Wiseguy wrote :
I will try to.

First of all, I've just noticed I mispelled the author's name : it is Goldberg. Wiseguy_1872, you mentioned a David Aaranson : I haven't come across that name lately although it sounds familiar to me... Noodles' s real name is Nathan Aaronson. Maybe you're referring to his brother in the book who's a journalist ?

I do have the book entitled "The Hoods" by a certain Harry Grey, "First published in the USA in 1953 as The Hoods" (I've got the English paperback edition : Bloomsbury Film Classics-The Original Novel) . And if you want to know details, it is 504 pages long and the size of a DVD jacket. I bought it a couple of years ago but never could find the time to read it then I sort of forgot it on the shelf... vergogna ! Oh well, so many books, so few time *sigh*...

My guess is that Philip Goldberg is the guy's real name and Harry Grey his pen-name. Here's what the bk cover says : "Once Upon A Time In America, Harry Grey, The epic and powerful story of an unforgettable era" + the credits from the film.

Inside it says : "As boys, they said they would die for each other. As men, they did. This classic novel, originally called The Hoods, inspired the epic Sergio Leone film which would be the benchmark of the genre. Spanning three generations of a family of Jewish immigrants, OUATIA tells the story of a gang of friends who discover through trust, hard work and brutality the true meaning of the American Dream. Pitting themselves against the best and worst of the local underworld, Noodles and his friends grow to become one of the most powerful forces in their local business world, forging new allegiances and uncovering old rivalries in their journey towards manhood and maturity amid the mayhem of urban America. At times brutal, but always honest, this is a classic story of America through its most violent era."

It is dedicated "To my true and loyal mob M., B., H. and S."

I still haven't read it but as I browse it I can see mostly dialogues and a first-person narrative, namely Noodles telling his own story.

The Sergio Leone bk I mentioned is technically not an autobiography in fact, its author is Oreste de Fornari and its original title Tutti i film di SL, but the first of the 4 parts is Leone in his own words and in the last part 12 of his colleagues (Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, Peter Bogdanovich, Claudia Cardinale, Ennio Morricone, script writers, photo directors, editors, etc.) talk abt working with Leone in their own words as well.

I obviously can't translate the whole bk but I will summarize + quote some more.

Lots of ppl worked on the scenario, Norman Mailer was the first but Leone was disappointed with his adaptation of the bk so he turned to Italian script writers. They made long thorough research on Jewish history in Russia and in America (in the East Side mostly) and mentality because SL wanted to be accurate and authentic. Sergio Donati mentions his perplexity, "What do WE (Italians) know abt the Jewish East Side ???. It's as if an American director told the story of Trastevere (an Italian town) in the 1930's. It's like the Sicilian episode in GF where everything seems absolutely fake. The risks are huge. At least SL could have hired an American art director."

An anecdote : SL is not the one who found the idea of the babies swapping but he used it 'cuz he wanted smthg as powerful and colorful as the GF's

"The Hoods" is an autobiographical novel. It's the story of a small time hood, like a diary in which he lists his burglaries, homicides, rackets, hobbies, thoughts... and from time to time, we can trace the causes of it all through episodes of Jewish family life and talks between the gangster and his brother who's a journalist. The film is more romantic than the novel. [...] No part of the book remained as written. In the novel, the youngsters catch the local cop in the act with Peggy, the building's Lolita, in the stairwell. They make fun of him, threaten him and that's all. In the film, the meeting occurs on the terrace roof where Peggy is hanging up the washing. The boys take a compromising picture of the couple. Then they blackmail the cop who will give the watch back to them. Later on he will become their accomplice. They will now be able to have sex with Peggy for free. Thus the episode refers to both the past and the future. It introduces the theme of blackmail and that of desire... All in all, it is put into perspective."

Franco Ferrini (one of the script writers) :
"The bk ended in 1933, there was nthg abt old age, whereas the film ends in 1968. With no particular reason, maybe just to let ppl understand that later thgs could have changed a little."

I've never seen the movie trailer so I can't say anythg abt it.

The bk summary talks abt 3 generations but there's none of it in the film. There's no family story. Max does have a son but we see him only for a short mmt by the end, so it can't be considered as an episode abt the second generation...

In the coming days I'll be going back to the cinema library to do some more research and I'll let you know abt it.

Now I don't want to seem to be preaching for my own church but I've been working on a website on "Italian-Americana" since last year and this summer I started doing an English version, that's why I've been reading many crime bks and movie guys bios lately. I'm using a lot from this SL bio so if you want to read more you'll have to wait till my pages go online (or find the bk yourselves if it was translated into English).

Mamma mia, what a long post ! I hope you won't throw sh*t at me for that !

Almammater