In her review of GF1, Pauline Kael hinted that the novel's Nino Valenti was supposed to be Dean Martin (real name Dino Crocetti). Is this correct? Or did Puzo simply borrow elements of Martin's life for the character of Nino?

As much as I respected Kael, I disagreed with her that Puzo's novel was nothing more than a roman a clef. I think Johnny Fontaine was the only clear instance of "guess-who whoremongering." As others have written here, Puzo built his characters with pieces of Mafia and Hollywood lore.

Maybe Kael was as put off as I was by the novel's Hollywood party scenes. Too much like the old pulp novels about the depravity of Hollywood. These books tittilated readers while allowing them to feel morally superior to the rich and famous. Puzo did the same thing, especially in the scene where Valenti meets Deanna Dunn. I mean, star actresses as sexually frustrated sluts, and star actors as closted homosexuals? I think it's interesting that since Nino is not involved in Family business, he can express revulsion at the depravity without coming across as a hypocrite.

They did share a lot of characteristics. They were both drunks, and he was a good friend of Johnny's, Puzo's Frank Sinatra clone.

The only connection I can discern between Nino and Dean Martin is that they had a good friend in a Sinatra-like character. But the real-life Dean Martin got to the big-time through his partnership with Jerry Lewis, not through the Sinatra connection, which came later. Also, while Martin put on a drunk-character, he really wasn't a lush. He wasn't a party animal, either--he was famous for leaving his own parties to hit the sack at 10 p.m.

Although the history of the fame of Dino is very different from Nino's, when I read the book I just can't get away from picturing Nino as Dean. I believe Puzo was picturing Dean also. Anyway Dino was a cool character in real life, a very likable persona.

Not to mention Dean didn't die at an early age due to alcohol poison. And I found the other day Dean drank applejuice on stage.

What you can't learn from watching Biography on TV. Singer, Drunks. you can name a million of them. They go hand in hand. Your on the road, in bars, night clubs..what else is there to do?

Vito tells Johnny, "The Italian boy who was so funny in the movies, he had some bad luck and you never saw him again because you were more famous." I always assumed that was a glancing reference to the Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis thing (possibly so that Puzo could say that Johnny isn't based on Sinatra). Do others see it that way, or did Sinatra actually have a friendship with Jerry Colonna or somebody go sour?