WEBVTT - Stranger Than Pulp Fiction 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.400 How would you feel if you went back to prison. 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:08.039 I'll have to protect myself again, Senatent. I'd have to 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:08.560 kill or. 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:15.040 Be killed again. September nineteenth, nineteen sixty three, A dead 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:19.360 broke writer is lying on his couch in suburban New York. 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.360 He's glued to his television set, but he's not watching 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.240 a mob movie. He's watching a Senate hearing. 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:30.080 This is a special report from CBS News in Washington, 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:32.880 the Congress and Cozanostra. 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:39.960 The testimony is from Cozonostra insider Joseph Wallachi, who would 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.040 become better known as the first man to rat on 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:45.440 the mob on national television. 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.480 The sworn testimony you just heard came from the lips 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:52.280 of Joseph Vallachi, lips that supposedly were sealed thirty three 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:56.480 years ago when he joined America's underworld crime syndicate, Cozonostra. 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:00.880 The world he describes has a name, name that's new 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.200 to most Americans, Mafia. 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.280 Would it be fair to say that you went back 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:09.120 to prison, that you'll be a dead man if they 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:11.920 got up me. I wouldn't be in the five minute Senator. 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.720 Meanwhile, the man watching his television set would say he 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.920 had never met a real gangster, but he knows enough 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:20.560 to see the story for what it is. 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:23.800 As a senator put it before, what did I get 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:24.240 out of it? 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:25.320 Why'd you get out? 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:29.520 But misery? Or you know, as you all understand, once 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:31.360 you're in, you're in. You can't get out. 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.560 The man on the couch sees a true American story, 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:40.000 a web of family and brutality, loyalty and betrayal, fathers 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:46.080 and sons, immigration, and the American dream. The man doesn't 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.760 know it yet, but this inspiration will stay with him 0:01:48.760 --> 0:02:02.920 for years to come. The man's name Mario Puzo. I'm 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:03.800 Mark Seal. 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:04.800 And I'm Nathan King. 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.000 And this is Leave the gun, Take the Canoli. In 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:10.880 today's episode, we're taking a closer look at the real 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.760 life mafia stories that influence Mario Puzo's. 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.880 Book and diving into the life and career of the 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.240 unlikely author who ascended from the depths of Hell's Kitchen 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:22.200 to the glitz and glam of Hollywood. 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.600 We'll also learn how Puzo's novel landed in the hands 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.920 of Paramount executive Robert Evans when he needed him most. 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:30.600 So let's get started. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.160 Did you do anything for the family at all in 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:47.880 this time. 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:49.000 Or did they just do things for you? 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:50.880 Just go out kill for them? 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:56.360 You'd go out what kill mark? The Vallacci hearings are infamous. 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.760 Joseph Vallacci was a made man, a member of the 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:04.600 Genovese crime family and longtime henchmen for mob boss Vito Genovese. 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.960 Yes, and it was absolutely shocking at the time, especially 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:13.600 since Joe Blacci knew exactly how the mob treated snitches. 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.800 Well, he had some first hand experience. He was intimately 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.160 familiar with the story of Alberto Aguici. 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:23.760 And it's a particularly gruesome story. When I was researching 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.120 for the book, it stood out as an incredible example 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.000 of the brutality of the mafia. 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.040 Aguici was a baker from Toronto. But Baker is sort 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:34.160 of in quotes, isn't it. 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:38.480 Baker is definitely in quotes. He was really a heroin 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:42.680 smuggler and an associate of the Magadino crime family in Buffalo. 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.840 And in May of nineteen sixty one, he was indicted 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.080 along with nineteen others in one hundred and fifty million 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.200 dollar heroin smuggling ring. 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:55.120 We're talking about the notorious French Connection heroin smuggling ring. 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.040 That started in the thirties and stretched from Indo, China 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:01.120 all the way to France, then to Canada in the US. 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:05.240 And one of those nineteen others was our mobman turned informant, 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:10.240 Joseph Balacchi, and while in jail together, Billacchi listened as 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:15.480 Aguiici absolutely railed against Magadino, who he had expected to 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.800 raise money for his bail but instead was letting him 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:19.840 rot in jail. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.600 It's generally not a good idea to talk badly about 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:25.600 a crime boss as you're in prison. 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.400 Not at all. Aguici ended up having to sell his 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.000 house to make bail and was apparently threatening to flip 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:33.080 on Maganino. 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.520 But it didn't last long because in October of nineteen 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:40.240 sixty one, Alberto left his wife and daughters in Toronto 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:44.039 to meet Magadino. He never made it, though he ended 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:49.560 up badly beaten, burned, really gruesomely disfigured in a cornfield. 