Tag: Mikey Palmici

The Sopranos: Paterson Falls

By Joe Berk

Another one of the stops on my New Jersey Sopranos tour was Paterson Falls.  Although only about 40 miles or so from where I grew up, I’d never been there.

I knew of the town, though.  It’s an old industrial village with waterfalls, which meant that in the early days of our country it was perfect for industrial development. The falls provided hydraulic power, and that could be used to drive machinery.  Indeed, it’s where Samuel Colt built his first run of revolvers, which are known (not surprisingly) as Paterson Colts.  Paterson was established as the nation’s first planned industrial city in 1792, with its readily-available hydraulic power and close proximity to New York City and the Atlantic Ocean.  Paterson manufactured silk cloth, steam locomotives, textiles, paper, firearms, and aircraft engines.    It is centered on the Passaic River, which flows into Newark Bay and from there to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Passaic Falls are contained within the Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park, which is (as the name implies) part of the U.S. National Park system.  All this was news to me, which is kind of amazing when you consider that I grew up a short 40 miles to the south.  I’d never known any of this, and to learn about it at my age was surprising.  I’ll give the credit for that to David Chase (the guy who created The Sopranos).  Had that show not sparked my interest, I’d still be ignorant.

So, let’s move on to the scene in The Sopranos that caught my attention.  It’s the episode in which Mikey Palmici (Uncle Junior’s driver and bodyguard) throws a drug dealer off the bridge over the Passaic Falls:

That episode you see above occurred later in The Sopranos.  There was another scene in the very first Sopranos episode on the same bridge shown above in which Hesh Rabkin and Big Pussy Bompensiero (two of The Sopranos characters) threaten to throw a health insurance company executive (a guy named Alex Mahaffey, played by Michael Gaston) off the same bridge if he didn’t cooperate with a Sopranos scam to defraud the insurance company.

When threatened with a swan dive off the bridge, Mahaffey gave in to the Soprano family’s demands, but alas, his Sopranos career was over; Michael Gaston never appeared in another episode.  But that didn’t mean Sue and I wouldn’t see him again.  In one of our trips to New Jersey, we rode the Air Trans shuttle between the airport and the rental car facility.  Just before we boarded the shuttle, Michael Gaston was leaving the car we entered.  We didn’t bug him, but we made eye contact and he knew we knew who he was.

Michael Gaston, an actor we bumped into on the Newark Airport Air Trans.

There’s a lot more to Paterson, though, then simply having been a location for a couple of The Sopranos scenes.  Here’s another video that describes Paterson’s history:

Today, Paterson is undergoing a renaissance, as the old factory buildings are being converted to loft apartments.  Yup, Paterson is being yuppified.  It looks like an interesting place to spend more time, but my schedule didn’t permit doing so on this visit.  For us it was roll into town, grab a few photos, and bail.

A view of Passaic Falls. This is a beautiful area.
The wood-surfaced foot bridge featured in two different Sopranos episodes.
Another view of the bridge. It’s closed to the public. On the Internet, it says it’s for safety reasons. One of my police buddies told me it’s because there were too many suicides from this bridge.
Another view of the Passaic River and its Falls in Paterson.
While we were visiting the Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park, this rather plump groundhog was doing the same. My Dad used to hunt these in New Jersey with his .243 Model 70 Winchester and the farmers loved having him do so. These woodchucks may look cute, but they destroy a lot of crops.

One thing I know for sure:   I’ll return to Paterson.  I’d like to explore the city, its museums, and more in greater detail.

Want to see our other visits to The Sopranos locations?  Here they are:

The Sopranos Mansion

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Tony Soprano’s Home

By Joe Berk

The scenes and the locations are iconic, and I take pride in recognizing every one of them in The Sopranos opening credits.  The music, the New Jersey Turnpike toll booth, the aged industrial locations, Pizzaland, and motoring up that long driveway at 14 Aspen Drive in North Caldwell, New Jersey. Today’s topic is the home you see at the beginning of every episode in what is unquestionably the best television series that ever aired.

I had originally seen the series sometime after it first ran on HBO.  I didn’t at first recognize how wonderful the show was and how it would come to be known throughout the world.  It was so good that many people think Tony Soprano is real.  I was in Scotland for a consulting gig when my driver, an elderly gentleman, recognized my American accent but told me I didn’t sound “like California.”

“I’m originally from New Jersey,” I explained.

My driver grew silent.  He was thinking.  Finally, the Question:  “Do you know Tony Soprano?”  He was dead serious.  We were in Glasgow on a motorway taking me to my destination, and here was this Scot asking me about a fictional character.  One who obviously seemed all too real to anyone who watched the show.

“I never actually met the man,” I truthfully answered, “But I know people who knew him.”

What I told the driver was true, sort of.  James Gandolfini, one of Tony’s many aliases, was a Jersey boy like me.  He graduated from my alma mater, Rutgers University. I could identify with The Sopranos and its New Jersey setting.  I knew people who spoke with the same accent and who most likely knew the DeCavalcante crime family (the real-world gangsters The Sopranos modeled).   Hell, I speak with the same accent, and that old Scot picked up on it in Glasgow.  Did I know Tony?  Hey, I could name names, but I don’t want to sleep with the fish.  I’m no rat.

On a recent trip, I thought it might be fun to Waze my way to a few of The Sopranos locations.  The list was long, as the show was mostly shot in New Jersey (as were most of the guys and a couple of gals who fell from Tony’s favor).  The first location I would visit, of course, had to be Tony and Carmela’s mansion. Waze knew the way.  The Garden State Parkway took me there, and that seemed fitting.

When we arrived, the cul-de-sac was way smaller than it had appeared each morning when a bathrobe-clad Tony waddled down the driveway to pick up his Newark Star Ledger (a paper I used to read, by the way). I couldn’t see too much of the mansion, the result of 25 years of landscaping doing what landscaping does. The trees and bushes had grown to obscure the view from the street.  It’s what Tony (or any organized crime figure) would have wanted.  Best to keep a low profile, free from Agent Harris’s probing eyes.

When a guy like Tony Soprano posts a sign like this, I pay attention. Nah, not really. What’s he gonna do? Coincidentally, we had that same mailbox in front of our house for years. It leaked and we grew tired of wet mail.

There it was, tucked away behind the vegetation, most definitely the mansion featured in so many episodes and, as mentioned above, in the opening at the start of every episode.  Even though the current occupants obviously discouraged visitors, we still took our chances.  As I was snapping photos midmorning on this New Jersey weekday, others appeared and did the same.  Some of them might have been FBI agents.  The fans of fame kept the flame burning bright, almost three decades after the music and the scenes first appeared.  Note to self:  Make the next visit in the dead of winter when the trees are bare, and do so late in the afternoon when the sun is in a better position.  The lighting was not good when I gathered this evidence; a good lawyer could get the photos thrown out in court (a junior G-Man I’m not).

14 Aspen Drive. If you listen carefully, you can hear Carmela bitching.

The sign’s admonitions notwithstanding, I looked around and started working the Nikon’s shutter (I’m not gonna lay down for some mailbox sign).  The neighborhood was befitting a kingpin like Tony Soprano.  The home on the other side of the cul-de-sac was better lit by the sun’s mid-morning rays, so I had to shoot it, too.  Collateral damage; couldn’t be helped.  An impressive zip code, to be sure.

A home across the street from Tony’s place. This is an exclusive neighborhood.

I liked The Sopranos television series then and I like it now.  I watch The Sopranos episodes on my cellphone (it’s running on Max) when I’m working out.  I get through an episode or so each time I visit the gym.  I’ve been through the entire series four times (and I’m into Season 5 for the fifth time now).  I started binge watching The Sopranos 18 pounds ago.  The Sopranos have been very good to me, my waistline, my cholesterol, and my A1C.  I need to buy a new belt, and Tony is the guy who made that happen.

So what’s next?  Paterson Falls, my friend.  It’s where Mikey Palmici threw a drug dealer off the bridge.  Stay tuned if you know what’s good for you.

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