Youll probably see a Bill Cosby marathon somewhere on Fathers Day.
TCM might show Gregory Peck.
Homers always on somewhere.
But the father of the Bonanno family was no deadbeat dad.
Her father was born in Palermo, Sicily.
I later found the story was called The Night of Sicilian Vespers.
The young womans mother ran to the street yelling for help.
The Night of Vespers is a central story in Honor Thy Father, by Gay Talese.
Fathers protect their children.
It should be shown every Fathers Day.
Joseph Bonanno is dad of the year, this year.
Joseph Bonanno was an iconic father.
As iconic as Mr. C. onHappy Daysor Jim Anderson onFather Knows Bestor Ben Cartwright onBonanza.
Bonanno was the father of both his families.
He was a father to his children and to the group of men who worked for him.
They had this thing and it was broken into families.
Most people believe that the head of Italian syndicate families were called godfathers because ofThe Godfather.
Don was a title of respect, but it didnt necessarily mean someone was in their thing.
My great grandfather was called Don Giuseppe, and he imported olive oil.
Really, he did.
They evolved out of the original fathers whose families were Luciano, Profaci, Gagliano, Mangano and Maranzano.
The Bonanno family was somewhat apart from the other families.
It was more of sovereignty within the Commission.
At least, thats the way Bonanno saw it.
He was a protective father and didnt trust the car with junior yet.
Gay Talese talked to Joseph Bonanno for seven years for the book.
They both got heat for it.
Talese dodged a subpoena and Bonanno was called a rat.
His mouth resulted in the book The Valachi Papers, which was made into a movie starring Charles Bronson.
In crime circles Valachi is synonymous with rat.
He was a low level operator who snitched to save his ass from a prison execution.
Bonanno was a father, a boss.
A boss talking to a journalist in such detail was unheard of, but times were changing.
The sixties changed the landscape.
Joe Colombo, who took over the Profaci family, became an activist for Italian civil rights.
He founded an Italian anti-defamation league to stop the negative portrayals of Italians as mobsters.
It was also a good excuse to squeeze money from the studio makingThe Godfather.
Colombo was assassinated in Columbus Circle at one of his own rallies.
He left his son Bill in charge of the family.
And they only came once a week and even then, intermittently.
Usually he was dodging bullets on Brooklyn streets on his way to his car.
His favorite being Machiavellis the lion and the fox.
The book and movie both use flashback to underscore the story as it moves forward.
Bonanno had a mixture of interests.
He was a multimillionaire by the time he was forty.
In the late fifties, the Pax Bonanno began to fall apart.
Bonanno was arrested along with dozens of high ranking family businessmen.
Bonanno never actually badmouths the other family heads, but he does exude a certain moral superiority.
They were being pushed by Tommy Lucchese and Carlo Gambino, who were also leaning on Bonanno.
Bonanno and Magliocco teamed up to retaliate, giving the job to Joseph Colombo.
Colombo spilled the beans to Gambino and Lucchese, who figured Bonanno was behind the attempted hit.
Honor Thy Fathermight be the best thing Joseph Bologna did.
He was always solid, usually in comic roles.
He co-wrote his first big part inLovers and Other Strangerswith his wife Renee Taylor.
They collaborated again a few years later for the filmMade for Each Other.
He does voices inSuperman: The Animated SeriesandIce Age: The Meltdown.
Raf Vallone plays Joe Bananas Bonanno.
Vallone was compared to Burt Lancaster because he was a soccer player before he became an actor.
Vallone was an international star, mainly in Italian films, and was in the neo-realist classicBitter Ricein 1949.
Vallone was the mob boss Altabani in the originalThe Italian Jobfrom 1969.
Richard S. Castellano plays Joseph Bonannos brother-in-law and Bonanno caporegime, Frank Fabruzzo.
He has a protracted role in his fight against lung cancer.
Castellano was nominated for an Oscar for his role inLovers and Other Strangersin 1970.
Castellano played Joe Girelli in the TV sitcomThe Superand Joe Vitale inJoe and Sons.
Castellano also ran a construction company.
My father met him on a job site and asked him about putting sugar in tomato sauce.
He said he only did that for the movie.
She played Kay Brubaker the 1978 conspiracy classic,Capricorn One, about a Mars landing hoax.
She played Bianca, Faye Dunaways side-kick inSupergirlin 1984.
Vacarro does the voice for Johnny Bravos mother Bunny Bravo in the cartoon seriesJohnny Bravo.
Frank LaBruzzo plays Joe Notaro.
He was blamed by the mob for the raid at the Apalachin meeting.
CBS-TV cleaned up the book, which was already a cleaned up version of the Bonanno story.
In the movie, Bill gets a little too close to the cops for my taste.
Everyone has to sell out to the cops somehow in the movies.
Cosa Nostra and Mafia no longer guarantee a great seat at Lennys.
The book is honorable.
I always thought the Bonannos cooperated with the book and the movie to provide an alibi.
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Rating:
3 out of 5
