[SPEAKER_02]: Jiam is got the stories from the coast to countryside.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jeannie's got the questions sharp as the nitrous sway.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone's day and night we take you all the way.
[SPEAKER_02]: From the back streets to tin so town to the notorious globe.
[SPEAKER_02]: Old Hollywood meets my futile And you're about to know It's the Hollywood Godfather Where the big band plays and the stories don't stop With Gianni and Gini everywhere They're taking you to the top Keep it smooth and keep it classy Feel that sound
[SPEAKER_02]: On the Hollywood Godfather, the Beast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's time for another Hollywood Godfather podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: And tonight I'm really excited because I met this gentleman a while ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: I indirectly got involved in some of the conversations of his previous projects, which we're going to talk about.
[SPEAKER_00]: But before we introduce him, what I'd like to do is bring my co-host, G.D. Raymond, my
[SPEAKER_05]: No, I'm great.
[SPEAKER_05]: How are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm excited for us to introduce Miles if you will.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for having me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the show, please.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we talked briefly a few minutes ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really liked you because you're such a newcomer and so aggressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hate to say this, but you remind me of me when I was your age.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was all over the place.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's what you have to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not out there selling yourself and promoting yourself at the level you're doing already, you're not gonna make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have tons of tons.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wish they had your energy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I take that as an honor and a compliment.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Johnny, could I just tell the story of how we first met and sport on that documentary together?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I think that's where it all started.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, please.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I was writing and producing this documentary we were doing called The Real Godfather.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was kind of the story of Colombo.
[SPEAKER_01]: and New York back in the day and how it tied into the godfather film.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was looking through potential guests to reach out to and to talk about this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the more and more I look, the more it tied back to Johnny Russo, the man, the legend himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, we have to interview him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we went to the apartment you see featured there in your window, Johnny.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was gracious enough to host us in his home and the whole story behind that and how you originally got the apartment through working with Frank Estelle.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was fascinating.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we just dove into the history.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, you knew all these guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: You knew Colombo, you knew Brando.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was you were the perfect person for that documentary and I'm so glad that it worked out because I think it really made the story And then since then we've just kept in touch and we've been buddies and when we see something we texted to each other and that's awesome because it was a great honor to interview you
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I mean, again, you know, all my life, I've been helped by people, good guys, bad guys, and to sell all what introduced me to so many people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was the first one to introduce me to Joe Colombo, most people don't realize.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joe Colombo is one of the five families in New York.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a real guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have got to part in the card for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, it's just how all of these introductions work.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why, you know, as I said earlier,
[SPEAKER_00]: I really truly believe that when I think of you, I mean as you at that age, I was turning over every rock to get to where I want to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it seems you have that same energy and the capability and you have more knowledge than I do because I'm still in the words as far as that whole life of the media.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's why I'm really happy that
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't let the audience know also that we're going to do two segments because I think you have that much to say and Anyway, we could help you not that you need us, but this is a platform you can call on anytime you want to explore anything you want
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you so much and I appreciate that and to your point, I think what I realized when I started working in this industry three years ago, three years was when I really started doing it seriously is that if you most of the time when you reach out to someone, especially a legend who's established in the industry like yourself, surprisingly, they get back to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think when you start off as a young person, you think, oh, I can't reach these guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're, they're soap, they're icons or famous.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're never going to get back to some kid like me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a shame that people feel away because it stops them from trying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I found that when you actually do reach out, a lot of the time they get back.
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes, you know, they say, no, thank you, I'm not interested in the project.
[SPEAKER_01]: But at least you establish that contact and you keep, and you get to talk to some of these guys and they'll get on the phone with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And actors, producers, writers, directors,
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what a young person should do.