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:52.279 I wrote in the book that it was like encountering 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.320 an animal or something the police couldn't even tell that 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:57.640 it was human. It was in the middle of a 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:00.359 circle that had been burned into the grass, like a 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:02.320 demented sign from hell. 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.839 And no one really knows who did it, but people 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.840 suspect that Magadino had caught wind to the fact that 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.920 Aguichi was railing against him and speaking poorly and taking 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.680 his name in vain and had something done about it. Now, 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.479 the rest of the story is incredibly complicated, and we 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:21.200 don't have time to tell it here, but it's a 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:26.280 tale of brotherhood and betrayal and threats on people's lives, 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.919 and ultimately Joseph Vallacci ends up fearing for his life. 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.800 It was at this point, apparently, when Vallachi decided to 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.120 sing for protection and i FBI agent was assigned to 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.240 him full time, and the Justice Department began filling in 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.640 the blanks on its chart of Kzonostra. This is Vlachi's 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.080 great value, says the department. He is the first member 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.240 of Cozanostra publicly to confirm its existence. 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:52.480 And this is how we get hours of televised senate 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:54.960 testimony about the inner workings of the mafia. 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:57.920 And it's the first time the word mafia was ever 0:05:58.000 --> 0:05:59.560 heard by most Americans. 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.159 But Americans had some understanding of organized crime. 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:05.920 Yes, in the nineteen fifties, there was something called the 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:10.480 Cupaver hearings, which were televised in fourteen cities across America, 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:13.520 and it was something else. It was a hit. It 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:16.640 was like a primetime reality show that people were glued 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.920 to their television sets to watch. It was a parade 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:25.040 of what one publication called six hundred gangsters, pimps, bookies, 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:29.640 and shady lawyers who testified about the activities of organized crime. 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.160 Up until that point, this is something that had existed 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.560 in the shadows, and suddenly it's in living rooms across America. 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.360 You have these gangsters on screen talking about or in 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:44.080 some cases not talking about their crimes. This was pretty 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:45.760 electrifying stuff in its day. 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.520 Yes, it sure was. Thirty million Americans tuned in. And 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.800 remember this is still in the early days of TV. 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.559 Was this the hearing where Frank Costello testified without showing 0:06:57.560 --> 0:06:58.040 his face? 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:02.400 Yes, Frank Costello, the all powerful leader of the Luciano 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.640 crime family, was shot only from the neck down, so 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:09.280 you couldn't see his space and he wouldn't really say anything. 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.200 But still, just to watch him in the hearings was 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.920 a huge hit. The New York Times headlined in his 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:21.080 article Costello TV's first headless star. Only his hands entertained audiences. 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:24.240 You must have in your mind something you've done that 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:26.640 you can speak off to your credit as an American citizen. 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:27.760 If so, what are they. 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:38.520 Paid by tax? This was like the Sopranos in real life. 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:40.960 But nothing compared to the Ballacci hearings. 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:45.160 Ten years later, Yes, ten years later, Joseph Bolacchi did 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:49.440 what Costello would not. He told and showed everything. 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.120 May I ask you this time, when did you become 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:58.680 a member of this organization nineteen taty what is the 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:00.720 name of it? Causing us? 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:01.720 In Italian? 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.960 Our thing and our family in English? 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:08.680 And he said a lot in those thirty one hours 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:09.400 of testimony. 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:13.160 Yeah, he gives almost everything. He tells about what the 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:17.440 initiation rights were, He tells the codes, He tells the hierarchy. 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:20.560 Well, this is a secret organization. How do you get 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.920 to know this member of the same family. He'll introduce 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:26.920 him to you, for instance, as a friend of oz 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:32.080 that means a member. Nah, happens to be with someone 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:34.959 that isn't a friend of ours. He would just simply 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.880 say met a friend of mine, which means nothing. That's 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:40.000 the code between us. 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.720 The mob put out a hit on him, offering one 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.000 hundred grand to anyone who could take him out, but 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.800 it was too late. He had already spilled everything on 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:55.320 national television and he even used the word godfather. 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.120 And on the other side of the television screen, Mario 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:02.040 Puzzo was so all of this in like a sponge. 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:05.600 Yeah, that's right. I mean, the testimony was authentic, it 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.560 was real. But Mario Puzo was a writer, an author, 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.640 who a great researcher. So he's sitting at home in 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:15.320 the suburbs of New York, lying on his couch, watching 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.160 these hearings like everybody else, but he did what nobody 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:21.440 else did. He was able to take these hearings and 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:27.079 fictionalize them and create a family that was even more romantic, 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.839 more dangerous, more influential than anything he's seen on television. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:33.880 He created the Corleone family. 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.880 You've described Puso as a white whale in your reporting 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.200 of the story because you never actually got to speak 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.840 to him. But how did you get to the heart 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:44.960 of his story and his background. 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:49.120 To my eternal regret, Mario Puzo had passed away by 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.720 the time I started working on the magazine article and 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:54.880 of course later the book, But he would tell his 0:09:55.000 --> 0:10:00.280 incredible story himself in numerous newspapers and magazine articles. Later 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.400 in interviews, and I was able to speak to his 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.800 eldest daughter, Dorothy Puso, who told me in an email 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.640 that she thought most likely her father had tossed all 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.319 of the research, all of the writing that he had 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:18.040 done on the movie and the book The Godfather. She said, 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.559 you know, he was a poor, aspiring writer who would 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.200 know to keep that stup. But to my astonishment and 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.840 amazement and good fortune, those things weren't tossed. They were saved, 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:33.560 and they're now on display at Dartmouth University in a library. There. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.640 You can see his writing on the back of folders 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.880 which he liked to use with the red sharpie. You 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:43.520 can see his typewriter. You can read early drafts of 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:47.800 both the novel and the screenplay of The Godfather. And 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.360 then later in my research for the book, I was 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:54.400 able to speak with his son, Anthony Puso, who was 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:59.120 invaluable in telling me about his illustrious father, the frog 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.360 who became a prints of Hollywood and the true hero 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:03.520 of the Godfather. 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.079 Where did Puso come from? Because in a lot of ways, 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.200 he's the most unlikely character of all in this story. 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:13.960 Yes, his life was like an unlikely fairy tale, as 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:17.199 he wrote in various accounts, including his nineteen seventy two 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:21.240 memoir The Godfather Papers, and other confessions, Mario was born 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.319 into one of the worst sections of New York, whose 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:28.680 very name evokes this depravity, Hell's Kitchen. And he was 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.760 born into a family of immigrants, many of them illiterate, 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.680 including his mother, who he said could not even read 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:38.360 or sign her name, but who employed language like a weapon. 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.640 Many of the terms that Mario used in The Godfather, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.240 he said, were straight out of his mama's mouth. 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:46.840 It's a man who doesn't spend time with his family 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:48.040 can never be a real man. 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:51.360 He grew up in a large family in a tenement flat, 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:54.880 and Pusa claimed he never met an honest to god gangster, 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.240 even though they were all around him. 0:11:57.720 --> 0:11:59.600 Was his mother worried that he would fall prey to 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:01.400 the back element in the neighborhood. 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:05.440 Absolutely, his mother was very protective of Mario, but she 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.560 wasn't worried about guns so much as girls. Mario claimed 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:11.400 he never had that many dates. 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.800 Though, and he was one of thirteen kids. 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.880 Yes, and from the beginning he was different from the rest. 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:21.760 He loved gambling. He loved to pitch pennies and play cards, 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.320 and he liked to read, and early on he would 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.000 read Dostoyevski and go to the library. 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:29.120 And for a long time he was sort of a 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.440 hopeless character. Fame and fortune eluded him, right. 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.480 Mark, Yeah, for a long long time. He grew up. 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.920 He was very impoverished. They were so poor that Mario 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.840 said that once his teacher asked all the students to 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.600 bring a can of food for the poor, and Mario 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.120 was saying, they didn't know we were the poor. And 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:49.560 he went out anyway with the other kids in his 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.160 neighborhood and they went out and stole cans of food 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:53.680 to be able to bring it to school. 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.600 What did his mom think about his professionist writer. 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:00.840 Well, her greatest aspiration for Mario was that he would 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.880 become a railroad clerk and get a steady salary. He 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:08.520 liked to say, every family has a chooch, the Italian 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:12.440 word for donkey, and he goes in my family, the 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:16.640 chooch was me. College, he would later write, wasn't an option. 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:19.520 There were two high schools in his neighborhood, and his 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:21.839 mom and sister thought he should go to the one 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.800 that didn't prepare you for college. He asked, why didn't 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.280 you urge me to attend college, and his sister says, 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:29.120 because you were stupid. 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.280 And he didn't become a writer right away, did he? 