You’re familiar with the old jazz song, It Don’t Mean A Thing (If You Ain’t Got That Swing).
Similarly, what good does the good work of the Italic Institute of America do if we can’t spread our message of positivity beyond our own inner-circle?
To that end, some very good news to report: Both Rosario Iaconis and I have managed to prick wee air bubbles in the media’s white-washing of The Sopranos.
The 25th anniversary of that show is being promoted as the inspiration for the new “Golden Age of Cable Television,” ushering in an era of allegedly more adult and complex programming.
We disagree. You can read Roy’s missive to the Wall Street Journal on his Blog. Below are my letters to both Chicago newspapers (The Sun-Times and Tribune). Enjoy!
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES (September 11, 2024)
‘The Sopranos’ is a ‘success’ in portraying Italian stereotypes
Why was “The Sopranos” so successful? Reader Bill Dal Cerro says there’s just one reason: Caricatures of Italian Americans as goons and buffoons were brought from the big screen to the small screen.
Columnists everywhere are celebrating the 25th anniversary of “The Sopranos,” the fictional mob series that ran for eight consecutive years on HBO (1999-2007).
But what, exactly, is being celebrated? Was “The Sopranos” truly a groundbreaking work of art? Was it really the greatest TV show in the history of television?
Hype aside, it’s time to keep it real, as the kids say. “The Sopranos” enjoyed its huge success for one main reason: It brought institutionalized caricatures of Italian Americans as goons and buffoons from the big screen (“The Godfather” and “Goodfellas”) to the small screen (TV). That is all.
Period. End of story. Case closed.
Ever wonder how Italian stereotypes became as baked into the American psyche as mom, baseball and apple pie? Hollywood did start the process in 1915 with films like “The Italian,” promoting the idea that Italy was “sending its worst” to America. (Sound familiar?)
But Hollywood wasn’t the crucial defamer. It was, ironically, a brand-new invention: television.
The rise of Italian gangs in major American cities from the 1930s to the 1950s coincided with the televised 1954 Kefauver hearings on organized crime. It was the first original “reality TV” show.
Millions of Americans from coast to coast tuned in daily to watch shady-looking crooks with Italian surnames plead the Fifth Amendment. True drama! To make it worse, movie theaters across the nation broadcast the hearings to millions more who couldn’t yet afford a TV set. Free admission!
Caricaturing Italian Americans has remained entertainment ever since, particularly after “The Godfather” promoted such images as “art” in 1972. Then, in 1999, “The Sopranos” brought the stereotypes back home to TV Land. The vicious circle was completed.
It is worth noting that objective journalists during the 1950s called out such prejudice.
In his 1958 book, “Only in America,” Harry Golden Sr. wrote,
“Has anyone in our nation, from the very beginning, had a worse press than the Italians? Their gangsters and bootleggers — no more and no less than other groups — have been splattered across the front pages of newspapers for decades. The Italian American has become the stereotype of the gangster. This is not only unfair but untrue.”
Still unfair. Still untrue. And the lack of cultural progress is nothing to celebrate.
Bill Dal Cerro, senior analyst, Italic Institute of America, Chicago
CHICAGO TRIBUNE (Sept. 20, 2024)
Images of Italian Americans
In her review of the HBO docuseries “Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos” (Sept. 14), Nina Metz uses the word “myopic” to describe “Sopranos” creator Chase’s view of Italian Americans. I commend Metz for bringing up the issue of Italian stereotypes at all. A great majority of Americans, Italian or otherwise, still see these images as perfectly normal.
Her calling out the filmmaker for not confronting Chase on this issue represents true progress. Brava!
A colleague of mine once used a vivid metaphor, fun house mirrors, when referring to Italian American characters in movies and on TV. Carnival goers walk past these mirrors and see their reflections — but how accurate are these images?
People recognize bits and pieces of themselves, but their features have been distorted. This is how Italian Americans — those who are truly familiar with their history and culture — view Hollywood’s view of us. We see gross distortions. That is what “The Sopranos” represents.
Let’s imagine that these fun house mirrors are straightened into objective mirrors that reflect reality. Instead of seeing extremes between goons (pick your favorite mob movie) or buffoons (think of endless TV sitcoms with “dumb Joey” characters), people would see a complex and positive heritage.
