The Youngstown Goodfellas Mob Connection...

Back in the early 90s I worked in the up and coming cellular phone industry for a local company called Wilcom Cellular, an offshoot of a local media family. It was a good time to be in the field and I did well for myself (this was how I was able to afford a year of travel...). But I learned how to sell and got to meet some interesting people.

I remember receiving a call late one afternoon from a woman who said she was from California and her boss was coming in to town and needed a local hookup. I said I'd wait. He arrived late and we began talking and he informed me that he was a producer from California who had worked with Michael Jackson and some other well known figures and had been in Goodfellas and was friends with the cast. I was skeptical, of course, but found his story interesting. We talked for a while and he told me he had a home south of where we were. He had a "flip phone" which, at the time, was a big deal as these cost upwards of $1000 at the time. I hooked him up and he was on his way.

So of course I went home and got out the Goodfellas VHS (pre-DVD remember...) and watched the move and lo and behold there he is hanging out on the street when Ray Liotta's future wife cusses him out. Far out. Go to the credits and, yep, there he is, Frank DiLeo. He was also "Mr. Big" in Wayne's World. Apparently, based on his Wikipedia entry, he has been a big player in the music industry. Kinda cool...

But this is not about him or meeting someone famous. I find it more fascinating in a six degrees of separation kind of way.

I remember the very first time I saw the film and was immediately struck at the very end of the film when Ray Liotta, now in the witness protection program, bends down to pick up the newspaper. I instantly recognize the Youngstown Vindicator with its old typeface (anyone know when it was last used?).

I am not too surprised because of Youngstown's notorious history thinking maybe they filmed in Youngstown or something. Goodfellas, mob, Youngstown...makes sense. After meeting Frank DiLeo I knew it was the Vindicator.

Here are some stills:



And, though a bit fuzzy, a better one:

If anyone can find out the exact date of the paper that would be really cool.

For years and years I've thought this and told people about it but looked up the IMDB entry for Goodfellas the other day and found this:

"During one of the final scenes in the movie, Henry Hill is shown opening his front door and picking up a newspaper. Close inspection reveals that the newspaper is the Youngstown Vindicator. This detail was included by Martin Scorsese as an homage to Youngstown, Ohio, which has been referred to as Mobtown USA."

It's August 23, 2023. I finally found out exactly which Vindicator he picks up. 

It's the 7/12/1989 paper. 

A Spiritual Mutt exclusive: 

Oratorio...Youngstown, Ohio...March 28, 2009

Last night was the performance of an Oratorio as created by Darren Thomas. He is worship leader at the church where I was baptized and spent the first four years of a truly committed walk with Christ. It is a Pentecostal church in the heart of the 'hood' on the South Side of Youngstown (a true divergence from my past on so many levels) and preaches the belief in the Oneness doctrine, that Jesus is in fact God and that the name of God is in fact Jesus.

There is a style of preaching and singing that is dear to my heart as it is where I was born, so to speak. I have fond memories of this period of time but have since moved on to a more subdued style of evangelical worship of the "white" variety, the music driven by acoustic guitar rather than the keyboard/organ. It is noticeable and lacks that certain "soul" of the black church. I enjoy both styles and can easily tire of too much one or the other, the variety a welcome balance.

So last night's Oratorio, rooted in the black church, was an attempt at mixing it all up, with a 100 person multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-church choir and musical styles ranging from salsa to reggae to gospel to a more classical feel. It is all the work of one man and seeks to tell the story of Jesus Christ from prophecy through his being raised from the dead, the message being the title of the Oratorio - Forgiven.

The show itself was stellar. Performed in an old venue affiliated with the Warner Brothers in Youngstown, Ohio, the setting was grand, professional, a far cry from the confines of the church walls. And through four acts, the music was tight, with instruments ranging from French horns to xylophones to drums, and the singing was powerful. I sat in awe at the power of the human voice.

And I realized how much I miss this style of worship, how much it stirs my soul. I miss the enthusiasm, the tight sound of the bass, the boldness of the choir. I am grateful for my roots in that church and would not be where I am today (though it is interesting as well how my gravitation towards Oneness doctrine in the beginning rather than Trinity at the time was also the reason that I was drawn to Islam).

The performance itself is a work of art. The man truly has a gift and I pray he is able to break out of the confines of the tradition in which he is so comfortable to fly on his own and share this, with his own style, with the world.

Without going into too much detail, there are some kinks that need to be worked out, and the show, as grand as it was, also reinforced the reasons that when my wife, a PK and herself born into this tradition, and I decided to move on there was no looking back. It is our ability to flow in and out of a variety of settings with a diversity of peoples that makes life so interesting and, like iron sharpens iron, helps us to grow as people, grateful for the diversity in the body of Christ in all its color and splendor.

This diversity, this muttness in my background, is a great thrill for me and has enlarged my worldview, freeing me from the fetters of cultural, racial and ethnic isolationism. I am able to enlarge rather than withdraw my picture of the world and engage, embrace and grow from the diversity. I thank God for difference and distinction and don't want a world where all the cultures blend into one homogeneous stew just as I don't want a religion where everything is blended into one.

If everything was the same, how would we learn? If everything was the same, how dull and uninteresting would life be?

I am reminded, once again, of the following:

"When everyone knows good as good, this is not good." (DDJ, 2, Cleary translation)

Strange dream...

I'm cruising on the East Side of Youngstown which, when you get out far enough, is basically country, and I come to what looks a like a track and I notice cars lining up and parking and I have this strange feeling that something is strange. I pull over and get out and a guy comes up to me offering me bagged Starbucks. I say no and he mumbles and keeps on walking. So I start walking around the track and hear some commotion on one end of the track so I walk toward it. I notice that there are dark SUVs pulling up and I know it's the Feds.

As I move toward the end where the commotion is, I hear gun shots. So I duck against a wall (we are now in a gymnasium...) where I bump a shopping car filled with pennies that rolls away and falls down to the next level. More gunshots and I see the Feds moving in to arrest someone. As I look more closely, trying to see who it is, I notice it is the Brown M&M in handcuffs.

And I wake up...

Strange.