THE TOWNSMAN, Thursday, July 14, 1977. PAQE 7 Bill Smiley= The real” Mafia You were ‘probably sur- prised and a‘ bit shaken. by that recent CBC . television show “Connections,” ali - about. the permeation of © Canadian society by organiz- ed crime: the Mafia, the- French (Connection, the Hong Kong Connection, and soon, It neither surprised nor disturbed me. I’ve known all ’ about it: for. ‘about four decades, In fact, I’m amazed that the CBC didn’t interview me, if they wanted something authentic about the begin- nings of organized crime in this country. E was there. - Of: course, at the time, [ didn’t realize what I was get- ting in to. 1 was in my early teens, But the pattern, look- _ ing back, was obvious. There were two Families in my home town, the Salvatis and the Guaracchis. Showing little originality, both operated behind the front of a fruit store, They were both from Sicily, and they were bitter enemies, If Sammy Salvati ran a special onfresh — asparagus, you can bet your armor-plated vest that Joe Guaracchi, after sending one of his boys down to check the prices in the store window, would undercut him by a dime. Back and forth went the skirmishes, but we ordinary small-town punks caught only once in a while the ALL MY DARLING DAUGHTERS Stars Robert Young, Eve Ar- den, Darleen Carr. Widower Is confronted with problem when all four of his daughters decide to gat married the same day. COUNTDOWN ; (WB-7: Arts ‘68) James Caan, Robert Duvall, Joanna Moore, Barbara Maxtey, . Charlies Aldman and Ted Knight (Ted Baxter on Mary Tyler Moore's Show) Directed by Robert Altman. (‘‘Mash*, “’Nashville”) with’ screenplay by Loring Mandel. U.S. and Russia race to put first man on the moon. When .American lands there, finding. wrecked Russian space ship, race against time begins. He must.find shelter or. he too will perish. THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME Warren Clarke stars in the title role of Quasimodo. This BEC TV dramatization of Victor Hugo’s classic, set in Paris in 1485 during the Feast of Foals, features Kenneth Halgh as Claude Froilo, the archdeacon of Notre Dame Cathedral and Quasimodo’s protector, and Michelle Newell as Esmeralda the Gypsy girl whose life Is saved by the.hunchback. . This Program continues = the cooperative agreement between the NBC Television Network - and the BBC for the exchange of major dramatic special Programs. The- scrip was written by Robert Muller, based on the orlginal Victor. Hugo text. Featured are Christopher Gable as the young post, Pierre Gringotre. and Richard Morant hoebus, young captain of the King’s guard. NUMBER.ONE | . Stars. Chariton Heston, Jessica Waiter, 8 Aging professions! fo football star must . decide whether to quit the game . OF chence another seeder. a savage. internecine warfare that went on behind the fruit Store fronts. . 7 ' ‘The Salvatis, for example, tried to assimilate. They join- ed the United Church, to set up another front, and it’s been rumored that they ‘‘laundered"’ a lot of their ill- gotten gains by syphoning them through that organiza- tion as donations. On the other hand, the | Guaracchis went on speaking -- threatening to. Sicilian, ’ murder their kids if they didn’t work harder, and mut- tering about their “‘connec- tion’? with Rome. At the time, 1 belonged to a gang of young hoodlums who hung about in ‘the town’s two pool rooms, those of Bob Loblaw and Sylvester O'Toole, One of our gang, the Chiriese cotinection, was Joe Hoo, sclon of the only Chinese family in town, As you can see, it was quite a cosmopolitan nuiticipality, although the population was only 4, 000, Auto Sanice Tips FAN. ‘TO ALLEVIATE THE MESS OF CHANGING AN OIL FILTER. (ON “THOSE CARS WHERE Ol RUNS OUT AROUNO THE FILTER. WHEN YOU LOOSEN IT; Tey PUNCTURING “FIE BOri0M OF THE FIER witll AND Ice PICK OR PUNCH 60 THAT THEOIL CAN PRIBELE INTO. A DRAIN az We were a pretty vicious 7 crowd, but it was Depression years, so that we didn’t have ‘the opportunities of today’ 8 punks, There was no point in snatching purses from old ladies; there was nothing in them. No point in mugging elderly gentlemen for ihe same reason: broke, We didn’t drink, because our fathers couldn't afford have it around the house to steal. _ Helling around on motor- cycles, of course, was ont of the question. But we did ter- - sorize a few neighborhoods by riding our second-harid bicycles on the sidewalks and occasionally right across someone's lawn, I