Disney coined the phrase “it’s a small world, after all” in its float-through theme park ride and the (maddeningly) unforgettable, repeating song which scores the classic attraction. The theme also plays out frequently though the guests on my morning radio program.
Little Italy in New York transports travelers into the movies, too. (Photo by: Harrison Shiels)
During a recent live radio broadcast I interviewed, via, telephone, movie and TV actor Robert Davi, who appeared in such smash hit films as “Die Hard,” “Goonies,” and the 007 movie “License to Kill.”
“I think I may have seen you once in Little Italy in New York. Did you possibly go right past me on a float?” I asked him.
“Yes, that was me. Wow! I was the grand marshal of the 2008 Feast of San Gennaro Festival,” he answered.
If you ever want to feel like you’re in a “Godfather” movie, Little Italy, especially during that event, is the place to do it. Scenes in two of the films were shot amid its old-fashioned Mulberry Street restaurants and storefronts.
“What a great piece of New York,” Davi confirmed to me, “but unfortunately Little Italy getting smaller and smaller over there. And by the way what was an Irish guy like you doing in Little Italy?”
Speaking of Italian restaurants, Davi, while playing the Bond villain in “License to Kill,” said the film’s producer Barbara Broccoli told him he could also have made a good 007. Broccoli is known to crave the cuisine of a cucina that came up in my recent conversation with CNN’s Clarissa Ward, who called into my radio show from London where she serves as the network’s chief international correspondent.
