MADE MEN: THE WHITENING OF ITALIAN-AMERICANS 1950-1975 ______

A Thesis

Presented to the

Faculty of

California State University, Fullerton ______

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

in

History ______

By

Amanda Bisesi

Thesis Committee Approval:

Robert McLain, Department of History, Chair Steven Smith, Departments of History and Psychology Susie Woo, Department of American Studies

Spring, 2017

ABSTRACT

This study argues that in the decades following the end of the Second World War,

Italian-Americans achieved the status of “whiteness” in the United States due to the increasing popularity and romanticization of Italians in American pop culture. Through analyzing the growth in popularity of Italian celebrities in the 1950-60s, and the cultural impact of The Godfather films in the 1970s, the shifting image and whitening of Italians in the American mind can be seen clearly and understood.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... iv

1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

2. CELEBRITY AND WHITENESS ...... 12

3. THE GODFATHER IN THE AMERICAN MIND ...... 23

4. CONCLUSION ...... 38

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 40

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. McLain, Dr. Smith, and Dr.

Woo for their guidance on this project and throughout my time as an undergraduate and graduate student. Thank you to all of my History and American Studies professors at

CSUF, you have all inspired me and taught me so much over the years. Thank you to

Trevor McKnight for your love, encouragement, advice, and help with proofreading and editing. Thank you to my family, friends, and my parents Jim and Jacqueline for their endless love and support.

iv 1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The treatment of Italians, and their image in the mind of Americans, changed dramatically in the twentieth century, from Italians, particularly those from the south, being heavily discriminated against to eventually being generally accepted as part of the white race.1 This study argues that in the decades following the end of the Second World

War, Italian-Americans achieved the status of “whiteness” in the United States due to the increasing popularity and romanticization of Italians in American pop culture. Through analyzing the growth in popularity of Italian celebrities in the 1950-60s, and the cultural impact of The Godfather films in the 1970s, one can clearly discern the shifting image and whitening of Italians in the American mind.

The American relationship with Italy is a complicated one, and has changed dramatically over the last century. Italy was, and still is to this day, a frequent travel

1 Italy had one of the largest mass migrations in world history, particularly in reference to southern Italians. Southern Italians were typically considered to be the working class and rural workers of the nation while the northern Italians were seen as wealthier and higher class. Northern and southern division in Italy still runs deep even to this day. Southern Italians were treated poorly politically, socially, and financially and left Italy to seek a better, more stable life in America. After Italy's unification in 1861, southern Italians hoped the country’s unification would lead to significant economic and political improvement, but they were sorely dismayed. The new government was made up mainly of northern Italians and they had little sympathy for the impoverished south. Taxes increased, food prices rose, and many were denied voting privileges. This government would actually treat the southern Italians worse than the governments of the former divided Italy ever did. Non-land owning Italians lived at the mercy of landowners. This new government, known as the Mezzogiorno, furthered the already deep cultural divide between northern and southern Italy. Southerners made up 2/5 of the Italian population and the extensive racism and oppression of the southern population added to the extensive list of factors that led to their departure to the United States. (Source: George De Stefano, An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America (New York: Faber and Faber, Inc, 2006), 19-20.)

2 destination for Americans. Americans were fascinated with Italian art, food, and culture.

The first Italians to come into America were typically northerners that were often "artists, artisans, tradesmen, teachers, and political refugees."2 Americans and Italians traveled between the two nations frequently without issue. In 1880, over 40,000 Italians lived in the United States, and for the next decade two thousand Americans visited Florence every year, and 30,000 Americans visited Rome.3 American writers and artists frequented Italy as a source of inspiration. They saw Italy as a romantic and cultural experience, and Italy was for many Americans "a source of social and cultural capital, a land of romance and the picturesque, and a site/symbol of self-definition."4 However, American fascination with Italy tended to be stuck in the past rather than focusing on the reality of the modern day. Joseph P. Cosco's work Imagining Italians sums this ideal up best:

For many Americans, the interest in Italy focused on the country’s glorious past, its cultural and social refinements, and the pastoral Italian landscape with its picturesque ruins and rustic peasants. Their Italy was the Italy of art and romance, an idealized, heroic Italy. For many Americans visiting Italy, “the whole country was like a stage, while the Italians seemed to them like actors playing parts in some poetic drama.5

Travel writing in America peaked between 1880 and 1914, and Italy was often the most talked about and most praised of all nations written about in these works. Poetry, historical novels, guidebooks, and a wide variety of other literature was written on the romanticized nation.

2 Joseph P. Cosco, Imagining Italians: The Clash of Romance & Race in American Perceptions, 1880-1910 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003), 5.

3 Cosco, 5.

4 Ibid, 6.

5 Ibid.

3

However, not all American accounts of Italy were positive. Parts of Italy that these writers visited were dirty and disorderly, and poverty was prevalent in many areas of the nation. When focusing on the Italian citizens themselves rather than the romantic culture of the nation as a whole, Americans had less positive things to say. They based their ideas off of stereotypes and saw the Italian people as "dishonest, mendacious, immoral, lazy, dirty, degraded, sensual, theatrical, and childlike."6 Bayard Taylor, a popular travel writer in the 1840s, wrote nothing but praise for the nation of Italy overall, but wrote scathing negative accounts of the Italian people themselves. It was typically the lower classes that these writers criticized, but stereotypes ran deep. When the Italians that they took issue with started coming into America, their "Italomania" quickly turned into

"Italophobia."7

From 1891-1900, 655,644 Italians came into the United States, and an additional

2,045,877 came the following decade, the majority coming from southern Italy.8 Such immigration had never been seen before. America’s immediate reception was far from warm. One news source in 1890, the New Orleans Times-Democrat, stated that:

The Germans, the Irish, and others, migrate to this country, adopt its customs, acquire its language, master its institutions, and identify themselves with its destiny. The Italians, never. They remain isolated from the rest of any community in which they happen to dwell. They seldom learn to speak our tongue, they have no respect for our laws or our form of government, they are always foreigners.9

6 Cosco, 7.

7 Ibid, 8.

8 Salvatore John LaGumina, Wop!: A Documentary History of Anti-Italian Discrimination in the United States (Toronto: Guernica, 1973), 72.

9 Ibid, 74.

4

The dark hair, dark skin, and dark eyes of southern Italians were already major disadvantages for them coming into America at the turn of the century, but their poor, rural upbringing also led them to having similarities with African-Americans in the type of work they were willing to do. They worked for little pay in physically demanding jobs, and this led to the further stigmatization of southern Italians, marking them as "black by local custom."10 For southern Italians, they were caught in an in-between status of race.

Some of them were hired to replace African American workers, but "the perception by white Americans that southern Italian immigrants were racially "between" white and black, or in fact a third race, caused concern."11 Many southern Italians did not come into the country with pre-existing racism against African Americans, so essentially, they blatantly ignored the implicit social and racial codes that existed in most of the United

States upon their arrival. Most of them had no particular feelings at all about African

Americans or any other racial minorities, and any feelings they did have were typically neutral in nature.

Many Italians, in a desperate attempt to escape the harsh criticism and discrimination they faced in America, felt that they needed to abandon their heritage

10 Ibid, 28.

11 Peter Vellon, ""Between White Men and Negroes": The Perception of Southern Italian Immigrants Through the Lens of Italian Lynchings" in Anti-Italianism: Essays on a Prejudice (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 28.

