Somebody suggested to Frank Sinatra before he hit it big that he might change his name to Frank Satin to mask his Italian heritage and help his career. Thankfully that never happened.

It didn’t turn out that way though for every Italian-American trying to climb the Hollywood ladder. Frank Capra’s real name, the film director who brought us “It’s a Wonderful Life,” was Francesco Rosario Capra. Not too much of a difference but you get the point. Italian immigrants had to work hard to find their place, often having to reinvent themselves to fit into upper strata of American life. Capra said he decided to change his name because "he didn’t want a name that smelled of the ghetto.”

And so it went in America in the 1930s and 40s, a place of reinvention and opportunity, where if you we’re willing to work for it, you could be anything you wanted to be. “Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans and the Movies,” a film now airing on The Documentary Channel, reveals the stories of their success.

Many Italian immigrants picked up and left New York for the film industry in California bringing with them a good work ethic and artisan skills. Capra himself started out the hard way, developing film all day until he worked his way into the gag-writing department and eventually became a great director.

Italian-American actors, too, even John Turturro, because of skin color, have had their first jobs be to portray Native Americans. The famous advertisement from the 70s - it depicts an Indian shedding a tear because of rampant littering in America - he was a Sicilian.

Hard times. Well, not really. And Italian-Americans don’t really complain in this documentary, partly because as the years go by, a broad breadth of Italian American films have made it to the screen. But boy, oh, boy, do we Americans love movies about Italian gangsters.

Why? Gangsters are dramatic. And Italians are good at being dramatic. They shoot somebody in the head, then tidy up and go home to eat a family meal. Violence, as long as it’s not happening to us, can be very entertaining.

“Scorsese does it to a degree, in the sense of putting the violence in your face,” says Fred Gardephe, professor and author of “From Wiseguys to Wise Men,” in the documentary. “It's about all of the sudden walking down the street, wham, there's violence. You didn't think about it, you didn't plan it, just happens. There’s blood left behind that somebody has to clean up.”

Take some time out this month to watch “Beyond Wiseguys” available only on The Documentary Channel.

by: Gregory Crofton

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