Ojai Valley News Blog

Commentary by Bill Buchanan
Fittingly, Las Vegas has just opened a mob museum. Few places are as closely associated with the mob as Las Vegas, which was a sleepy desert hamlet before Bugsy Siegel built the Flamingo Hotel and Casino and money started pouring into the city, which became a gambling mecca. Officially known as the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, it boasts 17,000 square feet of exhibit space. About half of the archives are devoted to mobsters like Bugsy Siegel, Al Capone, and John “The Teflon Don” Gotti. The other half features the lawmen who fought them, like Eliot Ness and J. Edgar Hoover. We all have guilty pleasures, and one of mine is the mob —- books, movies, I can’t get enough. I first read “The Godfather” in high school, and vividly remember driving 50 miles to stand in a line around the block to see the movie with my girlfriend when I was a senior in high school. The sequel, with Robert De Niro as the young godfather, was certainly as good as the original. Many would argue that it was better. This is the 40th anniversary of the original movie (ouch, that makes me feel old) and it has been on television recently. Whenever “The Godfather” is on, I still get engrossed, drop what I am doing, and spend hours watching — even though I can just about quote both scripts verbatim. I don’t include the third “Godfather” movie in this discussion. “Godfather III” was one of the great disappointments in movie history for me. It had little in common with the first two movies. It was like it was made on a different planet. “The Sopranos” is still one of my all-time favorite TV shows. I was devastated when the series finally ended. There was nothing like hunkering down in front of the tube with a glass of red wine on Sunday nights and enjoying a new episode. Tony and Carmela became like family — pun intended. Wonderful writing, terrific acting, and fascinating story lines made it a classic. I felt the series lost its way a bit in the final two years. But even on its worst day, it was better than the reality-laced pabulum that is now offered up by network television. A little side note: I was in Las Vegas a few years ago for a meeting. I was sitting at the Bellagio playing blackjack, and a guy sat down at the table beside me. To my surprise, it was an actor who had a minor, but recurring, role on the show. We played a few hands, and I looked over at him and said, “The last time I saw you, you were being shot down in the street.” He grinned and said, “Yeah, I guess I should have been nicer to Tony.” My fascination with the mob and the good guys was developed early. I remember watching “The Untouchables” with my daddy as a young boy. Each week, Eliot Ness, played by Robert Stack, battled and triumphed over the bad guys. My mother was mortified by the violence on the show, which was “deemed excessive and senseless” by critics at the time. Boy, how standards have changed: “Jerry Springer” episodes are more violent than the old “Untouchables.” At any rate, I loved every minute of it. Hollywood has done an incredible job of glamorizing mobsters and making the glorified mob life interesting. In reality, mobsters are obnoxious goons and thugs, and hold little allure for me. My only real brush with the mob in real life was when a friend of ours confided to Ava and me that her uncle was one of the first guys called in for questioning when Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. Ava, ever curious, said had the courage to ask her if he had actually killed Hoffa. Our friend simply replied, “Well, all I can say is that is one body that will never be found.” That was over 30 years ago, and her answer sends a shiver up my spine to this day. I like my mobsters on television or in the movies — not in real life. An invitation to the mob museum is an offer I can easily refuse.