An example of the often untold but very real racial violence against Italians due to this “in-between” status of race is the fact that there are documented cases of Italian immigrants being lynched. In 1899, an argument in Louisiana between a local well-known coroner, Dr. Hodge, and three Italian shopkeepers would result in the lynching of five Italian immigrants. The dispute began as a shoot-out, leaving two men injured, one of them being Dr. Hodge. Following the conflict, almost the entire town and outsiders from other towns came together and formed a lynch mob, seeking payback for the shooting of the coroner. Three of the Italian men were arrested and two more were taken by the mob. The men were hung on a cottonwood tree and shot repeatedly in the yard of a local jail.

5 altogether in order to "make it in the new country."12 Third generation Italian Antonella

La Motta said of her parents (quote slightly edited for clarity),

My parents did not consider it important to ahm, to have their kids connected with the old country, they did not consider that to be important. What they considered more important was to make it in the new country. Be able to make a living. I mean there was a lot of sad, sadness. You know. And I, I think it was very painful for them to, you know, I don't think they had a way of dealing with the sadness. You know the loss of their homeland in Italy. The loss of a culture and the merging into a foreign culture. I mean there is a loss of culture or families or community of their towns of which they came. And I think there might have been some discrimination and rejection from the cities and towns in which they settled and there probably was some pain there. Some disappointment. And I, I, I suspect that, that they were simply determined to be successful and to make it here in this country. And, and so they, they didn't really indulge their feelings of rejection or, or alienation.13

Antonella’s sister Sandra Maier also recalled the struggles of assimilation and immigration through the experiences of visiting Italy to reconnect with family members.

When asked if there was a price to pay when her family migrated, she responded:

A big price. There's always a big price to pay. It's a, it's a decision to accept a life of struggle in order to have more money, have more status, standing, more respect, more self-respect, more education a better life for your children, of course ultimately, usually the first generation only struggles, learning a new language, making it professionally, making new friends. Getting beyond the feeling of being different and accept that being different often means being worse, feeling worse, feeling others are better than you are.14

Beginning with the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 which overturned the "separate but equal" status given to African-Americans, the efforts for equal rights only grew in strength. While the Civil Rights movement existed long before this period and had been ongoing for decades, the 1950-1960s would be the first time

12 Christa Wirth, Memories of Belonging: Descendants of Italian Migrants to the United States, 1884- Present (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 276-277.

13 Wirth, 276-277.

14 Ibid, 275.

6 their fight was brought into the public eye in such a dramatic and impactful way.

Boycotts, school integrations, sit-ins, assassinations, and bombings all for the fight for equal rights marked the 1950s-1960s as a truly revolutionary decade. However, during this time of extreme racial turmoil and social instability in the United States, the Italian-

Americans remained notably silent and kept themselves in the background. Regardless of whether these actions were intentional, remaining out of the fight for civil rights would help them greatly in their own struggle for equality. Italian-Americans were able to use their history of general indifference towards other minority groups to their advantage.

They were able to say that they never necessarily supported the civil rights movement, but they never opposed it either. They simply remained out of the spotlight and this would prove advantageous for them. A reason for their silence was that Italians-

Americans found that they could survive economically by relying on the semi-white state that they were already in at that time, an advantage that simply could not exist for

African-Americans. By keeping out of the movement entirely and not choosing to have any sort of public rebellions for their own civil rights at any point, they proved to white

Americans that they were capable of assimilating and not attempting to interfere with their way of life. The African-American communities were fighting for inclusion in society rather than attempting to assimilate. Assimilation was an option African-

Americans could not truly have but the Italian-Americans could because of the color of their skin and their previous “in-between” status. A shaky and unstable white America approved of these choices that Italian-Americans made, and began to see the Italians as the "good" minorities, which would eventually lead to their overall acceptance into white culture.

7

The rapid acceptance of Italians into white culture over two decades coincides with the ongoing fight for civil rights by other minority groups in the nation. Before this period, Italians were often compared to groups such as African-Americans, and during the Second World War, Japanese Americans. Despite their initial indifference to other minority races in the United States, the Italian Americans were able to distance themselves from these other races in order to present themselves as the "good" minority and be made part of white society much faster. Through this, sometimes purposeful and other times unintentional binary opposition, Italians were able to separate themselves from the title of "non-white" that other minority groups held and were instead able to quietly slip in to white culture without any rebellion or protest. The simple act of making themselves appear more white and act more white allowed them to obtain the status of white, something that would be impossible for African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Japanese Americans. They were able to use their "in-between" status to their advantage, attempting to physically look more white and behave in such a way that did not draw attention to themselves. This was in stark contrast to other minority groups during the 1950s-1970s, primarily African Americans. Following the end of the Second

World War, the Civil Rights movement in the United States began to grow exponentially.

The beginning of the Second World War would prove to be one of the most difficult times for Italian immigrants living in the United States. By 1940, Italians were the largest immigrant group living in the country. After the Japanese attack on Pearl

Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States prepared to officially involve itself in

World War II, and arrest warrants were immediately issued for suspected "enemy aliens," including Italian-Americans as well as Japanese and Germans. Much like the Japanese,

8 the Italians that were arrested had been living in the United States most, if not all, of their lives and had family and children that were natural born US citizens. 15 Many of these

Italians that were not arrested were forced to carry photo identification with them at all times, and they faced travel restrictions. 16

Some scholars have come to the conclusion that the Second World War began the rapid assimilation and acceptance of Italian immigrants in American society. During the war, Italians living in America would have to make a decision to either side with their home country or the nation they made their new home. Historians Stefano Luconi, John

P. Diggins, and Jerre Mangione agree that this was the turning point in that the war led to the extremely rapid assimilation of the Italian-Americans due to their desire to remain

15 Italian-Americans became seen as “enemy aliens” in the eyes of the American government due to Italy’s alliance with Germany at the time. Almost all of the Italian Americans arrested were either members of the Federation of Italian War Veterans, veterans of the First World War in Italy (IWV), editors/writers of Italian newspapers, Italian radio announcers, or Italian language school teachers. These organizations were deemed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as being "pro-fascist.”

One of the most extreme examples of Italian discrimination during World War II was the little spoken about fact that hundreds of Italian Americans were either relocated from their homes or sent to internment camps during the war. The number of Italian Americans that were interned however was significantly less than that of Japanese Americans, which was likely a result of their “in-between” racial state. These internments were not highly publicized and the government made an effort to keep information on the internment hushed. Those who were interned were taken from their homes, detained at an Immigration and Naturalization Service facility, and then taken to a camp. They were not told why they were being arrested and once at the camps, internees were forced to be present at a hearing board where there were still not told the charges against them or allowed to have legal representation of any kind.

16 Rose D. Scherini, "When Italian Americans Were "Enemy Aliens"" in Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment during World War II (Berkeley: Heyday Books, 2001), 10-11. Rose D. Scherini was a scholar and active researcher of Italian-American history, writing several publications on the subject and contributing to museum exhibits, radio, and television programs throughout her life. Examples of these travel restrictions include homes being be seized and searched at random, and personal possessions being taken. After war was declared, 1.1 million Italian, German, and Japanese noncitizen residents of the US were required to go to their local post office and register themselves. They then received an "alien registration certificate" that they had to keep on them at all times. They were restricted to a curfew between 8 am and 6 pm, and could not at any point go further than five miles from their homes. This curfew made work extremely difficult for these immigrants, as many of them worked jobs that went past the curfew hours or were further than five miles from where they lived. They were no longer allowed to own weapons or surveillance equipment of any kind. They were also mandated to report to the local government if they moved or changed jobs.

