by Robert Cashill

Today in 1972, Francis Ford Coppola's film The Godfather, based on the mafia epic by Mario Puzo, premiered. Here's a look at how the book became a Hollywood classic.

Mario Puzo grew up in New York's Hell's Kitchen. As a young writer he knocked around hardboiled men's magazines, penning war stories. In his mid-40s, he wasn't getting any younger, and with a wife and five kids to feed, and two flop novels behind him, he accepted a modest advance to write a third. It was based on stories he heard on the street. The author of the book most beloved by wiseguys had never met a gangster.

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Source: http://www.biography.com/