[SPEAKER_01]: They should try to learn from the legends.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to be a aggressive man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, your compliment to me as a legend.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only reason I'm a legend, because I live the long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just old.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, also the stories that you told us in that documentary were crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: You told us about, you know, down in the, in little Italy, when the production van on the Godfather got stolen off the street and they had to go chase it down and you told us about Lenny Montana and,
[SPEAKER_01]: you know how he was a real guy for Colombo and a real enforcer but then he also had that magic moment on set that you said Copa LaCapture where he was you know your daughter's wedding and all that and and that was just a natural moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: He happened to be rolling the camera and to capture that.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, and to me, that for you to have that exposure in doing what you're doing, you realize how all these little elements make what we do so important.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you try to write that, a director doesn't want to even write it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But him doing it, and Lany Bantana was actually rehearsing it, which I confused me at first when I thought, is the audience actually going to believe that this guy is studying to talk to his boss?
[SPEAKER_00]: He kills for the guy, but it worked.
[SPEAKER_00]: It actually worked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, totally.
[SPEAKER_05]: I wanted to go wasn't that you guys met.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was last year, right, John?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, my, you, you say a guy year age.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if you want to tell us how old you are, but I'm 26.
[SPEAKER_01]: 26.
[SPEAKER_05]: I, I said that's about to be 30.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I figured you were, you were around that age.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I'm looking at your Instagram, Gianni tells me about you and, and so I, you know, I try and stalk people right off the bat.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I can get to know you a little bit.
[SPEAKER_05]: But you are everywhere.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm looking at you, you're at a wedding that, I mean, look like a magazine for bride magazine, absolutely beautiful, and you're at all these different places, you're holding a little turtle, you're by a beautiful ocean, I'm like, this kid is everywhere, I mean, you're all over the place, where's home base for you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you for saying that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm from born and raised in New York.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was born on the Upper East side and that's where I grew up and the wedding you're referring to my sister got married earlier this year, which was really awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: She got me an Italy and I had the great owner of being the offician and the MC of the wedding.
[SPEAKER_01]: So not only was I a guest like everyone else, but I also, you know, had to go up to the altar and prepare speeches and all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was really special.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, it was a fun year.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the way it was in Italy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was at a Medici villa outside Florence.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was beautiful venue.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: I honestly, I can't believe how they pulled it off because like it was just, we kept pinching ourselves the whole time.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were like, we can't believe this is real.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a awesome wedding.
[SPEAKER_00]: How did they pull her off?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I've done a lot of things in Italy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, what do you say?
[SPEAKER_00]: How did they pull that off?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I have to give credit a little bit to my sister.
[SPEAKER_01]: She is an expert planner.
[SPEAKER_01]: She, if you look at her notebooks and her ledger, she has everything high-led in gold.
[SPEAKER_01]: So she's been planning this for years.
[SPEAKER_01]: They also got just lucky.
[SPEAKER_01]: They got a wedding planner.
[SPEAKER_01]: They found a good venue.
[SPEAKER_01]: The weather was perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything, it's just like a movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure Gianni, so many things have to line up for it to go as planned.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this was like one of those perfect weddings where nothing went wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we were just lucky.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, it says a lot about you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you a big brother or a little brother?
[SPEAKER_01]: On the little brother.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, you know, it says a lot about you that they would ask a little brother to appreciate a wedding.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I mean, what a compliment to you and what a what an honor.
[SPEAKER_05]: But yeah, I've just was looking at all the things you're doing and the places you're at and what you're up to and I'm thinking, my goodness, you are
[SPEAKER_05]: very accomplished as a young man and it's it's fun to see you're just going for it so you know I wish you all the best not that you need my good wishes because it looks like you're well on your way so tell us what your career is what is your project for that for me because I don't know yet the journey knows more about what you've been up to but tell us what you're doing
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I am right now writing and producing documentaries and that is really where I've kind of learned the most in the last couple years.
[SPEAKER_01]: My background is really in writing and I've always loved movies, you know, growing up my dad.
[SPEAKER_01]: He showed me movies from the 70s, especially as kind of like the gold standard.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we always like a lot of families in America.
[SPEAKER_01]: We would come home Friday night, put on the Godfather, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And...
