The Gangster Chronicles

Last updated

The Gangster Chronicles
The Gangster Chronicles.jpg
Written byDavid Assael
Art Eisenson
Stephen McPherson
Mark Rodgers
Directed by Richard C. Sarafian
Starring Michael Nouri
Joe Penny
Jon Polito
Madeleine Stowe
Markie Post
Robert Davi
Brian Benben
Louis Giambalvo
E.G. Marshall
Karen Kondazian
Theme music composer Billy Goldenberg
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13
Production
Executive producer Matthew Rapf
Production locations Capitola, California
Santa Cruz, California
Running time
  • 60 minutes per episode
  • 780 minutes total
Original release
Network NBC
ReleaseFebruary 2 (1981-02-02) 
May 8, 1981 (1981-05-08)

The Gangster Chronicles is a 1981 American crime drama television miniseries starring Michael Nouri, Joe Penny, Jon Polito, Louis Giambalvo, Kathleen Lloyd, Madeleine Stowe, Chad Redding, Markie Post, Allan Arbus, James Andronica, Robert Davi, Joseph Mascolo, [1] [2] [3] and narrated by E.G. Marshall. [4] [5] [6] [3]

Contents

Overview

A historically-based crime drama about the lives of gangsters Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky.

There were 13 60-minute episodes. The series was narrated by E. G. Marshall.

Cast

Gangster Wars

Gangster Wars
Gangster Wars.jpg
Directed by Richard C. Sarafian
Written byRichard DeKoker
Produced by Stuart Cohen
Starring Michael Nouri
Music by John Cacavas
Distributed by CIC
Release date
October 9, 1981
Running time
121 min.
Language English

Gangster Wars is a 1981 American crime film directed by Richard C. Sarafian and based on the original Gangster Chronicles telecast. The film tells the story of three teenagers, based on real life gangsters Charles "Lucky" Luciano (Michael Nouri), Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (Joe Penny) and Michael Lasker (Brian Benben) (a fictional character who was most likely modeled after Meyer Lansky), growing up in New York's ghettos during the early 1900s to their rise through organized crime.

This movie was a three-hour opener for the subsequent miniseries. In addition to the characters above Brian Benben's character is a fictional composite of several mobsters (here named "Michael Lasker"). While the miniseries covered seven decades, the opener takes us from 1907 to the Prohibition era of the 1920s. After its initial run, the entire Gangster Chronicles saga was boiled down to 121 minutes and released to videocassette as Gangster Wars.

Related Research Articles

<i>Bugsy</i> 1991 biographical film by Barry Levinson

Bugsy is a 1991 American biographical crime drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by James Toback. The film stars Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould, Bebe Neuwirth, and Joe Mantegna. It is based on the life of American mobster Bugsy Siegel and his relationship with wife and starlet Virginia Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucky Luciano</span> Italian American mobster (1897–1962)

Charles "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. He started his criminal career in the Five Points Gang and was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for the establishment of the Commission in 1931, after he abolished the boss of bosses title held by Salvatore Maranzano following the Castellammarese War. He was also the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bugsy Siegel</span> American mobster (1906–1947)

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel sometimes known as Ben Siegel, was an American mobster who was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel was influential within the Jewish Mob, along with his childhood friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky, and he also held significant influence within the Italian-American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate. Described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meyer Lansky</span> Russian-American gangster (1902–1983)

Meyer Lansky, known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate in the United States.

Salvatore Maranzano, nicknamed Little Caesar, was an Italian-American mobster from the town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, and an early Cosa Nostra boss who led what later would become the Bonanno crime family in New York City. He instigated the Castellammarese War in 1930 to seize control of the American Mafia, winning the war after the murder of rival faction head Joe Masseria in April 1931. He then briefly became the Mafia's capo di tutti capi and formed the Five Families in New York City, but was murdered on September 10, 1931, on the orders of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who established The Commission, in which families shared power to prevent future turf wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Costello</span> Italian-American mobster

Frank Costello was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family. In 1957, Costello survived an assassination attempt ordered by Vito Genovese and carried out by Vincent Gigante. However, the altercation persuaded Costello to relinquish power to Genovese and retire. Costello died on February 18, 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Masseria</span> Italian-American Mafia boss (1886–1931)

Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria was an early Italian-American Mafia boss in New York City. He was boss of what is now called the Genovese crime family, one of the New York City Mafia's Five Families, from 1922 to 1931. In 1930, he battled in the Castellammarese War to take over the criminal activities in New York City. The war ended with his murder on April 15, 1931, in a hit ordered by his own lieutenant, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, in an agreement with rival faction head Salvatore Maranzano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Adonis</span> Italian-American mobster

Joseph Anthony Doto, known as Joe Adonis, was an Italian-American mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families in New York City and the National Crime Syndicate. Doto became a powerful caporegime in the Luciano crime family.

The National Crime Syndicate was a multi-ethnic, closely connected, American confederation of several criminal organizations. It mostly consisted of and was led by the closely interconnected Italian American Mafia and Jewish Mob. It also involved, to a lesser extent, other ethnic criminal organizations such as the Irish Mob and African-American crime groups. Hundreds of murders were committed by Murder, Inc. on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate during the 1930s and 1940s.