9 loyal to their new country and for fighting on the American side. They agree that the conflict "caused Italian-Americans to show their unqualified loyalty to the United States and to stifle their attachment to Italy." 17 John P. Diggins suggests that the Second World

War "fueled the melting pot" for Italian-Americans. Jerre Mangione, along with historian

Ben Morreale both saw the war as way to rapidly "Americanize" the second generation of immigrants.18 Luconi himself argues that Italian-Americans distanced themselves from their homeland, but felt a constant struggle between sympathizing with the Italian people and staying loyal to their new home country, giving them a prolonged state of “in- betweenness”.

The current discourse on how the "whitening" of Italian-Americans occurred is varied. Some believe they had to "earn" their whiteness through assimilation, and some believe that becoming white was a conscious choice that Italian-Americans made in order to have the best life possible in America. Stefano Luconi for example, believes that

Italians were considered “nonwhite” or “less than white”19 for several decades, but that they did eventually attain a white self-image. Historian David Roediger seems to agree with Luconi, suggesting that Italian-Americans experienced a long period of "in between" racial state, and that this eventually led these immigrants to desire being considered white

17 Stefano Luconi, "Contested Loyalties: World War II and Italian-Americans' Ethnic Identity," Italian Americana 30, no. 2 (2012): 153, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41495581. Stefano Luconi is a professor of history at the University of Florence and specializes in Italian immigration to the United States. Jerre Mangione is a scholar of Sicilian-American history and John. P Diggins is an Italian-American historian.

18 Scholar Marie-Christine Michaud's argument is also brought up in this article, stating that she believed that the war "accelerated the political assimilation of Italians."18 Authors Frank Salamone and Francesca De Lucia both agree that the war was able to allow second generation Italian immigrants to become more American than Italian and become more of a part of mainstream America.

19 Stefano Luconi, "Frank L. Rizzo and the Whitening of Italian American in Philadelphia," in Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America, ed. Jennifer Guglielmo and Salvatore Salerno (New York: Routledge, 2003), 179.

10 and to accept a white identity once it was made available for them. He states that

“assimilation,” “whitening,” and “Americanizing” are interchangeable terms, and also agrees with Luconi and the scholars mentioned in his book that the second generation

Italian immigrant children were the ones who watched the racial landscape change dramatically for them in the United States.20 Matthew Frye Jacobson’s' book Whiteness of a Different Color addresses the political history of whiteness, and his take on the whitening of Italian-Americans is less concrete than other scholars. 21 He argues that politically, Italians were considered white quickly and without issue. However, agrees with Roediger that Italians were not considered white right away in any sense. His closest agreement with other scholars is that he believes that Italians were in an "in-between" status of race for decades.

Historian Jennifer Guglielmo maintains that Italians saw the many benefits that being white had in the United States, but that they were often placed into this “white” category outside of their own choice. This was often because of the very strict skin color line in the United States separating “whites” from African-Americans. 22 She argues that some Italians adopted this identity of whiteness, while some rejected it. She explains that since many Italian-Americans came from Italy’s impoverished south, they chose to adopt

20 David R. Roediger, Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White (New York: Basic Books, 2005), 9-10. David Roediger is the Foundation Professor of American Studies at University of Kansas, he specializes in race, class, and immigration in the United States.

21 Matthew Frye Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color (London: Harvard University Press, 1998). Matthew Frye Jacobson is a professor of history, American Studies, and African American history at Yale University and specializes in US political culture.

22 Jennifer Guglielmo and Salvatore Salerno, Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America (New York: Routledge, 2003) Jennifer Guglielmo has written extensively on the history of Italian American women and collaborated with other scholars on Italian American history and culture Some of these benefits that she mentions include avoiding forms of violence and humiliation, preferential treatment as it relates to citizenship, employment, property, wages, housing, politics, social statuses, and education.

11 a white identity and mimic white culture to prevent further discrimination and economic hardship in their new home country. Louise DeSalvo's personal experiences coming from an Italian family lead her to a different opinion: that there are several shades of whiteness and that Italians will forever be considered what she refers to as "Dark White"23 citizens of the United States. This status, in her eyes, means that the Italian-Americans never truly achieved whiteness in America.

Thomas Guglielmo, author of White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color, and Power in Chicago, 1890-1945, disagrees with DeSalvo entirely, arguing that "from the moment they arrived in the United States-and forever after-" Italians were considered to be on the white part of the color line in America.24 He believes that "if Italians were racially undesirable in the eyes of many Americans, they were white just the same."25 He argues in his book that Italians were absolutely white on arrival "not so much because of the way they viewed themselves, but because of the way others viewed and treated them."26 He believes that the Italians benefitted from their white status regardless of whether they chose to openly embrace it or not.

23 Louise DeSalvo, " Color: White/Complexion: Dark," in Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America, ed. Jennifer Guglielmo and Salvatore Salerno (New York: Routledge, 2003), 28. Louise DeSalvo is the Jenny Hunter Professor of Literature and Creative writing at Hunter College. She has written memoirs on her experiences as an Italian-America and has collaborated with other Italian-American scholars on writings about Italian culture.

24 Thomas A. Guglielmo, "No Color Barrier: Italians, Race, and Power in the United States," in Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America, ed. Jennifer Guglielmo and Salvatore Salerno (New York: Routledge, 2003), 30. Thomas Guglielmo is an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame and is the brother of fellow Italian-American scholar Jennifer Guglielmo.

25 Ibid.

26 Jennifer Guglielmo, "Introduction: White Lies, Dark Truths," in Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America, ed. Jennifer Guglielmo and Salvatore Salerno (New York: Routledge, 2003), 6.

12

CHAPTER 2

CELEBRITY AND WHITENESS

The whitening of Italian-Americans accelerated due in large part to the extraordinary popularity of Italian-American performers after the end of the Second

World War. Musicians such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin became icons of their time, their legacies still holding strong today. After the war ended, the city of Las Vegas began a period of immense growth and there was a significant number of Italian-

Americans working and performing in the growing city after the war. Alan Balboni’s book Beyond the Mafia: Italian-Americans and the Development of Las Vegas goes into extensive detail on how Italian-Americans helped shape the now famous city. His book states that "among the Italian-American performers who were drawn to Las Vegas, Frank

Sinatra and Dean Martin were only the most prominent," and that Italian-Americans not only were constantly on the marquees of Las Vegas venues, but worked various off stage jobs such as entertainment directors as well. 27

Author Thomas J. Ferraro called the 1950s and 1960s a "quintessentially Italian-

American moment."28 Italian-Americans were no longer considered suspicious to the

27 Alan Balboni, Beyond the Mafia: Italian Americans and the Development of Las Vegas (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2006), 34. Alan Balboni is a Professor of Political Science at the College of Southern Nevada.

28 Thomas J. Ferraro, “Urbane Villager” in Frank Sinatra: History, Identity, and Italian American Culture, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2004), 135. Thomas J. Ferraro is a Frances Hill Fox Professor of English at Duke University. In addition to writing his own book on Italian Ethnicity in America, he has written several journal articles on Italian American history and culture.

13 government and the prospering American economy led to improved job security. Ferraro uses Sinatra as a representation of what the entirety of the Italian people were going through, as someone they admired and aspired to be. Sinatra even referred to himself as a play on a racial slur used towards Italian immigrants, calling himself the "top wop."29

Sinatra identified with the enormous number of Southern Italian immigrants living in

America but was also able to appeal to Anglo-American culture through his music, looks, and attitude. Sinatra in particular was able to represent the Italian people without being threatening to the American way of life. Italians were starting to be seen in a new light through popular entertainers like Sinatra. These celebrities were second-generation immigrants that spoke English and were extremely appealing to Americans due to their talent, strong personalities, and good looks. Sinatra was both northern and southern

Italian and so was able to blend in seamlessly with both the most traditional of immigrant groups and the Anglo-American groups. He was so malleable with his ethnic identity and so talented at appealing to white culture that he used the nickname “Ol’ Blue Eyes” throughout his entire career. Despite his southern Italian roots, Sinatra looked nothing like the “dark white” Italian that Louise DeSalvo mentions but instead had light features, such as pale skin and light blue eyes. He even named one of his albums “Ol’ Blue Eyes is

Back,” using this white title to advance his career.

