{"id":2625,"date":"2023-04-20T17:33:33","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T00:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2625"},"modified":"2023-04-20T17:33:33","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T00:33:33","slug":"how-a-big-ten-connection-created-the-godfather-cast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/personalities\/2625\/how-a-big-ten-connection-created-the-godfather-cast","title":{"rendered":"How a Big Ten Connection Created The Godfather Cast"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trooper\u2019s<\/a>

Trooper\u2019s travel tale trots through Hollywood\u2019s Beverly Hills Hotel<\/p><\/div>\n

The late, Oscar-nominated actor James Caan failed to make the football team when he attended Michigan State University. But Caan did then make the cut to play Sonny Corleone in the movie \u201cThe Godfather,\u201d thanks to an Ohio State University alum named Andrea Eastman who had become a casting director at Hollywood\u2019s Paramount Pictures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think I learned more about football than anything at OSU,\u201d Eastman joked, admitting that no one goes to college to learn how to cast a hit movie.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJimmy Caan was amazing in his original screen test for \u2018Michael,\u2019 but he was out of the movie since Al Pacino got the part. Francis Ford Coppola, the director, had initially promised the part to a big guy named Carmine Caridi that he\u2019d met at a party,\u201d Eastman explained. But it turned out that Caridi wasn\u2019t quite right for the part. And he\u2019d never formally signed a deal. \u201cCoppola trusted me. He was leaving for Sicily so he told me, \u2018Just cast my movie!\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eastman said she ran up to her office to make Caan\u2019s deal before anyone changed their mind. \u201cEverybody in the world wanted to be in The Godfather, but we then had our dream cast: Marlon Brando, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and Al Pacino.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate lineup was iconic,\u201d read a display at Hollywood\u2019s Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Best Picture-winning Godfather movie. Eastman\u2019s name and legacy, including casting Pacino (whom one of her studio bosses referred to as a \u2018little pip squeak\u2019), were prominently displayed in the elaborate Godfather exhibit\u2019s \u201cCasting and Performance\u201d section.<\/span><\/p>\n

The day after meeting Eastman, I happened upon Pacino lunching with a friend of his in the Tower Bar of the historic Sunset Tower Hotel, which opened in 1929. There were younger, unbothered celebrities in the old Hollywood-style room with a panoramic view of Los Angeles, but Pacino is an actor with his own orbit\u2014an orbit I dared to enter. I broke the ice by physically forcing myself to approach his table against the wall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me,\u201d I offered, then quickly explained to Pacino that I\u2019d dined with Andrea Eastman the previous night and stated, \u201cI know she\u2019d want me to send her best.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Only then did Pacino look up with sincere warmth and an audible gasp. \u201cAndrea and I go way back. She\u2019s in town? I should call her. How can she be reached?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I told him how to find her and then asked the legendary Oscar-winner if he\u2019d visited The Godfather exhibit at the Academy Museum? That\u2019s when Pacino\u2019s lunch pal joked, \u201cIf people saw Al walking around in that museum, they\u2019d think one of the statues came to life!\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eastman was back in residence at the Beverly Hills Hotel, the classic castle where, about a decade earlier, she\u2019d bumped into Pacino\u2014a sweet story he confirmed. \u201cAl Pacino happened to be in the hotel\u2019s Polo Lounge when I was there. Noticing us, Richard, the piano player, began tinkling the theme from \u201cThe Godfather,\u201d so Al and I decided to dance together to that song,\u201d Eastman recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her special memories of the iconic pink hotel include a previous extended stay to recover from her open-heart surgery during the pandemic with her devoted dog Trooper. That experience has been celebrated in a new book for travel types, children, and animal lovers entitled: \u201cTrooper at the Beverly Hills Hotel.\u201d The coffee table-pretty book by Susan McCauley features charming illustrations memorializing Eastman\u2019s late golden retriever and the gilded hotel by Darlee Orcullo Urbiztondo.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTrooper would prance around the hotel and go behind the front desk each morning where the staff would greet him. Trooper loved the hotel and the affection I got from Trooper in that peaceful, elegant setting hastened my recovery. The book makes people cry because of Trooper\u2019s loyalty and unconditional love for me and everyone,\u201d Eastman revealed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Beverly Hills Hotel\u2019s current general manager, John Scanlon, welcomed Eastman back with her new dog, a golden\/dingo mix she rescued from Korea and named \u201cPolo\u201d in homage to the hotel\u2019s famed Polo Lounge.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eastman is an animal lover, and though she has described making The Godfather as the best time of her life, there is one scene she lobbied against: the infamous \u201chorses head in the Hollywood producer\u2019s bed incident\u201d (which was filmed at a mansion behind the Beverly Hills Hotel with a genuine, previously butchered equine skull.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eastman has rescued horses at her home in Bozeman, Montana, near Big Sky Resort, owned by Michigan-based Boyne USA. She was also featured in the book \u201cPeople We Know, Horses They Love,\u201d written by NBC \u201cToday Show\u201d correspondent Jill Rapaport with images by her sister Linda Solomon, a celebrity photojournalist from Michigan.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The lesson in all of this? Keep your friends close\u2026and your pets closer!<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact Michael Patrick Shiels at <\/span><\/i>MShiels@aol.com<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 His radio program may be found at MiBigShow.com or weekday mornings from 9-noon on WJIM AM 1240<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A story of how Andrea Eastman was instrumental in casting the dream team of actors for the classic hit movie, The Godfather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1023750,269131,1044424,1044559],"class_list":["post-2625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personalities","tag-hollywood","tag-the-godfather","tag-andrea-eastman","tag-al-pacino"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2023\/04\/Godfather-Andrea-tale-and-Troopers-tail-Image-Michael-Partick-Shiels.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2625"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2628,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625\/revisions\/2628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}