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Speaker 1: For several weeks now, small groups of Italian Americans have

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Speaker 1: been picketing FBI headquarters in Manhattan to protest the use

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Speaker 1: of terms like mafia and gangster, which they regard as

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Speaker 1: ethnic slurs. Today, the protest took on all the appearances

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Speaker 1: of a full fledged movement as thousands of demonstrators gathered

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Speaker 1: near Central Park to celebrate Italian American Unity Day.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy, Joseph Colombo founded the Italian American Civil

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Speaker 2: Rights League.

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Speaker 3: You are reganized, you are what.

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Speaker 4: Nobody could take you up what anymore.

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Speaker 2: The group was formed to stamp out the stereotyping of

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Speaker 2: Italian Americans in motion pictures, television, and the government. Colombo

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Speaker 2: had cast himself as an outspoken watchdog. On behalf of

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Speaker 2: his spellow Italian Americans.

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Speaker 1: Titian Americans face and insidious players.

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Speaker 4: That comes from a mythical association with crime. The fact

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Speaker 4: is that our more than twenty two million Italian Americans,

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Speaker 4: only five thousand a mayor one fiftieth of one percent,

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Speaker 4: not a half, not a quarter, one fiftieth of one

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Speaker 4: percent are involved in organized crime.

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Speaker 2: Joe Colombo also happened to be allegedly the head of

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Speaker 2: one of New York's most formidable mob families, and he

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Speaker 2: had his sights set on shutting down the god Bother.

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Speaker 2: I'm Mark Seal and I'm Nathan King, and this is

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Speaker 2: leave the Gun, Take the Canoli.

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Speaker 5: This episode takes us to the streets of New York City,

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Speaker 5: where the powers of the Mob come head to head

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Speaker 5: with paramount movie makers. Mark, do you think anyone involved

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Speaker 5: in the making of The Godfather expected the actual mafia

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Speaker 5: to oppose the film?

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Speaker 2: No? Never, you know, nobody thought that anybody would care

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Speaker 2: about the movie, much less object to it. I mean,

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Speaker 2: this was a fictional story about a fictional family, so

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Speaker 2: who's going to care.

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Speaker 5: But as it turns out, people really did object to it.

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Speaker 5: And when did that start that pressure campaign?

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Speaker 2: It started almost from the beginning, you know. Al Ruddy

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Speaker 2: tells the story of he met with Mickey Cohen in

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Speaker 2: the beginning, who was the former associate of Bugsy Siegel

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Speaker 2: no less, and he invited Already to lunch and according

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Speaker 2: to Ali said, the guys are watching you. And Alreddy

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Speaker 2: must have thought, what guys you know? And he said, Mickey,

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Speaker 2: call off your dogs. This is a movie. Who's going

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Speaker 2: to care about it? But then strange things start happening.

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Speaker 2: A mysterious man shows up in the office of Paramount,

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Speaker 2: supposedly with a check for one million dollars, which he

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Speaker 2: would give them in exchange for dropping the picture. Death

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Speaker 2: threats became routine. Ruddy began keeping a forty five pistol

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Speaker 2: in his desk. He said he didn't know who the

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Speaker 2: calls were from, but they were threatening him, and so

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Speaker 2: people were getting paranoid.

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Speaker 5: But the most opposed group was the league. Can you

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Speaker 5: tell us a bit about that?

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Speaker 2: So in nineteen seventy, Joe Colombo founded the Italian American

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Speaker 2: Civil Rights League. It was a revival of the defunct

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Speaker 2: Italian American Anti Defamation League, but he wanted it to

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Speaker 2: be bigger and more powerful.

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Speaker 5: We got the opportunity to speak with Joe Columbo's grandson,

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Speaker 5: Anthony Colombo Junior, who gave us some insights into what

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Speaker 5: his grandfather's motivations may have been.

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Speaker 6: He says, there are Italian American organized criminals, but there

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Speaker 6: are organized criminals in every ethnicity, and so the Justice

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Speaker 6: Department has only labeled and stigmatized one at the community,

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Speaker 6: Italian American community, and it's unfair and his goal was

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Speaker 6: to largely help the Italian American community by eliminating these stereotypes.

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Speaker 2: It's interesting to hear from his grandson about the lasting

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Speaker 2: legacy of the league, but I do think it was

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Speaker 2: about more than combating stereotypes. For Joe Colombo, this was personal.