We would see political writer Filippo Mazzei, who provided his close friend and neighbor, Thomas Jefferson, with input for the Declaration of Independence. We would see Salvatore Catalano, the heroic sailor who aided a new nation, the United States, in its war against the Barbary pirates. We would see Adelina Patti, a renowned opera singer, invited to the White House by President Abraham Lincoln.
We would see that, over the last 150 years, Italian immigrants have brought their talents to a myriad of things now considered “American,” such as the Bank of America (A.P. Giannini), Planters peanuts (Amedeo Obici), Tropicana orange juice (Anthony Rossi), the Radio Flyer red wagon (Antonio Pasin) and the voice of Snow White in the classic Walt Disney animated film (Adriana Caselotti).
What do any of these real-life Italian Americans have to do with the murderous thugs, gum-chewing bimbos and intellectually challenged muscle heads perpetuated by popular media?
How do we close this Grand Canyon gap between shows such as “The Sopranos” and the historical reality of the Italian American experience? One answer is to replace those fun house mirrors with real ones.
Metz’s observation is a wonderful invitation to start doing exactly that.
Let the refocusing begin!
— Bill Dal Cerro, senior analyst, Italic Institute of America, Chicago
Bravo!……its pretty insane to have to keep dealing with this stuff…..but I guess tenacity, and having the energy to keep saying the obvious, is what is called for, this is certainly a great “keeper article” and worth repeating as the situation arises….grazie…..Ken ,
Educating the public is our only tool. Feel free to copy and disseminate. And also print out the statistics from the Institute’s 2015 Film Research Study (www.italic.org, click on Research Library). These statistics stop even the most rabid mob-movie lovers cold in their tracks.
If I may make a suggestion: I believe our efforts, and especially those of the institute, should be geared towards practical endeavors rather than exclusively informative.(No implied criticism.) I’ve thought about this for a while and have come to the conclusion that the best, most practical goal our energies should be focused on is the creation of an Italo-American PAC. If this is accomplished we can use it as a vehicle to further our interests and increase our influence in government and society.
While your suggestion sounds sensible, you overlook the existence of NIAF and other wealthy, politically active organizations. In some cases, these organizations have decided to retire from anti-defamation after decades trying to influence Hollywood; and have even honored the actors who sustain defamation. Just like those who say we should counter bad movies with good ones, it is easier said than done. A perfect example is the new Cabrini movie – positive and inspirational but it came and went with little notice and fewer audiences.
Bottom line: howling at the moon is our only recourse until ALL Italian Americans reject mafia movies – that ain’t going to happen.
I appreciate all comments. But you may not be aware that the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) in Washington D.C. was SPECIFICALLY founded (it’s in their 1975 charter) to a) combat Hollywood defamation and b) elect more It Ams to public office.
Over the last 50 years, they have totally failed at (a) and only made a mere blip in (b).
In fact, they founded the National Italian American Political Caucus for those purposes. I believe that the group is still functioning to this day, though their agenda(s) elude me.
In 2004, when the Dreamworks Company produced the defamatory cartoon “Shark Tale” (aimed at children, mind you), our Institute approached the NIAF’s caucus about holding a public press conference on the steps of Congress to shine a light on this complete and utter break with promoting positive cartoon role models to young viewers (“An American Tail,” “Pocahontas,” “Mulan,” et. al). It was a regression to the “Song of the South” era.
Predictably, nothing. Actually, not so predictably: Two years earlier, at their national gala, the NIAF honored Robert De Niro with an award. Two years later, De Niro provided his voice-over talent to mouth a killer mafia shark in the Dreamworks film. When the Institute then challenged the NIAF as to why they keep honoring actors who dishonor their heritage, then-president Joe Cerrell penned a convoluted defense worthy of a politician.
Italian American politicians and organizational leaders do not have the stomach to take on Hollywood, though, now, in retrospect, given the eventual Harvey Weinstein scandal, wouldn’t that have made the NIAF one of the most forward-looking orgs on the planet?
Indeed it would have. Times may have changed but sensibilities have not.
Sylvester Stallone is also a past honoree, even recently. What has he produced since? The TV show “Tulsa King,” where he plays a (hold on to your cowboy hat) New Yawk gangstah.
The “fresh and original” (!) element is that his mob boss character operates in Oklahoma.
The one and only “candidate” which any national Italian American organization should be promoting is “italianita.” And promoting it also means defending it from public harm.