What made Sinatra so unique was his ability to not only influence, inspire, and attract white Americans, but his ability to simultaneously maintain his ethnic identity within minority groups in America. According to author Leonard Mustazza, "Italian

Americans, American Jews, Irish Americans, Polish Americans, and other clearly

29 Ibid, 136.

14 identifiable ethnic groups have regarded him as their star," and "because he was the son of immigrants, his success thrilled millions who were products of the same rough history."30 Sinatra took a very liberal stance on race in America and won over minorities as a result, and despite this, he was also able to completely win over the hearts of white

America. He was a truly unique and never-before-seen type of cultural icon in the nation at a time when its social system was shakier than ever. To Italians, he was a true success story and a representation of the American dream fulfilled. He had found everything immigrant families wanted in America: wealth, success, and stability. He was a symbol of hope for the Italian people and to white Americans, and this proved to them that

Italian-Americans could be considered "good" immigrants and could adapt to white culture. The ability that Sinatra had to effortlessly represent both sides of this "in- between" state and embrace it was something that the country had never seen before and was instrumental in giving Italian-Americans the acceptance in white culture that they have today.

Sinatra's mastery of the English language would be proven through his choices on which songs to perform. He became the musician that defined the "standards" genre, music that white Americans loved for generations. These English standards proved that

Sinatra truly was in touch with what type of music Americans enjoyed listening to, primarily the middle and upper classes. American standards were a far cry from the traditional Italian songs of Sinatra's childhood, and were a choice that would carry him far in both the music industry and white culture. Italian Americans were often thought of by Americans as those who "break" English and have a difficult time speaking it as a

30 Leonard Mustazza, “Frank Sinatra and Civil Rights” in Frank Sinatra: History, Identity, and Italian American Culture, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2004), 34.

15 second language.31 However, Sinatra's mastery of the English language and ability to speak and sing it fluently and without any trace of an Italian accent pleased American audiences because it made him sound more like them. Mastering the language was just another way that Sinatra was able to prove to white America that despite his Italian heritage, he could speak and act just like they did.

A close analysis of the carefully crafted white image Frank Sinatra portrayed throughout his career perfectly explains America's easy acceptance of him into their pop culture. Throughout his lengthy and wildly successful career, Frank Sinatra recorded numerous albums and starred in major motion pictures. The covers of his albums provide valuable insight into just how Sinatra created a white image of himself that gained him acceptance in America. Sinatra himself had a slightly darker complexion, with tanned olive skin and dark hair. Pictures of young Sinatra show him with thick dark hair and no emphasis put on his blue eyes. At first glance of a young Sinatra, his Italian heritage could clearly be seen through his features. However, as his career grew he began to be photographed and displayed artistically in a very different way. Very rarely as an adult was Sinatra shown without a hat or with hair that wasn't cut very short. While this partially reflected the fashion of the time, removing his dark hair removed a crucial feature that represented his ethnic heritage. One of Sinatra's albums, Nothing but the Best, shows a heavily edited photograph of him. His skin has been lightened, his blue eyes have been brightened and emphasized, and his teeth have been whitened. His dark hair is invisible beneath his hat and he now looks the way many believed an "All-American"

31 Pellegrino A. D’Acierno, “Sinatra, the Name Ending in a Vowel” in Frank Sinatra: History, Identity, and Italian American Culture, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2004), 161.

16 man should look. Simply put, those in charge of doctoring the photograph have

"whitened" him.

Sinatra's blue eyes, a feature that was not common in many southern Italians, were a focal point of his entire career. Americans became fixated on the one feature of the singer that was distinctly non-Italian, a more commonly Caucasian feature that made him more attractive to the American eye. Dean Martin also was able to successfully whiten his identity while maintaining his Italian heritage, renaming himself from the very ethnic Dino Crocetti, to the whiter and more American sounding Dean Martin. Martin even went so far as to make his appearance less ethnic looking by getting plastic surgery to reduce the size of his nose.32 Examining visual sources like album and film covers are excellent examples of the whitening of these celebrities, but also their ability to make

Italian culture appealing to white audiences. Many of Sinatra's album and film covers were edited in such a way to where his blue eyes are made brighter and more vibrant, any other people on the covers are white, and he is always extremely well dressed. None of these images are representative of his Italian roots, and they show a glamorous lifestyle that is in no way indicative of the life of an immigrant. Dean Martin's album and film covers are very similar, showing him as wealthy, successful, and surrounded only by whites. However, later in Dean Martin's career he released albums using his real name,

Dino. His album Dino: Italian Love Songs, showed how he was able to blend in with white culture while also making Americans fall in love with Italian music. Music showed the romantic side of Italian culture that Americans eventually learned to embrace through celebrities like Martin.

32 James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts, Hollywood Songsters: Singers Who Act and Actors Who Sing: Volume 2, Garland to O'Connor (New York: Routledge, 2003), 534.

17

In addition to his popularity as a singer, Dean Martin was also a very popular television and film actor. He hosted a variety-comedy television series called The Dean

Martin Show. The show ran for nine years and aired two hundred and sixty-four episodes during its lifetime. The show was a mix of comedy, music, and guest appearances by celebrities. The show was wildly popular during its almost decade long run and was nominated for and won several awards. To be on The Dean Martin Show was something that celebrities and other important figures of the time aspired to do. The fact that famous celebrities and other important figures of the time had a desire to be on the show proved the impact and influence that Dean Martin had made on the entertainment business as a whole and his ability to captivate white audiences. Not only had an Italian-American made it in the music business, but Dean Martin had now cemented his image in the homes of thousands of Americans through their television screens. He was able to captivate and entertain audiences all over the country, and this was an extremely important shift in the visibility of Italian-Americans in white American culture. Not only were entertainers like Martin being heard in pop culture, they were being seen on a regular basis. One of the most highly rated episodes of The Dean Martin Show was a

Christmas episode featuring the families of Martin and Frank Sinatra. In essence, viewers were invited to celebrate the holidays with these two men and their families, bringing

Americans into their world. Quite literally, two entirely Italian-American families had made their way into white Americans homes and these Americans welcomed these families with open arms. The families appeared wealthy, happy, and successful and were representative of what every American wanted their lives to be. In addition to his variety show, Dean Martin also became famous for his celebrity "roasts," television programs

18 specifically designed to poke fun at other celebrities for entertainment purposes. His celebrity roast program ran for another ten years after his variety show ended and was massively popular, with variations of these roasts still being produced today. The fact that

Martin was able to and even encouraged to create such a program is representative of how far Italian-Americans had come by that time. It became an honor to be "roasted" by

Dean Martin. Going from a world where Italian-Americans were the ones being discriminated against and disliked by Americans overall, this shift to acceptance can clearly be seen in what Dean Martin was able to accomplish in his lifetime. He turned the tables on what was acceptable in American culture and essentially made Americans forget that the Italians were ever the subject of ridicule in the first place.

Dean Martin's on-screen performances were not just limited to television. He was a well-known film actor throughout his life. He performed in over sixty films and television shows throughout his life, and became well known for his roles in American

Westerns. The Western genre is a distinctly and uniquely American film genre that portrays the "wild-west" days of America's past. Westerns often portrayed a romanticized version of the American west, dominated by handsome cowboys, Native-American villains, and the most masculine men America had to offer. The appeal of Western films is the depictions of a hyper masculine, rugged, individualistic lifestyle. A cowboy was a distinctly white character and so for Dean Martin to be regularly cast as a leading man in

Western films proved just how integrated into white American pop culture he was.

