Providence is built on seven hills at the mouth of the Providence River at the head of Narragansett Bay, the largest city (population approximately a quarter million) and state capitol  of the smallest state in the Union. By the early 1900s, Providence was one of the wealthiest cities in the United States prior to the recent economic downturn. Immigrant labor powered one of the nation's largest industrial manufacturing centers. The streets were crowded with trolleys and automobiles and trucks.


Weybosset and Richmond

Providence probably will be again a major manufacturer of industrial products, from steam engines to precision tools to silverware, screws, and textiles. Someday. Giant companies were based in or near Providence, such as Brown & Sharpe, the Corliss Steam Engine Company, Babcock & Wilcox, the Grinnell Corporation, the Gorham Manufacturing Company, Nicholson File. Most of these are currently closed or run on a reduced workforce.

Economic conditions grew worse after the stock market crash in October 1929. Over a thousand banks have failed nationwide, leading to runs on the financial institutions as people clamored to get their money out. Thriving businesses closed. Unemployment hit 8.9% (over 3 million out of work, twice what it was in the ‘20s). In Providence, as in other cities, public works programs were begun to provide jobs. Out-of-work men, some in expensive suits, haunt street corners selling apples and pencils and sleep, wrapped in newspapers, in city parks. Evicted families begin to build shanties on vacant lots. Churches and philanthropists fund soup kitchens and breadlines; Frank Minetta bankrolls one.

If you have a job, you might make $40 a week, $2000 a year, and you pray it lasts. A new house will go for $7000, but banks aren’t making mortgages right now, and a decent house rents for $15 a month.
If you can afford $750 for that new Pontiac, a gallon of gas runs 10 cents.
A hamburger will cost you a quarter with a cup of coffee and a slice of pie or you can buy a pound of salami for 15 cents and a loaf of bread for a dime and make eight sandwiches.
A shot of bathtub gin is a dime and a quart of bootleg whiskey sets you back two bucks.
A first-run movie ticket costs a quarter and a bag of popcorn another nickel.

Popular Songs
Bye-Bye, Blues Falling in Love Again
Embraceable You Georgia on my Mind
Get Happy I’ve Got Rhythm
Just a Gigolo On the Sunny Side of the Street
Them There Eyes Walking my Baby Back Home
Am I Blue? Happy Days Are Here Again
Makin’ Whoopee When You’re Smiling

Popular Movies Popular Stars
Animal Crackers The Big House Joan Crawford William Haines
The Dawn Patrol Hell’s Angels Colleen Moore Al Jolson
Ladies of Leisure Min and Bill Greta Garbo Wallace Beery
Sinners Holiday Whoopee Clara Bow Charles Farrell
Our Gang shorts Laurel and Hardy shorts Janet Gaynor Joe E. Brown

Sports Events
Gallant Fox wins Triple Crown (Preakness, Belmont, Kentucky Derby).
Philadelphia Athletics clinch World Series over St. Louis Cardinals in October.
Nov 14, Tony Canzoneri takes the Lightweight boxing title.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:26, Wed 24 Feb 2021.

Most Italians in Providence are from Southern Italy— Sicily, Calabria, Puglia. In America, as it was in Italy, Italians are famous for their family lives. They are often tied to one another by relationships on both sides of the family. Usually, children of the same mother feel a necessity to cooperate against the outside world. Generally, a male feels closest to his mother's sisters and their kin. These kin traditionally protected him from the father's side, traditionally the side of "justice" as opposed to "mercy" and unmitigated love.
Simple Italian phrases: https://iwillteachyoualanguage...an-phrases#greetings
Families with more than six children are common and with better nutrition and medical care, most live to adulthood. The tradition is still very patriarchal, the father an unquestioned authority, especially since few grandfathers made the journey to the New World. The woman’s sphere is the home and the family; spinsters and widows generally live with their brothers once their fathers and husbands die. Daughters are expected to live at home until they marry and many sons until well into adulthood, but these norms are changing. Some younger women are beginning to find jobs outside the home, especially as family budgets are strained by a worsening economy. Some boys, and even girls, are pursuing education beyond their parochial grade schools as far as high school (St. Patrick’s High School under the Sisters of Mercy for girls and La Salle Academy under the Christian Brothers for boys) or sometimes the public Central High School. A few even matriculate to higher education, usually in the city: Brown University, an Ivy League school; Johnson & Wales Business College; Providence College, a private Catholic institution; and Rhode Island College, the state's oldest public college.

