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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 04/07/00 -- Vol. 18, No. 41
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. I correspond with a friend from Germany. He mentioned in
passing that there is a funny story in THE GODFATHER how Vito
Corleone got his name. I did not remember there being a funny
story there. My friend proceeded to tell me about how supposedly
young Vito wore a sign saying his name was Vito (something-or-
other) of Corleone. The note had his name and his village of
origin. He was processed through line so fast that the clerk read
it all as being his name so he lost his real last name and became
Vito Corleone.
This story may have read a lot funnier outside of the US than here
at home. It may not have even been intended as humor in the book.
It is not sad either. I think the fact that it was read as
humorous in Europe is very revealing.
In Europe, family names are very important. At least in European
films there seems to be a belief that family name and family honor
are very important. Lines like "Mine is one of the proudest names
in Venice," show up. Americans think that family is important for
only two reason. The family either needs to have long roots in
America or lots of money. If the family can trace their roots back
to the revolutionary war or if it is very wealthy, then family is
important. It means something to be a Rockefeller or a Kennedy.
But if the name does not mean money, then it is unimportant. And
if Vito had money he would not have been in that line, anyway.
Young Vito was probably handled by a clerk who had something like
75 seconds to process him and had a lot to do in that 75 seconds.
It was tough enough to make sure families all got the same name.
People went through immigration centers in huge numbers. A lot of
the people being processed could not get their original names
because there were sounds that could not be described with Roman
letters and could not be pronounced with English sounds. (I am
reminded that another friend asked me recently what was the
difference between the Jewish holidays Chanukah and Hannuka. It is
the same word, but really tough to put into English. This is
particularly so because we have no German guttural ch sound.) So
immigrants frequently lost their original family names when coming
to this country, and perhaps because of that people in the US have
much less attachment to their names.
Actually the claim has been made recently that it was not really
the immigration people who changed the names. The claim has been
made that on Ellis Island the authorities had been taking the names
from ships' rosters. If that is true it is many years after the
fact that the defense came along. People like Mario Puzo, author
of THE GODFATHER, have been blaming the Ellis Island authorities
for the changes of names all these years.
And it was not always the authorities that changed names. The name
Leeper is English-Irish, by the way and means basket-maker. The
Leeper family is Jewish from Ukraine. I would sort of like to say
it is Ukrainian-Jewish, but there is no such thing. There are Jews
living in Ukraine, but they are not considered Ukrainian. They are
forever outsiders living in their own homes. So a Mr. Loebsker
once left Ukraine and came to America. He did not lose his name at
Ellis Island. He was still a Loebsker in the US. That lasted
until people started to make fun of the name Loebsker calling him
Lobster. So he changed his own name copying a name he had seen.
Suddenly what had been and English or Irish family got a big Jewish
branch they had not heard about before.
These days there are whole industries where people change their
names for convenience and salability. Emigrants change their names
just to have something a name in business that people can pronounce
and remember. In the film industry actors have to change their
names if there is already another actor using that name. Vito
Corleone's minor problem with his name changing is actually fairly
much what happens all the time.
So we have less emphasis on hereditary titles. And it is an
attitude that has permeated all of American society. What would be
a disaster in Europe, the loss of a family name, may be a serious
matter in the Europe. Most Americans probably read the passage and
shrugged it off. And that probably is a good thing. [-mrl]