March 26, 2025 • 20 mins
Most big films confront roadblocks during production—financial, logistical, or otherwise. But how many Hollywood movies brush up against the Mafia, too? In 1970, the notorious crime boss Joseph Colombo founded the Italian-American Civil Rights League with the mission of dispelling stereotypes about his demographic, particularly those linking them to organized crime. Because of the Mafia’s depiction in Mario Puzo’s novel, the movie quickly became a prime target for Colombo and the League. Suddenly, the picture’s producers had trouble securing filming locations, the Teamsters Union threatened to freeze all transportation for the movie, and death threats were allegedly delivered to Robert Evans and Al Ruddy. In Episode Six, Mark and Nathan look back at Colombo’s role in turning Italian-Americans against The Godfather, and how Al Ruddy—after cutting a controversial deal, which led to a media firestorm and his firing and re-hiring—kept The Godfather from sleeping with the fishes.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
For several weeks now, small groups of Italian Americans have
been picketing FBI headquarters in Manhattan to protest the use
of terms like mafia and gangster, which they regard as
ethnic slurs. Today, the protest took on all the appearances
of a full fledged movement as thousands of demonstrators gathered
near Central Park to celebrate Italian American Unity Day.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
In nineteen seventy, Joseph Colombo founded the Italian American Civil
Rights League.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
You are reganized, you are what.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Nobody could take you up what anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The group was formed to stamp out the stereotyping of
Italian Americans in motion pictures, television, and the government. Colombo
had cast himself as an outspoken watchdog. On behalf of
his spellow Italian Americans.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Titian Americans face and insidious players.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
That comes from a mythical association with crime. The fact
is that our more than twenty two million Italian Americans,
only five thousand a mayor one fiftieth of one percent,
not a half, not a quarter, one fiftieth of one
percent are involved in organized crime.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Joe Colombo also happened to be allegedly the head of
one of New York's most formidable mob families, and he
had his sights set on shutting down the god Bother.
(01:41):
I'm Mark Seal and I'm Nathan King, and this is
leave the Gun, Take the Canoli.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
This episode takes us to the streets of New York City,
where the powers of the Mob come head to head
with paramount movie makers. Mark, do you think anyone involved
in the making of The Godfather expected the actual mafia
to oppose the film?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
No? Never, you know, nobody thought that anybody would care
about the movie, much less object to it. I mean,
this was a fictional story about a fictional family, so
who's going to care.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
But as it turns out, people really did object to it.
And when did that start that pressure campaign?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
It started almost from the beginning, you know. Al Ruddy
tells the story of he met with Mickey Cohen in
the beginning, who was the former associate of Bugsy Siegel
no less, and he invited Already to lunch and according
to Ali said, the guys are watching you. And Alreddy
must have thought, what guys you know? And he said, Mickey,
(02:46):
call off your dogs. This is a movie. Who's going
to care about it? But then strange things start happening.
A mysterious man shows up in the office of Paramount,
supposedly with a check for one million dollars, which he
would give them in exchange for dropping the picture. Death
threats became routine. Ruddy began keeping a forty five pistol
(03:09):
in his desk. He said he didn't know who the
calls were from, but they were threatening him, and so
people were getting paranoid.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
But the most opposed group was the league. Can you
tell us a bit about that?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So in nineteen seventy, Joe Colombo founded the Italian American
Civil Rights League. It was a revival of the defunct
Italian American Anti Defamation League, but he wanted it to
be bigger and more powerful.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
We got the opportunity to speak with Joe Columbo's grandson,
Anthony Colombo Junior, who gave us some insights into what
his grandfather's motivations may have been.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
He says, there are Italian American organized criminals, but there
are organized criminals in every ethnicity, and so the Justice
Department has only labeled and stigmatized one at the community,
Italian American community, and it's unfair and his goal was
to largely help the Italian American community by eliminating these stereotypes.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
It's interesting to hear from his grandson about the lasting
legacy of the league, but I do think it was
about more than combating stereotypes. For Joe Colombo, this was personal.
April of nineteen seventy, the FBI arrested his son and
charged him with a scheme to melt down coins and
(04:34):
sell the silver. Colombo thought this was harassment, so he
decided to get a group together and pick it outside
of FBI headquarters, and he accused the FBI of unfairly
targeting not only his son but all Italian Americans, And
within a week this new league was born.