Marriages are still arranged among families to some extent, although the preferences of the boy and girl are given more consideration nowadays. Courtship is no longer restricted to the family parlor and chaperoned walks. Movie dates and church dances are increasingly respectable, though only the wildest young woman would go to a dance hall or – Dio non voglia! – a restaurant (let alone a speakeasy).

Outside of the family, little is the same as in the old country. The village has been supplanted by the neighborhood and the men work in industry and commerce, rather than agriculture. The role of the Catholic Church is considerably diminished, though still significant culturally with its rites and feasts and still garnering a level of respect for priests and nuns.

Food is a means for establishing and maintaining ties among family and friends. No one who enters an Italian home fails to receive an offering of food and drink. Typically, breakfast consists of a hard roll, butter, strong coffee, and fruit or juice. A large midday meal features pasta and sauce along with soup, bread, and meat (pork, beef) or fish (cod, bluefish, tuna, crab, clams). Supper consists of leftovers and is usually a family meal. Often, men work too far from the home and are afforded too short a meal break to eat there at midday, so these traditions are changing. Eating lunch at a restaurant or diner, or from a lunch pail, is increasingly common (or was before the economic conditions made jobs more scarce).

There is a great hierarchy of prestige according to occupation. Those in professional jobs have greater prestige than those in manual labor. Anyone who works with a pencil and paper is above those who get their hands dirty. Entrepreneurs who own their own business or rental property occupy a higher level still, though many have lost these properties lately. Italians are even beginning to crack the governmental occupations, becoming clerks and bureaucrats, even achieving elected office, maybe someday soon reaching the mayor’s office. Political operators at the precinct and ward level are paving the way for these inroads and are very important and powerful men in their community.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:17, Sun 07 Feb 2021.

During the War, Frank Minetta consolidated the various Italian criminals in Providence under his control. They either kicked back some of their take from gambling, smuggling, theft, extortion, etc. to Frank or they were “interfered with” and run out of the city or worse. He sought cooperation with the Irish gangs, but there was some conflict in which the mostly Irish police force and city administration played a part.

After the War, with the coming of federal and local laws against the sale and transport of alcoholic beverages, crime really started to pay. Danny Walsh consolidated the Irish gangs, much as Frank had the Italians. They agreed to a territorial split of the city so that Irish control of the southern districts (Elmwood, South Providence, the West End and Washington Park), as well as the suburbs was recognized. In exchange Walsh provided connections with the police and city officials. The Italians share their liquor production and smuggling routes, and the Irish sell them beer. A few Portuguese gangs are tolerated in Fox Point and East Providence and sell locally-produced wine to Minetta restaurants and speaks.

The Minetta organization doesn’t own any bordellos, but they do give them protection in exchange for a cut of the income. They also don’t sell drugs, considering it infamia.

The structure is simple, but very hierarchical:
The Boss
Frank Minetta (Mr. Minetta), often referred to as Don Minetta
The Consigliere
Vittorio (Vic) Lombardi (Mr. Lombardi), chief advisor to Mr. Minetta
Underbosses
Senior soldatos heading various criminal regimes/crews and reporting to Minetta and Lombardi. All are Calabrian.
Soldiers (Soldati, "Made men")
Work for their assigned underboss on more-or-less permanent assignment; a few work directly for Minetta or Lombardi
Almost everyone down to this level is Calabrian with maybe a few Sicilians and Pucliese. All are Italian.
Managers
Run the businesses: speakeasies, books, legitimate fronts. Most are Italian.
Associates
Work for a manager or occasionally an underboss or soldier. These jobs are often somewhat shady. Most are Italian.
Employees
Work at the various businesses, usually for a manager. These jobs are mostly legitimate.

