At New Rentals, the Aim Is to Age With Creativity

At New Rentals, the Aim Is to Age With Creativity
[10 September 2006 - New York Times] As hairdresser to the stars, Connie Nichols, an 86-year-old retiree (Apt. 225), has been on intimate terms with Olivia de Havilland’s hair, Ethel Merman’s hair, Doris Day’s hair and Natalie Wood’s hair, which she spritzed for her wedding to Robert Wagner. Ms. Nichols’s latest leading lady is her downstairs neighbor, Helen Miller (Apt. 125), who is starring, at 81, in “Bandida,” a new comedy about an old woman who robs a convenience store. The movie was written by Suzanne Knode (Apt. 406), who was inspired to take up screenwriting at 63 after moving into the Burbank Senior Artists Colony, the country’s first apartment community for creative older people — a sort of “Golden Girls” meets Yaddo. “To expose myself artistically was terrifying, especially at my age” said Ms. Knode, whose past credits include raising two children as a single mother in Boston. “But it was safe here. It was gentle. I wasn’t scared.” In a city that worships youth, the colony is the latest spin on late-life living. With the understanding that not everyone wants the old-school model of golf course retirement, the colony offers artful self-expression: a digital film editing laboratory, a theater, drama classes and studios open for inspiration 24 hours a day. This is a place where amateurs discovering their inner Picassos in retirement can commune with working pros like Charlie Schridde, a painter in his 70’s from the “cowboy impressionist” school who resembles the grizzled trappers of his canvases. ... “We’re thinking beyond the problems of aging to its potential,” said Dr. Gene D. Cohen, the director of the Center on Aging, Health and Humanities at the George Washington University Medical Center. “What’s emerging is a very talented group of people who are an under-recognized national resource.” More