Scarface History

Al Capone was the first to go by the name of "Scarface".  Born in 1899 in New York City to Italian immigrants, he began his career in Brooklyn and later moved to Chicago, where he became the boss of the criminal organization "The Chicago Outfit".  His crime syndicate specialized in prostitution and the illegal trafficking of alcohol, during prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s.  Although Capone's enterprises were extremely successful (estimated to be grossing 100 million per year between 1925 and 1930), he avoided prosecution for years by bribing city officials and intimidating witnesses.

Capone obtained his lifelong nickname "Scarface" during a fight during his youth with Frank Gallucio while a bartender and bouncer at the seedy Harvard Inn bar in Brooklyn. During the fight, his face was slashed twice, and he retained scars for these wounds for the rest of his life. In 1929, Capone allegedly orchestrated the St. Valentines Day Massacre on the north side of Chicago, in which seven members of Bugs Maron's (Capone's arch-rival) gang were assassinated with submachine guns.  There were several unsuccessful assasination attempts against Capone during the 1920s. Once he was shot while at a restaurant, and his car and office were riddled with bullets at various times, but he survived. Capone became Public Enemy Number 1 in 1930, and was pursued vigorously by the legendary Eliot Ness and his hand-picked team of U.S. Prohibition agents "The Untouchables".

Ness was never able to convict Capone of racketeering charges, but after discovering coded accounting records in a routine warehouse raid, he was able to obtain Capone's conviction on tax evasion charges.  Capone began his prison time in Atlanta in May 1932, and was transferred to the legendary Alcatraz.  He remained there until January 1939, and was then released to a correctional institution in California for a one-year misdemeanor sentence.  In November 1939, he was released, and relocated to his home in Palm Island, Florida.  He remained there until his death in January 1947.

In 1983 Brian DePalma directed a remake of the 1932 movie.  It was written by Oliver Stone, and starred Al Pacino as a fictional Cuban refugee who comes to Florida in 1980 and ascends through cocaine dealing and violence to the top of Miami's organized crime syndicate. 

The lead character retained the name "Tony" from the 1932 original, but had a different last name... Montana.  Writer Stone claims that his last name was taken from his favorite football player Joe Montana of the San Francisco 49ers.  Stone consulted with the Miami police and the DEA while writing the film and incorporated many true crimes into the story.  Stone. As in the case of the original 1932 version, this movie faced similar challenges with the ratings board.  When it was originally submitted to the MPAA, its extreme violence and graphic language earned the film an X rating.  Even after DePalma made 2 further revisions, it still retained the X rating, until DePalma was finally able to convince the board to release it with an R, with the assistance of a panel of experts and real narcotics officers. One of the most famous lines in the movie is "Say hello to my little friend".  It has been requoted in many other movies and television shows.  Although the movie drew mostly negative reviews by most movie critics, it grossed over $65 million worldwide and has reached cult status in the subsequent years.