"Goodfellas," the book and the movie

[Wilson Gray]

When I couldn't locate my copy of the book under the title,
"Goodfellas," it slowly dawned on me that I had blundered. Oh, well.
It was my first mistake since the last one. You can't win 'em all, to
coin a phrase. :-(

Do you think that's funny?!

-Wilson

On 8/29/06, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Goodfellas," the book and the movie
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Tue, Aug 29, 2006 at 11:19:56AM -0500, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> >
> > "Goodfellas" (movie) was based on a book called "Wiseguy" by
> > Nicholas Pileggi.  I'm pretty sure I remember reading that
> > the movie wasn't also called "Wiseguy" because there was TV
> > series of that name on the air at that time.  So they
> > changed the word to "goodfellas".  It was made up for the
> > movie.
>
> I had meant to point this out in my original post, but
> actually, as the OED entry shows, J. D. Pistone's _Donnie
> Brasco_ does contain a clear example of _good fellow_ (thus
> spelled) in this sense.
>
> 1987 J. D. PISTONE Donnie Brasco xvii. 310 Was Anthony Mirra a
> wiseguy then?.. If Mirra wasn't a good fellow at the time you
> was there, his argument is no good.
>
> It does seem, from Amazon searching, that no form of "goodfella"
> appears in Pileggi's 1985 _Wiseguys_, though.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED
>
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>


--
-Wilson
––
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"––a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.

--Sam Clemens

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