Leave the Gun,
Take the Cannoli
What’s left to say about The Godfather? Upon the film’s release in 1972, it almost instantly became a byword for the best Hollywood has to offer. But The Godfather almost never got made, with meddling studio executives and vindictive members of the real-life mafia trying to smother the movie at every turn.
Leave the Gun Take the Cannoli is a narritive-driven conversation podcast hosted by Mark Seal, author of the 2021 book by the same title, and Nathan King, a deputy editor of AIR MAIL. As lead producer, I combed through hundreds of hours of archival tape, conducted extensive pre-interviews with our hosts, wrote scripts for all 10 episodes, and assembled final episodes.
Produced for AIR MAIL in collaboration with iHeartRadio.
Episode 1
Saving the Studio
The genesis of "The Godfather" dates back to 1966, when Paramount Pictures was Hollywood's last-place studio. Enter Charles Bluhdorn, an Austrian-born industrialist captivated by the romance of Hollywood and in the market for a studio with which he could prove himself as a movie mogul.
Listen to episode 1 below.