April 16, 2025 • 23 mins
By 1972, “The Godfather” had become the movie of the moment—and that’s before it even hit theaters. Leading up to the film’s nationwide release that March, critics and made men alike clamored to get an early look, motivated in part by the tactful publicity strategy devised by Paramount’s Marilyn Stewart. To promote the film, she ensured that no photographs of Marlon Brando’s highly anticipated "transformation" into Don Vito Corleone leaked to the public. To see the Don, you’d have to buy a ticket. That’s not to say that audiences needed much convincing. In the wake of the movie’s New York City premiere—to which Robert Evans arrived with Ali MacGraw on one arm, and Henry Kissinger on the other—“The Godfather” was an immediate critical success, vindicating the strain Francis Ford Coppola endured to achieve his vision. On Episode Nine, Mark and Nathan reflect on "The Godfather"’s debut, and how its acclaim altered the lives of, among others, Coppola and Evans. In some ways, for the worse.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's March of nineteen seventy two. Ivor Davis is an
LA based reporter for the London Daily Express.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I was the one man Los Angeles bureau working out
of southern California.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
He's a British bloodhound who's heard the talk and read
the headlines of the most anticipated movie of the year,
The Godfather.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And there was all sorts of chicanery going on in
New York. We heard the mob didn't like the way
they were being depicted in the film, and so there
was a lot of talk buzzing around The Godfather.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
He calls Paramount and they tell him press screenings are
coming not good enough. He wants a scoop, So.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
My London office kept nagging me, when's the film coming out?
When are you gonna see it? Can you see it quickly?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
One night, Ivor is hanging out at Chasin's, Yes, the
Chasins where Mario Puzzo had his altercation with Frank Sinott.
He's talking to the mad Or d a friend of
his name Phil Scully. He tells him about his quest
to see the movie everyone's talking about but nobody's seen.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
And I said to Phil, have you heard about The Godfather?
He said, no, I know it's coming out, so I
said I'd love to see it, and I left it
at that.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
A few days later, the reporter's phone rings. It's Phil.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
He said, Iva, they're showing the movie tomorrow night and
it's at a Litton Savings alone cinema on Sunset Boulevard,
and if you want to see it, come along and
I'll get you in.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
It turns out Jason's is catering a first look screening
for distributors.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
He said, the only problem is I can't bring you
in as a journalist, so you have to pretend to
be a waiter.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
So Ivor shows up to the theater the next day
and meets Phil around back to get a waiter's uniform.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
He said, get in there. Make it simple, just take
drink orders. So I took drink orders and he said
keep your mouth shut, and I did that for about
forty five minutes to try to overhear what people were saying.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Just before the screening begins, Ibor takes off his uniform
and blends into the crowd of distributors and off.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I went into the screening room and got a backseat,
took my notebook, and there before my very eyes. The
movie unfolded.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I Believe in America.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
I'm Mark Seal and I'm Nathan King.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
And this is Leave the gun, Take the Canoli.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
In today's episode, we're moving on from the tumult of shooting,
post production and endless fights and onto the glitz and
glam of The Guy Father's New York City premiere and
subsequent rise as one of the greatest films of all time.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
We'll hear from the mastermind behind The Godfather's press strategy
and tie up the loose ends between Coppola and Evans.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
So we left off last episode with Francis Ford Coppola
winning every single fight with Evans in the studio. He
gets the cast he wants, the locations he wants, He
painstakingly gets scenes back into the movie that were once
cut out of it. And he's made a masterpiece.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Well we know he made a masterpiece, but he's somehow
sure that he's made a boring movie. He's consumed by
the idea that it's going to be a flop.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
But even without Copola believing in the movie, there's one
person who believed in it enough for everyone.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yes, there was the great Marilynd Stewart paramounts worldwide head
of publicity and promotion, who got the town buzzing about
the film before a single frame had been shot.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
No other publishers, maybe in the country, could do what
I could have done.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
You talked to her for the book, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I talked to her, and I talked to her, and
I talked to her for hours at a time, and
she told me her strategy in minute detail. The key
to it all in her mind was Marlon Brando's transformation.
She had seen that revolutionary transformation in the home video
I believe that Francis had done on Mulholland Drive and
(04:26):
was astounded, like everyone else at this incredible transformation of
Marlon Brando into Vito Corleone. And so she thought, that's
the key.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
I'm going to walk up the shed. Nobody's going to
get a picture of Rolon Brando as the Godfather time
or usually on the cover with a big story.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I got so excited that you can hear me ferociously
typing in the background as she tells me the story
of how she made The Godfather an international sensation.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
So the big thing was Marylyn's picture that Steve Shapiro
shot on her Godfather set said, show raw in in
clear detailing my personal Fafty deposit box.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And so she thought, then we can stun the world
when the movie comes out with the pictures of Marlon
Brando as the Godfather, because everybody will want to see
the movie because they want to see Marlon Brando as
the Dawn.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
How did you track her down?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, you know, I was talking to Nicholas Pelegi for
the book, and he told me he was the only
reporter loud on The Godfather said in little Italy. I said, well,
how did that all happen? He said, well, Marilyn Stewart
handled everything. She was the paramount head of publicity and promotion.
