When Johnny Fontane appeared in the garden, Kay Adams recognized him
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- He needed and a love he still trusted. His Godfather Corleone.
- Such an affair. The Godfather. Don Corleone.
- Observer might easily have thought the Don himself was the lucky groom.
- Standing at the door with him were two of his three sons. The eldest, baptized
- The washed-out rag of an American girl.
- Two sons to the wedding feast.
- Family. They would have to take care of him.
- Landing above, beckoning her upward.
- Corner room, Thomas Hagen watched the wedding party in the festooned garden.
- Disappearing into the garden.
- Don Corleone nodded and gestured that Luca Blasi should be brought to him.
- Story about Luca?' and Tom said, 'When you're a hundred.’ Michael sipped his
- Polite stretching of rubbery, veal-colored lips.
- Refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day. And no Sicilian ever lets a
- Lucy Mancini lifted her pink gown off the floor and ran up the steps. Sonny
- Treacherously triumphant, as if she had stolen a treasure from the bride.
- Amerigo Bonasera followed Hagen into the corner room of the house and
- Bonasera hesitated, then bent down and put his lips so close to the Don's hairy
- Don Corleone rose from behind the desk. His face was still impassive but his
- Sonny Corleone pressed close to the window. What he saw made him move
- Corleone led him into the house.
- Won't take me back unless I come crawling on my hands and knees, and I can't
- Never says anything against you. You couldn't help him a bit? Why not? He sings
- Hagen sat behind the desk and made notes. The Don heaved a sigh and asked,
- Hagen made a face of impressed approval that was very strangely Italian on
- When Johnny Fontane appeared in the garden, Kay Adams recognized him
- Favors. Someday he'll be at each one of those people's houses and they had
- Something special. Go your own way now, you're a man after all. But come to me
- Others into the sick man's room.
- Genco Abbandando had run a long race with death, and now, vanquished, he
- And criminal traitor to man.
- Spitball he was holding in his hand across to the clerk, who picked it up and
- Following Friday. But Hagen knew that to the Don, both were of equal importance,
- Any grown man could reasonably expect, and he found life interesting.
- Marines the day after Pearl Harbor.
- And his benefactor's blood family.
- Their lives or until they accepted defeat and returned to their home towns.
- Jack Woltz was a tall, powerfully built man with a heavy paunch almost
- A personal friend of mine. If I let him know I'm being pressured, you guys will
- Hagen listened patiently. He had expected better from a man of Woltz's stature.
- Than he had appeared this morning.
- Going to race him, I'm going to put him to stud. I'm going to build the greatest
- Much too sensitive. He never asks a second favor where he has been refused the
- Make me ridiculous. A man in my position, Mr. Hagen, can't afford to look
- For the first time, Woltz succeeded in astounding Hagen. He found it
- Naturally, anxious to show their gratitude.
- Were one hundred thousand black Chevy sedans in New York City.
- Tom Hagen went to his law office in the city on Thursday morning. He planned
- Threat against Don Corleone himself. Genius had its rewards.
- Be made to tell who had done the buying.
immediately. She was truly surprised. "You never told me your family knew
Johnny Fontane," she said. "Now I'm sure I'll marry you."
2 "Do you want to meet him?" Michael asked.
3 "Not now," Kay said. She sighed. "I was in love with him for three years. I used
To come down to New York whenever he sang at the Capitol and scream my head
off. He was so wonderful."
4 "We'll meet him later," Michael said.
When Johnny finished singing and vanished into the house with Don Corleone,
Kay said archly to Michael, "Don't tell me a big movie star like Johnny Fontane
has to ask your father for a favor?"
6 "He's my father's godson," Michael said. "And if it wasn't for my father he
might not be a big movie star today."
7 Kay Adams laughed with delight. "That sounds like another great story."
8 Michael shook his head. "I can't tell that one," he said.
9 "Trust me," she said.
He told her. He told her without being funny. He told it without pride. He told it
Without any sort of explanation except that eight years before his father had been
More impetuous, and because the matter concerned his godson, the Don
Considered it an affair of personal honor.
The story was quickly told. Eight years ago Johnny Fontane had made an
Extraordinary success singing with a popular dance band. He had become a top
Radio attraction. Unfortunately the band leader, a well-known show business
Personality named Les Halley, had signed Johnny to a five-year personal services
Contract. It was a common show business practice. Les Halley could now loan
Johnny out and pocket most of the money.
Don Corleone entered the negotiations personally. He offered Les Halley
Twenty thousand dollars to release Johnny Fontane from the personal services
Contract. Halley offered to take only fifty percent of Johnny's earnings. Don
Corleone was amused. He dropped his offer from twenty thousand dollars to ten
Thousand dollars. The band leader, obviously not a man of the world outside his
Beloved show business, completely missed the significance of this lower offer.
He refused.
The next day Don Corleone went to see the band leader personally. He
Brought with him his two best friends, Genco Abbandando, who was his
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Consigliori, and Luca Brasi. With no other witnesses Don Corleone persuaded
Les Halley to sign a document giving up all rights to all services from Johnny
Fontane upon payment of a certified check to the amount of ten thousand dollars.
Don Corleone did this by putting a pistol to the forehead of the band leader and
Assuring him with the utmost seriousness that either his signature or his brains
Would rest on that document in exactly one minute. Les Halley signed. Don
Corleone pocketed his pistol and handed over the certified check.
The rest was history. Johnny Fontane went on to become the greatest
Singing sensation in the country. He made Hollywood musicals that earned a
Fortune for his studio. His records made millions of dollars. Then he divorced his
Childhood-sweetheart wife and left his two children, to marry the most glamorous
blond star in motion pictures. He soon learned that she was a "whore." He drank,
He gambled, he chased other women. He lost his singing voice. His records
Stopped selling. The studio did not renew his contract. And so now he had come
Back to his Godfather.
15 Kay said thoughtfully, "Are you sure you're not jealous of your father?
Everything you've told me about him shows him doing something for other
people. He must be good-hearted." She smiled wryly. "Of course his methods are
not exactly constitutional."
16 Michael sighed. "I guess that's the way it sounds, but let me tell you this. You
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