Thanks for letting me visit again!
I love stopping by your blog because I know I’ll get a large dose of Southern
hospitality!
I saw my first episode of The
Untouchables when I was a teenager, when some station started showing re-runs
of it. I’d never seen it before and I was totally enthralled. I’d already
developed an interest in gangsters and Prohibition, so this totally fed into
it. Watching Robert Stack as Elliot Ness going up against Chicago’s baddest
hoods was satisfying on many levels. To this day, I retain a love for that era,
and the Noble Experiment known as Prohibition.
If you watch the show, you get the
impression that Ness and his men brought Al Capone to his knees by busting into
speakeasies, breaking up illegal stills, and having wholesale shootouts. But
such was not the case. Actually, Capone was brought down for something far less bloody and even
mundane. He was sent to prison due to income tax evasion, because Ness couldn’t
make anything else stick. Afterwards, smart gangsters employed savvy
bookkeepers who knew who to keep an extra set of books—one for the boss and one
for the IRS—and knew how to cook them.
Al Capone is one of my very
favorite gangsters from that era. A very complicated man who was actually
well-liked and respected by many people, he led a rags to riches story, one
that proved that in America you could do anything if you worked at it. Even if
it was illegal. The Volstead Act (which brought Prohibition into being) was
ambitious but foolish, and like many foolish laws was largely promulgated by
the religious right. It was doomed to failure because let’s be honest, people
like to drink, and they don’t like being told they can’t. So they were willing
to do what it took to have a good time. Plus it wasn’t the drinking of it that
was illegal, it was the transportation and sale and manufacture.
Capone has figured in a few movies
over the years. Jason Robards Jr. played him in The St. Valentine’s Day
Massacre (a star-studded cast that also brought us George Segal, among
others). The actual massacre took place
in a garage in Chicago and was meant to be a hit against rival gangster Bugs
Moran (Ralph Meeker), who escaped by a simple twist of Fate. Capone himself
could not be brought to account for the crime for at the time it was going
down, he was inside a police station in Florida. Talk about an unshakeable
alibi! Of course he had it planned that way, and purposely went to the police
station at just the right time. What could the authorities do? Not a whole lot.
He wasn’t there, and they couldn’t prove he masterminded it.
The massacre was used to a more
comedic effect in another film starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon—Some Like
it Hot. They play two musicians who accidentally walk into the garage at the
wrong time and see what they shouldn’t have. In order to escape the wrath of
the mob, they join an all-female band—in drag, of course—and end up in Florida.
The lead singer of the band, Sugar, is played by the beautiful Marilyn Monroe,
who falls for Tony Curtis’ fake male persona (with definite overtones of Cary
Grant!), while Jack Lemmon finds himself pursued by the wealthy Osgood Fielding
III (played by Joe E. Brown). The best line of the film comes at the end when
Osgood proposes to Hildegarde (Jack Lemmon) and he pulls off his wig and
confesses that he’s a man. Osgood’s
response? “Well, nobody’s perfect.”
Side note: George Raft played Spats
Columbo in Some Like it Hot, the gangster who is trying to catch our heroes, so
called because of the shoes that he wore. As a result of that film, I became
fascinated by spats and wanted a pair. Alas, no shoe stores sold them anymore,
and most clerks didn’t know what I was talking about lol.
As I said, Capone was sentenced to
prison for tax evasion and was eventually sent to Alcatraz. But his sentence
was cut short and he was released early. They sent him home to Florida. Why?
Because he was dying of syphilis. All because of a fear of needles. It was
treatable by then, but he didn’t do it, and was probably well out of his mind
by the time he died in 1947.
I started to write a story set
during Prohibition as a teenager, influenced by The Untouchables, and by books
I read, but I never finished it and it got lost over the years. That story was
m/f, and I hope it would have been good, but we’ll never know. A few years ago,
thanks to my daughters, I began to write m/m fiction, and when I decided to
write a Christmas story, suddenly my ideas began to center around Prohibition
and Chicago. And A Special Christmas was born.
I hope to visit the era again
someday. So many stories. So little time.
Thanks for having me here, Ms.
Church! As always, it’s been a real pleasure!
Blurb: Florian Donati has an almost childlike
innocence in the body of a god. Unaware of his charms, he enjoys his life, working
in his family’s drycleaning business in Prohibition-era Chicago. He loves his
job, loves singing Italian opera, and loves the people in his life, including
his friend Loria and the notorious gangster Alphonse Capone. Still, he dreams
of having adventures and finding love.
