I was cleaning up around here the other day and found a long forgotten stash of old Beta tapes. Among the treasures I found was the original Untouchables movie - "The Untouchables- The Scarface Gang. It was the pilot for the series starring Robert Stack and produced by Desi Arnez and DesiLu. What a great movie! The movie with Kevin Costner is pretty much based on it. Both were based on the book "The Untouchables" by Elliot Ness & Oscar Fraley. It's too bad the movie and series are not available on DVD. Many future Hollywood stars had guest spots on the series and Robert Stack won and deserved an Emmy. The only thing missing was the Nelson Riddle sountrack. Maybe they didn't have the music rights. I can't tell you where I got this treasure because I don't remember but it did have the Paramount Home video logo at the start. I dubbed it over to DVD but my Beta machine is over 25 years old and has been in the basement for at least 10 years. The quality is poor but watchable.
I found the following on the net about death threats made to desi Arnez about the series........
Death By Publicity
The mob, television and the cost of secrecy
By John William Tuohy
)Toward the end of 1930 and well into 1931, Federal Agent Elliot Ness was busy trying to do some damage to the Capone beer operations.
In the spring of 1930 and 1931 Ness and his "Untouchables," that is, unbribable, agents led a series of raids against Capone breweries.
By September 1930 Capone was feeling the pinch from federal forces out to toss him in jail and from the endless raids the Chicago cops were pulling off because of the Lingle murders.
In April of 1931, Capone, or more than probably somebody under his command, like Frank Nitti, decided that he had enough of Elliot Ness and placed a bomb under his car which was set to explode when Ness started the engine. The problem was that Ness found the bomb.
But in all likelihood, Al Capone probably never knew Elliot Ness's name, and if he did, he probably only heard it mentioned in passing.
For the Capone organization, Ness and his group of so-called "untouchable" government agents were more of a nuisance who stopped their beer trucks
and arrested their drivers.
Elliot Ness died, almost unknown and forgotten, in 1957 just before his book "The Untouchables" was published. The book sold well and Hollywood, specifically Desilu Studios, decided that Ness's exploits, properly added to, would make a fine television show.
The show didn't go over well with the Mafia. These were still in the days when the syndicate and the Mafia operated in near complete secrecy.
The national commission figured correctly that, by allowing the show to air, it would set a precedent. If the outfit were allowed to be discussed openly on television, what was next?
"So the council had a meet about it" wrote Lucky Luciano, "and one of the
guys in Profaci's outfit named Joe Colombo come up with the idea of forming a legitimate association of Americans with Italian backgrounds to start a campaign against usn'n just Italian names for them gangsters in the TV shows and movies. The whole idea was to try and get The Untouchables off the ****in' air."
The syndicate agreed that the Organization called the Federation of Italian American Democratic Organizations would be headed by United States Congressman Alfred Santangelo, whose name was chosen off a list prepared by Pat Eboli.
According to Luciano, the Honorable Congressman Santangelo knew from the start that the entire organization was dreamed up and manufactured by the
mob.
When letters from Santangelo and the Federation didn't work to get the show off the air, a boycott was launched against Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company and on March 14, 1961, the company withdrew its sponsorship.
When word of the Mafia-inspired boycott made the Press, the show's rating
went through the roof and Chesterfield Cigarettes was back behind the show
one hundred percent.
To make matters even more ridiculous, it was at about that same time that Lucky Luciano decided to agree to a motion picture based on his life. Tommy Eboli told Lucky that the last thing that the Syndicate wanted was to bring more attention to itself, but Luciano didn't want to hear about it.
It was at this point that the mob elders turned to Chicago for help. Their reasoning was simple. The show was based on Chicago characters, Capone, Nitti, and Ness and since Chicago controlled California, and the Dons were fairly certain Hollywood was in California, it was Chicago's responsibility to take care of the TV problem and they would take care of the Luciano problem.
Accardo, Ricca and Murray Humpreys, three men who, together, had the power, the pull and the money to tell the entire Mafia to go to hell, didn't interfere. They knew that any day the Untouchables could mention their names.