Westerns portrayed the ideal American man: white, handsome, tough, and successful. Dean Martin was able to effortlessly switch images between the cool, calm, and collected crooner to the tough American cowboy, and both of these images were

19 wildly appealing to Americans at the time. Being cast in a Western essentially meant that

Martin had made it in white culture. The 1950-1970s were a golden age for Western films. Dean Martin acted alongside John Wayne in the 1959 film Rio Bravo and the 1965 film The Sons of Katie Elder, and also had Wayne as a guest of his variety show. John

Wayne was undoubtedly the most famous Western actor in American cinema and acting alongside him in a Western was an enormous honor. Martin's ability to so easily blend in to the Western genre and be admired for his work in those films truly proves just how integrated into white society he had become.

Sinatra's film career differed slightly from Martin's. Sinatra did act in a few

Westerns but his roles were typically in romances, comedies, and dramas rather than action films and Westerns. This is in line with the image Sinatra worked so hard to portray consistently, the wealthy and successful ladies’ man. While Martin was able to stray from that image more and take on a variety of images, Sinatra was extremely consistent in how he portrayed himself to the American public. He very rarely shifted from his glamorous, high society image because that was what he had become legendary for. Sinatra's film career was a successful one, and his roles rarely shifted from his wealthy, upper class image.

An important part of the film careers of both Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin that furthered their whitened image was their roles in World War II themed films. Their roles varied from a US army officer, a prisoner of war, a marine fighting in the Pacific theater, a sailor, and many more. Their characters were brave, heroic, extremely successful with women, and always hyper-masculine. Entertainers like Sinatra and Martin also found their way into acceptance by white culture by bringing back a sense of masculinity to an

20

American male population that was struggling to find it. After World War II ended, gender roles in America had shifted. While most of America's men were drafted or volunteered for military service, women were left behind to become the sole provider for their families. During the war, women were working and becoming self-sufficient in numbers never before seen in the nation. Women took over traditionally male roles out of necessity, and they were no longer only needed as wives and mothers. Hundreds of thousands of women served in the military during the war as well and took on jobs typically reserved for men. When the war was over and men began returning home, many women found themselves enjoying their jobs and didn't want to stop working once their husbands returned home. Despite their efforts both at home and abroad during the war, the nation was not ready for the changes in social equality that had occurred to become permanent. This shift in gender roles was extremely threatening for American men and led to a “crisis of masculinity.”33 Artists like Sinatra and Martin were instrumental in providing American men with a sense of masculinity in a time where it felt more threatened than ever, and this was a part of their incredible popularity during the post-war era.

Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were constantly presenting an image of ideal masculinity. Through their carefully crafted images, in the eyes of the American people, those men were everything that a man should aspire to be. They were wealthy, talented, handsome, well-dressed, and surrounded by beautiful women at all times. They drank, smoked, and partied seemingly endlessly in a lifestyle that most Americans could only dream about experiencing. Sinatra and Martin's womanizing was well-known by the

33 Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1988), 85.

21

American people, and rather than that becoming a negative mark on them, it was an extremely positive one. The rich, womanizing lifestyle that they lived was glamorous and exciting. Women loved them, and men wanted to be them. This was an image created entirely on purpose to gain a following and popularity. Martin even served briefly in the

American army during World War II, which only added to his already hyper-masculine image. Sinatra and Martin could be seen and heard in every type of entertainment medium available at the time: films, television, radio, and live stage performances. These men presented an image that appealed to post war-American men, a trip back in time where the gender roles had not yet shifted and men were still entirely dominant in the nation. Women were something these entertainers used for companionship and fun, but were often just a trophy on the men's arms. These women were constantly in Sinatra and

Martin's lives and critical to their image, but they often remained nameless and their identities were not important. The point was not who the women were, but the fact that these men had women surrounding them and adoring them at all times. For many of the confused soldiers returning home to an America where women had found some purpose beyond being wives and mothers, seeing the lifestyles these entertainers lived gave them a comfortable, nostalgic feeling of when women's gender roles were firmly cemented in the home and on the arm of a man.

Singer Lorraine Hunt (née Perri) “asserted that no ethnic group was better represented among the performers of the 1950s and 1960s than Italian-Americans."34

Celebrities like Sinatra and Dean Martin achieved an incredible level of fame that would help, as author Pellegrino A. D'Acierno puts it, "permanently shift the image of Italian-

34 Balboni, 34.

22

Americans" and normalize them in American culture. 35 The way that these celebrities were able to maintain their sense of ethnic self but also use tactics to blend in with white culture and captivate American audiences was a major catalyst for the normalization and whitening of Italian-Americans.

35 Pellegrino A. D’Acierno, “Sinatra, the Name Ending in a Vowel” in Frank Sinatra: History, Identity, and Italian American Culture, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 2004), 168. Pellegrino A. D'Acierno is a Professor of Comparative Literature and Languages at Hofstra University and serves as the Queensboro Unico Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American studies.

23

CHAPTER 3

THE GODFATHER IN THE AMERICAN MIND

The second critically important reason behind the shift in the treatment of Italian-

Americans is the popularity of Italian mafia movies in the 1970s, the most significant being The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. Through a close analysis of a collection of scenes from these two films, much can be revealed about why they impacted

Americans so much and how they changed the image Americans have of Italians in their minds. To understand the popularity of these films and the impact they had on American pop culture, it is important to first understand the history of the association with Italian-

Americans and the mafia. A major stereotype that consistently plagued southern Italian immigrants and that many Italians still face today is the assumed association of Italians with organized crime and the mafia. This originated with southern Italians in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century being seen as naturally inclined to be criminals.

An 1876 New York Times editorial on Italians titled "A Natural Inclination Toward

Criminality," argued that this inclination was because "the Italian is lazier, more gossiping and fitter for intrigue than the American."36 The Times continued with their criticism, stating, "They are miserably poor, and it is not strange that they resort to theft

36 George De Stefano, An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America (New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2006), 25. George De Stefano is an Italian-American author and journalist that focuses his writings on popular culture, ethnic identity, and social categorization in American society, focusing primarily on the experiences of Italian-Americans.

24 and robbery. It is, perhaps, hopeless to think of civilizing them or of keeping them in order, except by the arm of the law."37

It is also important to look at the origins of the word “mafia.” The word itself has confusing and contradictory origins. Sicilians used the word mafia as a way to describe

"an ideal of courage, strength, agility, quickness, endurance, and intelligence."38

However, the word would also be used by Sicilians in reference to crime organizations back in Italy, and through Italian news sources, Americans discovered this use of the word and latched on to it. The positive adjective "mafioso" used by southern Italians became confused with criminal activity and this furthered American suspicions. Before

1920, the word mafia was never used in reference to gangs by Italian-Americans. The gangs were known as "la Mano Nera," or the Black Hand.39 The structure of the crime organizations in Sicily were extremely similar to the typical Italian values of family, loyalty, and tradition, but with violence and revenge added to it. After Italy's unification in 1861, the Black Hand grew in power and influence due to the social and political turmoil that resulted from the new Italian government's takeover. However, this stereotype of all Italians having mafia ties still exists strongly in American culture today.

