What was Fredo really doing in Vegas in GF I, actually learning the business, being a casino manager? (i am NOT looking for banging cocktail waitresses 2 at a time or getting slapped around by Moe Green)

He was told he was learning the business BY being a casino manager for a few years but really I think they were just getting him out of the way! It was also a way the Don could get Michael to take over him and skipping Fredo without causing family tantrums!. He could have just said to fredo: " well u were doing a great job over in Vegas. Why should u have to come back to NY ".

Of course we remember Fredo sheepishly telling his father that he is "going to learn the casino business". The references in GF are his waitress capers, so we're not sure what part of the business he was learning. BUT, in GF2 we come to find out he is in the brothel business when Tom tells Senator Geary not to worry, his brother Fredo owns this place. I wonder if Fredo auditioned the girls or were they some of the cocktail waitresses?

Remember in GFII he ran a cathouse..so it was a little more than casinos he was running. Did he and Deanna break up in the book?

The primary purpose of sending Fredo to Vegas was to give him R&R after his nervous breakdown following the Don's shooting. But the Don was forward-looking, and often had laminated motives for the things he did. As we saw, his reach extended to the movie unions in Hollywood, and he bankrolled Moe Green's hotel. So it's logical to assume that sending Fredo to Vegas was his opening move in expanding into the casino business, which Michael brought to fruition. The Don always profited from his moves. If Fredo succeeded as a hotel manager, so much the better. If he failed, the Don and Michael would know that, too, and know what they needed to do to overcome his weaknesses. I think that if Fredo had really been a success in Vegas, Michael might have remained in New York for a few more years. I think Fredo's failure accelerated his move to Nevada.

Deanna did not exist in the book. None of the latter sequences that take place during Michael's reign in the 1950's were part of the novel, that story was written specifically for the film.

Only the earlier scenes involving young Vito were from The Godfather novel.

Apple

Don't tell me you've finally read it?

Seriously, and interestingly, in the book Johnny Fontane and Deanna were an item.

Obviously not, since I mistakenly mentioned that Deanna doesn't exist in the book !!



However it's pretty much common knowledge and discussed here every so often that Michael's GFII story is not out of the book.

If no one posts it before I get home (late) tonight to check, I'm not sure what her part in the book was

Maybe she was one of Johnny's wives, or

There was a scene in the book after Johnny wins the Academy Award, and goes to a party where everyone gets drunk and they try to publicly "mate" Johnny with the Best Actress Award winner (Deanna?), or

There's another scene in the book where all these Hollywood types go to a private screening, and as soon as the lights go down, so do the actresses. She may have been one of those.

Wasnt Fredo's main job running a Mickey Mouse night club and making airport runs

In the book Deanna gives Johnny's friend Nino a blow job during the movie premier.

Ah, choice #3 then.