Anyone who’s seen The Godfather remembers the famous
scene where the movie producer finds a horse’s head in his bed, left there to persuade
him to give the singer “Johnny Fontane” a juicy part in a big war movie. “Johnny”
was assumed by many to be based on Frank Sinatra, and the “offer you can’t
refuse” was read as the way he got his role in From Here to Eternity.
Sinatra’s daughter Nancy was just one of many people who eventually busted this Hollywood/mafia rumor, and the real tale goes like this.
For the part Sinatra played, the character of “Maggio,” director Fred Zinneman first thought of Eli Wallach. Sinatra had read the bestseller, and so strongly identified with “Maggio” that he was determined to get the part, and sent a series of telegrams to the film’s producer, director and also to studio president Harry Cohn (who, by the way didn’t even own a race horse, to further put that Godfather connection to rest) hoping to convince them to just give him a tryout.
At that time, Sinatra had to beg for a shot because, despite once being the generation’s teeny bopper idol, teens were then as now, notoriously fickle fans, and Sinatra entered a down period of his career and personal life. He’d made a couple flop records and films and gone through a scandalous divorce, and though he was then with Ava Gardner, who tried to get the studio to consider him, he had neither traction nor attention in Hollywood.
He was so low down the totem pole that Columbia agreed to a screen test if he could get back from Africa (where Ava was shooting Mogambo) on his own dime; when they did give him the role they paid him $1,000.00 a week.
But he got his chance, and was great in the movie, drawing authenticity from his own recent experiences with defeat, despair, disappointment, and rejection; he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, kicking off one of the greatest comebacks ever seen in Hollywood.
Sinatra’s daughter Nancy was just one of many people who eventually busted this Hollywood/mafia rumor, and the real tale goes like this.
For the part Sinatra played, the character of “Maggio,” director Fred Zinneman first thought of Eli Wallach. Sinatra had read the bestseller, and so strongly identified with “Maggio” that he was determined to get the part, and sent a series of telegrams to the film’s producer, director and also to studio president Harry Cohn (who, by the way didn’t even own a race horse, to further put that Godfather connection to rest) hoping to convince them to just give him a tryout.
At that time, Sinatra had to beg for a shot because, despite once being the generation’s teeny bopper idol, teens were then as now, notoriously fickle fans, and Sinatra entered a down period of his career and personal life. He’d made a couple flop records and films and gone through a scandalous divorce, and though he was then with Ava Gardner, who tried to get the studio to consider him, he had neither traction nor attention in Hollywood.
He was so low down the totem pole that Columbia agreed to a screen test if he could get back from Africa (where Ava was shooting Mogambo) on his own dime; when they did give him the role they paid him $1,000.00 a week.
But he got his chance, and was great in the movie, drawing authenticity from his own recent experiences with defeat, despair, disappointment, and rejection; he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, kicking off one of the greatest comebacks ever seen in Hollywood.
See it Monday, November 12 at 10:15 PM on TCM
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