Mr. Minetta lives in a house on Brighton Street in Federal Hill. His headquarters is at the Trattoria Due Sicilie, a restaurant and market in Federal Hill’s Little Italy. Five doors away is the old Buona Fortuna Saloon he owned with his late brother, now operating as a blind pig. Mr. Lombardi keeps an office on the second floor there. A widower, he lives with his married daughter in Federal Hill. No business is done at Mr. Lombardi’s house.

Mr. Minetta’s bodyguards and driver
"Bello Matty" Guglielmetti
"Billy Angel" Angelesco
Mike Romano
Mr. Lombardi’s driver
Anthony Ciampi
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:09, Thu 28 Jan 2021.

City and State Government
Governor Norman S. Case
Mayor James E. Dunne
District Attorney Francis X. Dunning
Chief of Providence Police Department James E. Murray

The Church
Bishop William Hickey

US Coast Guard   Narragansett Station - Capt. Walter Munro
CS-100 (75 foot patrol boat)
Lt. Dedham, Boatswain’s Mate Gilhooley, Gunner’s Mate Donovan, 6 seamen
Top speed: ~12 kts.
Armament: 1 pounder (47mm) semiautomatic gun forward; Thompson gun and rifles

The Irish
Danny Walsh heads the Irish mob with his pal Carl Rettich, a New Yorker. They brew beer in Elmhurst and run several speaks there and a couple of roadhouses out of town with gambling. They have ties to the city administration and the Providence PD. Walsh is also friendly with Frank Wallace of the Gustin Gang in Boston. So far, Minetta and Walsh have a truce and respect each other;s operations..

The Jews
There are some Jewish criminals that operate fencing operations and some white collar crime, like counterfeiting and insurance fraud. They are part of Charles Solomon’s Boston organization. Solomon’s local deputy is Abe Michaels.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:18, Sun 24 Jan 2021.

Downtown
Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Pail and diocesan offices 30 Fenner St Downtown
Rhode Island Hospital 593 Eddy St Downtown
City Hall 25 Dorrance St Downtown
Providence Journal 75 Fountain Street Downtown
Westminster Arcade shopping center 130 Westminster Street Downtown
Providence Biltmore Hotel 11 Dorrance St Downtown
Hotel Providence 139 Mathewson St Downtown
Dean Hotel 122 Fountain St Downtown

Federal Hill
Trattoria Due Sicilie, Atwells Ave and America St Federal Hill (Little Italy)
Frank Minetta's home Brighton St Federal Hill (Little Italy)
Vic Lombardi's home 66 Suffolk St Federal Hill (Little Italy)
Police Headquarters 325 Washington St Federal Hill

College Hill
Butler Hospital (psychiatric) 345 Blackstone Blvd College Hill
Brown University on College Hill
Hemenway’s Restaurant 121 S Main St College Hill
Thayer Apartments 257 Thayer St College Hill
Athenaeum (public library) 251 Benefit Street College Hill

Elmwood
Roger Williams Park Zoo 1000 Elmwood Ave South Elmwood

Warwick R.I.
Conimicut Point
(Broad St to Elmwood Ave to Warwick Ave to West Shore Rd – thirty minutes)

Naragansett R.I.
Coast Guard Station 40 Ocean Rd
(Broad St to Elmwood Ave to Kingstown Rd to Route 1 - ninety minutes)

Little Italy is in Federal Hill.
The Irish sections are Elmhurst and South Providence.
The Jewish neighborhood is Smith Hill.
Most Portuguese inhabit Fox Point and East Providence.
The other areas in Providence are mostly Yankee (white, anglo-saxon, protestants).
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:54, Mon 15 Feb 2021.