In my understanding of Italian, "Don Corleone" or"Don Barzini" are incorrect. Correct usage would be Don Vito or Don Luigi. Also, there are several incidents where it stated that "I pay my men.......", or "they're paid more than their jobs indicate". Who gets "paid" in the life? Am I nit-picking?
Sorry if this has been discussed before.

As far as I've seen, Don is more like calling someone uncle or grandfather,so Don Vito would be correct.

Also,I don't know of any Families that pay their members anything like a weekly or monthly salary. In fact,more often than not,it's the other way around.

Some Capos may require their men to regularly kick up a certain minimum amount ,plus , of course,their cut of any other earnings,

There may be some exceptions,but they would be few and far between.

I agree with Lou, though I read somewhere on this board or the OC board that Don Firstname is a Sicilian tradition, Don Lastname is more American. It seems from what I see on TV or read that currently, the troops call or refer to their bosses by first name or nickname.


No, nobody gets a salary in a Mafia family. As Lou said, the troops earn and they kick upstairs. In the GF novel, when Vito made Tom consigliere, Puzo wrote that Tom would become "a very rich man." Since he had no troops or action on his own, I inferred that the Capos and perhaps others would kick up to him, or that Vito would allocate some of his kicked-upstairs funds to Tom, which you might, by a stretch, call a salary. Puzo also wrote that, after doing a piece of work for Michael, Neri's reward was "a particularly rich bookie joint on the East Side."

At least early on, Neri was termed a "special" who received a salary rather than a living.

My assumption with respect to Rocco's people has been that he had some sort of legitimate front, and that's what was overpaying everybody. So anyone with a no-show job would draw some kind of salary.

BTW: The novel says Barzini's first name was Emilio--Luigi Barzini was a famous Italian author.

My 74 year old brain sometimes gets its wires crossed. I read From Caesar To The Mafia and The Italians years ago. Luigi and Emilio sharing a last name caused a senior moment. Apologies to both.

At the Dons' meeting, Tattaglia whispers something to one of his aides. Nothing happened as a consequence of that whisper. Does anyone know or speculate why that whisper is in that scene?

It was probably just for dramatic effect, Olli. A stretch: Barzini had just "laid down the law": He said that Vito "must let us draw the water from the well." Then the Don of Cleveland, whom the novel tells us was a friend and ally of Vito, started his speil abut how he paid his people extra not to traffick in drugs." Tatt may have been whisperingto his aide that the tide seemed to be turning in his favor...what did he (the aide) think?

Thanks TB.

Also. I just watched again Mafi's Greatest Hits which examines the life of Joey Gallo. In it the murder of Gallo's hitman Gilly is shown as a fish reminiscent of that Brasi scene in the Godfather. It also illustrates the unsuccessful garroting of Gallo's brother in a bar as illustrated in GFII. Surely, Puzo was aware of those real life events and used them as the basis for similar events in his novel. Agree?

Sure, Oli--a direct replay of that famous garrotting, including the long-standing beef that led to it, except that the Rosato brothers were the Gallos as aggressors, and Pentangeli was Profaci this time as the victim. No New Yorker of a certain age will ever forget the photo on p.1 of the Daily News showing Larry Gallo being led away from the Sahara Lounge in Brooklyn with a big red line on his neck.

I'm sure you remember from the novel that Puzo conflated Vito's rise as a replay of the Castellemmarese War of 1930-31, except that Vito's foe was "Maranzalla," and it included Capoe sending help to '"Maranzalla." In real life, Joe Masseria, who was allied with Capone, fought Salvatore Maranzano, who won by having Masseria assassinated whille lunching with supposedly trusted associates--i.e., "died with a mouthful of bread."

I've watched Mafia's Greatest Hits several times including the episode about Joey Gallo. I have one big question about it.

While it does state that he was made by Profaci, there's never a mention of his being a Caporegime. So, I wonder how he was able to put together a crew that was audacious enough to challenge and then abduct the hierarchy of the Profaci family.

The usual Mafia fictions are at work, Oli. Some accounts list Crazy Joe as a "caporegime," but he was clarly subordinate to his elder brother, Larry, who headed the Gallo brothers crew and was their rep at the infamous meeting at Brooklyn's Sahara Lounge, where he was nearly killed.

Like so many Board members, I've watched Godfather 2 many times. Of course, I and they focus on who opened the drapes. However, it was only this past weekend while watching it that I noticed the big lamp by Michael's bed. Who turned it on? One might presume that Kay left it on, but why would she do that? If the traitor opened the drapes and also turned on the lamp, which came first? Wouldn't their movements awaken Kay?

Looked at in the components of that scene, in sequence:

Anthony's drawing was neatly laid on Michael's pillow, for Michael to see. Anthony probably put it there.
The light was on Michael's side of the bed. It had to be on for Michael to see it when he came into the bedroom. Anthony may have put the lamp on for Michael to see it.
He probably went to bed before his parents, so the drawing was in place and the light was on before Kay went to bed.
Kay was asleep, facing away from the lamp, when Michael came in.
Michael, after viewing the drawing, woke her and asked if she'd seen it. She said, "Uh-huh." She may have left the light on so that Michael could see the drawing. Then she asked, "Why are the drapes open?", meaning that the drapes had to have been closed when she got into bed.
The drapes had to be open, and the light on, for the killers to draw a bead on Michael when he came to bed. SO...
The traitor had to have entered the bedroom after Kay fell asleep in order to open the drapes.

The finger points at Fredo. In the later boathouse scene, he admitted that he betrayed Michael by giving Johnny Ola "information" about the "big deal" Michael and Roth were negotiating. That's BS: Fredo wasn't in on the deal--what "information" could he have given Ola? His only value would have been to open the drapes. But, that would have been incredibly risky--how would he have known that Kay was asleep? And, how could he be sure he wouldn't wake her?
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That's the long answer--and it's not very logical.

Short answer: Directorial license.

I don't think the word "information" is used. Fredo talks about "a little help":



But yes, opening the drapes could be a little help, if it would helpful to know where Michael was at a given moment.

Coppola and Puzo were in a tight spot: Fredo had to do something for Roth that would trigger Michael, but that wouldn't trigger the audience against Fredo. The kidnapping notion of early scripts obviously wouldn't resolve that dilemma. I think their final choice was just to punt the question - leave it a mystery and let the acting of Pacino and Cazale carry the day.

My take, for what it is worth!

As couples do -- Kay left the lamp on so that Michael didn't have to stumble in the dark

Kay was aware Anthony's drawing was on Michael's pillow -- Kay saw Anthony leaving the drawing or saw it after....

Fredo wasn't in, on Michael and Roth's big deal. We have exhausted! Fredo's "a little help": options
Sure thing Fredo had to do something “His only value would have been to open the drapes”

As is the case with all of the Mafiosi in The Godfather and its sequels, we never know how or when they were inducted. That is certainly the case with Ola. I've always assumed that he was Mafioso, but how did he come to be attached so closely to Roth and of what family was he a part if he was Mafioso?

Oli, since Roth is so closely based on Meyer Lansky, Ola is based on Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo (name is an anagram), a high ranking capo in the Genovese familly. Lansky was close to Genovese family ever since his close friendship with Charlie Luciano. But, unlike Ola, the real-llife Alo wasn't servile--he was Lansky's partner, protector and close friend.