Speaker 7 (04:54):
Are we welcome, please, mister Joseph Columbo.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
In June of nineteen seventy, he hosted the first annual
Unity Day, which was a rally of fifty thousand Italian
American stretch from Columbus Circle deep into Central Park.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
God I was born of Italian bart.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
It seems like a really unusual position for a mafia
boss to take. What made him decide to put himself
in the public eye in that way?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It was very unusual, but Columba was amassing political power
while denying any affiliation to organize crime, and it seemed
like the sky was a limit.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
My grandfather met with Abe Rosenthal and told them, if
you don't eliminate the word mafia, la coos and osha
out of the New York Times, the papers aren't rolling
because they remember they had control of the unions, and
so I had a straggle hold on New York. And
that was the power with which my grandfather.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Influenced Joe Columbo's league was suddenly rich with cash from
donations and members across the city. They decided to host
this big benefit at Madison Square Garden, which was headlined
by no less than Brank Sinatra.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
And what happened to Columbo's son who was arrested.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
He was acquitted after the chief witness suddenly recantedas statement.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
How convenient.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
And now emboldened by his success, he sets his sights
on a more ambitious and far reaching mission. He's going
to shape the way Italian Americans are viewed in popular culture.
Here's Anthony Colombo Junior again.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
When Mario Puzo's book became a bestseller and was going
to be made into a movie, there were efforts to
combat that by my grandfather in the league.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
It's interesting that the very thing that ultimately made The
Godfather a success, which is the interest of Italian American audiences,
is precisely what worked against it in the first place.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
But you know, nobody really understood what the movie was
going to be except the people that were making the movie.
So from the outside looking in, I'm sure that they
felt it might be bad for the image of Italian Americans.
It was a movie about a mafia family.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
And they didn't realize that ultimately it was going to
glorify you know, if anything. So what efforts did the
League take to put a stop to the movie?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Well, it depends on who you ask, but Al Ruddy's
assistant Betty McCart told me that the studio started getting threats.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
How would the threats come in at the beginning.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
At the beginning, mostly by pharm And there was a
man by Paramount who was the head of security, and
he told Al that Al should be very careful because
they were really after him.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
And did it ever go beyond threats?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, Al Ruddy became so paranoid that he and Betty
would routinely swap cars to throw off any would be trackers.
And one night, while driving Ruddy's Facial Vega convertible, Betty
sees a car following her all the way home. She
runs inside to call the police, and later that night
(08:25):
shots ring out over the neighborhood.
Speaker 8 (08:28):
And my kids came in all hysterical. They'd her gunshots
and they went outside and all the windows had been
shot out of the Fusso Vega, which was a warning,
you know, to have.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
So these are a bit stronger than threats. They're actually
taking action.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Well yeah, but you know, Ruddy apparently wasn't phased by it.
He and the rest of the crew moved to New
York where they started setting up production. And that's when
the trouble really started.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Everywhere the production went it seemed like Colombo had gotten there. First.
Here's Robert Evans.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
There good at a Long Island for locations. The next day
was closed down, went to Staten Island, closed down, the
Bronx closed down. The Five Families did not want us
to shoot that picture in New York.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
And it got worse before it got better, far worse.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
One day, Robert Evans is in his hotel suite with
his wife Ally McGraw, and their newborn baby. When a
call comes.
Speaker 7 (09:34):
In, he said, in my life, Columbus did what he's saying.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
My wife had just ba and he likes your baby
to be all right. Get out of town.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
On did you call out Ruddy?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
He's a producer, he says, because when we killed the snake,
we cut the fucking head off.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
And how did Evans react to that?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Well, as you can imagine, not well. I think he
was really scared. It's one thing to make a movie
about mobsters, it's another to be confronted by them in
real time. Of course, there's a question as to whether
or not this call ever happened. Joe Colombo's grandson, Anthony,
insisted to me that his grandfather never said or sanctioned
such threats, especially not over the telephone, which was probably
(10:17):
bugged by the Feds.
Speaker 6 (10:19):
I do think that there was a call between Bob
Evans and my grandfather, But my grandfather didn't have.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
To make those threats like that.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
You know, he was a subtle man. He wielded power
in a way that Hugh in New York could, and
did it through, you know, exercise power.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
In other ways, the teamsters threatened to freeze all transportation
involving the Godfather.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
Well, that set no teamsters and you can't make a movie.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Ruddy and Evans had to do something fast. They realized
that the only way to get the movie made was
to arrange a sit down with Joe columb.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
And how did they plan to get this meeting?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Well, in true Hollywood fashion, Ruddy and Evans called their
own version of a fixer. They called an agent to.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Arrange a meeting with a mob boss. Who do they.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Get, Well, they got a pretty great agent, Eddie Goldstone,
from Creative Management Associates, which represented many of the actors
on the film. He was a talent agent to the
stars and tasked with brokering a meeting between Al Ruddy
and Joe Colombo.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
And how does he go about doing this?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well, apparently James conn had all the right connections and
set a meeting between Colombo and Goldstone. And on the
day of the meeting, Goldstone took a cab to an
address on Mott Street.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Do you think he was nervous?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I believe he was nervous. He said he had a
lump into his stomach, but he had a job to do,
so in his nice suit, he knocked with a big
smile on his face. The address turned out to be
an Italian American social club. He told me that the
air was full of smoke and about a dozen men
were speaking Italian, with their leader clearly at the center.
(12:11):
He was ushered in and he shook hands with none
other than Joe Colombo.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
And what do these two men talk about?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Well, Eddie goes into his spiel about the trouble they're
having with the teamsters and how great the movie's going
to be, and maybe they can come to some sort
of arrangement, a deal.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
And what did they say?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Well, according to Goldstone, apparently they wanted to talk about
Marlon Brando. Twenty minutes of pretending he's good friends with
Marlon and Eddie, Goldstone has the meeting set between Ruddy
and Colombo.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
That's amazing. Hollywood charm really works anywhere, huh.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
It sure does.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
So Ruddy got his meeting with Colombo.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yes, So first he has to have a preliminary meeting
with Columbo's son Anthony and the league's president Nat Marconi.
They hammer out a tentative deal with three conditions. Number one,
they have to delete the word mafia and Kozinostra from
the script. Number two, they have to allow the League
to review the script and change anything they deem damaging
(13:13):
to the Italian American image. And finally, number three, they
have to donate the proceeds from the film's New York
premiere to the League's hospital fund.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
And what does Ruddy say.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
He agrees to all of it, which is pretty unprecedented
deal for a Hollywood producer to make.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
He's essentially handing over the rights to script for revisions.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
And turning over a portion of the profits to a
group allegedly founded by one of the country's most powerful mobsters.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
But he gets his meeting.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes. In February nineteen seventy one, Al Ruddy walks into
the Park Sheridan Hotel and is in for a surprise.
Six hundred Italian American members of the League greet him
with booze and cheers. Joe Columbo was testing him. He
wanted to see if Ruddy could win over the members.
(14:03):
And Ruddy has to address this crowd. I mean, you know,
that's a pretty incredible thing.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
So what does he say to them?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
He said, this is not going to be a movie
that's going to demean or stereotype anybody. This is an
equal opportunity thing. I mean, we have an Irish cop,
we have you know, all these different ethnic groups, not
just the Italian Americans. He calmed down the crowd that
he asked him questions, and there was some back and forth,
(14:30):
and Ruddy apparently did an admirable job talking to this
crowd and making them understand that the Godfather movie was
not out to have said or demean anyone, that it
was going to be a story about an Italian American family.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
And I meet Joey after that. I said, look, joe
don't say what I'll do. He's got my office smart
the script you can see MOPy whatever's in or evident
you like, but don't you read it more seatly, you
make it deal.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
At three o'clock the next day, Colombo showed up at
the Gulf and Western Building with two associates to read
the scripts.
Speaker 7 (15:08):
It's opposite me when guy's in the contint, when you
guys sitting in the window when the hot air comes up.
I take it a hundred fifty five page script mark
you can imagine. I give this guy a hundred fifty
five pace screen pay. He puts on his little bit
frankly glasses and looks at it for about two minutes.
