Well, There Goes the Neighborhood : Residents Not Star-Struck

Mrs. Harold S. Voegelin, an otherwise peaceful woman, was ready to bite someone on the leg.

She wasn’t even the least bit wowed that movie star Charles Bronson and his actress wife, knockout Jill Ireland, were in autograph’s reach of her house filming a new thriller, “The Assassins.”

“I’m madder than hell, and this should not be permitted here,” said Voegelin, pointing to the trucks, trailers and police cars that were clogging Harbor Island, one of Newport Beach’s most exclusive neighborhoods. “I’m sure there are other locations they can blow up.”

On this second of three days of shooting at No. 36 Harbor Island, a cast and crew of 100 from Cannon Films spent most of the day preparing to blast apart the nine-bedroom mansion’s living room window. Inside the house, Ireland, who plays the First Lady of the post-Reagan White House, the unknowing victim of a plot to kill her, and Bronson, her Secret Service agent, huddle on the floor for cover. After, of course, the glass has been strewn about.

The First Lady’s yacht, floating calmly offshore under an overcast sky Thursday, would be ripped to bits today, but in Newport’s Upper Bay, so as not to further disrupt the Harbor Island community.

“This is completely out of character for us,” said Dardie Dunlap, president of the Harbor Island Community Assn. “It’s a quiet community. We are very low key.”

After all, as Voegelin pointed out to neighbor Henry Schaefer, it was Harbor Island’s group of 30 homeowners that sent Joan Crawford and her film crew packing years ago.

“Times have changed,” agreed Schaefer, who lives down the cobblestone street at No. 11. “We used to have tough guys on our board, and movie companies couldn’t just get a permit from the city.”

And then, after a moment, Voegelin sighed, “Poor Gladys.”

That’s Gladys Gardiner at No. 35, whose house is just next door to the film set.

Not even Harbor Island’s most senior resident, who has seen a lot in her day, could gather any enthusiasm for this week’s visitors from Tinsel Town.

Admires Bob Hope

The 94-year-old woman, who admires Bob Hope and George Burns, said she has never heard of Charles Bronson and winced at the mention of such titles as “Death Wish I, II, and III.”

Nevertheless, she allowed the movie company to park the stars’ trailer home in her driveway, adding, “I don’t want to be an old crab.” Still, it was just three days out of an otherwise serene year, and some were excited that Hollywood had come to Harbor Island.

Throughout the languid day, a few residents and passers-by wandered over to the bridge overlooking No. 36 and waited to glimpse the craggy-faced Bronson. They hardly seemed to notice the bizarre coming and goings in the neighborhood, such as the van pulling up and letting off three people whose job at the moment was to carry six pairs of beige high heels to the set. “It’s something different from all the parties and cabareting people do around here,” said Henry Link, a security guard at the Balboa Bay Club who spent a good part of Thursday watching the action. “Anything with Charlie Bronson, I love.”

But Link, a Harbor Island resident, was in the minority among his neighbors, most of whom will be relieved when all the commotion and filming moves to John Wayne Airport on Saturday. The movie is scheduled for release in October.

“Whether it’s a film of violence or a rerun of a Shirley Temple movie doesn’t make much difference,” Voegelin said. “It’s a commercial enterprise and doesn’t belong here.”

Dunlap agreed.

“We’ll be glad when tomorrow comes and its all over,” she said.