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Speaker 2: April of nineteen seventy, the FBI arrested his son and

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Speaker 2: charged him with a scheme to melt down coins and

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Speaker 2: sell the silver. Colombo thought this was harassment, so he

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Speaker 2: decided to get a group together and pick it outside

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Speaker 2: of FBI headquarters, and he accused the FBI of unfairly

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Speaker 2: targeting not only his son but all Italian Americans, And

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Speaker 2: within a week this new league was born.

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Speaker 7: Are we welcome, please, mister Joseph Columbo.

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Speaker 2: In June of nineteen seventy, he hosted the first annual

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Speaker 2: Unity Day, which was a rally of fifty thousand Italian

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Speaker 2: American stretch from Columbus Circle deep into Central Park.

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Speaker 3: God I was born of Italian bart.

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Speaker 5: It seems like a really unusual position for a mafia

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Speaker 5: boss to take. What made him decide to put himself

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Speaker 5: in the public eye in that way?

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Speaker 2: It was very unusual, but Columba was amassing political power

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Speaker 2: while denying any affiliation to organize crime, and it seemed

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Speaker 2: like the sky was a limit.

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Speaker 6: My grandfather met with Abe Rosenthal and told them, if

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Speaker 6: you don't eliminate the word mafia, la coos and osha

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Speaker 6: out of the New York Times, the papers aren't rolling

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Speaker 6: because they remember they had control of the unions, and

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Speaker 6: so I had a straggle hold on New York. And

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Speaker 6: that was the power with which my grandfather.

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Speaker 2: Influenced Joe Columbo's league was suddenly rich with cash from

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Speaker 2: donations and members across the city. They decided to host

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Speaker 2: this big benefit at Madison Square Garden, which was headlined

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Speaker 2: by no less than Brank Sinatra.

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Speaker 5: And what happened to Columbo's son who was arrested.

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Speaker 2: He was acquitted after the chief witness suddenly recantedas statement.

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Speaker 5: How convenient.

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Speaker 2: And now emboldened by his success, he sets his sights

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Speaker 2: on a more ambitious and far reaching mission. He's going

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Speaker 2: to shape the way Italian Americans are viewed in popular culture.

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Speaker 2: Here's Anthony Colombo Junior again.

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Speaker 6: When Mario Puzo's book became a bestseller and was going

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Speaker 6: to be made into a movie, there were efforts to

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Speaker 6: combat that by my grandfather in the league.

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Speaker 5: It's interesting that the very thing that ultimately made The

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Speaker 5: Godfather a success, which is the interest of Italian American audiences,

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Speaker 5: is precisely what worked against it in the first place.

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Speaker 2: But you know, nobody really understood what the movie was

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Speaker 2: going to be except the people that were making the movie.

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Speaker 2: So from the outside looking in, I'm sure that they

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Speaker 2: felt it might be bad for the image of Italian Americans.

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Speaker 2: It was a movie about a mafia family.

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Speaker 5: And they didn't realize that ultimately it was going to

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Speaker 5: glorify you know, if anything. So what efforts did the

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Speaker 5: League take to put a stop to the movie?

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Speaker 2: Well, it depends on who you ask, but Al Ruddy's

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Speaker 2: assistant Betty McCart told me that the studio started getting threats.

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Speaker 5: How would the threats come in at the beginning.

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Speaker 8: At the beginning, mostly by pharm And there was a

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Speaker 8: man by Paramount who was the head of security, and

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Speaker 8: he told Al that Al should be very careful because

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Speaker 8: they were really after him.

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Speaker 5: And did it ever go beyond threats?

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Speaker 2: Well, Al Ruddy became so paranoid that he and Betty

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Speaker 2: would routinely swap cars to throw off any would be trackers.

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Speaker 2: And one night, while driving Ruddy's Facial Vega convertible, Betty

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Speaker 2: sees a car following her all the way home. She

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Speaker 2: runs inside to call the police, and later that night

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Speaker 2: shots ring out over the neighborhood.

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Speaker 8: And my kids came in all hysterical. They'd her gunshots

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Speaker 8: and they went outside and all the windows had been

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Speaker 8: shot out of the Fusso Vega, which was a warning,

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Speaker 8: you know, to have.

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Speaker 5: So these are a bit stronger than threats. They're actually

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Speaker 5: taking action.

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Speaker 2: Well yeah, but you know, Ruddy apparently wasn't phased by it.

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Speaker 2: He and the rest of the crew moved to New

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Speaker 2: York where they started setting up production. And that's when

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Speaker 2: the trouble really started.

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Speaker 5: Everywhere the production went it seemed like Colombo had gotten there. First.

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Speaker 5: Here's Robert Evans.

