Question of the Day - 06 February 2021

Wow. You guys go back a ways: The State Street closed in 1988.

It's so long ago that when we looked up the menu, State Street served escargot for $5.50, Caesar salad for $3.50, and soup du jour for $1.50. Other prices: linguini with clams $9.95, steak and prime rib sandwiches for $5.95, and egg dishes (for the late-night crowd) such as eggs Benedict for $4.95 and steak and eggs for $5.95.  

The restaurant's location was just east of the Strip off E. Sahara; heading east, State Street is one block before the turn into the Commercial Center. 

Gianni Russo's life has been nothing if not colorful. He appeared as Carlo Rizzi in a flashback scene in The Godfather Part II. Rizzi was the abusive ne'er-do-well husband of Connie Corleone, Don Vito's daughter. Her brother Sonny, heir apparent to the Corleone empire, was set up by Rizzi to be killed on Sonny's way to find and punish him for another beating he gave Connie. In the end, of course, Rizzi dies by the sword (actually, a garrote). But Russo's portrayal of Rizzi all those years ago got him hired as the spokesperson for the 2016 brand of Don Corleone organic vodka.

Also after that role, Russo had character parts in nearly 50 movies, the big ones being Any Given Sunday (1999) and Seabiscuit (2003).

Russo claims that he started out as a runner for New York mob bosses as high as Frank Costello when he was a kid, but was a lover, not a fighter, and foresook the lifestyle. Still, he also says he was indicted nearly two dozen times for organized crime associations, but was never convicted. 

In 1988, Russo killed a Medellín drug cartel soldier who was harassing a woman in his restaurant. When the man stabbed him with a broken champagne bottle, Russo shot him twice. He wasn't charged; the shooting was ruled justifiable. Pablo Escobar, however, put out a contract on Russo's life. When Russo went into hiding (in Miami and Sicily, he says), State Street closed. Escobar canceled the contract when he learned that Russo had appeared in one of his favorite movies (you guessed it: The Godfather). 

In 2004, Russo recorded a CD, Reflections, covering Sinatra Dean Martin. 

In 2019, he published his memoir, Hollywood Godfather: My Life in the Movies and the Mob. Did someone say "colorful?" Russo writes that he had a flaming affair with Marilyn Monroe when he was 16 and she was 33. He's also been rumored to have been romantically involved with Liza Minelli and Zsa Zsa Gabor; his relationship with Dionne Warwick spanned, supposedly, a decade. He's been married three times and says he has 11 children with 10 different women, as well as fielding at least three paternity suits. 

There's a lot more to the Gianni Russo story, so if you like, you can read the memoir. In a profile, a New York Times writer commented, "His stories sometimes defy credulity."