Puzo, heavily in debt due to a gambling habit, was eager to have the book and film rights erase his ledger. The film version of the Puzo novel had been brought to the studio by producer Robert Evans, who had acquired Puzo’s treatment in 1968.

As soon as Paramount announced plans to produce The Godfather, he had acquired his biggest target to date. In rallying law-abiding Italians and depicting himself as the aggrieved party, Colombo was successful in helping to stifle reference to the terms 'mafia' or 'la cosa nostra' in popular culture. He also lobbied to have the word “mafia” taken out of scripts for television’s The FBI. An Alka-Seltzer commercial with the catchphrase “That’s-a-some-a-spicy meatball” was an early target, and the League had success getting it removed from the airwaves. He found support in members of his ethnicity-nearly 45,000 members-who were tired of the stereotypes. Co-creating the Italian-American Civil Rights League, Colombo decried sensational media stories regarding Italian-Americans in general. Most suspected criminals would keep a low profile. He had been indicted for tax evasion and accused by the FBI of running a widespread gambling and extortion ring. After commandeering the Profaci crime family in the mid-1960s, and capitalizing on the void left by incarcerated boss 'Crazy' Joe Gallo, Colombo quickly rose through the ranks of New York’s notorious Five Families. That's my family.”Ī cursory investigation of Colombo’s past would reveal otherwise. “Mafia, what's a mafia?” he was once quoted as saying. When prodded by reporters, the outspoken Colombo would deny there was any such thing as a mafia. In making sure nothing interrupted filming of The Godfather, producers had made a very public-and very costly-pact with the mob. Colombo’s men immediately retaliated, shooting the assassin dead.įor Paramount, any sense of relief would be short-lived. He could make such statements because, in addition to his real estate interests, Colombo was a major figure in organized crime.īefore Colombo could utter a word at the rally, a man disguised as a press photographer dropped his camera, raised a revolver, and shot Colombo three times in the head and neck.

Colombo had intimated there would be labor issues, production delays, and other, less defined obstacles that could threaten to curtail the studio’s multimillion investment in their adaption of Mario Puzo's 1969 novel. He was oblivious to the very real gun being aimed at his head.įor months, Colombo had waged war against the Paramount movie, asserting it propagated an exaggerated fiction about the existence of the mafia.

Joe Colombo, a professed real estate agent who led the Italian-American Civil Rights League in protesting stereotyped depictions of Italians in film, was approaching a podium to make a speech during a rally at Columbus Circle in New York. On June 28, 1971, as a Corleone hitman aimed his prop gun under Coppola’s direction, a very similar scene was taking place just four blocks away. Francis Ford Coppola was just a few months into production on The Godfather when he began directing the fictional assassinations Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) orders against family rivals.

Mob wars la cosa nostra script