The mafia story is romanticized because of the way that those involved in the mafia bring the law into their own hands when the American justice system fails them, as exemplified by The Godfather. The history of the Sicilian people is one of discrimination,

37 Ibid, 25-26.

38 Richard Gambino, Blood of My Blood: The Dilemma of the Italian-Americans (Toronto: Guernica, 1974), 293. Richard Gambino is Professor Emeritus at Queens College of the City University of New York and has written multiple books on Italian-American history, another notable work of his being Vendetta: The True Story of the Largest Lynching in US History, which documents the lynching on eleven Italian Americans in New Orleans in 1891.

39 Ibid, 294.

25 struggle, self-preservation and deep loyalty to their families. To see the southern Italians gain strength through the criminal organizations that they created and operated can be seen as some kind of a rebellion. There is something appealing to Americans about rooting for the "wise guys." In these films and television shows, viewers are rarely rooting for the police or the American justice system. They find themselves rooting for the mafia and the criminals in the film because they have succeeded where the American government failed and made their own rules when the rules around them kept them permanently disempowered and impoverished.

When someone was officially allowed in as a member of the mafia, they were referred to as a "made man."40 Being made was an enormous honor because it brought a person into the protection of the mafia family. The members of the family they were made into were expected not to cause problems amongst themselves however, continuing the cultural themes of loyalty and familial respect. One of the strongest ideals Italians held on to was the concept of family. In Richard Gambino's work Blood of My Blood:

The Dilemma of the Italian-Americans, he explains this in detail:

The only system to which the "contadino" [peasant] paid attention was l'ordine della famiglia; the unwritten, but all demanding and complex system of rules governing one's relations within, and responsibilities to, his own family, and his posture toward those outside the family. All other social institutions were seen within a spectrum of attitudes ranging from indifference to scorn and contempt.41

40 In the 1999 mafia-themed television show The Sopranos, the concept of a "made man" is explained even further. During a ceremony where a mafia member is becoming made, the mafia boss tells the men that "Once you're into this family, there's no getting out." He further explains to the men that unless they have reservations otherwise that they want to say before the ceremony proceeds, once they are "made", absolutely nothing will come before their loyalty to the mafia family they are entering into, not even their biological families. If the men are in need of any assistant from that point on, they are told that their new entered family is the one who will assist them. The men are told to repeat the phrase, "May I burn in Hell if I betray my friends" and each of the men are pricked with a needle and their blood is drawn.

41 Gambino, 3-4.

26

The structure of the Italian crime organizations were extremely similar to the l'ordine della famiglia. The whitening of Italian immigrants living in America over time mirrors this sentiment, with the immigrants eventually being made and accepted into the Anglo-

American/white "family" in the United States.

Another reason behind the romanticization of the mafia is due to a growing sense of nostalgia that emerged over the years in the United States. Films like The Godfather create a sense of nostalgia, a desire for things to be the way they once were. Nostalgia creates a, sometimes false, idea that life was better in the past. Over time, the memories of the mafia were shifted and twisted in the American mind, with people now believing the mafia was a glamorous, rebellious, and romantic group. The Godfather film helped add to this nostalgic attitude, because even though the Corleone family experiences death, heartbreak, and betrayal, the film as a whole portrays the mafia as an exciting and powerful organization that existed during a time when America was a better place. What had been a tremendously negative stereotype for Italian-Americans evolved into a romanticized world of honor, respect, and “wise-guys.”

The Godfather novel was published in 1969, an uncertain and stressful time in

American history due in large part to the Vietnam War and growing tensions between

Cold War superpowers. In Chris Messenger's book The Godfather and American Culture, he argues that part of the reason for the adoration of the Corleone family by the American people is the emotional and mental state of the American people during the time of the book’s release. The Corleone family presents, as Messenger describes it, "the fantasy of a

27 self-reliant, upward mobility within a total identity in a family."42 Southern Italians countered oppression they received in America by going outside of societal rules entirely, which seemed justified to many Americans at the time. They are in some ways representative of the pursuit of freedom, an American ideal. This relates back to the concept of Italians simultaneously maintaining their own culture while attempting to embrace traditionally American cultural ideals. This is another example of Americans turning to nostalgia as a comfort when times are frightening and uncertain. They turned to the world of The Godfather as a way to escape and to immerse themselves in a world where they could take their uncertain fate into their own hands. Messenger goes on to argue that

The Godfather decrees that, in America, one can achieve anything through force without denying origins or becoming legally or morally culpable. An immigrant can retain ethnic identity and yet succeed in America beyond belief in any open society without becoming "open" him or herself.43

The Godfather is also designed to connect to viewers on a personal and emotional level. Business, violence, sexuality, and politics are all addressed using this family that runs itself like a business as an example. Looking at The Godfather through a political lens, you can see Don Corleone as a "political figure who rises in time of crisis to manage affairs in the interests of all the people"44 and the mafia itself as a state with "its own rights, treaties, and problems."45 Another allure of the Corleone family is the fact that the

42 Chris Messenger, The Godfather and American Culture: How the Corleones Became "Our Gang" (New York: State University of New York Press, 2002), 174. Chris Messenger is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago and focuses his studies on popular fiction in American culture.

43 Messenger, 174.

44 Ibid, 189.

45 Ibid.

28 things that they work, fight, and kill for are all things that Americans frequently do the same thing over: "money, power, control, lust, and social status."46 The life the Corleones live is an exciting one, a lawless fantasy where they are able to create their own sense of right and wrong. They are able to have strong friendships and strong family bonds while also maintaining political and economic strength and power. The second Godfather film heavily focuses on showing the viewer how Vito Corleone rose to power, his escape from mafia persecution in his native Sicily, coming to America as a young child, and creating a life and a family for himself during his time in America, eventually growing into the powerful and feared Don that the first film shows him to be. Vito comes into the country young and alone, speaking no English, and through hard work and perseverance, grows and gains power.

Analyzing the story of Vito Corleone’s rise to power is key to understanding the way that The Godfather films use their characters to gain sympathy towards the Italian people. The opening scene of The Godfather Part II is the funeral of Vito Corleone's father who has been murdered over a dispute with the head of the local mafia, and his own brother is also murdered that same day for stating that he will seek revenge for his father's death. Shortly after, audiences see an unsuccessful attempt by Vito's mother to beg the Mafioso to spare her youngest son. To save her child, Vito's mother is killed and

Vito is able to escape. Within the first few minutes of the film, audiences are given a dark, frightening, and violent view of Sicily. Vito's escape to New York City immediately gives viewers a sense of relief, as they have seen the horrors that he has

46 Tom Santopietro, The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America, and Me (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2012), 84. Tom Santopietro is an author and theater manager, having written several books on cultural history in America. His research focuses primarily on the entertainment world; music, film and theatre specifically.

29 escaped from. Sympathy for the young Italian boy is already there, and sympathy is what gives the Corleone family their appeal despite their behavior later in the film's timeline.

Vito coming to America is clearly a positive experience for him, as he no longer needs to live in fear of the mafia back home in Sicily. However, he is extremely young when he travels alone to New York City and audiences are already rooting for him to be successful and happy in his new home. Nothing about the beginning of The Godfather II paints Vito in a negative light and he is already given an underdog story that is portrayed in such a way that audiences are supposed to root for him. When Vito is shown next in the film, he is a grown adult who has made a life in New York City's lower east side. He found steady work, has a wife and children, and is doing the best he can making a life in

America. This gives the audience a sense of relief that Vito has survived coming here so young. However, this relief is short lived as it is explained quickly that the neighborhood

Vito lives in is also controlled by the local mafia, known as "The Black Hand." Sympathy is garnered yet again because it seems Vito's connection to the mafia is inescapable despite his best efforts to make it in America the legal and "correct" way. In order to survive where he lives now and with nowhere else to go, he has no choice but to give money to the local mafia and gets so roped into his dispute with them that he ends up killing their Don, and eventually becomes the head of the now leaderless organization.