Murray Humpreys, the smartest boss in the Chicago mob, if not in the whole syndicate, put Johnny Roselli on the case and Roselli discussed the problem with Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno.
"Millions of people all over the world see this show every ****ing week. It's even popular in Italy. And what they see is a bunch of Italian lunatics running around with machine guns, talking out of the corner of their mouths slopping spaghetti like a bunch of ****ing pigs. They make Capone and Nitti look like bloodthirsty maniacs.
The guys that write that (BLEEP) don't even know the first thing about the way things were in those days. Elliot Ness my ass. The tax boys got Al not Ness. And what did he have to do with Frank Nitti? Paul (Ricca) and Tony (Accardo) want the show off the air. The top guys have voted a hit. I've already talked to Bomp about it. We're going to clip Desi Arnez, the producer of the show."
Cooler heads prevailed. It was decided that killing Arnez, who was one of the world's most popular entertainment personalities, would only cause more problems then it would solve. Instead, Accardo told Giancana to contact Frank Sinatra and have him talk with Arnez.
In April of 1961, Desi Arnez was leasing space to a Sinatra production company at Desilu Studios, where Arnez was also filming "The Untouchables," which starred John Kennedy's former Hollywood roommate Robert Stack, scion of one of California's first families.
In late April, Sinatra, actress Dorothy Provine and Jimmy Van Heusen drove to the Indian Wells Country Club and waited in the restaurant where Arnez ended most evenings at the bar.
Like clockwork, Arnez walked in, flanked by two massive bodyguards who dwarfed him. Spotting Sinatra at one of the tables, Arnez yelled across the
room "Hi Ya Dago!" and then walked over to Sinatra's table with his two
bodyguards.
A somber Sinatra told him that his Italian gangster friends didn't like the program and Arnez replied in his thick Cuban accent slurred with whiskey, "What do you want me to do Frank, make them all Jews?" Except in Arnez's thick accent it came out "U's."
Furthermore Arnez said, he had no fear of Frank's friends and ended the conversation by saying, "I remember you when Jew couldn't get a yob Frankie, couldn't get a yob. So why don't you forget all this bullshit and just have your drinks and enjoy yourself. Stop getting your nose in where it doesn't belong you and your so-called friends…" and then walked away leaving Sinatra to say, "I couldn't hit him we've been friends for too long."
I found the following on the net about death threats made to desi Arnez about the series........
Death By Publicity
The mob, television and the cost of secrecy
By John William Tuohy
)Toward the end of 1930 and well into 1931, Federal Agent Elliot Ness was busy trying to do some damage to the Capone beer operations.
In the spring of 1930 and 1931 Ness and his "Untouchables," that is, unbribable, agents led a series of raids against Capone breweries.
By September 1930 Capone was feeling the pinch from federal forces out to toss him in jail and from the endless raids the Chicago cops were pulling off because of the Lingle murders.
In April of 1931, Capone, or more than probably somebody under his command, like Frank Nitti, decided that he had enough of Elliot Ness and placed a bomb under his car which was set to explode when Ness started the engine. The problem was that Ness found the bomb.
But in all likelihood, Al Capone probably never knew Elliot Ness's name, and if he did, he probably only heard it mentioned in passing.
For the Capone organization, Ness and his group of so-called "untouchable" government agents were more of a nuisance who stopped their beer trucks
and arrested their drivers.
Elliot Ness died, almost unknown and forgotten, in 1957 just before his book "The Untouchables" was published. The book sold well and Hollywood, specifically Desilu Studios, decided that Ness's exploits, properly added to, would make a fine television show.
The show didn't go over well with the Mafia. These were still in the days when the syndicate and the Mafia operated in near complete secrecy.
The national commission figured correctly that, by allowing the show to air, it would set a precedent. If the outfit were allowed to be discussed openly on television, what was next?