Nick Giannakopoulos is a young
Greek immigrant who’s come to America to live with his uncle’s family, working
with his cousin in the family pharmacy. There are many things he’d love to do,
including going to a party in a speakeasy that he and his cousin Milo have been
invited to. But it’s on Christmas Eve, so family obligations preclude their
going. Until Fate intervenes and Nick and Florian end up at the same speakeasy
in Romeoville and find themselves sitting at the same table.
Is instant attraction a basis for a
long term relationship? Or is this just a passing Christmas fancy?
Excerpt:
A moment later, a vision appeared before Nick's
eyes. He had never seen anyone so lovely in his life before, male or female. He
watched dumbly as the dark-haired beauty with the hypnotic blue eyes smiled at
him, taking the chair next to Nick. Nick felt weak just watching him do it.
"You are sure we are no trouble?" the
man -- Florian, Nick remembered --
asked in the most melodious voice, possessed of a slight accent. Nick couldn't
quite place it. He wasn't even sure how he could hear it so clearly with the
crowd noise in the background the way it was. It was as if he were attuned to
it somehow. He found that he didn't even really care how as he returned the
man's smile.
"Sure, is no trouble," he replied. He
held out his hand to the angel... that is, man. "My name is Nick. Nick
Giannakopoulos."
Florian took the soft hand within his own.
"I am Florian Donati."
"I'm Frank." Frank introduced himself,
although no one had asked. And no one responded. "Hey, Flor, I see the fella I'm supposed
to meet. I gotta go finish some business. See you around!" Using his
finger and thumb as an imaginary gun, he aimed it at Florian and pretended to
shoot, then leapt up from his seat like his pants were ablaze, disappearing
quickly.
"Your friend, he is in a hurry?" Nick
asked, as Frank melted into the crowd around them. He leaned closer to Florian
to make himself heard.
Florian nodded. "We've been very busy
today," he said proudly. "Frank let me help him work. We made many
deliveries."
Nick refrained from asking what sort of
deliveries. It wasn't his business, and he didn't wish to be rude, or overly
curious. His eyes flitting over the handsome man, he couldn't help but admire
the suit that Florian wore. He reached out one hand, running his fingers over
the soft silk. "That feels very nice."
Florian glowed at his praise. "It does,
doesn't it? It is... how do you say?" He struggled to find the right word,
one he'd heard used by some of the men that came into the dry cleaner. "Tight...
that's it. It's very tight, don't you think?" He took Nick's hand, pressed
it against the double-breasted lapels.
Nick stopped breathing for a moment, before
taking his hand back, reaching for his drink. "It is, very tight,"
Nick agreed in a husky voice just before he took a good swallow of the sweet
liquid.
"What is that you drink? It looks very
good," Florian commented.
"I'm not sure of the name. Joe get it for
me," Nick admitted. He held the glass toward Florian, offering it.
"Here, take a drink, see if you like it." He found himself making a
conscious effort to prevent his arm from trembling too much.
Florian took the glass with a nod, his fingers
brushing against Nick's in the process. Nick's heart stopped for just an
instant at the contact. He was amazed at how much of a reaction such a slight
touch had wrought in him. He was suddenly grateful for the table that kept it
hidden from view.
Julie Lynn Hayes
was reading at the age of two and writing by the age of nine and always wanted
to be a writer when she grew up. Two marriages, five children, and more than
forty years later, that is still her dream. She blames her younger daughters
for introducing her to yaoi and the world of M/M love, a world which has
captured her imagination and her heart and fueled her writing in ways she'd
never dreamed of before. She especially loves stories of two men finding true
love and happiness in one another's arms and is a great believer in the happily
ever after. She lives in St. Louis with her daughter Sarah and two cats, loves
books and movies, and hopes to be a world traveler some day. She enjoys crafts,
such as crocheting and cross stitch, knitting and needlepoint and loves to
cook. While working a temporary day job, she continues to write her books and
stories and reviews, which she posts in various places on the internet. Her
family thinks she is a bit off, but she doesn't mind. Marching to the beat of
one's own drummer is a good thing, after all.
Her published works can be found at Dreamspinner Press, MuseitUp
Publishing, Torquere Press, and eXtasy Books. She has also begun to
self-publish and is an editor at MuseitUp.
You can find her on
her blog at http://julielynnhayes.blogspot.com, and you can contact her at tothemax.wolf@gmail.com.
My Links:
My blog: http://julielynnhayes.blogspot.com
My facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=527332074
My Publishers:
Museit Up Publishing: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php
Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=55_222
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShelleyRunyon
