Download or read book Hollywood Godfather written by Gianni Russo and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hollywood Godfather is Gianni Russo's over-the-top memoir of a real-life mobster-turned-actor who helped make The Godfather a reality, and his story of life on the edge between danger and glamour. Gianni Russo was a handsome 25-year-old mobster with no acting experience when he walked onto the set of The Godfather and entered Hollywood history. He played Carlo Rizzi, the husband of Connie Corleone, who set her brother Sonny—played by James Caan—up for a hit. Russo didn't have to act—he knew the mob inside and out: from his childhood in Little Italy, where Mafia legend Frank Costello took him under his wing, to acting as a messenger for New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello during the Kennedy assassination, to having to go on the lam after shooting and killing a member of the Colombian drug cartel in his Vegas club. Along the way, Russo befriended Frank Sinatra, who became his son's godfather, and Marlon Brando, who mentored his career as an actor after trying to get Francis Ford Coppola to fire him from The Godfather. Russo had passionate affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minelli, and scores of other celebrities. He went on to become a producer and starred in The Godfather: Parts I and II, Seabiscuit, Any Given Sunday and Rush Hour 2, among many other films. Hollywood Godfather is a no-holds-barred account of a life filled with violence, glamour, sex—and fun.
Download or read book Hollywood Godfather written by W. R. Wilkerson and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the definitive biography of the most powerful man in Hollywood during the 1930s, '40s and '50s, the man who founded the Hollywood Reporter and the most storied nightspots of the Sunset Strip, introduced Clark Gable and Lana Turner to the world, invented Las Vegas, brought the Mafia to Hollywood, engineered the shakedown of Hollywood studios by Willie Bioff and his mob-run unions, was possibly involved in the murder of Bugsy Siegel, started the Hollywood blacklist, and helped destroy the studio system. Perhaps nobody in Hollywood history has ever ruined so many careers and done so much damage to the industry as Billy Wilkerson. Yet there has never been a solid biography of the man. Billy's son, William R. Wilkerson III, has done tremendous research on his father, interviewing over decades everyone who knew him best, and portrays him beautifully (and damningly) in this book.
Download or read book The Godfather Effect written by Tom Santopietro and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifty years and one billion dollars in gross box-office receipts after the initial release of The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola's masterful trilogy continues to fascinate viewers old and new. The Godfather Effect skillfully analyzes the reasons behind this ongoing global phenomenon. Packed with behind-the-scenes anecdotes from all three Godfather films, Tom Santopietro explores the historical origins of the Mob and why they thrived in America, how Italian-Americans are portrayed in the media, and how a saga of murderous gangsters captivated audiences around the globe. Laced with stories about Brando, Pacino, and Sinatra, and interwoven with a funny and poignant memoir about the author's own experiences growing up with an Italian name in an Anglo world of private schools and country clubs, The Godfather Effect is a book for film lovers, observers of American life, and Italians of all nationalities.
Download or read book The Making of the Godfather written by Mario Puzo and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this entertaining and insightful essay, Mario Puzo chronicles his rise from struggling writer to overnight success after the publication of The Godfather. With equal parts cynicism and humor, Puzo recounts the book deal and his experiences in Hollywood while writing the screenplay for the movie. Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Evans, Peter Bart, Marlon Brando, and Al Pacino all make appearances-as does Frank Sinatra, in his famous and disastrous encounter with Puzo. First published in 1972, the essay is now available as an ebook for the first time. A must-have for every Godfather fan! Featuring a foreword by Ed Falco, author of The Family Corleone.
Download or read book The Godfather Notebook written by Francis Ford Coppola and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE PUBLISHING SENSATION OF THE YEAR FOR EVERY FILM FAN The never-before-published edition of Francis Ford Coppola’s notes and annotations on The Godfather novel by Mario Puzo reveals the story behind one of the world’s most iconic films. The most important unpublished work on one of the greatest films of all time, The Godfather, written before filming, by the man who wrote and directed it—Francis Ford Coppola, then only thirty-two years old—reveals the intense creative process that went into making this seminal film. With his meticulous notes and impressions of Mario Puzo’s novel, the notebook was referred to by Coppola daily on set while he directed the movie. The Godfather Notebook pulls back the curtain on the legendary filmmaker and the film that launched his illustrious career. Complete with an introduction by Francis Ford Coppola and exclusive photographs from on and off the set, this is a unique, beautiful, and faithful reproduction of Coppola’s original notebook. This publication will change the way the world views the iconic film—and the process of filmmaking at large. A must-have book of the season. Nothing like it has ever been published before
Download or read book Francis Ford Coppola s The Godfather Trilogy written by Nick Browne and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-11-13 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Godfather trilogy is among the most significant works of Hollywood cinema of the last quarter century. They provide a richly complex look at a whole segment of American life and culture spanning almost the whole century. In six essays, written especially for this volume, The Godfather trilogy is re-examined from a variety of perspectives. Providing analyses on the form and significance of Coppola's achievement, they demonstrate how the filmmaker revised the conventions of the American crime film in the Viet Nam era, his treatment of the capitalism of the criminal underworld and its inherent violence, the power struggles within Hollywood over the film, and the contribution of opera to the epic force and cinematic style of Coppola's vision of an American criminal dynasty. The Godfather articulates the themes, styles, mythologies, performances, and underlying cultural values that have made the film a modern classic.
Download or read book Godfather written by Gene D. Phillips and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-04-23 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This critical biography by the acclaimed film historian is “certainly the definitive work on the director” behind The Godfather and Apocalypse Now (Publishers Weekly). Gene Phillips blends biography, studio history, and film criticism to complete the most comprehensive work on Coppola ever written. The force behind such popular and critically acclaimed films as Rumble Fish and the Godfather trilogy, Coppola has imprinted his distinct style on each of his movies and on the landscape of American popular culture. In Godfather, Phillips argues that Coppola has repeatedly bucked the Hollywood "factory system" in an attempt to create distinct films that reflect his own artistic vision—often to the detriment of his career and finances. Phillips conducted interviews with the director and his colleagues and examined Coppola's production journals and screenplays. Phillips also reviewed rare copies of Coppola's student films, his early excursions into soft-core pornography, and his less celebrated productions such as One from the Heart and Tucker: The Man and His Dream. The result is the definitive assessment of one of Hollywood's most enduring and misunderstood mavericks.
Download or read book The Godfather Legacy written by Harlan Lebo and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-10-25 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is the official companion to Francis Ford Coppola's masterful trilogy, revised and updated, and packed with more than 100 photographs. The director was a renegade filmmaker who'd never made a profitable picture. The producer was hired because he could stay below budget. The star had a reputation for being difficult. A formula for disaster? No, the makings of one of the greatest films of all time. The Godfather Legacyexplores the fascinating behind-the-scenes intrigue and uproar during the making of all three films: The clashes between Coppola and the studio chiefs during the filming ofThe Godfather,the pressurized production schedule, and the project's near cancellation The real story behind the cooperation of the Mafia in the creation ofThe Godfather The worldwide acclaim and stunning financial success following the release ofThe Godfather --a triumph that set the stage for the film industry's renaissance The production ofThe Godfather Part IIand the rise of Coppola, Al Pacino, and others to the loftiest heights of power in Hollywood The creation ofThe Godfather Part IIItwo decades after the original film and the completion of video projects that unified the three films for the first time Featuring production records, credits, reviews, and interviews with many of the principals involved,The Godfather Legacyis a rare and vivid peek into the making of three of the most compelling films in Hollywood history.
Download or read book Hollywood Cowboy written by Mina Beckett and published by CurtissLynn Publishing. This book was released on 2023-06-05 with total page 746 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From fake fiancée to real romance, he never expected love to be his greatest role yet. A once-in-a-lifetime acting audition catapulted struggling bull rider Morgan Prescott into overnight fame and fortune and labeled him one of Hollywood’s sexiest heartthrobs. But a reckless night from his past threatens to send his celebrity status into a downward spiral. Taking his brother’s advice, he devises a plan to reshape his rebellious bad-boy image and salvage his career. All he needs is a wholesome woman who’s willing to act the part of his beloved betrothed. Kara is quick to ignore Morgan’s advances when he strolls back into her life, donning a sexy you-can’t-resist me smile until he offers her a monetary solution to financial woes. The simple job of playing his fiancée for a night at an upcoming charity event seems harmless enough. But the sexual tension between the two of them quickly escalates into what could be a heartbreaking scenario for Kara when Morgan propositions her with an offer she can’t refuse.
Download or read book Hollywood Stardom written by Paul McDonald and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-11-26 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By integrating star studies and film industry studies, Hollywood Stardom reveals the inextricable bonds between culture and commerce in contemporary notions of film stardom. Integrates the traditions of star studies and industry studies to establish an original and innovative mode of analysis whereby the ‘star image’ is replaced with the ‘star brand’ Offers the first extensive analysis of stardom in the ‘post-studio’ era Combines genre, narrative, acting, and discourse analysis with aspects of marketing theory and the economic analysis of the film market Draws on an extensive body of research data not previously deployed in film scholarship A wide range of star examples are explored including George Clooney, Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tom Hanks, Will Smith, and Julia Roberts
Download or read book The Family Corleone written by and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exhilarating and profound novel of tradition and violence and of loyalty and betrayal, The Family Corleone will appeal to the legions of fans who can never get enough of The Godfather. New York, 1933: The city and the nation are in the depths of the Great Depression. The crime families of New York have prospered in this time, but with the coming end of Prohibition, a battle is looming that will determine which organizations will rise and which will face a violent end. For Vito Corleone, nothing is more important that his family's future. While his youngest children, Michael, Fredo, and Connie, are in school, unaware of their father's true occupation, and his adopted son Tom Hagen is a college student, he worries most about Sonny, his eldest child. Vito pushes Sonny to be a businessman, but Sonny-17 years-old, impatient and reckless-wants something else: To follow in his father's footsteps and become a part of the real family business.
Download or read book Leave the Gun Take the Cannoli written by Mark Seal and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “wickedly pacey page-turner” (Total Film) unfurls the behind-the-scenes story of the making of The Godfather, fifty years after the classic film’s original release. The story of how The Godfather was made is as dramatic, operatic, and entertaining as the film itself. Over the years, many versions of various aspects of the movie’s fiery creation have been told—sometimes conflicting, but always compelling. Mark Seal sifts through the evidence, has extensive new conversations with director Francis Ford Coppola and several heretofore silent sources, and complements them with colorful interviews with key players including actors Al Pacino, James Caan, Talia Shire, and others to write “the definitive look at the making of an American classic” (Library Journal, starred review). On top of the usual complications of filmmaking, the creators of The Godfather had to contend with the real-life members of its subject matter: the Mob. During production of the movie, location permits were inexplicably revoked, author Mario Puzo got into a public brawl with an irate Frank Sinatra, producer Al Ruddy’s car was found riddled with bullets, men with “connections” vied to be in the cast, and some were given film roles. As Seal notes, this is the tale of a “movie that revolutionized filmmaking, saved Paramount Pictures, minted a new generation of movie stars, made its struggling author Mario Puzo rich and famous, and sparked a war between two of the mightiest powers in America: the sharks of Hollywood and the highest echelons of the Mob.” “For fans of books about moviemaking, this is a definite must-read” (Booklist).
Download or read book The Godfather written by Mario Puzo and published by Penguin Longman. This book was released on 1998 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Don Corleone is the Godfather, head of one of the richest families in New York and a gangster. His favourite son Michael is a lawyer who wants to lead a quiet life, but when Don Corleone is nearly killed by a rival Mafia family, Michael is soon drawn into the family business.
Download or read book Bucking Hollywood written by Susan Robertson and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2019-04-12 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique and gifted actor once bucked the system in Hollywood. This is the life story of movie and TV actor Dale Robertson, told by the person who knew him best: his wife, Susan. Susan says she is not a professional writer but wanted to write this book totally herself with her own thoughts, ideas, time frame, and no ghost writer. She laughs when someone says, "Well, you are a writer now." As she states in the book, Dale would joke when someone would approach him to do his autobiography. He'd say, "Not now." It was because he did not know how it ended. Also he would remind them of all the thousands of interviews he had done over the years and to "let the younger actors do these interviews now." Because the autobiography had not been done, Susan wanted to do it to help in some way to preserve his legacy. Susan now resides in San Diego, California, to be closer to family and hopes folks will enjoy the book. She knows her husband better and that he did not compromise himself in the film industry and in life.
Download or read book The Last Don written by Mario Puzo and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2004-09-28 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterful saga of the last great American Mafia family and its powerful reach into Hollywood and Las Vegas, from the author of The Godfather The Last Don is Domenico Clericuzio, a wise and ruthless old man who is determined to see his heirs established in legitimate society but whose vision is threatened when secrets from the family's past spark a vicious war between two blood cousins. The Last Don is a mesmerizing tale that takes us inside the equally corrupt worlds of the mob, the movie industry, and the casinos where beautiful actresses and ruthless hitmen are ruled by lust and violence, where sleazy producers and greedy studio heads are drunk on power, where crooked cops and desperate gamblers play dangerous games of betrayal, and where one man controls them all. Praise for The Last Don “Puzo is in top form. . . . Head-long entertainment, bubbling over with corruption, betrayal, assassinations, Richter-scale romance, and, of course, family values.”—Time “The most entertaining read since The Godfather.”—The New York Times Book Review “Skillfully crafted . . . It gives us Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the mob in one sweet dish.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Puzo returns after a quarter century to the terrain of his greatest success, The Godfather, to tell a second masterful tale of Mafia life.”—Variety “A compelling tale peopled by memorable characters . . . Puzo is a master storyteller with an uncanny facility for details that force the reader to keep the pages turning.”—USA Today
Download or read book Street Warrior written by Ralph Friedman and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2017-07-25 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A memoir by the NYPD’s most decorated cop, reflecting on the job, the city, and how both have changed.
Download or read book Bombshell written by Mike Rothmiller and published by Ad Lib Publishers Ltd. This book was released on 2021-07-08 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Bobby called. He’s coming to California. He wants to see me.’ Drawing on secret police files, Marilyn Monroe's private diary and never before published first-hand testimony, this book proves that Robert Kennedy was directly responsible for her death. It details the legendary star's tumultuous personal involvement with him and his brother, President John Kennedy, and how they sought to silence her. The new evidence and testimony is provided by Mike Rothmiller who, as a detective of the Organized Crime Intelligence Division (OCID) of the LAPD, had direct personal access to hundreds of secret LAPD files on exactly what happened at Marilyn Monroe’s Californian home on August 5, 1962. With his training and investigator’s knowledge, Rothmiller used that secret information to get to the heart of the matter, to the people who were there the night Marilyn died – two of whom played major roles in the cover-up – and the wider conspiracy to protect the Kennedys at all costs. There will be those with doubts, but to them, the lawman – who directed international intelligence operations targeting organized crime – says the printed, forensic and oral evidence are totally convincing. He insists: ‘If I presented my evidence in any court of law, I’d get a conviction.’
