‘The Offer’ reveals how real mobsters helped get ‘The Godfather’ made
nypost.com“Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli.” That story has been spun into a new scripted series, “The Offer,” premiering Thursday onParamount+.
It tells the story of the making of “The Godfather” from the perspectiveof the film’s producer, Al Ruddy, a former Rand Corporation computer programmer who found success in Hollywood after successfully pitching the idea for the show “Hogan’s Heroes.”“I spent about two to three weeks interviewing Al Ruddy,” said Michael Tolkin, creator and writer of the series. “Basically his story was the research.”Joe Colombo was the leader of the Colombo crime family, one of the “Five Families” of the New York mob in the early 1970s.
He was also the head of the Italian American Civil Rights League, which campaigned against Italian American stereotyping, and particularly against the use of the word “mafia.” The League’s influence was so powerful, they convinced the Justice Department and the New York State Police to stop using the word “mafia” in press releases.
They mobilized tens of thousands of people to rallies and marches in New York City. And they organized a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden with Frank Sinatra to raise over a half million dollars, all of which, according to Ruddy, was used to try to stop the production of “The Godfather.” In “The Offer,” Colombo and the League’s antagonism of the film comes at the request of Frank Sinatra himself, who believes the character Johnny Fontaine is based on him.
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