Sorry if asked before but were those drumsticks threw at Carlo when he was out of the car on his way to kick butt? It looked like it. If so, why drumsticks and if not what could they have possibly been?

Too thick for a drumstick--looks like a sawed-off piece of dowel or broomstick. Doesn't make any more sense than a drumstick.

I had always been cluesless about this myself, until I quite recently realized that I was being silly (so I thought) and decided that it obviously was just a baseball bat.

In an interview with People and Entertainment Weekly Network in 2017, Russo claimed the fight between him and Caan in The Godfather was more real than many might assume.

"We choreographed that scene for about a day and a half," Russo said. "Jimmy got a little aggressive, I would say, and he improvised a few things like that little billy club he threw at me when I came off the stoop. He hit me right in the head with that, and then he throws me over the railing and he's biting my hands… And then when I crawl out, he literally lifted me up with his kick. Now, we had it all timed, none of that was supposed to happen."

Russo is so full of shit, he's dripping. Caan didn't "throw him over the railing." You have to be blind not to see that he jumped over the railing as Caan put his hands on him.

You nailed it Turnbull. I just re-watched that scene,and it's actually laughable to compare what really happened to Russo's account

Saw a video of Russo claiming he slept with Marilyn Monroe when she was 28 and he was 16. Monroe was born in 1926, Russo in 1943. He would have been 11 years old if he slept with her when she was 28, in 1954.

That dude is a habitual bullshitter.... believe what u want..

Here's something interesting - it's from The Godfather Journal by Ira Zuckerman. It's a day-by-day account of the filming, and though Zuckerman is not entirely accurate about a number of things, this passage (page 128) is worth mentioning (boldface is mine):

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63rd DAY OF SHOOTING WEDNESDAY JUNE 23

Exterior location at 118th Street and Pleasant Avenue in Manhattan. Hot and muggy day in this Italian tenement section.

Local Italian-American League members have been hired to help control the crowds and cool any problems. Some of them carry sawed-off broomsticks. One of the crew comments, "They really bought off the local toughs to keep this neighborhood in tow. . . get their cooperation. Normally it would be raining Coke bottles down on us from the rooftops."

The large, extremely unruly crowds are excited by the sequence that is being filmed today (Sonny beating up Carlo Rizzi) and have to be held back behind barricades and ropes. Actor Gianni Russo ends up with two cracked ribs and a chipped elbow, in spite of the fact that most of the work was done by his stand-in and stunt man, Paul. Paul works as Russo's double in all the long shots of the beating, which he also choreographed. During each take the crowds shout encouragement and at the end cheer and applaud wildly.

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Hmmm..... Interesting, to say the least. This may answer the question "Where did Sonny get the broomsticks?"


Signor V.

Apparently James Caan and Gianni Russo didn't get on....

This may explain! how Russo ended up with two cracked ribs and a chipped elbow whilst Russo's “stand-in and stunt man” Paul not a scratch

A little more trivia here...

I did some digging on the IMDb and going by the (extensive) credits for GF1, the "Paul" referred to in my previous post may have been noted stuntman Paul Baxley. He is listed as Stunt Coordinator, albeit uncredited.

Paul Baxley - IMDb


Signor V.

Good guess. I thought that New York City had a tradition of "stickball" in the streets, with skinny "bats" and four sewers for a home run.