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.840 No, Poor Mario, he suffered so much before finding his 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:40.120 future as a writer. Things were so grim for Mario 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:42.840 Puzo that when World War II broke out, he was 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:46.800 excited to get away from home. So he joined the military. 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:48.720 You know, it was a dream to him. He was 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:53.520 assigned to the fourth Armored Division, Private Puso. He's deployed 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:56.280 to Europe. He drove a jeep, He had affairs, He 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.040 found a wife, a German woman who he fell in 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.079 love with and brought back to America. And best of all, 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.480 he found material for his first novel. 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:07.800 That sounds like World War Two was the best thing 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:08.920 that ever happened to him. 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.120 Well, not immediately. Typical to Mario is the suffering. He 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:14.280 had dreams of being a writer, but he didn't know 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:16.960 where to start. So he went to the City College 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.600 of New York on the GI Bill and he studied 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.440 literature and creative writing. And then he did what would 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:28.640 become his trademark. He struggled. His weight went up, his 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:32.280 bank account went down. He was broke all the time, 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.640 he was gambling. He was a drift. He got a 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.360 job as a clerk at the Manhattan Armory, but he 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:41.720 never had enough money to quit his day job to 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:44.920 become a writer. He wanted to write high art. He 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.920 wanted to be an artistic writer. He wanted to be 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:51.600 like Dostoyevsky or other writers he admired. But it was 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.680 all just a struggle for him. Some of his diaries 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.440 still exist, and it's just full of torment and loss 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.000 and the theme that money is just ruining everything. 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:02.880 And does he sit down and write his war novel. 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:07.080 Yes. All along he's writing his first novel, The Dark Arena, 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.880 which gets published by Random House in nineteen fifty four, 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.240 and he thinks, wow, this is it. You know, I'm 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:18.720 a published author. But the reviews were mixed. It didn't 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.920 do for him what he expected. And Mario got an 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:26.040 advance of thirty five hundred dollars which was quickly gone. 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.920 His weight was way up, his hopes were way down. 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:35.040 And then on Christmas Eve, something incredible happened. He was 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:40.040 at home and he suffered a severe gallbladder attack. He 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.960 called a taxi, which drove him to New York City 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:47.680 in excruciating pain. He arrived at the VA Hospital and 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:50.960 just then the attack worsen. He opened the door of 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.880 the taxi and he fell out, and he landed in 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.760 a gutter. And he wrote about it later in Time magazine. 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.920 Here I am a published author, and I'm lying in 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:05.560 a gutter, dying like a dog. At that moment, I decided, 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:07.640 I'm going to become rich and famous. 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.120 Wow. So he had really hit rock bottom. How long 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:12.960 did it take for him to pull himself up by 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:14.040 his bootstraps? 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.600 Well, a long time, because just because you say you 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.640 want something to happen doesn't mean it will. By nineteen sixty, 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.640 Mario's family had grown to five kids and his job 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.800 was in danger because the FBI was investigating his unit 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:34.600 for helping young soldiers obade the draft. Mario was never charged, 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.360 but he ended up quitting his job and pursuing the 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:41.760 most unusual path for a writer who aspired to high art. 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:44.440 He decided to become a pulp fiction writer. 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.760 Exactly. It was a company called Magazine Management, and if 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.640 there was any man who was destined to write pulp fiction, 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.160 it was Mario Puzo. I was able to speak with 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:58.680 one of his colleagues, John Bowers, and he said Mario 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:03.480 was just able to use his research to invent whole worlds. 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:09.560 But Mario had definite energy at writing. He just could 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.040 write nobody's business. 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.359 So he walked into pulp fiction offices of magazine management. 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:20.520 It's a smoke field office. It's full of men and women, 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:25.359 city over, clattering typewriters pumping out copy for like this 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:30.119 never ending flood of trash magazines with names like Mail 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.800 and Stag and for men only. They were called magazines, 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.439 but they were really sort of rags. And soon Mario 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:41.359 Puza was pumping out salacious stories of brave gis, of 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:43.000 damsels in distress. 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:45.880 He even wrote a story that took place in Hawaii 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:50.000 where mobsters busted in a gambling parlor, right exactly. 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.159 Yeah, that was just one of the many stories. But 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:53.960 I think that was the first of all the ones 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:58.280 that I saw that really tackled some instance of the mafia. 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.720 And of course most of it was just dreamed up, 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:03.440 not most of it, All of it was dreamed up. 