As something of a Sinatra fan, I enjoyed the extended Johnny Fontaine section in the novel and found it to parallel Frank's life pretty closely. My big question is, who was Nino in real life? It appears that he is patterned on a real-life singer/actor, but I'm wondering who it would be. I see shades of Dean Martin in his personality, but that wouldn't fit the time period. Any ideas?

Robert

I always thought Dean Martin too, altho the only real parallels that occur to me are their drinking, and the Dino/Nino similarity of their names.

Altho Dino might have been a bit young in the mid 1940's to be Nino, Al Martino looked a bit old in the film to be Sinatra.

I think there's no real-life parallel to Nino.
Dean Martin didn't grow up anywhre near Sinatra. He got famous with Jerry Lewis, not with Sinatra. And, though Martin had the "drinker" image, he usually imbibed apple juice in those highball glasses. According to Lewis, Martin didn't become a heavy drinker until his son's death, near the end of his own life.

Just a side note. The Character of Nino was originally going to be written into the GF movie script. They were going to cast a singer from Staten Island, who Gianni Russo ( Carlo ) had reccomended. It turns out that when Al Martino was cast for the role of Johnny, he demanded that there be no Nino character casted or written into the movie because Martino wanted to take center stage as the lone star vocalist in The Godfather.


Don Cardi

I had always kind of wondered why more of the Johnny Fontaine story line wasnt filmed. A major part of the book was about him, and although hes not the only one to get a sidestory cut out of the movie, I thought his was interesting enough that they maybe shouldve included it.

And a question; Does anyone know why Johnny was not at all included in PtII? With the Corleones living in Nevada, and Johnny contracted to perform for them, I definetly was waiting for his appearance the first time I saw the film.

I believe that Puzo used the Johnny Fontaine character brilliantly at the very beginning of the novel--a great example of the diversity of the Don's power and influence. Johnny also set the stage for Woltz and the horse's head. After that, I think Johnny (and Nino) merely served as a way for Puzo to show off his knowledge of Hollywood procedures and lore.
Puzo (like Ian Fleming, the James Bond author) couldn't resist finding ways to include in his novels some of the specialized knowledge he'd acquired in his life. The Johnny/Nino/showbiz stuff was boring enough. But the Lucy/Jules/operation stuff was there for only one purpose: for Puzo to show off what he'd learned (probably from a female relative) about the gynecological condition that enabled him to descibe the operation in detail. Bad as that was, it was nowhere near as bad as all that Hollywood crap that spoiled "The Last Don." I'm glad there wasn't more of Johnny in the films.

Any idea on this part?

I once thought that a good, logical place for Johnny to appear in II was to sing at Anthony's party--a nice parallel to GF and Connie's wedding. But then I saw that the party was designed in part to burnish Michael's "respectable" image. It was far more appropriate, after Senator Geary praised him for his "magnificent endowment" to the university, to have him serenaded by the wholesome, apple-cheeked Nevada Boys' Choir than by a throwback to his family's gangster past. That aside, Nevada casinos never appear in GFII (except in a deleted scene). The focus of current-day action is on New York, Havana and Washington.