And so I said, Marilyn Stewart. I really hadn't heard
about Marilyn Stewart before, and so I frantically google her
(06:00):
name and I was able to find a phone number
for her and give her a call. And she was
just this amazing woman who had unveiled this then revolutionary
press strategy of promoting a movie not upon its release
or a few weeks or months before its release, but
before it would have even been shot at all, making
(06:23):
deals with magazines and newspapers and planning a press strategy
a year or two in advance.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
So when I'm for Davis says, it's the movie everyone's
talking about, and he has to sneak into his screening.
Marilyn's the reason everyone's talking about it.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yes, indeed, and she wasn't even working for Paramount by
the time the movie came out, but she set up
a publicity time bomb for the day of the release,
and boy did it work.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
And I called Rob and I, you know, should have
you ever heard of knowing that you're going to be
on the newsweek code one train of film?
Speaker 6 (07:04):
What are you talking about it?
Speaker 4 (07:07):
So Marilyn Stewart got the press and the public buzzing
about the premiere of The Godfather. Mark, you saw the
movie in theaters when it first came out, But I'm
guessing it was a whorled away from the glamour of
the New York City premiere.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It was several worlds away. I mean, I'm watching the
movie in Memphis, Tennessee. I can only imagine what it
was like to be at that premiere. You can see
the pictures, you know, and you can see the excitement
and feel the energy and the enthusiasm of all that
the film premiere on March fourteenth, nineteen seventy two, at
the low State Theater on forty fifth and Broadway. The
(07:40):
streets were clogged with heavy traffic, police, mobs of fans
and press. Marilyn Stewart had done her job. It was
an absolute frenzy.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Okay, everyone was there, Kennedy's, Ford's Raquel welch al Pacino,
of course, Charlie Bludorn, Mario Puzzo and his whole family,
Francis Ford, Coppola and his wife. Even Robert Evans, suddenly
cured of his ailments, arrived with Ali McGraw on one
(08:11):
arm and a surprising guest on his other.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, Robert Evans brought none other than Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger to the premiere, much to the delight of
Charlie Bludorn, who tells Evans in his book Evans Evans,
I love you, I love you Kissinger. He was so excited.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
It was like having the co sign of the US
government on the film exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
You know, Charlie Bludorn was in heaven this night.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
And when the limo suspected to be carrying Marlon Brando
pulled up, the crowds were poised to pounce on the superstar,
but he didn't show up. In his place, he sent
a friend of his, Jim Thomas, a Native American man
from Alaska, in full regalia.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yes he did, and I was so excited to speak
to Jim Thomas because he gave me a lens into
the premiere.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
What did he say about it from his personerspective?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You know, he came with a small group of friends
and family, and he was sitting in a prime seat
in one of the front rows, and he just had
a great story to tell about talking with Al Pacino,
who said, how do you like the movie? You know
he didn't recognize Pacino at first. He goes, I thought
it was pretty good.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Now, before we get off the red carpet and into
the theater for the premiere, I want you to tell
me the story of something that didn't happen. It's a
great story, and it doesn't appear in your book.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
No, it's not in the book. But when I was
interviewing Gianni Russo, who played Carlo Rizzy, he told me
about his experience at the premiere.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
I'll tell you what I was going to do, and
I should have did it.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Actually they took me out of it. In fact, you
know I took him my premier food.
Speaker 6 (09:44):
You will not believe this, doctor Theodore Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Apparently, four days prior to the premiere, Gianni gets a
call from the FBI informing him of a call the
interceptor who had plans to kill Gianni at the premiere.
They tell him they can't offer any protection, but it's
their obligation to tell him of the threat.
Speaker 6 (10:05):
So, like everything else in life, I said, I'm going
to use this then, So I hired a mocksman and
I was going to put him on the roof and
let him shoot me and live television. The FBI revertified
that I had to hit on me.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
How did you fucking headlines the next day be dead?
Speaker 7 (10:22):
Though?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
No, I had mosmen to shoot me here, Oh not
kill me.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
I would have been the biggest star in the world.
So I got my doctor. He's just crazy. Can I
took you at this? I said, no, it's a stunt.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
It's a stunt. Doctor about it? So then what did
you do it?
Speaker 7 (10:37):
What happened?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
They took me out of it? Who in the eleventh hour?
