In Popular Culture
The title character of Vito Corleone in Mario Puzo's The Godfather was considered by many to be largely based on Bonanno, although the character is in many ways a composite of several figures.
The Judge Dredd character Joe Bananas, henchman for Don Uggie Apelino, was named after Bonanno.
In 1999, the Lifetime TV network produced a biographical film called Bonanno: A Godfather's Story. The film chronicles the rise and fall of organized crime in the United States.
In 1991, Bonanno's daughter-in-law, Rosalie Profaci Bonanno, published the memoir Mafia Marriage: My Story. This book was eventually converted to the 1993 Lifetime Network film Love, Honor, & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage.
In 2006, episode 66 of The Sopranos, "Members Only", Eugene Pontecorvo wants to retire and uses Joe Bananas as an example of a retired mob member.
In 2004 Joe's daughter-in-law began putting Joe's personal items up for auction on eBay. This continued until 2008.
In 2009, Joe's cousin Thomas Bonanno participated as a Mafia expert in the filming of the "Mafia vs. Yakuza" episode of Deadliest Warrior, demonstrating his skills and marksmanship with a Thompson submachine gun, as well as talking about "true" Sicilian Mafia philosophy and culture.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Bonanno
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“Like other secret lovers, many speak mockingly about popular culture to conceal their passion for it.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Resorts advertised for waitresses, specifying that they “must appear in short clothes or no engagement.” Below a Gospel Guide column headed, “Where our Local Divines Will Hang Out Tomorrow,” was an account of spirited gun play at the Bon Ton. In Jeff Winney’s California Concert Hall, patrons “bucked the tiger” under the watchful eye of Kitty Crawhurst, popular “lady” gambler.”
—Administration in the State of Colo, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“... we’ve allowed a youth-centered culture to leave us so estranged from our future selves that, when asked about the years beyond fifty, sixty, or seventy—all part of the average human life span providing we can escape hunger, violence, and other epidemics—many people can see only a blank screen, or one on which they project fear of disease and democracy.”
—Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)