[SPEAKER_01]: and the good good fellows and deer hunter and all these iconic movies that good fellows from the 90s but the most of what we would watch is from the 70s and it was from that great period and so I kind of started digging into that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to Columbia, I went to Columbia University for college and there I studied media and history and I kind of started asking myself how come all these amazing movies?
[SPEAKER_01]: come out of this same period, what was in the water in 1970, that we look back and there's all these iconic movies.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I dedicate a little time to thinking about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And from my research, it seems like
[SPEAKER_01]: There was, there's abs and flows in the industry, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And the industry's constantly changing.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there was something that happened that Gianni and his colleagues really capitalized on and to create these great movies, which is that the old studio system was dying.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the studio system of the, of the 40s and the 50s and the 60s that had held all that power.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those guys like Jack Warner, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: They used to be, they used to hold all the keys in the industry.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the problem was that nobody was going to those big,
[SPEAKER_01]: sound the sound of music type movies anymore you know there was a new industry rising up and it was coming from young guys and guys like Copa and Scorsese and all these these guys coming up in the in the early seventies and what had happened was the old system economically was failing so the studio started
[SPEAKER_01]: green lighting visions on these young directors that in a decade prior they would told them kick rocks you know you're not doing that but now they needed them because they're like they're we're desperate no one's showing up so you know what we will green light godfather one and we will green light you know
[SPEAKER_01]: Robert Altman's movies and Bob Rafelson's movies and and all these guys because they didn't really have another option and so it was this beautiful period I would kind of put it 1967 to 1975 for me is kind of the golden age of what people call new Hollywood and Johnny was in a lot of those movies and that is kind of this little lip of time when the writer and the director were able and the actors.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're able to wrestle creative control away from the studio executives and have these really bold visions where they were shooting on location, doing things not by the book, being a little bit more experimental, a little bit more risky.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hearing some of these stories from Gianni about how they produced and made the godfather, you could never get away with that now, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's too much red tape and corporate, you'd have to get legal and finance and all this stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: But back then, they were just winging it and they were going out there and doing stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now a person like yourself, recognize that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I feel it's so important to have you with us on the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an asset to us because you could bring a whole new audience with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we have over me and follow us a week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they need to hear you because, like you said, someone heard me when I was young,
[SPEAKER_00]: And I got to where I want to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know who's going to call you now because of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We constantly need new people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I can't believe I made these three as all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm about to make my 46th film of 47th film.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, but it's because like you, I started, I wouldn't have anybody shut the door on me, I'd find I climbed through the window, I'd get in, but you, again, I hate to be reiterate the fact that you remind me of you, but that's only in a good way, not my bedbots.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're creativeness and you're willing to get it done, go in and do it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Right, and I'm looking at him, Gianni, and I'm thinking, if he was an actor, he could play you.
[SPEAKER_05]: He looks like he could be a relative, and it's so funny, because that's what I was trying to figure out.
[SPEAKER_05]: Where did you guys connect?
[SPEAKER_05]: But he looks like he could be one of your grandsons.
[SPEAKER_05]: So, you have any acting abilities, Miles?
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do have some acting ability so far.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've most I only have experienced writing, producing and editing, but you know, I'm always willing to try a new side of the industry and and to tie back to your original question, Jeannie.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I saw that great era and that inspired me and I thought I want to emulate that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so then when I started,
[SPEAKER_01]: getting the opportunity to write and produce my own stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: I immediately thought of doing stuff on that era of movies.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's how I came to write that script for that doc that Johnny was in because I wanted to kind of pay homage to those great movies.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the godfather of course, I mean, can you think of a more iconic movie in the world?
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so to speak to an actor
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm going to make a promise to you on air right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, I, I, I, I, I had one of the books, I'd send the to you go on Amazon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if you read mafia secrets yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I read Hollywood Godfather, but I haven't read Mafia Secrets yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Mafia Secrets is getting a lot of attention, a lot of reasons.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know the name James Patterson, one of the best literary writers in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, when Hollywood Godfather came out in October of last year, the following month, he wrote the last days of Brown Monroe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's solidified everything I said 63 years earlier.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he had the coroner's reports.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he named, which just took this title to the moon because he named, which I said 63 years ago, Bobby Kennedy, killed her.
