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Mafia past, TV future

A Tampa media production company is mining the city's Mafia past for its as-yet-to-be-produced TV series.

By SHERRI DAY
Published August 12, 2005

TAMPA - While excavating a Tampa condo construction site, workers unearth a body. Investigators recognize a 50-year-old Mafia hit, and the search for justice begins.

Could it be the plot of an Emmy-winning television drama? Budding Tampa movie makers hope so.

Tampa Digital Studios is trying to create an episodic television series that centers on modern-day Tampa, with flashbacks to its mobster past.

Admittedly, the company doesn't yet have a writer, a production team or a willing broadcast outlet.

But it does have a working title: King Corona, a nod to Ybor City cigarmaking.

"This could end up being the greatest show, or it may never go anywhere," said Tampa Digital director and producer Michael McCourt. "But you've got to believe in it."

The 30-person company is best known for commercials, infomercials and promotional spots. But they have long had greater aspirations.

"Our main goal is to do for Tampa what Miami Vice did for Miami," said Tampa Digital President George Cornelius. "People got the chance to see the beaches and the culture. And in the meantime, it also really built up a production community down there that is among the largest in the world as far as television and still photography. Those are our goals here."

Cornelius decided to pursue a mob-themed TV crime show last year after his wife read Scott M. Deitche's Cigar City Mafia.

In addition to the fictionalized series, Tampa Digital is attempting to produce a documentary about the mob.

Cornelius wants to film the fictional crime series in present-day Tampa, using sites such as the Columbia Restaurant, the Alessi Bakery and the Pier in St. Petersburg as backdrops.

He hired author Deitche as a consultant.

Since April, Deitche has helped create characters, craft plots and develop an overall theme.

"The main character will be a cop," Deitche said. "A lot of the main characters will be of Cuban, Italian and Hispanic descent. We wanted to show some of the ethnic flavor of Tampa."

The flavor also includes appearances by a notorious cracker mob, who in real life operated gambling rings in rural counties such as Polk, Osceola, Sumter and Lake.

With Deitche on board, word about the company's plans spread quickly. Tampa old-timers came forward with stories.

There were lawyers, doctors, old bolita operators, Mafia members and descendants, Cornelius said. They wanted to ensure some semblance of historic accuracy in anything depicting Tampa's mob.

Anthony "Juli" Grimaldi called Cornelius at home. Grimaldi's family owned the Columbia Bank in Ybor City until 1999. Until retirement, he worked 44 years in the banking industry, doing business with generations of Ybor City residents and merchants.

As a child, Grimaldi lived in Ybor City and West Tampa. He moved to Parkland Estates after starting his professional career and once counted reputed mob boss Santo Trafficante as a nearby neighbor. He delivered newspapers to legendary gambling kingpin Charlie Wall. He said he also witnessed gangland shootings at Centro Espanol in West Tampa.

He tells of Mafia weddings and funerals, and of dining with mobsters at an Ybor coffee shop.

"Just like animals in a jungle, we all got along and respected one another," Grimaldi said in a recent interview at his North Tampa home. "Although we didn't agree with what everyone was doing, we had the respect to turn our face.

"You didn't see nothing," he added. "You didn't hear nothing. You didn't speak."

His copy of Cigar City Mafia is filled with Post-it Notes, highlighted passages and handwritten notes scribbled in the margins.

"I know most everybody in this book," he said. "Those that are alive, those that are dead."

In Grimaldi, Tampa Digital found an insider who can help keep the crime drama believable.

"I think it will be better than The Sopranos," he said.

In May, Tampa Digital finished its formal pitch for the show.

Now, the company needs connections: a writer whose name can open doors and purse strings; a production company that can take the show from concept to prime time.

Cornelius doesn't expect to retain control. He figures any major network with interest would be reluctant to entrust production to an untested company. But he hopes Tampa Digital can stay involved, if only in a support role.

There are a lot of "ifs."

If Cornelius could pen an ending to his dream, a writing and production team would materialize by late fall. A pilot of King Corona would air by spring.

And jobs would come, giving work to makeup artists, set designers, sound technicians, lighting specialists and camera operators.

For that to happen, a network would have to gamble on Tampa Digital's concept.

"It's a very heavy competition for things like that," said Tampa Bay film commissioner Krista Soroka. "But we're out there every day trying to pitch our area for different productions. Should King Corona be one that hits, that'll be an outstanding achievement for the whole Tampa Bay area."

- People interested in sharing recollections of Tampa mobsters can contact Anthony Grimaldi at Juli123@verizon.net Sherri Day can be reached at 226-3504 or sday@sptimes.com

Tales about Tampa's Mafia, both fiction and nonfiction, have appeared in several books and movies throughout history. Here's a sample:

In print

- Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld by Scott M. Deitche, Barricade Books, 2004

- Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia by Joseph D. Pistone with Richard Woodley, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999

- Mob Lawyer: Including the Inside Account of Who Killed Jimmy Hoffa and JFK by Frank Ragano and Selwyn Raab, Charles Scribners' Sons, 1994

- Florida Roadkill by Tim Dorsey, HarperCollins, 2000

In film

- Goodfellas, 1990

- Donnie Brasco, 1997

- The Punisher, 2004

Compiled by Times researcher Cathy Wos and staff writer Sherri Day.

[Last modified August 11, 2005, 08:56:11]