This is the point in the story where viewers shift from being sympathetic towards Vito and wanting him to find a better life in America to being so frustrated with Vito being hounded by the mafia that they actually celebrate his murder of the Don and are excited when he becomes the Don himself. His rise to power puts him in the exact same place he

30 avoided as a child, but now audiences praise him for it because they've seen what he had to go through to get there.

It is also important to note the way that Sicily is represented throughout The

Godfather and The Godfather Part II. Any time any of the main cast is in Sicily, a tragedy or violent act of some kind occurs. In the first film, Michael runs to Sicily to escape persecution in America only to have his wife murdered by a car bomb meant for him. In the second film, Vito witnesses the murders of his siblings and mother in Sicily and when he returns as a young man, he murders the man responsible for their death. At no point is Sicily ever represented in a positive light. Visually, Sicily is always shown as being rural and desolate, with only small villages being shown. Sicily is shown to be a terrifying, lawless place where the threat of murder by the local mafia is constantly looming over the heads of the residents. The Corleones experience only tragedy and pain when they are in Italy, and this represents the way that audiences are meant to feel about the Italian homeland. The home of the Sicilians is a place that is dangerous and unlivable, so it both creates sympathy for the Corleones for coming to America in the first place, and places a negative light on Sicily to make America look far more appealing. This shows a rare representation of Italy that is not romanticized in any way, but rather the opposite. This gives viewers an entirely unpleasant view of where the Corleones came from, making it even easier to be compassionate about them trying to make a living in whatever way necessary in the United States.

If the story of Vito Corleone feels familiar to viewers by the time they see the second Godfather film, it is because Vito and Michael Corleone’s stories mirror one another. The failures of the American system are seen clearly in the transition from the

31 first to second Godfather film through the story of Vito Corleone’s son, Michael. Michael is introduced to viewers in the first film as a college educated war hero, holder of the

Navy Cross, who bravely served the American Marine Corps in the Second World War.

His father makes it clear that he does not want Michael involved in the mafia, but instead wants him to have a more Americanized life. Both men seek out a successful life in

America, but are eventually forced into a life of crime, the type of life that their parents did not want for them. America, the land of opportunity where Vito escaped to, eventually operated against him and Michael just like his homeland of Sicily did. They escaped the mafia in Sicily only to find it again in New York, making it a seemingly inescapable fate for the two of them.

Michael was raised by Vito in a way specifically designed to prevent him from entering the family business. Their relationship is emphasized heavily throughout the film and it is clear to audiences that Michael and Vito have a special bond. This is especially poignant considering how similarly their life stories unfolded. Michael is introduced in the first Godfather film as the picture of an assimilated immigrant. He is shown wearing his American military uniform to his sister’s wedding, as he has returned from World

War II a hero and is admired and congratulated by others at the wedding for his service to the United States. Michael is dating an American woman, Kate, who is entirely unfamiliar with any Sicilian customs or traditions, and Michael does his best to prevent her from knowing about his family’s true dealings. Immediately it is made very clear that

Michael is not like the rest of his family, and audiences are made to relate more to

Michael than the rest of the Corleone family.

32

Michael has been groomed to become a “good” American, and this sentiment is confirmed later in the film. In one scene of the film, Michael and Vito have a private conversation and Vito tells Michael, “I never wanted to this for you.”47 He tells Michael he wanted him to have a life where he “pulled the strings”, implying that he wanted him to have complete autonomy over his life and not be pulled any certain direction due to his family’s mafia involvement. Vito expresses his wish for Michael to enter into a respectable profession in politics and to possibly become a senator or governor.

Unfortunately for Vito, Michael is forced to take control as the head of the Corleone family after his oldest son Sonny is murdered by a rival family. Sonny was being groomed to take over the family after Vito, but after his death Michael became the only choice to take power. The loss of Sonny and Michael’s rise to power deeply pained Vito;

Michael’s chance at a normal civilian life faded away. By the second Godfather film,

Michael abandons all of his loyalty to America’s system of government and the

American dream his father wanted for him, instead taking his father’s place as the head of the family.

An important scene to examine is the opening scene of The Godfather. In this now extraordinarily famous scene, a man named Bonasera asks Vito for help getting justice for his daughter who was assaulted by two young men. He explains that like a

"good American"48, he went to the police but the men were only sentenced to three years in jail and received a suspended sentence. He now seeks the help of the mafia to get justice for the crimes committed against his daughter. Bonasera is conflicted between his

47 The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola (1972: Paramount Pictures)

48 Ibid.

33 anger over the situation and his desire to go about the situation in a lawful and honorable way. He visits Don Corleone out of desperation, not as a first choice. This is made clear by Vito's displeasure with the way he is approached. Bonasera does not want to have to be associated with the mafia or be indebted to them, but for him, the situation appears unavoidable because he is deeply unsatisfied with the way the American justice system handled his problem. Vito explains that he feels that Bonasera is disrespecting him by only coming to him when he needs something and not being friendly to the Corleone family the rest of the time. Vito approaches Bonasera’s situation entirely differently, questioning him on why he did not come to him in the first place before going to the police, but in the same breath explaining that he understands that Bonasera "found paradise in America, had a good trade, made a good living,"49 and that "the police protected you; and there were courts of law."50 He even goes so far as to call Bonasera an

"honest man."51 Vito eventually agrees to seek justice for Bonasera's daughter, leaving

Bonasera in the debt of the mafia, set to be repaid whenever the Don decides to ask.

This scene addresses so many of the conflicts of Italian versus American culture and the desire of Italian immigrants to assimilate in America while simultaneously maintaining their own culture. The Sicilian culture is one of family, respect, dedication, and above all, loyalty. Since southern Italians had almost no choice but to take the law into their own hands due to the oppression of their government in Italy, this idea of going

49 The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola (1972: Paramount Pictures)

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

34 around the law or making their own laws came into existence long before they arrived in

America to begin with.

The Godfather films also do an excellent job of representing the struggle for masculinity being experienced by American men. All of the men in The Godfather are hyper-masculine in every sense. They're dominant, powerful, violent, and successful.

Michael began as a masculine figure by his time in the Marines and transitioned into a different kind of masculine figure during his time as the head of the Corleone family.

Sonny Corleone is an aggressive, domineering, extremely masculine character who is someone men of the time could look up to. Vito sticks to old-world views on how men should behave and how women should be treated, with men always in the dominant role.

All of the men in these films are examples of masculinity at its most extreme state, and were a comforting and encouraging presence for men struggling with their masculinity at the time.

There is something about these films that, in a way that only Hollywood can manage, teaches the American people values of family, loyalty, and freedom while simultaneously showing them images of individuals committing horrific crimes. Through the lens of murder, theft and corruption there lies a romantic view of loyalty that only these types of films and shows are able to pull off so successfully. Americans began with a romanticized view of Italy which shifted to a much darker, more violent view of its native population, the southerners being the prime targets. The Corleones become a kind of "anti-hero," the rebels against authority. Rebellion is a distinct feature of American culture, beginning with the Revolutionary War. The Corleones operating the way they do and taking what they want in order to keep their family successful and thriving is

35 representative of what is considered "American" in values. Rebellion and going against who would hold power over a group is something that is so distinctly American that white culture couldn't help but admire and accept it.

Both of these films were wildly successful and highly acclaimed by American audiences. Critical acclaim of The Godfather is almost unparalleled and the film is widely considered to be one of the greatest American films of all time. The film is currently ranked second in the International Movie Database’s user voted Top Rated Movies list, receiving over a million user ratings. The Godfather Part II comes in third on that list. All critical reviews of The Godfather are in the top percentile, frequently receiving 4/4 star ratings by critics such as the famed Roger Ebert, and 90-100/100 point ratings on movie review organizations such as Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, depending on the scale.