[SPEAKER_00]: The attorney general of the United States killed Mount Monroe.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they threatened her housekeeper and everybody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now all those years passed, James Patterson did research and proved everything I said.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he gave me such credibility now.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, the fact that he would come up with this stuff that Gianni's been saying forever, there's got to be validity to some of it because where were James Patterson have come up?
[SPEAKER_05]: with the same ideas.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, it's for a story.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he and he had no Gucci, the coroners reports.
[SPEAKER_00]: He he dotted all the ice crossed all the teas.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now why I'm saying this?
[SPEAKER_00]: The recognition and the notoriety mafia secrets is getting now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've already been proposed
[SPEAKER_01]: that's crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know, I think a lot of modern viewers are realizing the official story that we got from that whole era on a lot of these things is bogus and the more people look into it, they more, the more they realize, hold on something something's not adding up here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not just Marilyn, that's JFK, that's MLK, that's the multiverse period of the
[SPEAKER_01]: It's crazy.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, perhaps.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Dorothy Kilgallon is another one that is one of those out there that I think they were sold the big story to that she was an investigative reporter and she died mysteriously as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the same person, I named who killed her.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the people who killed her.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now this is all coming out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's why it's ironic because as we're speaking here, and I mean, you're a good-looking guy, I never looked at you in a way that you could play me, but you could.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: I should see you side by side, and I'm like, holy smokes.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's wild.
[SPEAKER_05]: So let's take this quick minute, get a quick break in here, and then we will get right back to Miles Stevenson.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do the commercials while we're all here.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only commercial I'm talking about is Hollywood, God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, now, Hollywood, God, you see, great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Coffee is secrets and what's going to be happening with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I recommend you go on Amazon by it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's on sale.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be a blockbuster film and George Gallo, one of my closest friends will be directing it and this is like in the works.
[SPEAKER_00]: So with that said, and anything else that's happening in the next 90 days, let's go on my website, you'll see where I'm at.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be doing a lot of engagements through the tri-state area through just some of the months.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's get back to my new best friend miles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, that's exciting stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know that it was being turned to a movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you ever see the cover?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the cover.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Never.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_05]: So Miles, you said you read the book.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't sit down too often.
[SPEAKER_05]: I did read the book, but I also listened to it on audible.
[SPEAKER_05]: They're rated by Gianni.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I love the book, but there's nothing better than listening to this story.
[SPEAKER_05]: For me, there was nothing better than listening to the story.
[SPEAKER_05]: Talk by Gianni, so if you're ever in a spot where you need to listen, if you're on an airplane or something like that, or you can also listen to it on audio form, told by Gianni, which I think, that's my favorite.
[SPEAKER_05]: But just,
[SPEAKER_05]: It is great to hear it told by Gianni, I think it just has a whole other dimension to it, so anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mafia secrets is coming out shortly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I read that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so Mafia secrets.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, for everybody, it's on Amazon going get that, because that's such a great great new book, and it's fun to hear all these things that Gianni has to say.
[SPEAKER_05]: And you'll start recognizing some of the things that maybe you'll think twice about that you heard in maybe a different story.
[SPEAKER_05]: The first time it came out, right, Gianni?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the biggest thing I'm getting a repercussion from is from the Vatican, which is amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you tell me many people?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you tell me a little map?
[SPEAKER_00]: miles in this book, I actually let them know how I move $600 million from the casinos and Vegas to the Vatican to longer over five years.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you told me that story that would have to do with you're at an airport and you had duffle bags and you're wearing them on it the jet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because now the statue's limitations is over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not 30 years, it isn't Italy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they can't even come after me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they couldn't even stop me at the airport.
[SPEAKER_00]: They knew what I was doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I always do things in the gray area.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what I did, I became a courier for celebrities.