don’t want you to think for one minute that we weren't taking out our subliminal frustrations and latent ‘aggressions against society. We were. Atleast once a week, we'd lean out the third-floor win- dows of the local Chess, Chowder and . Cribbage 2 Club, which we were allowed to use,, as junior members, from nine to 11 on Sunday nights, in. exchange for janitorial duties, and spit on passersby below. ‘weren't many — passersby, that is — on a Sunday even- ing ina small t6wn, but occa- sionally we'd hit one, shout “Tally-hof’* and toast ‘each other in Pepsi. -But it was through our other thuggish (yes, Tadmit it now) activity that we became deeply involved . with The _ Mob. This activity was steal-. - Sicilian, ing from the outside stands of — you've guessed it — the town’s two fruit stores.’ From the outset, it was ob- vious that we'd come under the wing of one of the two Families. It didn’t take long to see where we were, heading. The Salvatis kept a good lookout, shouted loud, in English, and would chase you all the way to the river to’ get back a lousy peach. But the © Guaracchis, although they too shouted, in were fat. and couldn't run. And we had an ace. in the hole, One of our gang was one of their boys, . Phil Guaracchi. We terroriz- ed him into utter submission by threatening to expose his membership in the club to the Godfather, Joe Guaracchi, who would have thumped ~! . him into a very small pizza, " indeed. So we had an inside man. He'd tip us off when his old man was off with the truck to Buffalo, where he had a close ‘+ connection with the Bananas MONDAY 3k 4 There . Batig. We knew exacily when he'd arrive back with a truckful of bananas, grapes, you name it, and laid our plans as varefully asthe IRA, - The minute the new fruit. was put on the outside stands, one of our gang. would go into the store and ask Mama Guaracchi if Phil could come down to the pool room. While she was haranguing him, the rest of ‘us would stuff our shirts and head for the park for a glut- tonous gorge. It was only a step from there to getting into the God- father’s cellar and home- made wine when he was out of town, Next thing you know, a couple of us were running dances, at 50 cents ‘a . couple, with beer in the back room ina tub of ice, We used to promise the orchestra $25. and then beat them down fp - $15, The money just rolled in, Some weeks we made enough to pay a little off on ~ our bill at the pool room, where we ‘habitually played on our “nerve."* That is, without funds to pay for the — table, if you lost. . There was only one direc- tion we could go, and we'd =~ have wound up more debased and debauched than -: the Dubois brothers of ‘Mon- treal, if the war hadn't come along. Some of us got killed, Some of us had a worse fate. We stayed alive and got mar- tried: The old gan broke up. But don't tell me about the Mafia. I was there, © The Argyte Syndicate Ltd. " BATTLE TOOAY. oT ’_ | ROMPER ROOM, ES RSAME, STREET 9:30 LASER ‘WHEEL OF FORTUNE FRIBNOLY GIANT - 10:00 Tenn CANNEM.. ELECTRIC a IT'S ANYRORY'S GUESS — (MR DRESSUP 10:30 DEFINTION =’ MEASUREMETRICS |. "SHOOT FOR THESTARS. + | “SESAME STREET LLE FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Way GHIOO & THE MAN 11:30 ’ HOT HANDS” ‘BREAD & BUTTERFLIES . HOLLYWOOD SQUARES SUMMER ‘TF 12:00 | ROORREWS ELECTRIC CO, | GAYS OF OUP.LIVES. 12:30 ADAM 12 MAKING MUSIC ’ 808 SWITZER 1:00 eve ee ANIMALS a@.SUCH DOCTORS WILD KINGDOM 1:30 Deughtars . “ANOTHER WORLD ALL IN THE FAMILY 2:00 DORIS DAY SHOW ‘INSIDE « OUT ———— . EDGE OF NIGHT 2330 ALLAN HAMEL | WORDSMITH THE 3:00 MOVIE TAKE 2” 3:00 ER WORLD | SPEAKOUT “"Coumrchavay* CELEBRITY COOKS 3:40 __ CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY TPs YOUR CHOICE. 4:00 “SESAME STREET — " JUST FOR FUN 4:30 THE LUCY SHOW . MARY HARTMAN RAINBOW COUNTRY: 5:00 | | EMERGENCY [MISTER ROGERS Tews ROOM 22 5330 ELECTRIC COMPANY HOURGLASS 6:00 | NEWS.. HOUR. OM ac NEWS "JUST FOR FUN 6:30 CROCKETT'S VICTORY : BARNASY JONES 7:00 LEHRER REPORT tenet HOLLYWOOD 7:30 Prt ea “ WINNERS AND LOSERS Petre! HOUSE ON THE RHODA 8:00 SHADES OF GREENE. = PRAIRIE “PHYLLIS 8:30_ . i NEC MONDAY NIGHT AT BEYOND REASON / 9:00 AGH OF UNCERTAINTY, "THE MOVIES. : ALLINTHE FAMLY 9:30 te Hunchback of Notre ” NEWS MAGAZINE 10:00 ‘THE NEWAVENGERS RICH AT THE TOP V.LP. 10: ae THE NATIONAL t CTV NOES THe REAL Paonia "TOMIGRT SHOW _ .n ‘HIGHT FINAL 130. NEWS HOUR FINAL ; SGN OFF ——— (KORDA COLLECTION: 12:00 THE LATE SHOW