"So the council had a meet about it" wrote Lucky Luciano, "and one of the
guys in Profaci's outfit named Joe Colombo come up with the idea of forming a legitimate association of Americans with Italian backgrounds to start a campaign against usn'n just Italian names for them gangsters in the TV shows and movies. The whole idea was to try and get The Untouchables off the ****in' air."
The syndicate agreed that the Organization called the Federation of Italian American Democratic Organizations would be headed by United States Congressman Alfred Santangelo, whose name was chosen off a list prepared by Pat Eboli.
According to Luciano, the Honorable Congressman Santangelo knew from the start that the entire organization was dreamed up and manufactured by the
mob.
When letters from Santangelo and the Federation didn't work to get the show off the air, a boycott was launched against Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company and on March 14, 1961, the company withdrew its sponsorship.
When word of the Mafia-inspired boycott made the Press, the show's rating
went through the roof and Chesterfield Cigarettes was back behind the show
one hundred percent.
To make matters even more ridiculous, it was at about that same time that Lucky Luciano decided to agree to a motion picture based on his life. Tommy Eboli told Lucky that the last thing that the Syndicate wanted was to bring more attention to itself, but Luciano didn't want to hear about it.
It was at this point that the mob elders turned to Chicago for help. Their reasoning was simple. The show was based on Chicago characters, Capone, Nitti, and Ness and since Chicago controlled California, and the Dons were fairly certain Hollywood was in California, it was Chicago's responsibility to take care of the TV problem and they would take care of the Luciano problem.
Accardo, Ricca and Murray Humpreys, three men who, together, had the power, the pull and the money to tell the entire Mafia to go to hell, didn't interfere. They knew that any day the Untouchables could mention their names.
Murray Humpreys, the smartest boss in the Chicago mob, if not in the whole syndicate, put Johnny Roselli on the case and Roselli discussed the problem with Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno.
"Millions of people all over the world see this show every ****ing week. It's even popular in Italy. And what they see is a bunch of Italian lunatics running around with machine guns, talking out of the corner of their mouths slopping spaghetti like a bunch of ****ing pigs. They make Capone and Nitti look like bloodthirsty maniacs.
The guys that write that (BLEEP) don't even know the first thing about the way things were in those days. Elliot Ness my ass. The tax boys got Al not Ness. And what did he have to do with Frank Nitti? Paul (Ricca) and Tony (Accardo) want the show off the air. The top guys have voted a hit. I've already talked to Bomp about it. We're going to clip Desi Arnez, the producer of the show."
Cooler heads prevailed. It was decided that killing Arnez, who was one of the world's most popular entertainment personalities, would only cause more problems then it would solve. Instead, Accardo told Giancana to contact Frank Sinatra and have him talk with Arnez.
In April of 1961, Desi Arnez was leasing space to a Sinatra production company at Desilu Studios, where Arnez was also filming "The Untouchables," which starred John Kennedy's former Hollywood roommate Robert Stack, scion of one of California's first families.
In late April, Sinatra, actress Dorothy Provine and Jimmy Van Heusen drove to the Indian Wells Country Club and waited in the restaurant where Arnez ended most evenings at the bar.
Like clockwork, Arnez walked in, flanked by two massive bodyguards who dwarfed him. Spotting Sinatra at one of the tables, Arnez yelled across the
room "Hi Ya Dago!" and then walked over to Sinatra's table with his two
bodyguards.
A somber Sinatra told him that his Italian gangster friends didn't like the program and Arnez replied in his thick Cuban accent slurred with whiskey, "What do you want me to do Frank, make them all Jews?" Except in Arnez's thick accent it came out "U's."
Furthermore Arnez said, he had no fear of Frank's friends and ended the conversation by saying, "I remember you when Jew couldn't get a yob Frankie, couldn't get a yob. So why don't you forget all this bullshit and just have your drinks and enjoy yourself. Stop getting your nose in where it doesn't belong you and your so-called friends…" and then walked away leaving Sinatra to say, "I couldn't hit him we've been friends for too long."