[SPEAKER_00]: and my employees were the Vatican.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when they would stop me even at the airports, I'd show them, wait a minute, hold it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't take this money, it's the Vatican's money.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they would have to go competing in the Vatican to stop me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I was just a courier.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had not to do it this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know whose money it is and where it came from.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gianni, I feel like you've lived a hundred lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I feel like that sometimes, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like all the crazy stories and then you told me that story in your nightclub where the guy attacked you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna skip out of the guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shut up.
[SPEAKER_05]: Ma'am, yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: I will tell you, Miles, some of the funnest days I have being a co-host on this show, because I'm not anybody.
[SPEAKER_05]: We have people like Paul Anca on, we had Ingolbert Humberd Inc.
[SPEAKER_05]: I assuming you know these people, because you have an interest in the 70s and stuff like that, Ingolbert Humberd Inc. Tony Orlando was just on, and to listen to these people, and anybody who thinks O'Giannis
[SPEAKER_05]: Tony Orlando comes on and starts talking and talking about the good old days down at state street and all the crazy stories and it's just it's so fun for me to sit back here and listen to Gianni and his friends talk about the wild and crazy things they used to do when you have that club you know and like you I think just having the confidence
[SPEAKER_05]: to step your foot into things that who knows if you're going to get in the door but hate go for it and it's paying off for you.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, let me tell you another story of that because I think that's helpful for young viewers to see that if you just kind of reach out and try to connect with some of these legends, a lot of them will get back to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was working on, around the same time I was doing the Mafia documentary, I was working on a tribute to Gene Hackman, because Gene Hackman was,
[SPEAKER_01]: I was a huge fan of his, in my mind, he's one of the kind of like ideal actors, you know, he's, he embodies so many different emotions and, and he's just a legend.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when he passed away, I was really sad and I was lucky enough to work on and produce and write a doc that was kind of attribute to his life and all his great work.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the people I reach out to was James Woods.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was not expecting you know reply because you know he's James was and he's a busy guy and I assume and he It's not a nice guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know James Woods really well really.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I spent a lot of time It was a good friend of mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have some surprise me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like Johnny knows everyone
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I reached out to him and I'm, and then, you know, I kind of put my work away for the day I was sitting in my room and all of a sudden I get a call and it's like an unknown number and I answer it and he's like, hey, it's Jimmy Woods.
[SPEAKER_01]: How's it going?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, I didn't, it took me a second to process that I'm like, sorry, what?
[SPEAKER_05]: Who's Jimmy Woods?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I thought it was like a sales call.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, can I help you?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he's like, it's James.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, oh my gosh, it's James Woods calling me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was like a surreal moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was just the nicest guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And went out to LA, interviewed him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he and Gene Hackman had worked on a movie in 1975 called Night Moves.
[SPEAKER_01]: You probably heard of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a noir kind of crime thriller set in Florida.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was really interesting movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: I loved it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was how he met a Gene Hackman and Gene became something of a mentor to James Woods and kind of told him a lot of big things on set and told him these lessons.
[SPEAKER_01]: The James still carries today.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was cool because I got to hear all these behind the scenes stories working on set with Gene back in the 70s.
[SPEAKER_01]: What it was like some of the crazy stuff they went through dangerous stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was just awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the biggest movie I made with James Woods was any given Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_04]: I forgot about that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_01]: But she knows.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's that?
[SPEAKER_00]: With Pacino.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we had 38 major, we started that movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a crazy cast.
[SPEAKER_01]: You go through that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Charlton Heston, too, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Charleston.
[SPEAKER_00]: Charleston has to come in for one day as a favorite of me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody was so funny because we were shooting in Dallas, Cowboys Stadium because the NFL wouldn't sanction the movie because we showed it the way it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: My brother and I at that time was pad ball and who owned the Denver Broncos.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I was, I shot that movie between the two repeats of the Super Bowl.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, they wouldn't let us use it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But oh, the Cowboys owner, what's up?
[SPEAKER_00]: This name, a major guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's still owns the Cowboys, but he comes shoot, comes shoot down there with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care about these guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I had Joe losing them, we're getting up when they saw, and I call them Moses, when they saw Charleston has come for one day.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did me a favor.
[SPEAKER_00]: that's awesome to play any played out for who's the head of the NFL.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I mean it was uh I mean you can't make the stuff up and and everybody thinks that I do watch the movie there it is it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's
[SPEAKER_05]: In no way would you think they'd come up with something and they'd say, well, when I was a kid, my dad, my dad ran, thought and blew, and I used to come in every day while I cleaned up, and Gianni was like, yeah, then Gianni would say the dad's name, and the kid was like, yeah, I was there every day, I was a little boy, and it's just wild because, you know, if people think Gianni, you know, telling all these things, people come and back him up,
[SPEAKER_05]: every single episode.
[SPEAKER_05]: It is so wild.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it is so fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually kept Cabana one for two years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was having gin rummy games there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had players in there who we were taking down big money with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But my landscape actually ran the hotel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: the guy who ran it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I could do movie after movie after movie doing that period of your one at Saturday.
[SPEAKER_01]: As part of that same series we did on the mafia, I wrote this episode at the, they was set at the found blue and it was very interesting of this whole period of history, I don't even know about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Apparently, and this is now confirmed in government documents, so it's not just hearsay.
[SPEAKER_01]: The CIA sat down with Sam Giancano,
[SPEAKER_01]: at the fountain blue hotel to organize the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro, and this was a crazy story to me, and they all guess she was in that meeting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was Sally and me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were in that meeting?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just had to be, I was the eyes and ears for Stella, he wanted to know.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the deal that most people don't know, we're going to tell them now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joe Kennedy and Frank Costello during prohibition made 30 million each in the 30s.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he wanted a son to become president, so we went to see Frank Costello before anybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was 17 and I started training, I mean, traveling through all the states.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't doing anything else or more.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, I just want you to focus on this.
[SPEAKER_00]: because they made a deal which they never consummated and that's how his son's got assassinated.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody knows that story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Joe Kennedy told Castello,
[SPEAKER_00]: And if he becomes president, the first thing we're going to do is an evade Cuba and get your casinos back, that's why I was in that meeting because he now is president and they were doing nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I delivered a message to his house in
[SPEAKER_00]: And I delivered an envelope a few times.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm left it as I'm walking down a driveway.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm hearing somebody screaming out of it or was a man or a woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next day I read that he went into a full coma, never came out of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, I never liked Joe Kennedy because he did something and he had one daughter, I don't know if you know about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had one daughter and he had no use for women.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had his daughter have a frontal lobotomy.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was a vegetable in a chair for the rest of her life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I read, he was, you know, in a coma.
[SPEAKER_00]: He don't even know his sons were killed.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the note was.
[SPEAKER_00]: They read the note saying, if we don't get the casinos back, we're gonna start killing off your sons.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he read, and that's why I got into the... You know, that is joke.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, geez.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's I mean, this stuff you can't make up that's crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so yeah, we kind of look, we did a whole episode on that found blue meeting and the Johnny, you know, Johnny Reselle, you kind of being the connector between the CIA and why I told you that it was that you right my Alaska
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, Johnny Reselli, and then back in Cuba, their guy was Santo Traficante, Jr., and he had the muscle there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the connection with Alhaqfadel Castro.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll tell you something they were trying to do, and he was going to do it for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Santa Traficante was so close to Fadel Castro that they came up with a powder because they
[SPEAKER_00]: and he gave him these little gold powder and a beautiful engraved can.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it had poison in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he kept using the powder within 15, 20 days, he was gonna kill himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you can't make this up, this is like James Bond all over.
[SPEAKER_01]: I also heard about an exploding cigar and a poison.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they would try and everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: All these crazy methods, none of them worked.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause I don't know why.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's for a lived.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there was one that was a wetsuit that had poison in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when Castro put it on, he would be killed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: They came up with everything in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And but she, they did have the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: to Central Trovakanti and John and Rizeli with Fidel Castro.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why that was all about.
[SPEAKER_00]: They trained John and Rizeli to kill him as a moxman.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, I say it when I could put it in the contents of a whole story and the story has the facts that you see, wow, that's what happens.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's incredible.
