Seeing Local People and Places on the Screen

According to accounts, somewhere between 300 and 350 extras were used in the scenes from Odds Against Tomorrow that were shot in Hudson--most of them local people.

One of those extras was John Fiero, whose squirt gun fight outside a store on Warren Street, with a kid who played his brother, foreshadowed the film's dark conclusion and started Fiero on a lifetime of being an extra in movies filmed in Hudson. He can boast of being in every one, including the movie recently premiered in Hudson, Fighting for Freedom. (He's sitting in the back row of the courtroom.) Fiero, at age 11, appears in this picture, with Ed Begley and his children, arriving at the Community Theatre for the premiere of Odds Against Tomorrow. (Fiero is at the far right.)

Fiero is even quoted in the Knickerbocker News article that this photograph accompanied:

It was a big day for Hudson generally and for 11-year-old John Fiero, of 240 Robinson St., Hudson, in particular.

John is one of the extras. He and his buddy, Billy Hanna, 8, son of a local police sergeant, are convinced movie stars have it made.

"I got $290 for my part," John said. "Billy only got $280."

"I wanted to be an actor even before that. With that kind of dough who'd want to be anything else?"

The boys' earnings were turned over to their mothers in a check.

"I've got a bank account now," John said. "I think movies are marvelous."

So do the rest of the people of Hudson. It's estimated that the Belafonte company spent about $40,000 in the town. And you don't have to be an 11-year-old to get a kick out of seeing local people and places on the screen.

Don't miss your chance to see, if not local people you recognize, local places you will. Time is running out. Make your reservation now for dinner and Odds Against Tomorrow, Friday, October 25, at Basilica Hudson. A donation of $50 is requested to benefit Fairview Cinema 3--to purchase another digital projector and keep our local hometown movie house (over the border in Greenport) in business. Send an email now and let it be known that you don't want to miss this rare opportunity. The event starts at 7 p.m.