Who did more to cripple the Mob in the bad ole gangster days? A 
brave little black woman, one of first sisters to practice law in the city of New York, named Eunice Hunton in Harlem, or Treasury Agent Elliott Ness and his so-called Untouchables in Chicago? Stay tuned, fanboys and girls, as I bring you the answer in an upcoming graphic novel, Gangsterland (copyright 2007 all rights reserved).*
brave little black woman, one of first sisters to practice law in the city of New York, named Eunice Hunton in Harlem, or Treasury Agent Elliott Ness and his so-called Untouchables in Chicago? Stay tuned, fanboys and girls, as I bring you the answer in an upcoming graphic novel, Gangsterland (copyright 2007 all rights reserved).**in the end, it was neither, because of a world war, politics, a cold war, an FBI Director hell bent on destroying other people's civil liberties while wearing a bra and panties. But the die for the Mafia's demise was cast in the bloody alleys, numbers parlors and whorehouses of Harlem...
10 comments:
In fact Elliot Ness committed suicide, and his life wasn't as depicted in The Untouchables show or the film. You're right. Eunice H Carter, not Thomas E Dewey (in the strict sense) brought down Charles "Lucky" Luciano and this blow would have utterly crippled the other crime families in the Cosa Nostra's "commission" had WWII not broken out. The Government needed them to help stop German spies in New York and to help the invasion of Sicily. It presages the situation now where we are told we must ally ourselves with scum to fight Iran and al Qaeda. The Cosa Nostra emerged from WWII into the Cold War stronger than ever. However, Eunice Carter gave us the model for attacking the Mafia at it's base, rather than the inane and one time only method of going after Capone through the IRS! She was a very brave woman. Still, Luciano was deported in 1946, so she got the last laugh.
I know you are thinking movie rights and good luck because thanks to Hollywood's racism there are maybe two credible black actresses who could pull it off--and they listen to their white boy handlers rather than grow new projects from black folks.
Hopefully you have good artist. I think you could do a lot worse than Belinda Williams as a model for a character (that is her picture isn't it? From "Idlewild?"). I am shocked that any arc from this story has not piqued hollywood's interest before. Especially when you look at the "true" story of Ness in Chicago.
My cousin saw a number of black illustrators at Comic-Con who are now coming onboard at the big publishing houses.
Snowman (I love that avatar!): so we actually hired the Mafia in World War Two? Ahem...can you say hypocrites? Of course the rumour is that they killed JFK because they helped him get elected then he turned his little brother loose on them and didn't help them when Castro destroyed all of their casinos and deported the hoes from Cuba.
Bravo Mr. Chambers!
Kyle Baker. Use the best...
yes bravo mr chambers!
The Untouchables was good entertainment but yeah, pretty mythic like my younger brother's new favorite movie "300." hahahahaha
I am sure you aren't going for realism but more a "noir" atmosphere? Interestingly, these subjects were explored and very teasingly so in Coppola's "Cotton Club" but then warped Untouchables style in "Hoodlum" (where Larry Fishburne reprised Bumpy Johnson and Tim Roth played Dutch Schultze and movie was BLOODY AWFUL). I think I trust you more to mix the fantasy and fact into something better.
P.S. You forget that Eunice Hunton Carter attended Smith College and caught a lot of hell there.
Anom, some of these actresses have black handlers. There are maybe 10 white actresses who can greenlight a movie. For black actresses hmm, two? Latifah and Halle.
I cannot tell you how many projects I have tried to get going with a black female lead only to hear, "these movies don't open, black rom coms are dead, black dramas don't open etc. etc." These projects had established or hot up and coming actresses attached, didn't matter.
Unless you are a rapper or a singer, it is tough as hell to build any type of film career in Hollywood as a black actress. Right now it's all about Tyler Perry and very broad comedies.
Gangsterland sound very interesting. I def. want to check it out.
The best actress for this? Why, Mo'Nique of course! She is hot right now. ;-)
I wonder if you know, EUNICE CARTER story is about to be a major play in NY. An established writer is doing it, and the screenplay version (written 12 years ago) is being done along with several other major films she has. I think you might want to move to other strong stories you have. Good luck
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