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Speaker 3: There good at a Long Island for locations. The next day

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Speaker 3: was closed down, went to Staten Island, closed down, the

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Speaker 3: Bronx closed down. The Five Families did not want us

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Speaker 3: to shoot that picture in New York.

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Speaker 5: And it got worse before it got better, far worse.

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Speaker 2: One day, Robert Evans is in his hotel suite with

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Speaker 2: his wife Ally McGraw, and their newborn baby. When a

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Speaker 2: call comes.

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Speaker 7: In, he said, in my life, Columbus did what he's saying.

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Speaker 3: My wife had just ba and he likes your baby

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Speaker 3: to be all right. Get out of town.

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Speaker 5: On did you call out Ruddy?

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Speaker 3: He's a producer, he says, because when we killed the snake,

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Speaker 3: we cut the fucking head off.

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Speaker 5: And how did Evans react to that?

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Speaker 2: Well, as you can imagine, not well. I think he

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Speaker 2: was really scared. It's one thing to make a movie

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Speaker 2: about mobsters, it's another to be confronted by them in

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Speaker 2: real time. Of course, there's a question as to whether

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Speaker 2: or not this call ever happened. Joe Colombo's grandson, Anthony,

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Speaker 2: insisted to me that his grandfather never said or sanctioned

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Speaker 2: such threats, especially not over the telephone, which was probably

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Speaker 2: bugged by the Feds.

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Speaker 6: I do think that there was a call between Bob

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Speaker 6: Evans and my grandfather, But my grandfather didn't have.

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Speaker 2: To make those threats like that.

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Speaker 6: You know, he was a subtle man. He wielded power

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Speaker 6: in a way that Hugh in New York could, and

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Speaker 6: did it through, you know, exercise power.

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Speaker 2: In other ways, the teamsters threatened to freeze all transportation

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Speaker 2: involving the Godfather.

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Speaker 5: Well, that set no teamsters and you can't make a movie.

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Speaker 2: Ruddy and Evans had to do something fast. They realized

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Speaker 2: that the only way to get the movie made was

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Speaker 2: to arrange a sit down with Joe columb.

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Speaker 5: And how did they plan to get this meeting?

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Speaker 2: Well, in true Hollywood fashion, Ruddy and Evans called their

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Speaker 2: own version of a fixer. They called an agent to.

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Speaker 5: Arrange a meeting with a mob boss. Who do they.

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Speaker 2: Get, Well, they got a pretty great agent, Eddie Goldstone,

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Speaker 2: from Creative Management Associates, which represented many of the actors

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Speaker 2: on the film. He was a talent agent to the

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Speaker 2: stars and tasked with brokering a meeting between Al Ruddy

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Speaker 2: and Joe Colombo.

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Speaker 5: And how does he go about doing this?

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Speaker 2: Well, apparently James conn had all the right connections and

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Speaker 2: set a meeting between Colombo and Goldstone. And on the

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Speaker 2: day of the meeting, Goldstone took a cab to an

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Speaker 2: address on Mott Street.

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Speaker 5: Do you think he was nervous?

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Speaker 2: I believe he was nervous. He said he had a

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Speaker 2: lump into his stomach, but he had a job to do,

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Speaker 2: so in his nice suit, he knocked with a big

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Speaker 2: smile on his face. The address turned out to be

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Speaker 2: an Italian American social club. He told me that the

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Speaker 2: air was full of smoke and about a dozen men

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Speaker 2: were speaking Italian, with their leader clearly at the center.

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Speaker 2: He was ushered in and he shook hands with none

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Speaker 2: other than Joe Colombo.

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Speaker 5: And what do these two men talk about?

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Speaker 2: Well, Eddie goes into his spiel about the trouble they're

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Speaker 2: having with the teamsters and how great the movie's going

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Speaker 2: to be, and maybe they can come to some sort

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Speaker 2: of arrangement, a deal.

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Speaker 5: And what did they say?

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Speaker 2: Well, according to Goldstone, apparently they wanted to talk about

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Speaker 2: Marlon Brando. Twenty minutes of pretending he's good friends with

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Speaker 2: Marlon and Eddie, Goldstone has the meeting set between Ruddy

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Speaker 2: and Colombo.

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Speaker 5: That's amazing. Hollywood charm really works anywhere, huh.

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Speaker 2: It sure does.

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Speaker 5: So Ruddy got his meeting with Colombo.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So first he has to have a preliminary meeting

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Speaker 2: with Columbo's son Anthony and the league's president Nat Marconi.

