Chapter 17 - "The Godfather "1941 Lincoln

CHAPTER 17

MEMORY LANE -

ERIC D. - JULY 15, 2011 - MISSION DAY

~ Before reading 'Mission Day' and in order to give yourself a more enjoyable and pleasurable reading experience, may I suggest that you clink on the third video below for the Godfather accompanying music ~ Thank You

............We received a phone call.......It was our grandson Eric........It was Friday and approximately noon time on July 15, 2011.......We had promised Eric that we would go with him to Manhattan and he wanted to collect on that promise today.........I was in the back yard and Elizabeth, my wife had taken the call....The three of us all agreed that today, being a fine and wonderful day, would be mission day.........We were on a MISSION and Eric would drive to Staten Island from his home in New Jersey........At approximately 1:30 pm Eric would arrive in our driveway.......I knew it was him from the rumble of his muffler on his car......The three of us entered my car and the mission began...All we knew was that we were heading for Manhattan.....

..........I decided that the best way to go would be to drive up Rockland Aveue and head for Toth Hill the highest elevation point on the entire eastern sea board from Canada down to Florida....Once we reached Toth Hill we continued over on to Emerson Hill and before one could whisper "jimmaney cricket" we had reached and I recognized Longfellow Ave. from years ago........To be exacting 1971.....That was the year that Elizabeth and I had last turned up this road and/with our children Donna and Dina who were with us to view the filming of "The Godfather" wedding scene...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmW3xVYQcPE ...That was 40 years ago.......Our daughters were 7 and 3 years old at the time.......What better place than to make our first stop with Eric, than to see the Corleone Compound that his mother had been to only 40 years ago....When I made the sharp right on to this road I could see the excitement coming over Eric's face in the rear view mirror as I explained to him where we were heading for on our first mission stop.....

..........As we were heading toward the "Corleone Compound" my thoughts for a moment went back to 1971 at the wedding scene that was being filmed for "The Godfather" movie.......Back at that time when we had first arrived to capture this moment I was able to recall that at one point we were situated behind the wall separating the wedding scene from my family.....I was able to recall that during the filming of this great film, the Director Francis Ford Coppola (photo above) had called out "cut" and over the loud speaker directing his voice towards us, even though he could not see us due to the wall, requesting that the trees behind the wall were shaking and that had to be stopped......I recalled that although the trees behind the wall were real they had actually been cut down from another area, than temporarily placed behind the wall to give the appearance of not only being real but also planted in that area.......It was at that moment that I had realized that my two daughters were "the shakers" as they were playing with the fakely planted trees.......Speak of "EMBARRASSING MOMENTS"...........

........But wait, we have to think of that for a moment.....One of the greatest directors in the world, Francis Ford Coppola said "cut" to me and my family, that included Donna, Dina and Elizabeth, a man that would create one of the best movies of all time, who even President Obama say's it is his favorite movie [see Greg Kelly's video below].....That is some accomplishment for my family of four unknown individuals....Now isn't that amazing!!!!!! WE, in a way, were "directed" by this man in this film..... [tongue in cheek]......There are not too many people that I can think of that can actually say these words.......Just simply amazing........

........When we reached the top of the road, there it still was at 110 Longfellow Ave. just as we had left it 40 years ago, only this time it was for sale at an asking price of 2.9 million dollars.....The tall wall that surrounded the compound, as I mentioned was fake in 1971 and was built and only used for the film.......That wall was now removed and much smaller than the fake wall....I told Eric that his mom and the rest of us were there to view the wedding scene back in 1971 with the greatest actors of that year that included Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and Joe Spinell a relative of the family......We stopped in front of this beautiful compound and Eric reached for his I phone and took several pictures ........The pictures were fantastic.......I had not realized until that moment that he took pictures with the professional manner also exhibited by his mom......

............I recalled that I first met Joe Spinell after Elizabeth and I were married in 1961.......I recalled that we had seen an ad in the local Queens Newspaper for an apartment in Sunnyside Queens and that ironically Elizabeths aunt and uncle [Grace and Gus] would also already be living in that apartment building without our knowledge.........That would be where I would get to meet Joe Spinell when he would from time to time come and visit his sister Grace at her apartment........I would also get to meet Joe's mom who was also in several films herself.....Later when Joe and Gus auditioned for "The Godfather" film I would go with them to Manhattan for their audition.......I recalled the auditioning building was behind a large wall similar to the Corleone Compound somewhere in Manhattan and rather than go in with them I opted to wait outside the building while they did their auditioning..........[today I wish I had gone in with them].......They were both picked as character actors for this film and Joe would move on to appear in many other films through out his acting career working with such great actors as Stallone [Rocky 1 and 2], DeNiro [Godfather 2], Redford [Brubaker] and many others just to name a few......Below you will find an IMDB for Joe Spinell that will list many of his films, credits and accomplishments........Also below is one of my favorite scenes showing Joe Spinell with Stallone.....

.........Know it or not, like it or not, it has been written that after Marlon Brandon, Joe Spinell was the second highest paid actor in the great 1972 "Godfather" film....... (See Joe Spinell video in Chapter 20 by clicking on this link ~ http://www.americantorque.com/page/0/2437/)

I have today March 21, 2012 included the Fox News interview of Greg Kelly [son of Ray Kelly Police Commissioner of NYPD] with the current owner of the "Corleone Compound" that was used in "The Godfather" film.....This interview I believe was accomplished sometime in 2010........Today on July 11, 2017 I have also included a photo of the certificate signed by Ray Kelly showing my 10 year service with the NYPD and my retirement in 2003 ~

...........After Eric took his pictures of the Corleone Compound we proceeded on our way leaving Longfellow Ave. behind us..........We continued up Howard Ave in Grymes Hill and would make a quick stop at Wagner College where the view would be spectacular and breath taking as one can see the Verrazano Bridge, the homes below Wagner College and the beautiful sea board from this location. .........Than we continued on.........

.............Since we intended to take the ferry to Manhattan we headed for the ferry parking lot located at the base of Bay Street right next to the ferry.......But as this lot was full with the working population of commuters automobiles, we continued up further where the next lot was located along the Staten Island Minor League Baseball Park........As we headed in that direction we soon noticed that it was loaded with many fire engines, dress uniformed firemen, many police cars and dress uniformed police men [the "Adjustment Bureau" at work, I thought to myself].........It seems that a young man from California had just arrived at that location with his marvelous 500 hundred pound stainless steel cross sculpture to be temporarily displayed at the Staten Island "Postcards" Memorial, in a tribute to firefighters, policemen, and ordinary Staten Island borough residents lost on 911.........The young man named Jon Krawczyk was about to make a documentary film stop and walked over to my wife Elizabeth and shook her hand apparently as she was questioning a photographer at the time and she was the only female ordinary citizen around.....Whether or not this scene will appear in the documentary only time will tell..........This is how sometimes great stars are found and produced [joking but true]...........Mr Krawczyk had been commissioned to make the cross by St.Peter's R.C. Church in Manhattan.....The ceremonies for this event were about to start in 20 minutes we were told, but low and behold we were on a mission and needed to catch the 3 o'clock ferry before it left the dock..........Without further hesitation we proceeded to the 3 pm ferry and just made the closing door.........We later read about this "tribute" story in the local newspaper the very next day and it was also probably shown on the local TV station but unfortunately I didn't get to see it..........

.............We soon crossed the bay to Manhattan and upon exiting the ferry boat we headed for the South Street Seaport.........The place was packed with tourist from all sorts of lands, apparently since they knew we were coming [tongue in cheek].........But when no one shook our hands we sat at the "Reds" restaurant and had our dinner....... After all we had our 19 year old grand son and you know how the appetite of such young men can be astounding.......We visited the mall at Pier 17, the "Body" exhibit [excluding me] and the great ships that are always at that location..........Eric took more spectacular shots including the Brooklyn Bridge with his I phone camera that I know he will appreciate now and later on in years when he writes his autobiography.......After completing this tour of the South Street Seaport we continued due west to the Twin Towers Ground Zero construction site...........

............Upon reaching the Twin Tower construction site we were amazed at the progress being finally completed at this location.....Eric took several more shots with his I phone camera that were just out of this world, several of them being of the new and almost completed exterior building shot.......[note: I attempted to insert the Twin Tower construction site in this area but decided not to do so as the pictures in "vpike" were not up to date]........We proceeded to the ever changing bridge that currently crosses over the West Shore Parkway and entered the Atrium where the beautiful 16 palm trees from California are located...From this point we continued to the outside boat dock and many restaurants outside the Atrium......We had another 3 miles to go in our walk back to the ferry boat that would take us back to Staten Island.......During this 3 mile walk we would pass many beautiful views of Battery Park, lower Manhattan, New Jersey, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty...........Life is just so good!!!!!!

Nick ...7/18/2011

.........PS......After taking the ferry boat back to Staten Island [and meeting and making another friend on the ferry boat - Vitamin F] we barely made it back to the car as the city had set up fireworks on the road back to the car and we were the last three people allowed to cross that fireworks line before the one minute remaining to fire them off........Therefore again, I must repeat, "Life is just so good" !!!!!!!!"...........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godfather

IMDB: Joe Spinell (1936–1989)

Pictures of Joe Spinell