So does this mean fade in? I really did, no way,
(15:29):
So it was going to turn the page two.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
They didn't read it, well, they supposedly, according to that
Ruddy at least only got past page one before getting
bored and giving out of their blessing.
Speaker 7 (15:40):
Finally, Joe slamming on the table. It waits. So we
like this guy, and we trund them. Yeah, we like
this guy. So the fund we have to read the script,
but let's just make the deal. We're going to take
the word mafia out of the script. And I said,
that's okay with me.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Guys, Now I shook the hand. That was the deal,
and all he would have to do is take the
word mafia out of the.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Screen, which only appeared once, by the way.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
So I'll write agin, Joe Columbus strike a deal. Is
it time to make a movie?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Well, not so fast. Columbo thought it'd be a good
idea to hold a press conference to announce the new partnership.
Speaker 7 (16:13):
So Joe calls me two days later and he said, look,
we should get the word out to our people. It
went down behind the movie, which I thought was a
grand idea because we were having trouble sunning locations in
that time. He says, you come to the League office
tomorrow two o'clock, rubber press commerce.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Ruddy thinks, what the hell, It'll just be a few
Italian American newspapers, and he agrees.
Speaker 7 (16:38):
I get in the elevator, was up Park came and
there were those days like fifty eighth Street. I could
hardly get in the elevator. I didn't know everyone's going
up to like the twentieth flod's sun guns and video
cameras and lines and that's what the fuck's I'll get
out of the same one, and they follow me as
a huge waiting room.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
There were reporters from every major newspaper and crew from
all three television networks to chronicle Paramount's historic deal with
the League.
Speaker 7 (17:06):
There's articles on the front page of the New York
Times with pictures to me with Nat Mark on Jolo Now,
where the League says we're behind the movie and blah
blah blah blah blah. Unfortunately, it wasn't interpreted that way
by the press.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Ruddy definitely underestimated how big of a deal this was.
What was the press coverage like.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
It was horrible. The Times called the deal a hypocritical,
craven act of voluntary self censorship, and The Village Voice wrote,
if you want to produce a film on the Mafia,
please ask their permission first.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
How did Paramount react? Does anyone else know about the deal?
Ready made?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Apparently not. Evans was in Europe, Stanley Jaffy was in
the Caribbean, and Puzzo was at a weight loss clinic.
A spokesman for Paramount told Variety that the deal was
completely unauthorized.
Speaker 7 (17:59):
The front page of the World Street Journal the next morning,
as Mafy moves in on Gulf and Western right that
we've compromised.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
The book, but worse than the bad press. Gulf and
Western stock had dropped two and a half points, and
Charlie Bluedorn is pissed.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
What happens to Ruddy?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well, Ruddy goes into blue Dorn's office the next day,
or he was called in the Blue Dora's office the
next day and he was fired.
Speaker 7 (18:22):
I walk in there and I swear to God, Charlie
Blueto is living, you know right my company all these years,
I'm trying to go get you. In my day at
the Mam Moll be in and my shand's freaking the
fuck out.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Right, But he had one saving grace. Apparently, Francis Coppola
told Charlie blue Doorn that our Ruddy is the only
one who can get this picture made.
Speaker 7 (18:43):
And Charlie stops to shoot. He calls Francis up and
brings Francis down there and tells Francis he's fired at Ruddy.
He's a fucking maniac and Francis Coppole'll re save my job.
So Charlie, he's the only man who can keep this
book going. Do you understand it's down?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Think called me back because of the mob.
Speaker 7 (19:02):
I got back to see Charley and he's almost has
to spin on. This must have done done with the
plast that would show get at death with my ass.
I mean, the man was crazy, probably for good reason,
because I'm not the Comporence time.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
So Blue Torn took him back.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
It's always hard to make a movie, Mark, but never
quite this hard.
