Boardwalk Empire As History
How The Mafia Seduced Hollywood
Article Summary and Author Biography
Hollywood representations of the mob often paint gangsters' stories as dark but familiar versions of the American dream: the outsider's acquisition of wealth and respect. Such whitewashes make for terrible history, but as HBO's Nucky Thompson would say, "never let truth get in the way of a good story.
SELWYN RAAB is the author of Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires and is a former reporter for The New York Times.
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(HBO)
For decades, the American Mafia and Hollywood have engaged in a sly quid pro quo: the Mob provides inspiration for the entertainment industry, while that industry, in return, romanticizes and humanizes made men. The latest evidence of this exchange can be seen on HBO, in the series Boardwalk Empire, which is thinly based on the life of Enoch "Nucky" Johnson (renamed "Nucky Thompson" in the show). Johnson, a monumentally corrupt Republican political boss, transformed Atlantic City during Prohibition into an emporium for illegal drinking, gambling, and sex. Although he was paid an official annual salary of $6,000, Johnson raked in an estimated $500,000 a year (about $10 million in today's dollars) from his partnerships with bootleggers, gambling dens, and brothels. Lucrative work, if you can get it.
Boardwalk Empire captures some details of the era well. Imitating the real Johnson, Steve Buscemi's Nucky enjoys a lavish lifestyle while dressing like Beau Brummel, with a red carnation in his lapel. The character's love of big cars, sexy showgirls, and power -- gleaned from political deals with rival Democratic party bosses, including the legendary Frank Hague, the mayor of Jersey City from 1917 to 1947 -- also rings true...
