What Price Stardom? : Ventura: Parents take about 1,000 children to a talent search involving a pitch to buy ads in a casting directory.

Sam Manfredi got more than 1,000 children to line up for a talent once-over when he invited the parents of would-be child stars to the Ventura Holiday Inn on Tuesday.

But although evaluations--involving a 10-second stand-up before a home video camera--were free, parents learned that it would cost $179 to $369 to get their children’s pictures into Manfredi’s publication, the “Rascals Talent Directory.”

“This seems like one of those time-share deals where they offer you something for free to get you in,” said Teresa Jamison, who came with her 2-year-old son, Dylan. “It seems like the average person here is low-income and trying to make a buck, and here these people are trying to make a buck off us.”

Manfredi defended the cost, saying his Monroeville, Pa.-based company sends the directory to 1,000 booking agencies, advertising agencies and casting directors nationwide, and has gotten television and print work for many children.

“We provide a very good value for the money,” Manfredi said.

However, several Los Angeles talent agents and casting directors who deal with child actors said Tuesday that they had never heard of the Rascals directory and questioned its value as anything short of a profit-making venture.

“I’d be very leery about anyone going to a service like this,” said Alan Kaminsky, president of AKA Casting in Los Angeles. “They’re capitalizing on parents’ beliefs that their kids will be the next Brooke Shields, Fred Savage or Macaulay Culkin.”

Manfredi’s company ran newspaper advertisements and mailed brochures to about 13,000 homes in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties after getting addresses of parents from a mailing-list firm. It arranged five sessions for children of different age groups in a Holiday Inn conference room Tuesday.

About 200 children, escorted by their parents, attended the noon session for children ages 18 months to 36 months.

“I was under the impression that I would have a one-on-one interview, because when I called, they said, ‘OK, you have an interview at 12 o’clock,’ ” said Maggie Camacho, who brought in 18-month-old Tanisha. “I didn’t expect this crowd.”

After brief appearances before the video recorder, about two-thirds of the children were excused because they had bad teeth or thin hair, failed to smile or to project their personality, or were too big for their age.

“The ad attracts so many people that once you make it through the elimination, the fee doesn’t look so bad,” said Ondray Simmons, who was with his 16-month-old daughter, Zia. “You start thinking maybe your kid is on her way.”

The handouts that Manfredi and his employees distributed to parents Tuesday were full of disclaimers: absolutely no guarantee that children would get work, an acknowledgment that certain agents and casting directors throw out the Rascals directory upon receipt and the warning that “in reality, the odds are against any person attempting to get started in the modeling and acting industry.”

Manfredi, the directory’s publisher, said he could not estimate what percentage of the children featured in his directories find acting or modeling work.

But his brochure listed “a few of our many success stories,” with the names of children who appeared in television commercials for McDonald’s, Jell-O and Crest, in print ads for Sears, Macy’s, Mattel and Middle Georgia Hospital, and in unspecified roles in the movies “Presumed Innocent” and “Little Monsters” and the soap opera “All My Children.”

Manfredi said he puts out eight regional versions of the Rascals directories, each published every two years. He said his company chooses about 600 children ages of 3 months to 16 years from the 10,000 and 15,000 children screened for each directory.

He charges $369 for a half-page in the directory, with a $50 prepayment discount. The smaller photographs of infants cost $179.

Some parents were angry that Manfredi made them sit through a 90-minute program before disclosing the cost of the path to stardom that he offered.

“It’s hard to sit here with these kids, keep them entertained and happy and keep up their spit-curls,” Jamison said. “If they told us what the charges were upfront, that would have weeded out three-fourths of us.”

Los Angeles talent agents suggested that parents could take other routes, such as the Academy Players Guide, published by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Jennifer Mahland, an agent with the Savage Agency in Los Angeles, said the Academy guide charges $60 to run a photo. Mahland, whose agency represents 400 child actors, including two dozen on television series, said it is the only directory that most Hollywood casting directors consult regularly.