Through IACRL, Joe Colombo was also able to stop the use of the word "Mafia" being mentioned in the Godfather movie.

Prior to "The Godfather", to my knowledge, there was only one pure Mafia movie, the filmatisation of Valachi´s "The Valachi Papers" which flopped big time. So Mafia movies were not in demand until "The Godfather" paved the way. Of course, the characters in Mafia movies post "The Godfather", were mostly based on Italians.