The Castellammarese War was a bloody power struggle for control of the American Mafia between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano that took place in New York City, New York, from February 26, 1930 until April 15, 1931. The war was named after the Sicilian town of Castellammare del Golfo, the birthplace of Maranzano.

The Havana Conference of 1946 was a historic meeting of United States Mafia and Cosa Nostra leaders in Havana, Cuba. Supposedly arranged by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the conference was held to discuss important mob policies, rules, and business interests. The Havana Conference was attended by delegations representing crime families throughout the United States. The conference was held during the week of December 22, 1946, at the Hotel Nacional. The Havana Conference is considered to have been the most important mob summit since the Atlantic City Conference of 1929. Decisions made in Havana resonated throughout US crime families during the ensuing decades.

<i>Mobsters</i> (film) 1991 film by Michael Karbelnikoff

Mobsters is a 1991 American crime drama film directed by Michael Karbelnikoff. It details the creation of The Commission. Set in New York City, taking place from 1917 to 1931, it is a semi-fictitious account of the rise of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. The film stars Christian Slater as Luciano, Patrick Dempsey as Lansky, Costas Mandylor as Costello and Richard Grieco as Siegel, with Michael Gambon, Anthony Quinn, Lara Flynn Boyle, and F. Murray Abraham in supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tommy Lucchese</span> Italian-American crime boss (1899–1967)

Thomas Gaetano Lucchese, sometimes known by the nicknames "Tommy", "Thomas Luckese", "Tommy Brown" or "Tommy Three-Finger Brown", was an Italian-American gangster and founding member of the Mafia in the United States, an offshoot of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily. From 1951 until 1967, he was the boss of the Lucchese crime family, one of the Five Families that dominate organized crime in New York City.

The Bugs (Bugsy) and Meyer Mob was a Jewish-American street gang in Manhattan, New York City's Lower East Side. It was formed and headed by mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky during their teenage years shortly after the start of Prohibition. The Bugs and Meyer mob acted as a predecessor to Murder, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish-American organized crime</span> Jewish Mob or the Jewish Mafia

Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In media and popular culture, it has variously been referred to as the Jewish Mob, the Jewish Mafia, the Kosher Mob, the Kosher Mafia, the Yiddish Connection, and Kosher Nostra or Undzer Shtik. The last two of these terms are direct references to the Italian cosa nostra; the former is a play on the word for kosher, referring to Jewish dietary laws, while the latter is a calque of the Italian phrase 'cosa nostra' into Yiddish, which was at the time the predominant language of the Jewish diaspora in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic City Conference</span> 1929 summit of organized crime leaders

The Atlantic City Conference held between 13–16 May 1929 was a historic summit of leaders of organized crime in the United States. It is considered by most crime historians to be the earliest organized crime summit held in the US. The conference had a major impact on the future direction of the criminal underworld and it held more importance and significance than the Havana Conference of 1946 and the Apalachin meeting of 1957. It also represented the first concrete move toward a National Crime Syndicate.

The Broadway Mob was a New York bootlegging gang during Prohibition. Although headed by Joe Adonis, the gangs day-to-day operations were handled by Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Frank Costello as well as financially backed by Arnold Rothstein. During Manhattan's bootleg wars, Rothstein would bring in the Bugs and Meyer Mob, led by Meyer Lansky and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, to protect alcohol shipments.

<i>Lansky</i> (1999 film) 1999 American TV series or program

Lansky is a 1999 American made-for-television crime drama film written by David Mamet and directed by John McNaughton. It stars Richard Dreyfuss as the famous gangster Meyer Lansky, Eric Roberts as Bugsy Siegel, and Ryan Merriman as the young Lansky.

Las Vegas Mob Experience was located at the Tropicana on the Las Vegas Strip. The Las Vegas Mob Experience was a 27,000-square-foot (2,500 m2) interactive tour that chronicled the rise and fall of the Mafia in the Las Vegas Valley, mixing entertainment with history, storytelling, artifacts and technology. Visitors take a journey through the world of organized crime, interacting with live character actors and 3D holograms of famous mob movie icons and celebrity gangsters such as James Caan, Frank Vincent, Tony Sirico and Mickey Rourke.

<i>The Making of the Mob: New York</i> American TV series or program

The Making of the Mob: New York is an American television miniseries, and the first season of The Making of the Mob. It follows notorious New York gangster Lucky Luciano and his rise in the New York City crime mob, alongside Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Bugsy Siegel, and Vito Genovese. It is produced by Stephen David and aired from June 15 to August 3, 2015, on AMC in eight parts.

References

  1. Stone, Natalie (9 December 2016). "Joseph Mascolo, Days of Our LivesActor, Dies at 87". People . United States: Time Inc. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  2. Brooks & Marsh 2007, p. 517.
  3. 1 2 Terrace 2013, p. 161.
  4. New York Times
  5. Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2010). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows: 1946-Present. New York City. ISBN   9780307483157.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. "The Gangster Chronicles". TV.com. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2015.

Sources