The film received eight Academy Award nominations, winning two. Marlon Brando received the Best Actor award and the film won the Best Picture award for that year.52

The popularity of these films has in no small part led to the change in the reception of Italians in the American mind. Whether entirely factual or not, these films played on the fantasies that Americans had about Italian culture, but now with a more violent and exciting edge. Instead of viewing Italians as people from a culture of beauty

52 Other films and television shows within the same genre have received exceptional reviews by critics in the decades following The Godfather films release, further proving how impactful mafia films and televisions shows have been in American society. The 1990 film Goodfellas was also met with overwhelming critical acclaim, receiving only slightly lower reviews than the Godfather, but only by a few points. Goodfellas received six Academy Award nominations and won one, the Best Supporting Actor award for Joe Pesci. The film received over forty award nominations and is widely considered a classic film. The Sopranos, arguably the most famous mafia-themed television show to date which began airing in 1999, received exceptional critical review and ran for six seasons on HBO. The show is rated number ten on IMDB's user rated Top Rated TV shows list and received scores almost identical to Goodfellas on Metacritic. During its eight year long run, The Sopranos won twenty one Primetime Emmy Awards out of one hundred and eleven total nominations. The show was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series seven times, in every year it was eligible, winning in 2004 and 2007, and it was the first series on a cable network to do so. It won five Golden Globe Awards out of twenty three nominations, including a win for Best Drama Series for its first season in 2000.

36 and elegance, they have come to view the formerly detested southern Italians as part of an exciting, dangerous, and self-sufficient organization that does not seek acceptance or permission from any organizations outside of themselves. The incredible impact of the

Godfather films on the perception of Italians in America is exemplified by the current stereotype that all Italians have mafia ties in some way. This stereotype still exists strongly in American culture today and proves just how impactful films can be on the

American psyche. One interview with Nick Meraviglia, an Italian whose family immigrated to California, described just such an experience of this stereotype of Italian involvement in organized crime affecting his life:

When I joined the office in the new location I became a member of the Rotary Club, and of course there were very few Italian members. So the minute I came on board, they started referring to me as the Godfather of the county. I didn't take it seriously-I laughed at it. OK? You want to call me the Godfather, self- proclaimed, fine. That would go on every week-"Here's the Godfather, here's the Godfather." Until finally the newspaper over there made reference to the fact that there's a strong Mafia foothold in that county. So I said, "Hey! Humor will go up to a certain point. Let's cut this sort of thing out.53

For actual Italians living in America, these films could have led to further stereotyping, but could also be positive in the fact that at least their perceptions have become more positive and are no longer going to lead to persecution.

The impact that mafia television shows and films have had on the American mind is undeniable, and it is clear through the reviews of these programs and the amount of interest in them that Americans are infatuated with this aspect of Italian culture, one that in many ways, is actually quite American. The mafia concept in television and film is something that is uniquely American, with most if not all media on the subject being

53 Micaela Di Leonardo, The Varieties of Ethnic Experience: Kinship, Class, and Gender Among California Italian-Americans (Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1984), 160.

37 produced for American viewers by American companies. The mafia idea is based on truth but presented in fantasy, in a way that is compelling and intriguing to keep viewers coming back again and again to watch these mafia families conduct their sordid affairs.

Through watching these programs, Americans are able to pretend, at least for a short while, that they have the same freedom to misbehave as the mafia characters do and that it is socially acceptable to take the law into their own hands. American ideals of freedom, self-sufficiency, rising up from negative circumstances, and above all, perseverance, are what viewers are designed to see in these characters that they love, even though the acts they commit are often abhorrent. The story of the Sicilian people is one of endless perseverance and trying to make their lives better when nobody else would help them.

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CHAPTER 4

CONCLUSION

The Italian people came to America in previously never before seen numbers when their homeland failed to provide for them. Americans began with a romanticized view of Italy which would shift into a discriminatory view, and finally, acceptance of

Italians as a part of the white race. Italian Americans endured a seemingly endless “in- between” racial state until finally achieving acceptance in the American mind that grew dramatically between 1950 and 1975. With the enormous popularity and influence of

Italian celebrities of the 1950s and 1960s and the popularity and influence of The

Godfather films in the 1970s, the image of Italians in the eyes of Americans shifted dramatically over the last century. Italians were able to become accepted as a part of the white race. These entertainers and films touched on every aspect of American culture, from race, gender, masculinity, sexuality, and everything in between.

By all accounts, the Italians living in the United States became a sort of "made men"; a group that had to work to become part of a powerful and protective organization.

However, once they joined that group through work, patience, and perseverance, they were permanently cemented as part of that group's "family." Italian-Americans became a part of the white "family" as a direct result of the impact these celebrities and films had on American pop culture, and that is something that cannot be taken away from them now that it has been achieved. The story of the Italian-Americans is filled with every type of twist imaginable, but despite every obstacle, they rapidly became accepted as a part of

39 the white race within a century of entering the country for the first time, something that seemed impossible for any minority group to accomplish in such a short amount of time, if they ever accomplished it at all. Pop culture became the main factor in winning over the hearts and minds of white America, and is to this day the most critical factor in the

American perception of Italian culture. Italian-Americans over only two decades were able to go from being a discriminated minority group to “made men” in the eyes of white

Americans, and their story is truly a unique and fascinating one.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books:

Balboni, Alan. Beyond the Mafia: Italian-Americans and the Development of Las Vegas. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2006.

Carnevale, Nancy C. A New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the US 1890-1945. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009.

Ciongoli, Kenneth A. and Jay Parini. Beyond the Godfather: Italian-American Writers on the Real Italian-American Experience. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997.

Cosco, Joseph P. Imagining Italians: The Clash of Romance & Race in American Perceptions, 1880-1910. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003.

De Stefano, George. An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2006.

Gambino, Richard. Blood of My Blood: The Dilemma of the Italian-Americans. Chicago: Guernica, 2003.

Guglielmo, Jennifer and Salvatore Salerno. Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Guglielmo, Thomas. White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color and Power in Chicago 1890-1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Jacobson, Matthew Frye. Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Lord, Elliot, Trenor, John J.D., and Samuel J. Barrows. The Italian in America. New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1905.

May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. New York: Basic Books, 1988.

Messenger, Chris. The Godfather and American Culture: How the Corleones Became "Our Gang." New York: State University of New York Press, 2002.

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Nelli, Humbert S. From Immigrants to Ethnics: The Italian-Americans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.

Parish, James Robert and Michael R. Pitts. Hollywood Songsters: Singers Who Act and Actors Who Sing: Volume 2, Garland to O'Connor. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Pugliese, Stanislao G. Frank Sinatra: History, Identity, and Italian-American Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Pulera, Dominic. Green, White, and Red: The Italian-American Success Story. San Marino: L'Italo-Americano, 2009.

Roediger, David R. Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White. New York: Basic Books, 2005.

Rotella, Mark. Amore: The Story of Italian-American Song. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux: 2010.

Santopietro, Tom. The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America, and Me. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2012.

Films/Television:

The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. 1972: Paramount Pictures.

The Godfather Part II, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. 1974: Paramount Pictures

Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese. 1990: Warner Bros.

The Sopranos, created by David Chase. 1999-2007: HBO.

Journal Articles:

Luconi, Stefano. "Contested Loyalties: World War II and Italian-Americans' Ethnic Identity." Italian-Americana 30, no. 2 (2012): 151-67. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41495581.