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Speaker 2: They hammer out a tentative deal with three conditions. Number one,

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Speaker 2: they have to delete the word mafia and Kozinostra from

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Speaker 2: the script. Number two, they have to allow the League

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Speaker 2: to review the script and change anything they deem damaging

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Speaker 2: to the Italian American image. And finally, number three, they

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Speaker 2: have to donate the proceeds from the film's New York

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Speaker 2: premiere to the League's hospital fund.

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Speaker 5: And what does Ruddy say.

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Speaker 2: He agrees to all of it, which is pretty unprecedented

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Speaker 2: deal for a Hollywood producer to make.

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Speaker 5: He's essentially handing over the rights to script for revisions.

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Speaker 2: And turning over a portion of the profits to a

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Speaker 2: group allegedly founded by one of the country's most powerful mobsters.

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Speaker 5: But he gets his meeting.

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Speaker 2: Yes. In February nineteen seventy one, Al Ruddy walks into

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Speaker 2: the Park Sheridan Hotel and is in for a surprise.

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Speaker 2: Six hundred Italian American members of the League greet him

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Speaker 2: with booze and cheers. Joe Columbo was testing him. He

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Speaker 2: wanted to see if Ruddy could win over the members.

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Speaker 2: And Ruddy has to address this crowd. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 2: that's a pretty incredible thing.

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Speaker 5: So what does he say to them?

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Speaker 2: He said, this is not going to be a movie

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Speaker 2: that's going to demean or stereotype anybody. This is an

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Speaker 2: equal opportunity thing. I mean, we have an Irish cop,

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Speaker 2: we have you know, all these different ethnic groups, not

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Speaker 2: just the Italian Americans. He calmed down the crowd that

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Speaker 2: he asked him questions, and there was some back and forth,

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Speaker 2: and Ruddy apparently did an admirable job talking to this

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Speaker 2: crowd and making them understand that the Godfather movie was

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Speaker 2: not out to have said or demean anyone, that it

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Speaker 2: was going to be a story about an Italian American family.

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Speaker 7: And I meet Joey after that. I said, look, joe

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Speaker 7: don't say what I'll do. He's got my office smart

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Speaker 7: the script you can see MOPy whatever's in or evident

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Speaker 7: you like, but don't you read it more seatly, you

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Speaker 7: make it deal.

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Speaker 2: At three o'clock the next day, Colombo showed up at

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Speaker 2: the Gulf and Western Building with two associates to read

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Speaker 2: the scripts.

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Speaker 7: It's opposite me when guy's in the contint, when you

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Speaker 7: guys sitting in the window when the hot air comes up.

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Speaker 7: I take it a hundred fifty five page script mark

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Speaker 7: you can imagine. I give this guy a hundred fifty

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Speaker 7: five pace screen pay. He puts on his little bit

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Speaker 7: frankly glasses and looks at it for about two minutes.

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Speaker 7: So does this mean fade in? I really did, no way,

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Speaker 7: So it was going to turn the page two.

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Speaker 2: They didn't read it, well, they supposedly, according to that

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Speaker 2: Ruddy at least only got past page one before getting

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Speaker 2: bored and giving out of their blessing.

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Speaker 7: Finally, Joe slamming on the table. It waits. So we

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Speaker 7: like this guy, and we trund them. Yeah, we like

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Speaker 7: this guy. So the fund we have to read the script,

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Speaker 7: but let's just make the deal. We're going to take

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Speaker 7: the word mafia out of the script. And I said,

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Speaker 7: that's okay with me.

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Speaker 5: Guys, Now I shook the hand. That was the deal,

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Speaker 5: and all he would have to do is take the

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Speaker 5: word mafia out of the.

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Speaker 2: Screen, which only appeared once, by the way.

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Speaker 5: So I'll write agin, Joe Columbus strike a deal. Is

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Speaker 5: it time to make a movie?

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Speaker 2: Well, not so fast. Columbo thought it'd be a good

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Speaker 2: idea to hold a press conference to announce the new partnership.

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Speaker 7: So Joe calls me two days later and he said, look,

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Speaker 7: we should get the word out to our people. It

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Speaker 7: went down behind the movie, which I thought was a

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Speaker 7: grand idea because we were having trouble sunning locations in

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Speaker 7: that time. He says, you come to the League office

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Speaker 7: tomorrow two o'clock, rubber press commerce.

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Speaker 2: Ruddy thinks, what the hell, It'll just be a few

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Speaker 2: Italian American newspapers, and he agrees.

