Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 17

Crowds at Set Cameras Start Rollin 1 HE CROWDS milled about the front lawn at 6 Brooks Toms River, Stars Margot Kidder and James Brolin are filmed on steps of "The Amityville Horror" house at 6 Brooks Toms River. Panorama throughout the day, hoping to catch a glimpse of the opening of shooting of the film "The Amityville Horror" by American International Pictures or even better, a closeup view of stars James Brolin and Margot Kidder. Most were disappointed. Tight security measures prevailed around the set. A half dozen local policemen, hired by the film company, kept onlookers at a safe distance from the old Dutch colonial mansion on the riverfront.

Brolin and Ms. Kidder portray George and Kathy Lutz. The couple and their three children move into a house in Amityville, Long Island, whose previous occupants were victims of a mass murder. The film, based on the best-selling book by Jay Anson, recounts the Lutzes experiences in the house, allegedly haunted by evil spirits. For the next three weeks, crews will be shooting scenes at the house, and at other locations in the area.

A wedding reception scene, featuring several locally hired "extras," will be filmed today at the River-wood Park Recreation building, beginning at 10 a.m. Other scenes will be shot at the county courthouse in Toms River and at Reynolds tavern, W. Water Street. Press Photos By Bob Davison of the shooting. i So Section B- Aabury Park Press, Tues.

Crowds mill about front Makeup artists give actress Margot Kidder finishing touches before filming scene. Children Film and Frolic urn Toms River Man Gets Into the 6Ax' tion was the brightly colored leaves lying in the grass. The children, Keith Christopher Martel and Natasha Ryan, will portray Greg and Amy Lutz, two of three siblings in "The Amityville Horror." And yesterday after the first day's filming ended, the children had their first opportunity to have a leaf fight Natasha, an 8-year-old from Los Angeles, took some time out to sign autographs for local residents who had come by to watch the filming. She looked like any other little girl playing outside after school, wearing patchwork overalls and braids. But few girls her age can talk about their past acting experience.

NATASHA estimates that she's been in 29 movies before "Amityville," which she thinks is a "pretty good story." The fact that it's a horror movie doesn't bother her, but its success will depend on the stars, or from her point of view, the grownups. Keith has a completely different attitude toward the success of the movie. "It has to be a success. The book was a best seller, so everyone will want to see the movie. But if that doesn't work, everybody loves scary movies, so they'll come to see this one," he said.

Keith, an 11-year-old from Los Angeles, had worked about an hour yesterday filming a scene at the back of the house. "It went pretty good. I can feel whether or not I did a good job," he said. THIS IS the first movie he has ever worked on, although he has made several made-for-television movies. He enjoys the full-length motion picture more than television because there's more work involved.

Yesterday's filming began three weeks of work to be done locally. The scenes shot were small ones, featuring James Brolin and Margot Kidder meeting a realtor, looking over the property and entering the house, according to John Kane, unit publicist for the film. He said the actual scenes would only take three to four minutes in the finished movie, but each scene takes much longer to shoot. Pr-K wilODCl lipllllll t-J SJ Oct. 24, 1978 1 lawn at 6 Brooks Rd.

hoping for a glimpse "We talked as persons and not as though he's an actor." "I guess you could say he was a guinea pig. We bought some coffee beans from a store that was going out of business. My husband had spent about an hour just to grind enough beans for eight cups of coffee and this was the first time I'd made it," she said. "I guess it couldn't have been too bad because Mr. Brolin drank two cups." DRESSED in Jeans and boots made in Ireland, Brolin became a celebrity to the family.

Except to Hirshblond, so it appeared. "Tom got him out in the backyard and they were just like two guys together. Tom was rather off-hand about it," the mother said. "Mr. Brolin said later maybe he'd get into ax-throwing competition." The realization that a famed television and movie star was entertained in her home didn't strike Mrs.

Hirshblond until hours later. In fact, she said she doesn't watch "doctor shows" and therefore wasn't familiar with Brolin, "But later I called my other son and told him Mr. Brolin sat in his chair at the table and was he excited," she recounted. IT'S POSSIBLE Brolin will be back on Boxwood Terrace for more practice throwing. "He was going to set up a target in back of his motel, but we told him to come back anytime," said Mrs.

Hirshblond. Tom Hirshblond came to the rescue several other times yesterday. Ellen Goodman tion. There was for example a man who used to lumber into my old office in Detroit every January wearing nothing more than a wet bathing suit and doing a seal imitation. SITTING near any door In a newspaper office thus has certain built-in liabilities.

Streams of people are constantly asking tf: By LEIGH COOK Press Staff Writer (TOR James Brolin had his first lessons in ax-throwing yesterday. And his teacher was 22-year-old Thomas Hlrshblond, 11 Boxwood Toms River, son of Manuel Hirshblond, Dover Township's business administrator. Brolin, starring as George Lutz in "The Amityville Horror," told the movie's producers he'd never held an ax before, let alone throw one. A scene in the movie, which started shooting at 6 Brooks Toms River, yesterday, requires Brolin to throw an ax in a fit of anger. When news of the dilemma was circulated, Hirshblond's name came up.

And before long, Brolin was in the Hirshblond's kitchen drinking coffee and preparing for this new feat. SINCE the younger Hirshblond is a graduate of Paul Smith's College, N. and as his mother describes him, "A real Paul Bunyon," he seemed to fit the role as Brolin's instructor. (The two-year college specializes in forestry courses). "My son has a target in the backyard where he practices all the time," said Mrs.

Hirshblond. Brolin became an unexpected but very welcome guest in the Hirshblond's kitchen while he met the family. "He had coffee with us and talked. It was really exciting," said Mrs. Hirshblond.

By BETH HEUTELE Press Staff Writer IT didn't seem strange to the children playing on the lawn of the large white house in Toms River that property was for sale through Long Island Realtors. The thing that had captured their atten- Development Commission. "UsuaUy if we Development Commission. "Usually if we need a technical person to teach an actor a new skill, we'd have to send out and it could cost thousands of dollars." He called yesterday's Indian Summer weather a good omen for the rest of the filming of the movie. something was gained.

The woman won a daily sense of camaraderie with every female executive who is asked to get the coffee, every woman ever arbitrarily handed a dictation pad, and every female doctor ever asked when the doctor would be in. In an effort to prove to herself that she was not paranoid, she even conducted a brief sociological study. First she made certain Improvements on her own public barriers. She put a bookcase in front of her desk, and piled it with newspapers, sweaters and phone books. This, however, only seemed to give people a place to put their elbows and their dancing bears, while asking for information.

Next, under the tutelage of her neighbor she tried to perfect a technique of rudeness. She discovered that there were people who would rather spend ten minutes waiting for her to look up than to disturb the man reading the paper with his feet on the desk behind her. THE WOMAN didn't want to be hostile about this. It wasn't fair to get angry at the poor fellow carrying a case of yogurt sam NATASHA RYAN KEITH CHRISTOPHER MARTEL get it she intends to come to work thoroughly upholstered and doing a nifty imitation of an empty chair. The Boston Globe Newspaper Company-Washington Post Writers Group 4 Asbpry Park Press Thomas Hirshblond tells his father, Manuel, Dover Township business administrator, about ax-throwing lessons he gave actor James Brolin yesterday.

Reporter Plagued By 'Sexisf Visitors The movie set calls for a cord of wood outside the house and a stump, both of which he was able to deliver since he sells firewood. "It was a stroke of luck that Tom was able to help in this situation," said Joseph Friedman, executive director of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television you where they should deposit their dancing bears and life stories. Not to mention their wet bathing suits. Most people would reasonably assume that if they were sitting among seven coworkers, these fascinating inquiries would be divided into seven equal parts. But they would be wrong if only one of this upfront group was female.

The cruel fact of life as this woman (who shall remain nameless) discovered in months of people-watching is this: The average stranger would walk into a room, past the charming music critic (and disco dancer), barely glancing at the well-groomed highbrow or the movie critic, avoiding three reporters and one columnist until his eyes fastened on the only person in the room trying madly to find a solution for world hunger ten minutes before deadline. It was clear that this person and no other had to be the receptionist because she was of the Female Persuasion. IN THIS way, many brilliant ideas were interrupted and forever lost to the world including the solution to world hunger. But ples when he asked where the food editor was. It wasn't his fault.

It came with the blue booties. Yet she gradually became desperate to finish a sentence with something other than a question mark. She was willing to try anything short of a sex-change operation. So, one day, in a fit of anxiety, she placed a handwritten warning on top of the massive barrier which read: This is Not a Reception Desk. What was the result of this, the Ultimate Weapon, you ask? Well, the first two souls were intimidated.

They walked to the back of the room to findanother woman. The third smiled jovially over the top and asked, "Could you please tell me where the reception desk is?" The woman, was, either way, defeated. Now there is a new rumor floating through the office. They are playing musical desks again and every one is going to be moved. This time, she is looking for a back seat with a thoroughly rear view.

If she doesn't Inside. Entertainment Doonesbury B2 Gossip B4 Movie Timetable B2 Television B5 Voice of Broadway B2 Lifestyle Advice B7 Parent-School Groups B7 Weddings B8 NOT long ago, during one of those internal shuffles that give meaning to the expression "itinerant journalism," the desk of one employee of a metropolitan daily newspaper was moved to the front of the room. This, I assure you, meant nothing in terms of status. There is no status in a newspaper. But it put this woman's desk among seven or eight others within range of something called The Door.

Now newspapers are the closest thing in the work world to community drop-In centers. People wander in and out of them carrying every sort of notion and promotion from wedding announcements to dancing bear advertisements to proclamations about National Taxpayer Week. Sometimes they even arrive offering themselves as objects of national fascina-.