[SPEAKER_05]: You hear all these stories and then it's amazing to hear the back stories and then Gianni could elaborate on
[SPEAKER_05]: all these things that have happened and you know i that's all i got involved with the show i i asked him a question about something she was a fan talking about on the show and i was just a fan i was just listening all the time and i was like i'm gonna get a whiteboard to put in my shower because i always would the first thing i'm so excited get up in the morning put that podcast on and start getting ready for work
[SPEAKER_05]: And so I would try and write some questions down or remember by the time I got out and that's how I got involved with Gianni It is just because his mind all you got to do is throw a topic at him and then he starts elaborating and telling you what he knows from behind the scenes And it's just incredible that his mind is so great that you can bring something up and we have guests on the show And they'll start talking about something and then boom here.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll come a new memory for Gianni
[SPEAKER_05]: And the fun things for me when you'll bring out a picture, you know, I tell them, I want to just come and sit and go through all of this.
[SPEAKER_05]: scrap books full of pictures because the stuff he's got and the pictures he's got to back this stuff up is incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Genia, I did that when I went to at the Gianni's house.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was nice enough to give me the photo album and I went page by page and I was like, this is gold because there was stuff on photos of him behind the scenes on set of the godfather, you know, leaning against the tree
[SPEAKER_01]: One with you, and I think Richard Castellano is at the name of the actor who plays in the Godfather.
[SPEAKER_00]: Richard Castellano, but Richard Coggi and I were very close.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: He played Barzini.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Barzini and then Clamenza with the Castellano and all these cool photos.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it was one of Clamenza's sitting in a chair, and I think you're like either shaving him or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's largely shoulders.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's not.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was all these iconic photos, you know, that people didn't know what I was doing even on the set.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I wanted to be nice to all these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's my first movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I was doing there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it was a video call, we got me to part.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's why even Brando when I say Brando is my only acting teacher.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was he was worried about me destroying the movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: because when he went to Copa and said, you got to think of getting somebody else for this part, this guy's got to believe him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not even active.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't know protocol, I dismissed Copa and he left.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I put my arm around brand, or when I walked them away, and I said, I don't want to insult you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But listen to me, I'm only going to tell you this one time.
[SPEAKER_00]: you get me fired from this movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will suck on your heart right here right now you again.
[SPEAKER_00]: You step back.
[SPEAKER_00]: You said that was brilliant.
[SPEAKER_00]: He thought I was acting.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was ready to whack him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy.
[SPEAKER_05]: Then we came that's friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, then he became my acting kitchen.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what are you lucky to have Marlon Brando as your acting teacher, I, Gene?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my God.
[SPEAKER_05]: All right.
[SPEAKER_05]: Tell them that you're singing coach was, or tell him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know Frank Sinatra is that right.
[SPEAKER_05]: Who gets to say that?
[SPEAKER_05]: These legends who probably were acting coaches, nor singing coaches to anyone, however, Johnny fell in their laps and not only did they become mentors, but different until they died, both of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is why she miles having you with all your knowledge of where you're going.
[SPEAKER_00]: It reminds me and brings out a lot of about my past.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I'm so happy and our audience is gonna be happy that we're gonna make the announcement right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're doing two segments with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're ending the first segment now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next week, tune in again, and we're gonna get into deeper stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: you agreed to come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeannie, I will see you next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody, stay healthy and happy and we'll see you next Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Johnny.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Jeannie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me on.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a blast talking to you guys.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Roll the lights, hit the scene, a legend works in stride.
[SPEAKER_03]: Gianni's got the stories from the coast of countryside.
[SPEAKER_03]: Gianni's got the questions, sharp as a natural sway.
[SPEAKER_03]: Everyone's day night, we take you all the way.
[SPEAKER_03]: From the back streets of Tinseltown, to the trittoria's glow.
[SPEAKER_03]: Old Hollywood meets Mafia tales and you're about to know It's the Hollywood Godfather Where the big damn place and the story don't stop