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Speaker 7: I get in the elevator, was up Park came and

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Speaker 7: there were those days like fifty eighth Street. I could

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Speaker 7: hardly get in the elevator. I didn't know everyone's going

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Speaker 7: up to like the twentieth flod's sun guns and video

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Speaker 7: cameras and lines and that's what the fuck's I'll get

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Speaker 7: out of the same one, and they follow me as

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Speaker 7: a huge waiting room.

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Speaker 2: There were reporters from every major newspaper and crew from

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Speaker 2: all three television networks to chronicle Paramount's historic deal with

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Speaker 2: the League.

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Speaker 7: There's articles on the front page of the New York

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Speaker 7: Times with pictures to me with Nat Mark on Jolo Now,

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Speaker 7: where the League says we're behind the movie and blah

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Speaker 7: blah blah blah blah. Unfortunately, it wasn't interpreted that way

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Speaker 7: by the press.

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Speaker 5: Ruddy definitely underestimated how big of a deal this was.

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Speaker 5: What was the press coverage like.

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Speaker 2: It was horrible. The Times called the deal a hypocritical,

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Speaker 2: craven act of voluntary self censorship, and The Village Voice wrote,

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Speaker 2: if you want to produce a film on the Mafia,

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Speaker 2: please ask their permission first.

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Speaker 5: How did Paramount react? Does anyone else know about the deal?

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Speaker 5: Ready made?

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Speaker 2: Apparently not. Evans was in Europe, Stanley Jaffy was in

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Speaker 2: the Caribbean, and Puzzo was at a weight loss clinic.

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Speaker 2: A spokesman for Paramount told Variety that the deal was

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Speaker 2: completely unauthorized.

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Speaker 7: The front page of the World Street Journal the next morning,

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Speaker 7: as Mafy moves in on Gulf and Western right that

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Speaker 7: we've compromised.

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Speaker 2: The book, but worse than the bad press. Gulf and

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Speaker 2: Western stock had dropped two and a half points, and

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Speaker 2: Charlie Bluedorn is pissed.

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Speaker 5: What happens to Ruddy?

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Speaker 2: Well, Ruddy goes into blue Dorn's office the next day,

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Speaker 2: or he was called in the Blue Dora's office the

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Speaker 2: next day and he was fired.

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Speaker 7: I walk in there and I swear to God, Charlie

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Speaker 7: Blueto is living, you know right my company all these years,

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Speaker 7: I'm trying to go get you. In my day at

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Speaker 7: the Mam Moll be in and my shand's freaking the

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Speaker 7: fuck out.

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Speaker 2: Right, But he had one saving grace. Apparently, Francis Coppola

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Speaker 2: told Charlie blue Doorn that our Ruddy is the only

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Speaker 2: one who can get this picture made.

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Speaker 7: And Charlie stops to shoot. He calls Francis up and

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Speaker 7: brings Francis down there and tells Francis he's fired at Ruddy.

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Speaker 7: He's a fucking maniac and Francis Coppole'll re save my job.

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Speaker 7: So Charlie, he's the only man who can keep this

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Speaker 7: book going. Do you understand it's down?

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Speaker 2: Think called me back because of the mob.

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Speaker 7: I got back to see Charley and he's almost has

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Speaker 7: to spin on. This must have done done with the

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Speaker 7: plast that would show get at death with my ass.

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Speaker 7: I mean, the man was crazy, probably for good reason,

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Speaker 7: because I'm not the Comporence time.

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Speaker 2: So Blue Torn took him back.

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Speaker 5: It's always hard to make a movie, Mark, but never

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Speaker 5: quite this hard.

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Speaker 8: No.

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Speaker 2: It definitely tested the production's metal, you know. But now

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Speaker 2: the red carpet is rolled out, Deals are made left

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Speaker 2: and right for locations, vendors start working with them, homeowners

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Speaker 2: open their homes. Any problem the movie had All They

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Speaker 2: Had to Do is called Joe Colombo, Leave the Gun,

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Speaker 2: Take the Canoli as a production of Airmail and iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 5: The podcast is based on the book of the se name,

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Speaker 5: written by our very own Mark Seal.

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Speaker 2: Our producer is Tina Mullen.

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Speaker 5: Research assistance by Jack Sullivan.

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Speaker 2: Jonathan Dressler was our development producer.

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Speaker 5: Our music supervisor is Randall Poster. Our executive producers are

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Speaker 5: Meet Nathan King, Mark Seal, Doan Fagan, and Graydon Carter.

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Speaker 2: Special thanks to Bridget Arseno and everyone at c DM Studios.

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Speaker 5: A comprehensive list of sources and acknowledgments can be found

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Speaker 5: in Mark Sieal's book, Leave the Gun, Take the Canoli,

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Speaker 5: published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster,