I have a few questions:

1. Was the Barzini Family always stronger than the Corleones?

2. Under Vito's leadership, what territory did the Corleones control? Just Long Island? Cunio has the Bronx, Tattaglia has Brooklyn, Stracci has Staten Island, and Barzini's areas aren't specified (qUEENS)?

3. Is there any way to know how many made guys were in the Corleone Family both during Vito's reign, and later during Michael's?

4. Do you think Michael (at the time of GF II) collected tribute indirectly from Pentangelli? Even though he is not actively involved in the NY business, Pentangelli is still his subordinate. Would it be accurate to call Pentangelli his "Street Boss" even though on the chart he is considered a Captain?

The way I view it is Michael sold the Olive Oil business to Pentangelli - to distance himself from it legally - but at the same time Pentangelli kicked up a lion's share of the "Olive Oil business" (meaning NY racketeering business, including drugs) business, or that Michael was kept on as an investor. Enough distance that he could claim plausible deniability legally to any illegalities, but enough to also remain in control and be adding to his wealth. Thoughts?

A lot of this is informed by the book:

1. No. Barzini is the "up-and-comer," the leader of the next generation. He has a piece of everything, but he's not at the Corleone level, yet.

2. The book and the movie are vastly different as to what the territories are. In the movie, I think the Corleones are supposed to be strong in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and that Barzini is contesting that. Maybe from Queens, but I don't know.

3. At one point in the book, I think Sonny or Tom says they can muster a thousand guns. Not necessarily made men. They also say they have 100 button men out searching for Sollozzo, but I don't think that would include people protecting the mall, hospital, etc.

4. I think Michael is always getting his cut.

The novel says Barzini had a toehold in Wall Street and "completely controlled Staten Island." I think the "thousand guns" quote came from a passage where Vito is trying to convince Sonny to become a lawyer. He says, "a lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns."

I don't know if Michael actually sold the "olive oil business" to Pentangeli. But, there's little doubt he got tribute from it. I also think he held onto it for a couple more reasons: It provided a synergy--Pentangeli's high-roller NYC illegal gamblers would be perfect targets for junkets to Michael's legal casinos in Nevada; and NYC would provide muscle and deterrent against other Mafiosi and Nevada gangsters who might try to horn in on Michael's legitimate interests in Nevada.

i always wondered how many members the corleone family and the rest of the five families had...
that's interesting

TB: Tom says, "Sonny, sure you can outfight him. The Corleone Family has the power. You have Clemenza and Tessio here and they can muster a thousand men if it comes to an all-out war."

Pete, I couldn't find that quote in the novel. Where is it? But, I did find this: "Tessio and Clemenza have plenty of soldiers and they can match the whole Five Families gun for gun."
I don't know if hey are referring strictly to soldiers or if that statement includes associates. If it's soldiers, it seems hugely exaggerated. Even so, you can figure therefore that the other four families averaged about 250 soldiers each which I think for the 40s would have been a good number. That means that the Corleones had about 1,000 soldiers (which still seems exaggerated) just like Clemenza and Tessio being the only two capos. Even if you count Sonny as a capo, just three capos seems unlikely.

TB: I don't see Michael selling anything to Pentangeli. As Michael tells Frankie: Your family is still called Corleone. Michael was in as much control of New York as he wanted to be.

It seems to be Chapter 5, a couple paragraphs before Sonny tells Tom that Vito wasn't Tom's father.

Edit: Just finished reading Prizzi's Honor. The Prizzis "...could put 2,100 people on the street but they had maybe 150 workers, no more, and of the 150, probably 100 were just a bunch of shtarkers...."

I think it's likely that as we'd understand it today, Willie Cicci, Pentangelli, Clemenza, Tessio, Sonny, Fredo were all Captains while all were alive, just to varying degrees of closeness to Vito/Sonny/Michael. Think of Clemenza and Tessio as the Family's "Senior Vice Presidents" and the rest of the Captains as Vice Presidents who are Captains, but report to Tessio and Clemenza as a way of insulating The Boss.