My wife and I recently went to see A Beautiful Noise – a Neil Diamond biography – on Broadway.  We highly recommend it.  You can’t go wrong with any Broadway show based on musical legends like The Four Seasons (Jersey Boys), Cher, Carol King, Barry Manilow, or The Temptations.   Every song is a hit that transports you back to your youth. 

Along with the music comes some unpleasant biographical info.  Jersey Boys dramatized the fact that The Four Seasons began their career associating with Italian American gangsters who owned or frequented clubs like the Copacabana.  One of the original Four Seasons, Tommy DeVito, was himself a shady character who was asked to leave the group early on.  This information was deemed by the group and Broadway producers to be essential to the group’s history. 

The same sort of dark episode occurred in Neil Diamond’s story.  Treated half-humorously, the budding songster signs up with Bang Records, whose logo includes a .38 pistol (actually true).  Although the owner of Bang Records was Bert Berns, a legitimate and prolific songwriter (Twist and Shout, Hang on Sloopy, et al.), his backers were the Genovese crime syndicate represented by “Tommy.”  In the show, Tommy has a refrigerator physique draped in a double-breasted suit and fedora.  When asked his surname, Tommy claims it’s “O’Rourke.”  The audience laughs, knowing that such a character has to be Italian.

With a little internet research I confirmed that Tommy was actually Tommy Eboli aka “Tommy Ryan.”  Whether we know it or not, the Five Families had their fingers in lots of legitimate businesses including night clubs and recording studios.  In the case of Neil Diamond, he has spoken frequently of his fear of leaving Bang Records to pursue a different path in his career.  Threats were made and he bought a handgun just in case.

Nothing happened to him, but his fear was real enough.  However, we like to believe that Italian American gangsters only rubbed-out their own.  Certainly, there was no comparison to anything like the Hip-Hop murders nowadays that are common among Black gangstas.  But, our community continues to get a black eye from every facet of the culture, including Broadway.

Frankie Valli of The Four Seasons has been repeatedly asked if he had Mob connections (answer “no”); but had no problem playing gangster Rusty Millio in The Sopranos just for the fun of it.  Then there’s Chazz Palminteri who at 71 continues to roam the country doing his solo play A Bronx Tale.  At $75 a pop, Chazz regales his audience with the ‘typical’ dilemma of Italian American kids: to be a gangster or make an honest living.

The truth is Italian Americans get too much ‘credit’ for being crooks.  Just this week, my local newspaper reported on Mathew James, an Indian American who singlehandedly conned Medicare, hospitals, and patients out of $600 million (that’s more than half a Billion).  He even continued his scheme while out on bail, awaiting trial!  His attorney pleaded with the judge for mercy, saying his client had grown up struggling financially in India.  The judge gave him 12 years and ordered him to repay $337 million.  Think there’ll be a Hollywood movie?  I doubt if any overrated goombah in history ever stole as much.

Another Indian American crook in the news this week was Harendra Singh who befriended Italian American politician Edward Mangano (a County Executive on Long Island) some years ago and bribed him into backing his risky catering empire with county insurance.  Mangano is serving a 12-year sentence and his wife served five months.  Singh also defrauded FEMA out of $1 million.  But, because he flipped, this master crook is facing only 4 years in prison.

I used to keep clippings of crooks from every ethnic group for use such as this.  I stopped because the joke is on us.  Thanks to our enduring reputation as America’s best and greatest organized criminals, keeping track of others is pointless.  I wonder how many Gen Zs know who Bernie Madoff was?

 By the way, in A Beautiful Noise Neil Diamond’s younger self is played by a very talented singer named Nick Fradiani, his second wife by equally talented Amber Andolino, and the conductor who puts all the music together is Sonny Paladino.  The co-producer of the show is Bob Gaudio, one of The Four Seasons.

We can take credit for that.  -JLM