Speaker 8 (19:23):
No.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
It definitely tested the production's metal, you know. But now
the red carpet is rolled out, Deals are made left
and right for locations, vendors start working with them, homeowners
open their homes. Any problem the movie had All They
Had to Do is called Joe Colombo, Leave the Gun,
(19:53):
Take the Canoli as a production of Airmail and iHeartMedia.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
The podcast is based on the book of the se name,
written by our very own Mark Seal.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Our producer is Tina Mullen.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Research assistance by Jack Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Jonathan Dressler was our development producer.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Our music supervisor is Randall Poster. Our executive producers are
Meet Nathan King, Mark Seal, Doan Fagan, and Graydon Carter.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Special thanks to Bridget Arseno and everyone at c DM Studios.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
A comprehensive list of sources and acknowledgments can be found
in Mark Sieal's book, Leave the Gun, Take the Canoli,
published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster,
For several weeks now, small groups of Italian Americans have
been picketing FBI headquarters in Manhattan to protest the use
of terms like mafia and gangster, which they regard as
ethnic slurs. Today, the protest took on all the appearances
of a full fledged movement as thousands of demonstrators gathered
near Central Park to celebrate Italian American Unity Day.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
In nineteen seventy, Joseph Colombo founded the Italian American Civil
Rights League.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
You are reganized, you are what.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Nobody could take you up what anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The group was formed to stamp out the stereotyping of
Italian Americans in motion pictures, television, and the government. Colombo
had cast himself as an outspoken watchdog. On behalf of
his spellow Italian Americans.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Titian Americans face and insidious players.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
That comes from a mythical association with crime. The fact
is that our more than twenty two million Italian Americans,
only five thousand a mayor one fiftieth of one percent,
not a half, not a quarter, one fiftieth of one
percent are involved in organized crime.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Joe Colombo also happened to be allegedly the head of
one of New York's most formidable mob families, and he
had his sights set on shutting down the god Bother.
(01:41):
I'm Mark Seal and I'm Nathan King, and this is
leave the Gun, Take the Canoli.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
This episode takes us to the streets of New York City,
where the powers of the Mob come head to head
with paramount movie makers. Mark, do you think anyone involved
in the making of The Godfather expected the actual mafia
to oppose the film?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
No? Never, you know, nobody thought that anybody would care
about the movie, much less object to it. I mean,
this was a fictional story about a fictional family, so
who's going to care.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
But as it turns out, people really did object to it.
And when did that start that pressure campaign?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
It started almost from the beginning, you know. Al Ruddy
tells the story of he met with Mickey Cohen in
the beginning, who was the former associate of Bugsy Siegel
no less, and he invited Already to lunch and according
to Ali said, the guys are watching you. And Alreddy
must have thought, what guys you know? And he said, Mickey,
(02:46):
call off your dogs. This is a movie. Who's going
to care about it? But then strange things start happening.
A mysterious man shows up in the office of Paramount,
supposedly with a check for one million dollars, which he
would give them in exchange for dropping the picture. Death
threats became routine. Ruddy began keeping a forty five pistol
(03:09):
in his desk. He said he didn't know who the
calls were from, but they were threatening him, and so
people were getting paranoid.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
But the most opposed group was the league. Can you
tell us a bit about that?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So in nineteen seventy, Joe Colombo founded the Italian American
Civil Rights League. It was a revival of the defunct
Italian American Anti Defamation League, but he wanted it to
be bigger and more powerful.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
We got the opportunity to speak with Joe Columbo's grandson,
Anthony Colombo Junior, who gave us some insights into what
his grandfather's motivations may have been.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
He says, there are Italian American organized criminals, but there
are organized criminals in every ethnicity, and so the Justice
Department has only labeled and stigmatized one at the community,
Italian American community, and it's unfair and his goal was
to largely help the Italian American community by eliminating these stereotypes.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
It's interesting to hear from his grandson about the lasting
legacy of the league, but I do think it was
about more than combating stereotypes. For Joe Colombo, this was personal.
April of nineteen seventy, the FBI arrested his son and
charged him with a scheme to melt down coins and
(04:34):
sell the silver. Colombo thought this was harassment, so he
decided to get a group together and pick it outside
of FBI headquarters, and he accused the FBI of unfairly
targeting not only his son but all Italian Americans, And
within a week this new league was born.
Speaker 7 (04:54):
Are we welcome, please, mister Joseph Columbo.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
In June of nineteen seventy, he hosted the first annual
Unity Day, which was a rally of fifty thousand Italian
American stretch from Columbus Circle deep into Central Park.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
God I was born of Italian bart.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
It seems like a really unusual position for a mafia
boss to take. What made him decide to put himself
in the public eye in that way?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It was very unusual, but Columba was amassing political power
while denying any affiliation to organize crime, and it seemed
like the sky was a limit.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
My grandfather met with Abe Rosenthal and told them, if
you don't eliminate the word mafia, la coos and osha
out of the New York Times, the papers aren't rolling
because they remember they had control of the unions, and
so I had a straggle hold on New York. And
that was the power with which my grandfather.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Influenced Joe Columbo's league was suddenly rich with cash from
donations and members across the city. They decided to host
this big benefit at Madison Square Garden, which was headlined
by no less than Brank Sinatra.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
And what happened to Columbo's son who was arrested.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
He was acquitted after the chief witness suddenly recantedas statement.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
How convenient.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
And now emboldened by his success, he sets his sights
on a more ambitious and far reaching mission. He's going
to shape the way Italian Americans are viewed in popular culture.
Here's Anthony Colombo Junior again.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
When Mario Puzo's book became a bestseller and was going
to be made into a movie, there were efforts to
combat that by my grandfather in the league.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
It's interesting that the very thing that ultimately made The
Godfather a success, which is the interest of Italian American audiences,
is precisely what worked against it in the first place.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
But you know, nobody really understood what the movie was
going to be except the people that were making the movie.
So from the outside looking in, I'm sure that they
felt it might be bad for the image of Italian Americans.
It was a movie about a mafia family.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
And they didn't realize that ultimately it was going to
glorify you know, if anything. So what efforts did the
League take to put a stop to the movie?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Well, it depends on who you ask, but Al Ruddy's
assistant Betty McCart told me that the studio started getting threats.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
How would the threats come in at the beginning.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
At the beginning, mostly by pharm And there was a
man by Paramount who was the head of security, and
he told Al that Al should be very careful because
they were really after him.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
And did it ever go beyond threats?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, Al Ruddy became so paranoid that he and Betty
would routinely swap cars to throw off any would be trackers.
And one night, while driving Ruddy's Facial Vega convertible, Betty
sees a car following her all the way home. She
runs inside to call the police, and later that night
(08:25):
shots ring out over the neighborhood.
Speaker 8 (08:28):
And my kids came in all hysterical. They'd her gunshots
and they went outside and all the windows had been
shot out of the Fusso Vega, which was a warning,
you know, to have.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
So these are a bit stronger than threats. They're actually
taking action.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Well yeah, but you know, Ruddy apparently wasn't phased by it.
He and the rest of the crew moved to New
York where they started setting up production. And that's when
the trouble really started.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Everywhere the production went it seemed like Colombo had gotten there. First.
Here's Robert Evans.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
There good at a Long Island for locations. The next day
was closed down, went to Staten Island, closed down, the
Bronx closed down. The Five Families did not want us
to shoot that picture in New York.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
And it got worse before it got better, far worse.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
One day, Robert Evans is in his hotel suite with
his wife Ally McGraw, and their newborn baby. When a
call comes.
Speaker 7 (09:34):
In, he said, in my life, Columbus did what he's saying.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
My wife had just ba and he likes your baby
to be all right. Get out of town.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
On did you call out Ruddy?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
He's a producer, he says, because when we killed the snake,
we cut the fucking head off.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
And how did Evans react to that?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Well, as you can imagine, not well. I think he
was really scared. It's one thing to make a movie
about mobsters, it's another to be confronted by them in
real time. Of course, there's a question as to whether
or not this call ever happened. Joe Colombo's grandson, Anthony,
insisted to me that his grandfather never said or sanctioned
such threats, especially not over the telephone, which was probably
(10:17):
bugged by the Feds.
Speaker 6 (10:19):
I do think that there was a call between Bob
Evans and my grandfather, But my grandfather didn't have.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
To make those threats like that.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
You know, he was a subtle man. He wielded power
in a way that Hugh in New York could, and
did it through, you know, exercise power.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
In other ways, the teamsters threatened to freeze all transportation
involving the Godfather.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
Well, that set no teamsters and you can't make a movie.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Ruddy and Evans had to do something fast. They realized
that the only way to get the movie made was
to arrange a sit down with Joe columb.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
And how did they plan to get this meeting?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Well, in true Hollywood fashion, Ruddy and Evans called their
own version of a fixer. They called an agent to.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Arrange a meeting with a mob boss. Who do they.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Get, Well, they got a pretty great agent, Eddie Goldstone,
from Creative Management Associates, which represented many of the actors
on the film. He was a talent agent to the
stars and tasked with brokering a meeting between Al Ruddy
and Joe Colombo.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
And how does he go about doing this?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well, apparently James conn had all the right connections and
set a meeting between Colombo and Goldstone. And on the
day of the meeting, Goldstone took a cab to an
address on Mott Street.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Do you think he was nervous?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I believe he was nervous. He said he had a
lump into his stomach, but he had a job to do,
so in his nice suit, he knocked with a big
smile on his face. The address turned out to be
an Italian American social club. He told me that the
air was full of smoke and about a dozen men
were speaking Italian, with their leader clearly at the center.
(12:11):
He was ushered in and he shook hands with none
other than Joe Colombo.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
And what do these two men talk about?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Well, Eddie goes into his spiel about the trouble they're
having with the teamsters and how great the movie's going
to be, and maybe they can come to some sort
of arrangement, a deal.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
And what did they say?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Well, according to Goldstone, apparently they wanted to talk about
Marlon Brando. Twenty minutes of pretending he's good friends with
Marlon and Eddie, Goldstone has the meeting set between Ruddy
and Colombo.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
That's amazing. Hollywood charm really works anywhere, huh.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
It sure does.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
So Ruddy got his meeting with Colombo.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Yes, So first he has to have a preliminary meeting
with Columbo's son Anthony and the league's president Nat Marconi.
They hammer out a tentative deal with three conditions. Number one,
they have to delete the word mafia and Kozinostra from
the script. Number two, they have to allow the League
to review the script and change anything they deem damaging
(13:13):
to the Italian American image. And finally, number three, they
have to donate the proceeds from the film's New York
premiere to the League's hospital fund.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
And what does Ruddy say.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
He agrees to all of it, which is pretty unprecedented
deal for a Hollywood producer to make.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
He's essentially handing over the rights to script for revisions.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
And turning over a portion of the profits to a
group allegedly founded by one of the country's most powerful mobsters.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
But he gets his meeting.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes. In February nineteen seventy one, Al Ruddy walks into
the Park Sheridan Hotel and is in for a surprise.
Six hundred Italian American members of the League greet him
with booze and cheers. Joe Columbo was testing him. He
wanted to see if Ruddy could win over the members.
(14:03):
And Ruddy has to address this crowd. I mean, you know,
that's a pretty incredible thing.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
So what does he say to them?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
He said, this is not going to be a movie
that's going to demean or stereotype anybody. This is an
equal opportunity thing. I mean, we have an Irish cop,
we have you know, all these different ethnic groups, not
just the Italian Americans. He calmed down the crowd that
he asked him questions, and there was some back and forth,
(14:30):
and Ruddy apparently did an admirable job talking to this
crowd and making them understand that the Godfather movie was
not out to have said or demean anyone, that it
was going to be a story about an Italian American family.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
And I meet Joey after that. I said, look, joe
don't say what I'll do. He's got my office smart
the script you can see MOPy whatever's in or evident
you like, but don't you read it more seatly, you
make it deal.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
At three o'clock the next day, Colombo showed up at
the Gulf and Western Building with two associates to read
the scripts.
Speaker 7 (15:08):
It's opposite me when guy's in the contint, when you
guys sitting in the window when the hot air comes up.
I take it a hundred fifty five page script mark
you can imagine. I give this guy a hundred fifty
five pace screen pay. He puts on his little bit
frankly glasses and looks at it for about two minutes.
So does this mean fade in? I really did, no way,
(15:29):
So it was going to turn the page two.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
They didn't read it, well, they supposedly, according to that
Ruddy at least only got past page one before getting
bored and giving out of their blessing.
Speaker 7 (15:40):
Finally, Joe slamming on the table. It waits. So we
like this guy, and we trund them. Yeah, we like
this guy. So the fund we have to read the script,
but let's just make the deal. We're going to take
the word mafia out of the script. And I said,
that's okay with me.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Guys, Now I shook the hand. That was the deal,
and all he would have to do is take the
word mafia out of the.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Screen, which only appeared once, by the way.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
So I'll write agin, Joe Columbus strike a deal. Is
it time to make a movie?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Well, not so fast. Columbo thought it'd be a good
idea to hold a press conference to announce the new partnership.
Speaker 7 (16:13):
So Joe calls me two days later and he said, look,
we should get the word out to our people. It
went down behind the movie, which I thought was a
grand idea because we were having trouble sunning locations in
that time. He says, you come to the League office
tomorrow two o'clock, rubber press commerce.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Ruddy thinks, what the hell, It'll just be a few
Italian American newspapers, and he agrees.
Speaker 7 (16:38):
I get in the elevator, was up Park came and
there were those days like fifty eighth Street. I could
hardly get in the elevator. I didn't know everyone's going
up to like the twentieth flod's sun guns and video
cameras and lines and that's what the fuck's I'll get
out of the same one, and they follow me as
a huge waiting room.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
There were reporters from every major newspaper and crew from
all three television networks to chronicle Paramount's historic deal with
the League.
Speaker 7 (17:06):
There's articles on the front page of the New York
Times with pictures to me with Nat Mark on Jolo Now,
where the League says we're behind the movie and blah
blah blah blah blah. Unfortunately, it wasn't interpreted that way
by the press.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Ruddy definitely underestimated how big of a deal this was.
What was the press coverage like.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
It was horrible. The Times called the deal a hypocritical,
craven act of voluntary self censorship, and The Village Voice wrote,
if you want to produce a film on the Mafia,
please ask their permission first.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
How did Paramount react? Does anyone else know about the deal?
Ready made?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Apparently not. Evans was in Europe, Stanley Jaffy was in
the Caribbean, and Puzzo was at a weight loss clinic.
A spokesman for Paramount told Variety that the deal was
completely unauthorized.
Speaker 7 (17:59):
The front page of the World Street Journal the next morning,
as Mafy moves in on Gulf and Western right that
we've compromised.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
The book, but worse than the bad press. Gulf and
Western stock had dropped two and a half points, and
Charlie Bluedorn is pissed.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
What happens to Ruddy?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well, Ruddy goes into blue Dorn's office the next day,
or he was called in the Blue Dora's office the
next day and he was fired.
Speaker 7 (18:22):
I walk in there and I swear to God, Charlie
Blueto is living, you know right my company all these years,
I'm trying to go get you. In my day at
the Mam Moll be in and my shand's freaking the
fuck out.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Right, But he had one saving grace. Apparently, Francis Coppola
told Charlie blue Doorn that our Ruddy is the only
one who can get this picture made.
Speaker 7 (18:43):
And Charlie stops to shoot. He calls Francis up and
brings Francis down there and tells Francis he's fired at Ruddy.
He's a fucking maniac and Francis Coppole'll re save my job.
So Charlie, he's the only man who can keep this
book going. Do you understand it's down?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Think called me back because of the mob.
Speaker 7 (19:02):
I got back to see Charley and he's almost has
to spin on. This must have done done with the
plast that would show get at death with my ass.
I mean, the man was crazy, probably for good reason,
because I'm not the Comporence time.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
So Blue Torn took him back.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
It's always hard to make a movie, Mark, but never
quite this hard.
Speaker 8 (19:23):
No.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
It definitely tested the production's metal, you know. But now
the red carpet is rolled out, Deals are made left
and right for locations, vendors start working with them, homeowners
open their homes. Any problem the movie had All They
Had to Do is called Joe Colombo, Leave the Gun,
(19:53):
Take the Canoli as a production of Airmail and iHeartMedia.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
The podcast is based on the book of the se name,
written by our very own Mark Seal.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Our producer is Tina Mullen.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Research assistance by Jack Sullivan.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Jonathan Dressler was our development producer.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Our music supervisor is Randall Poster. Our executive producers are
Meet Nathan King, Mark Seal, Doan Fagan, and Graydon Carter.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Special thanks to Bridget Arseno and everyone at c DM Studios.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
A comprehensive list of sources and acknowledgments can be found
in Mark Sieal's book, Leave the Gun, Take the Canoli,
published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster,
Hosts And Creators
Mark Seal
Nathan King
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