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.720 I mean, he said once that he would take a 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:09.199 real life battle where seven thousand people got killed and 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.200 turn it into a bloody battle where one hundred thousand died. 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:14.480 I wish you could. 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:19.000 Read some of those, imagine the stories. It was larger 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:24.920 than life. It didn't have to depend upon fact checking 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:25.440 at all. 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:29.159 He'd amp up the action no matter what, and that 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.200 became his trademark. He became one of the top pulp 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.760 fiction writers of all time. Before you know, he was 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:38.280 aspiring to high art, he was spending these time on 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:40.840 these novels that didn't make him any money. He had 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.320 enormous expenses, not only the bookies that he owed money to, 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.359 but also you know, he had a family of five kids. 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:49.000 He had to make a living. He had to bring 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.520 money home, and he owed money to the irs. He 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.879 owed money to his family, he owed money to the bookkeepers, 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.439 and he kept gambling, he kept eating, he kept living 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:01.919 this life that was just way beyond his means. 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:04.480 And as much as he aspired to high art, it 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.480 seems like he was almost destined to write pulp fiction. 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.040 I mean, after eight years doing it, he was pretty 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.000 much the most successful of any of them. 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:15.720 Well, yeah, but he was not making a huge amount 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:16.240 of money. 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.639 Yeah, I believe we got something like one hundred and 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.520 fifty dollars something like that for the week. 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.000 So he went back to his publisher and said, you know, 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.399 I'm ready for my third book, my third novel, and 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:34.399 his publisher said, forget about it, Mario. They weren't ready 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:36.760 to assign him a third book. And one of the 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:42.160 editors said, well, you know, if the Fortunate Pilgrim had 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.959 a little bit more of that mafia stuff in it, 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.719 maybe it would sell. And those words rang and Mario 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:53.480 Puzo's head a little bit more of that mafia stuff. 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.879 And that's when it all clicked for him. He remembered 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.720 how he had been engrossed by the Volacci hearings. 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:01.920 It's like a scene out of a movie. I mean, 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:06.919 here's this overweight, overwrought in debt writer. And he pays 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:11.080 ten bucks for the ten volume transcripts of the Kufaver hearings, 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:14.640 and he gets access to his friend Peter Mass's book 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.560 on the Bolacchi hearings, and he gets a lot of 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.560 other research, and he sits down in his basement and 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:24.200 he cranks out a ten page outline and he takes 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:28.800 it to his agent, the legendary Candido Dinadio, and she 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:33.120 sends it out to various publishers, and much to Mario's surprise, 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.600 one of them gives him five thousand dollars. And what 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.879 does he do? Of course, he spends the money. He 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:44.919 doesn't work on the book. God, seriously, Yes, he gambles. 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.040 He spends some money on his family, obviously, and soon 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:49.919 the money is all gone. 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:52.440 But the important thing is that he has a fire 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:54.879 lit under him and he has to deliver the book. 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.720 Not so fascinate than there's one place a struggling writer 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.600 can turn to for some fast cash. 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:06.280 This must be when he goes to Hollywood. Allegedly, Evan says, 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.160 Puzzo shows up at the gates of Paramount thirty five 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:12.320 pages under his arm, looking broke, and sells the option 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:14.040 of Paramount for twelve five. 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:16.919 And Mario claims he sold the option through his agent 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:19.640 and the story editor at Paramount, and then he never 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:21.200 even went to California. 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:25.359 Well, regardless of what happened, he sold the option to Paramount. 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:28.800 For big money for Mario too, twelve five hundred. 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:31.040 So now he writes the book. 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:33.800 Yes, he goes home. He walks down the stairs to 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:36.800 his basement, and there between the pool table and the 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:41.160 constant racket of his five kids. A mafia family rises 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.880 up from his typewriter, and what a family it is. 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:49.240 He gets the name from a town in Sicily, one 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:53.919 of the most mafia invested towns in the country, Corleone. 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:58.800 There's Don Vito Corleone, the godfather. There's the eldest son 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:03.720 and heir apparent, Santino, known as Sonny. There's the middle son, 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:09.320 the poorest, suffering, subservient, Fredo. And there's the youngest, the future, 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:13.040 the college boy who chose to enlist in the military 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:18.119 instead of the mafia. Michael Mario, of course, claimed he 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:21.040 had never met an honest to goodness gangster, but he 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:24.240 looked for inspiration wherever he could. One story I just 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:26.239 loved from when he was writing the book was that 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:30.159 one night in nineteen sixty six, the author Gaytalise and 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.360