Speaker 6 (10:42):
Who my doctor Brancooper and my very close one Tommy Blotti.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Can you imagine the headlines the next day? Carlo Rizzy,
the godfathers errant son in law shot at the premiere
of The Godfather? Could you imagine better headlines? And that
it would make him a worldwide star.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It would be the biggest publicity stunt of all time.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Probably. Wow.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Well, I was pretty shocked when I heard that tape. Mark. Okay,
so we get into the theater. Thankfully, no one's been shot.
What's the reaction when the credits roll and the lights
turn back on.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Absolute silence.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Not the standing ovation you would expect from a masterpiece.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
No, it's not at all. Here's how Robert Evans later
described it in his memoir No applause, not a sound,
silence scary here.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Well, despite the silence, the star studded audience heads to
the top floor of the Saint Regis Hotel for an
over the top galla, complete with authentic Sicilian food, waiters
dressed as Corleone bagman, a giant ice sculpture in the
shape of a submachine gun, and an orchestra playing the
Godfather theme over and over again.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It was a night to remember, and in fact, one
that Robert Evans remembered for years to come. When we
spoke in two thousand and seven, he got quite emotional
talking about it.
Speaker 8 (12:07):
This is the highest nide of my life. It's such
a euphoria. Everyone who realized has just seen something.
Speaker 7 (12:16):
MS Bryce five people there.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I was in heaven.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
What about for Coppola? He must have been relieved that
the ordeal was finally over.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah, I'm sure he was in a sense, But he
later said that he had been so conditioned to think
that the film was too dark, too long, too boring,
that he wasn't sure it would have any success. But
you can see him in the photographs from the party.
He looks like he's having a pretty good time.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
He's hiding his despairwell. A week later, the Hollywood premiere
saw a similar audience response that Eerie Silence, and.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Al Ruddy wanted to get to the bottom of it.
He and al Pacino decided to sneak into the last
ten minutes of a showing at a theater in New
York to gauge the reaction. Here's how he described it
in an interview with All Things Considered.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I was with al Pacino in the back of the
theater and it was an amazing thing that occurred.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
When the lights came on, everyone got up and walked out.
Nobody clapped.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
It was quiet. I took that alley, I said, Oh
Jesus Christ, this Maybe they think it's a disaster.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
But Ruddy's fears were soon relieved. On the day of
the nationwide premiere March twenty fourth, nineteen seventy two, Al
Ruddy drove past the Paramount Theater on Broadway in the
middle of a driving rainstorm. There was a line stretching
around the block to see The Godfather.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
And meanwhile, Coppola has no idea that his film's ahead.
Immediately after the New York premiere, he heads to Paris
for some peace and quiet to focus on his next
screenplay and adaptation of The Great Gatsby.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yet another pair out project that he took on for
Robert Evans.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Why do you think he decided to take on this job,
especially if he had such a bad experience working with
Evans the first time around.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Well, he needed the money, don't forget the money he's
received so far from The Godfather. Went to cover his
debts for American zoa trope and the huge house he
had just bought for his family and other expenses.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Well, he'll soon find out that he definitely doesn't need
the money. When does Copla finally realize that The Godfather
isn't the massive failure he fears.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Well, he's in Paris and his phone rings. It's his wife, Eleanor,
who's still in New York. After the premiere. She tells
him that just outside her hotel room, she could see
a movie theater with the marquee reading The Godfather, and
on the street, day in and day out, there's a
line snaking around the block. She said, Oh, my god, Francis,
(14:53):
you won't believe it. It's a phenomenon.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
So the Godfather mania is in full swing, a spurred
on by Marilyn Stuart's genius press strategy, and theaters can
add enough showings to keep up with the ravenous crowds.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
The La Times even runs the story headline Lifestyles for
waiting in line to see The Godfather, which was an
instructional guid for how to make the long wait more tolerable.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Mark, Is it true that Al Ruddy set up a
separate screening for the boys, as he called them?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, even the men who inspired the movie had trouble
getting tickets. So Ruddy sets up a screening in New York.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So I stuck a print out which parent I never
knew about, and I gave them a screening.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It must been one hundred lib sees in front.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
I swear to guy, and the projection has called me
the guy's mister. Ready. I've been a projected is.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
My whole life.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
No one never gave me a thousand dollar tip.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
That's how much the guys.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Lived the movie.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
And there's a great cartoon that's featured in my book,
and it shows the Godfather Marquis and a line of
these big men and overcoats with violin cases under their arms,
snaking down the street waiting to see the movie. And
what about the reviews, Well, the reviews were pretty much sensational.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Robo Brando's Godfather hailed the New York Times the year's
first really satisfying, big commercial American film, four stars, highest
rating from The Daily News. An Italian American gone with
a wind, claims Time magazine.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Gene Shallittt NBCTV.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Calls The Godfather a spectacular movie, one of the finest
gangster movies ever made. The Godfather is now a movie
from Paramount rated R now at low State one to
sinne Orphium and Tower East.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
But it's more than bluster. There's real money to back
up The Godfather's success.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yes, and by the end of nineteen seventy two, at
Gulf and Western's annual meeting, Charlie Bludorn announced that The
Godfather had made over one hundred and fifty million dollars.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
And what's that number today?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Two hundred and fifty million and still going strong.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
So what did that do for Paramount the last Place studio?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Well, it saved the studio. Bludorn had a short memory,
but at that press conference he said, we've got the
best ratio of hits against flops in the industry.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
This film has changed so many lives, but maybe known
so much as Evans and Copola. They both regarded the
film as something that both made and destroyed their lives.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And for all of their differences, they really share that
they were both so passionate about the movie, but the
legacy really haunted both of them. Coppola couldn't go anywhere
without people playing the Godfather theme and being reminded of
the traumatic experience of making the film, and Evans lost
so much over his absolute obsession with the movie. When
(17:49):
I interviewed him for the book, I was struck by
how much he opened up to me about the emotional toll.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
Now as the party leader Oh Shop.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
He showed me a photo of himself and his wife
Ali McGraw on the night of the premiere. They're dancing
and they looked completely in love.
Speaker 8 (18:11):
Would you believe at this very moment, this is madly
in love with another man. And I had no idea
any man the things he can need, the mind of woman.
It's a man who's nothing.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
It seems like Coppola and Evans could have bonded over
how much they gave to the movie.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
They probably could have, but in reality the two never
really became best friends. Their riff continued after the film's
release in something of a pr war. Each blamed the
other for threatening to derail the film at various points
of the production. Coppola revealed Evans's initial opposition to his
perfect cast, and Evans struck back, saying he saved the
(18:54):
movie by re editing the final cut. Coppola said in
an interview claimed he had saved the picture because he
asked me to put back at the half hour that
he had told me to take out.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
And this feud is probably best exemplified by two telegrams
from nineteen eighty three that were printed in full and
sold at auction as part of Evans's estate. December thirteenth,
nineteen eighty three. Dear Bob Evans, I've been a real
gentleman regarding your claims of involvement on The Godfather. I've
never talked about your throwing out the Nino Rota music,
(19:28):
you're barring the casting of Paccino and Brando, et cetera.
But continually your stupid blabbing about cutting The Godfather comes
back to me and angers me for its ridiculous pomposity.
You did nothing on The Godfather other than annoy me
and slow it down. That is why Charlie put in
The Godfather to contract that you could have nothing to.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Do with the movie.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
You will never see The Cotton Club until it's an
answer print. You have double crossed me for the last time.
If you want to pr war or any kind of war,
no one is better at it than me. Francis Coppola, Wow,
actually put my back into that one.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Mark Evans responded with his own dramatic retort December fourteenth,
nineteen eighty three. Dear Francis, thank you for your charming cable.
I cannot imagine what prompted this venomous diatribe. I am
both annoyed and exasperated by your fallacious accusations when all
(20:32):
I do is praise your extraordinary talents as a filmmaker. Conversely,
your behavior toward me glaringly lacks any iota of concern, honesty,
or integrity. I am affronted by your gall and daring
to send this Macavelian epistle, the content of which is
not only ludicrous but totally misrepresents the truth. I cannot
(20:56):
conceive what motivated your malicious thoughts, but if they they
are a reflection of your hostility. I bear a great
sympathy and concern for your paranoid, schizophrenic behavior. However, Dear Francis,
do not mistake my kindness for weakness. Robert Evans, Wow,
that's Shakespeare. In to this day, wherever couple of goes,
(21:20):
people seem to have impressions about the film. He tells
a story about walking by a group of suspiciously tough
Italian men. They were stealing glances at him, and he
heard one of them whisper the name Mario Puzo. One
of the men yelled, you didn't make him, he made you.
(21:41):
He could not disagree, later writing, It's absolutely true that
Mario made me and that Godfather changed my life.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Coppola's relationship with Puzzo really made up for his feud
with Evans.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
It sure did, and I think we can sign off
with an excerpt of the audio that Coppola shared with
us for the podcast.
Speaker 7 (22:03):
I immediately like Mario Puzzo. I found him funny, wise
and lovable, like an uncle. He spoke in clear, short,
wise statements. I was very fond of him and enjoyed
working with him very much. I miss him now that
he's gone, and I wish he was still around so
I could talk to him.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Leave the Gun, Take the Canoli. As a production of
Airmail and iHeartMedia.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
The podcast is based on the book of the same name,
written by our very own Mark Seal.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Our producer is Tina Mullin.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Research assistance by Jack Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Jonathan Dressler was our development producer.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Our music supervisor is Randall Poster. Our executive producers are
Me Nathan King, Mark Seal, Doan Fagan, and Graydon Carter.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Special thanks to Bridget Arsenal and everyone at CDM Studios.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
A comprehensive list of sources and acknowledgments can be found
in Mark Sieal's book Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli,
published by Gallery Books. An imprint of Simon and Schuster
It's March of nineteen seventy two. Ivor Davis is an
LA based reporter for the London Daily Express.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I was the one man Los Angeles bureau working out
of southern California.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
He's a British bloodhound who's heard the talk and read
the headlines of the most anticipated movie of the year,
The Godfather.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And there was all sorts of chicanery going on in
New York. We heard the mob didn't like the way
they were being depicted in the film, and so there
was a lot of talk buzzing around The Godfather.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
He calls Paramount and they tell him press screenings are
coming not good enough. He wants a scoop, So.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
My London office kept nagging me, when's the film coming out?
When are you gonna see it? Can you see it quickly?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
One night, Ivor is hanging out at Chasin's, Yes, the
Chasins where Mario Puzzo had his altercation with Frank Sinott.
He's talking to the mad Or d a friend of
his name Phil Scully. He tells him about his quest
to see the movie everyone's talking about but nobody's seen.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
And I said to Phil, have you heard about The Godfather?
He said, no, I know it's coming out, so I
said I'd love to see it, and I left it
at that.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
A few days later, the reporter's phone rings. It's Phil.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
He said, Iva, they're showing the movie tomorrow night and
it's at a Litton Savings alone cinema on Sunset Boulevard,
and if you want to see it, come along and
I'll get you in.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
It turns out Jason's is catering a first look screening
for distributors.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
He said, the only problem is I can't bring you
in as a journalist, so you have to pretend to
be a waiter.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
So Ivor shows up to the theater the next day
and meets Phil around back to get a waiter's uniform.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
He said, get in there. Make it simple, just take
drink orders. So I took drink orders and he said
keep your mouth shut, and I did that for about
forty five minutes to try to overhear what people were saying.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Just before the screening begins, Ibor takes off his uniform
and blends into the crowd of distributors and off.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I went into the screening room and got a backseat,
took my notebook, and there before my very eyes. The
movie unfolded.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I Believe in America.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
I'm Mark Seal and I'm Nathan King.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
And this is Leave the gun, Take the Canoli.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
In today's episode, we're moving on from the tumult of shooting,
post production and endless fights and onto the glitz and
glam of The Guy Father's New York City premiere and
subsequent rise as one of the greatest films of all time.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
We'll hear from the mastermind behind The Godfather's press strategy
and tie up the loose ends between Coppola and Evans.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
So we left off last episode with Francis Ford Coppola
winning every single fight with Evans in the studio. He
gets the cast he wants, the locations he wants, He
painstakingly gets scenes back into the movie that were once
cut out of it. And he's made a masterpiece.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Well we know he made a masterpiece, but he's somehow
sure that he's made a boring movie. He's consumed by
the idea that it's going to be a flop.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
But even without Copola believing in the movie, there's one
person who believed in it enough for everyone.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yes, there was the great Marilynd Stewart paramounts worldwide head
of publicity and promotion, who got the town buzzing about
the film before a single frame had been shot.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
No other publishers, maybe in the country, could do what
I could have done.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
You talked to her for the book, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I talked to her, and I talked to her, and
I talked to her for hours at a time, and
she told me her strategy in minute detail. The key
to it all in her mind was Marlon Brando's transformation.
She had seen that revolutionary transformation in the home video
I believe that Francis had done on Mulholland Drive and
(04:26):
was astounded, like everyone else at this incredible transformation of
Marlon Brando into Vito Corleone. And so she thought, that's
the key.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
I'm going to walk up the shed. Nobody's going to
get a picture of Rolon Brando as the Godfather time
or usually on the cover with a big story.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I got so excited that you can hear me ferociously
typing in the background as she tells me the story
of how she made The Godfather an international sensation.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
So the big thing was Marylyn's picture that Steve Shapiro
shot on her Godfather set said, show raw in in
clear detailing my personal Fafty deposit box.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And so she thought, then we can stun the world
when the movie comes out with the pictures of Marlon
Brando as the Godfather, because everybody will want to see
the movie because they want to see Marlon Brando as
the Dawn.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
How did you track her down?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, you know, I was talking to Nicholas Pelegi for
the book, and he told me he was the only
reporter loud on The Godfather said in little Italy. I said, well,
how did that all happen? He said, well, Marilyn Stewart
handled everything. She was the paramount head of publicity and promotion.
And so I said, Marilyn Stewart. I really hadn't heard
about Marilyn Stewart before, and so I frantically google her
(06:00):
name and I was able to find a phone number
for her and give her a call. And she was
just this amazing woman who had unveiled this then revolutionary
press strategy of promoting a movie not upon its release
or a few weeks or months before its release, but
before it would have even been shot at all, making
(06:23):
deals with magazines and newspapers and planning a press strategy
a year or two in advance.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
So when I'm for Davis says, it's the movie everyone's
talking about, and he has to sneak into his screening.
Marilyn's the reason everyone's talking about it.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yes, indeed, and she wasn't even working for Paramount by
the time the movie came out, but she set up
a publicity time bomb for the day of the release,
and boy did it work.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
And I called Rob and I, you know, should have
you ever heard of knowing that you're going to be
on the newsweek code one train of film?
Speaker 6 (07:04):
What are you talking about it?
Speaker 4 (07:07):
So Marilyn Stewart got the press and the public buzzing
about the premiere of The Godfather. Mark, you saw the
movie in theaters when it first came out, But I'm
guessing it was a whorled away from the glamour of
the New York City premiere.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It was several worlds away. I mean, I'm watching the
movie in Memphis, Tennessee. I can only imagine what it
was like to be at that premiere. You can see
the pictures, you know, and you can see the excitement
and feel the energy and the enthusiasm of all that
the film premiere on March fourteenth, nineteen seventy two, at
the low State Theater on forty fifth and Broadway. The
(07:40):
streets were clogged with heavy traffic, police, mobs of fans
and press. Marilyn Stewart had done her job. It was
an absolute frenzy.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Okay, everyone was there, Kennedy's, Ford's Raquel welch al Pacino,
of course, Charlie Bludorn, Mario Puzzo and his whole family,
Francis Ford, Coppola and his wife. Even Robert Evans, suddenly
cured of his ailments, arrived with Ali McGraw on one
(08:11):
arm and a surprising guest on his other.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yeah, Robert Evans brought none other than Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger to the premiere, much to the delight of
Charlie Bludorn, who tells Evans in his book Evans Evans,
I love you, I love you Kissinger. He was so excited.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
It was like having the co sign of the US
government on the film exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
You know, Charlie Bludorn was in heaven this night.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
And when the limo suspected to be carrying Marlon Brando
pulled up, the crowds were poised to pounce on the superstar,
but he didn't show up. In his place, he sent
a friend of his, Jim Thomas, a Native American man
from Alaska, in full regalia.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yes he did, and I was so excited to speak
to Jim Thomas because he gave me a lens into
the premiere.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
What did he say about it from his personerspective?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
You know, he came with a small group of friends
and family, and he was sitting in a prime seat
in one of the front rows, and he just had
a great story to tell about talking with Al Pacino,
who said, how do you like the movie? You know
he didn't recognize Pacino at first. He goes, I thought
it was pretty good.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Now, before we get off the red carpet and into
the theater for the premiere, I want you to tell
me the story of something that didn't happen. It's a
great story, and it doesn't appear in your book.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
No, it's not in the book. But when I was
interviewing Gianni Russo, who played Carlo Rizzy, he told me
about his experience at the premiere.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
I'll tell you what I was going to do, and
I should have did it.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Actually they took me out of it. In fact, you
know I took him my premier food.
Speaker 6 (09:44):
You will not believe this, doctor Theodore Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Apparently, four days prior to the premiere, Gianni gets a
call from the FBI informing him of a call the
interceptor who had plans to kill Gianni at the premiere.
They tell him they can't offer any protection, but it's
their obligation to tell him of the threat.
Speaker 6 (10:05):
So, like everything else in life, I said, I'm going
to use this then, So I hired a mocksman and
I was going to put him on the roof and
let him shoot me and live television. The FBI revertified
that I had to hit on me.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
How did you fucking headlines the next day be dead?
Speaker 7 (10:22):
Though?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
No, I had mosmen to shoot me here, Oh not
kill me.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
I would have been the biggest star in the world.
So I got my doctor. He's just crazy. Can I
took you at this? I said, no, it's a stunt.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
It's a stunt. Doctor about it? So then what did
you do it?
Speaker 7 (10:37):
What happened?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
They took me out of it? Who in the eleventh hour?
Speaker 6 (10:42):
Who my doctor Brancooper and my very close one Tommy Blotti.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Can you imagine the headlines the next day? Carlo Rizzy,
the godfathers errant son in law shot at the premiere
of The Godfather? Could you imagine better headlines? And that
it would make him a worldwide star.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It would be the biggest publicity stunt of all time.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Probably. Wow.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Well, I was pretty shocked when I heard that tape. Mark. Okay,
so we get into the theater. Thankfully, no one's been shot.
What's the reaction when the credits roll and the lights
turn back on.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Absolute silence.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Not the standing ovation you would expect from a masterpiece.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
No, it's not at all. Here's how Robert Evans later
described it in his memoir No applause, not a sound,
silence scary here.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Well, despite the silence, the star studded audience heads to
the top floor of the Saint Regis Hotel for an
over the top galla, complete with authentic Sicilian food, waiters
dressed as Corleone bagman, a giant ice sculpture in the
shape of a submachine gun, and an orchestra playing the
Godfather theme over and over again.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It was a night to remember, and in fact, one
that Robert Evans remembered for years to come. When we
spoke in two thousand and seven, he got quite emotional
talking about it.
Speaker 8 (12:07):
This is the highest nide of my life. It's such
a euphoria. Everyone who realized has just seen something.
Speaker 7 (12:16):
MS Bryce five people there.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I was in heaven.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
What about for Coppola? He must have been relieved that
the ordeal was finally over.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah, I'm sure he was in a sense, But he
later said that he had been so conditioned to think
that the film was too dark, too long, too boring,
that he wasn't sure it would have any success. But
you can see him in the photographs from the party.
He looks like he's having a pretty good time.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
He's hiding his despairwell. A week later, the Hollywood premiere
saw a similar audience response that Eerie Silence, and.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Al Ruddy wanted to get to the bottom of it.
He and al Pacino decided to sneak into the last
ten minutes of a showing at a theater in New
York to gauge the reaction. Here's how he described it
in an interview with All Things Considered.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
I was with al Pacino in the back of the
theater and it was an amazing thing that occurred.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
When the lights came on, everyone got up and walked out.
Nobody clapped.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
It was quiet. I took that alley, I said, Oh
Jesus Christ, this Maybe they think it's a disaster.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
But Ruddy's fears were soon relieved. On the day of
the nationwide premiere March twenty fourth, nineteen seventy two, Al
Ruddy drove past the Paramount Theater on Broadway in the
middle of a driving rainstorm. There was a line stretching
around the block to see The Godfather.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
And meanwhile, Coppola has no idea that his film's ahead.
Immediately after the New York premiere, he heads to Paris
for some peace and quiet to focus on his next
screenplay and adaptation of The Great Gatsby.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yet another pair out project that he took on for
Robert Evans.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Why do you think he decided to take on this job,
especially if he had such a bad experience working with
Evans the first time around.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Well, he needed the money, don't forget the money he's
received so far from The Godfather. Went to cover his
debts for American zoa trope and the huge house he
had just bought for his family and other expenses.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Well, he'll soon find out that he definitely doesn't need
the money. When does Copla finally realize that The Godfather
isn't the massive failure he fears.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Well, he's in Paris and his phone rings. It's his wife, Eleanor,
who's still in New York. After the premiere. She tells
him that just outside her hotel room, she could see
a movie theater with the marquee reading The Godfather, and
on the street, day in and day out, there's a
line snaking around the block. She said, Oh, my god, Francis,
(14:53):
you won't believe it. It's a phenomenon.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
So the Godfather mania is in full swing, a spurred
on by Marilyn Stuart's genius press strategy, and theaters can
add enough showings to keep up with the ravenous crowds.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
The La Times even runs the story headline Lifestyles for
waiting in line to see The Godfather, which was an
instructional guid for how to make the long wait more tolerable.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Mark, Is it true that Al Ruddy set up a
separate screening for the boys, as he called them?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, even the men who inspired the movie had trouble
getting tickets. So Ruddy sets up a screening in New York.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So I stuck a print out which parent I never
knew about, and I gave them a screening.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It must been one hundred lib sees in front.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
I swear to guy, and the projection has called me
the guy's mister. Ready. I've been a projected is.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
My whole life.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
No one never gave me a thousand dollar tip.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
That's how much the guys.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Lived the movie.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
And there's a great cartoon that's featured in my book,
and it shows the Godfather Marquis and a line of
these big men and overcoats with violin cases under their arms,
snaking down the street waiting to see the movie. And
what about the reviews, Well, the reviews were pretty much sensational.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Robo Brando's Godfather hailed the New York Times the year's
first really satisfying, big commercial American film, four stars, highest
rating from The Daily News. An Italian American gone with
a wind, claims Time magazine.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Gene Shallittt NBCTV.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Calls The Godfather a spectacular movie, one of the finest
gangster movies ever made. The Godfather is now a movie
from Paramount rated R now at low State one to
sinne Orphium and Tower East.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
But it's more than bluster. There's real money to back
up The Godfather's success.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yes, and by the end of nineteen seventy two, at
Gulf and Western's annual meeting, Charlie Bludorn announced that The
Godfather had made over one hundred and fifty million dollars.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
And what's that number today?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Two hundred and fifty million and still going strong.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
So what did that do for Paramount the last Place studio?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Well, it saved the studio. Bludorn had a short memory,
but at that press conference he said, we've got the
best ratio of hits against flops in the industry.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
This film has changed so many lives, but maybe known
so much as Evans and Copola. They both regarded the
film as something that both made and destroyed their lives.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And for all of their differences, they really share that
they were both so passionate about the movie, but the
legacy really haunted both of them. Coppola couldn't go anywhere
without people playing the Godfather theme and being reminded of
the traumatic experience of making the film, and Evans lost
so much over his absolute obsession with the movie. When
(17:49):
I interviewed him for the book, I was struck by
how much he opened up to me about the emotional toll.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
Now as the party leader Oh Shop.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
He showed me a photo of himself and his wife
Ali McGraw on the night of the premiere. They're dancing
and they looked completely in love.
Speaker 8 (18:11):
Would you believe at this very moment, this is madly
in love with another man. And I had no idea
any man the things he can need, the mind of woman.
It's a man who's nothing.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
It seems like Coppola and Evans could have bonded over
how much they gave to the movie.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
They probably could have, but in reality the two never
really became best friends. Their riff continued after the film's
release in something of a pr war. Each blamed the
other for threatening to derail the film at various points
of the production. Coppola revealed Evans's initial opposition to his
perfect cast, and Evans struck back, saying he saved the
(18:54):
movie by re editing the final cut. Coppola said in
an interview claimed he had saved the picture because he
asked me to put back at the half hour that
he had told me to take out.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
And this feud is probably best exemplified by two telegrams
from nineteen eighty three that were printed in full and
sold at auction as part of Evans's estate. December thirteenth,
nineteen eighty three. Dear Bob Evans, I've been a real
gentleman regarding your claims of involvement on The Godfather. I've
never talked about your throwing out the Nino Rota music,
(19:28):
you're barring the casting of Paccino and Brando, et cetera.
But continually your stupid blabbing about cutting The Godfather comes
back to me and angers me for its ridiculous pomposity.
You did nothing on The Godfather other than annoy me
and slow it down. That is why Charlie put in
The Godfather to contract that you could have nothing to.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Do with the movie.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
You will never see The Cotton Club until it's an
answer print. You have double crossed me for the last time.
If you want to pr war or any kind of war,
no one is better at it than me. Francis Coppola, Wow,
actually put my back into that one.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Mark Evans responded with his own dramatic retort December fourteenth,
nineteen eighty three. Dear Francis, thank you for your charming cable.
I cannot imagine what prompted this venomous diatribe. I am
both annoyed and exasperated by your fallacious accusations when all
(20:32):
I do is praise your extraordinary talents as a filmmaker. Conversely,
your behavior toward me glaringly lacks any iota of concern, honesty,
or integrity. I am affronted by your gall and daring
to send this Macavelian epistle, the content of which is
not only ludicrous but totally misrepresents the truth. I cannot
(20:56):
conceive what motivated your malicious thoughts, but if they they
are a reflection of your hostility. I bear a great
sympathy and concern for your paranoid, schizophrenic behavior. However, Dear Francis,
do not mistake my kindness for weakness. Robert Evans, Wow,
that's Shakespeare. In to this day, wherever couple of goes,
(21:20):
people seem to have impressions about the film. He tells
a story about walking by a group of suspiciously tough
Italian men. They were stealing glances at him, and he
heard one of them whisper the name Mario Puzo. One
of the men yelled, you didn't make him, he made you.
(21:41):
He could not disagree, later writing, It's absolutely true that
Mario made me and that Godfather changed my life.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Coppola's relationship with Puzzo really made up for his feud
with Evans.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
It sure did, and I think we can sign off
with an excerpt of the audio that Coppola shared with
us for the podcast.
Speaker 7 (22:03):
I immediately like Mario Puzzo. I found him funny, wise
and lovable, like an uncle. He spoke in clear, short,
wise statements. I was very fond of him and enjoyed
working with him very much. I miss him now that
he's gone, and I wish he was still around so
I could talk to him.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Leave the Gun, Take the Canoli. As a production of
Airmail and iHeartMedia.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
The podcast is based on the book of the same name,
written by our very own Mark Seal.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Our producer is Tina Mullin.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Research assistance by Jack Sullivan.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Jonathan Dressler was our development producer.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Our music supervisor is Randall Poster. Our executive producers are
Me Nathan King, Mark Seal, Doan Fagan, and Graydon Carter.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Special thanks to Bridget Arsenal and everyone at CDM Studios.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
A comprehensive list of sources and acknowledgments can be found
in Mark Sieal's book Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli,
published by Gallery Books. An imprint of Simon and Schuster
Hosts And Creators
Mark Seal
Nathan King
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