

And every now and then, a young -- that means middle-aged to Hoffman -- director pays him a visit and shows a bit of envy.

``Wow, this is nice. How do I get on the list?'' they ask.

Hoffman replies: ``You're not old enough yet.''

brad.greenberg(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) Retired radio and television producer Milton Hoffman is one of the increasing number of entertainment industry retirees living their elder years at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Country House in Woodland Hills.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer