Bogart didn’t live to be as old as the ruthless Asheton, dying of cancer at age 39.īackstory: When Jackie goes to see Asheton to get money to make a demo of Mylene in episode three, Asheton says no, despite the fact that Moreno once helped put many of the gold and platinum records on his wall. Casablanca’s big disco acts included Donna Summer and the Village People. In 1977, he did land on the cover of The New York Times Magazine with the headline, “ Mister Untouchable.”īackstory: Episode three opens with Marrakech Star record president Roy Asheton boasting about his label’s history-making year, and we get a shot of Star Maker magazine’s “exclusive interview with the man behind Donna Summer and Misty Holloway.”įact, Fiction or Inspired by: Neil Bogart’s Casablanca Records, which the former Buddha Records exec started in 1973, and named after the classic film, seems to be the model for Asheton and his label. He was responsible for distributing most of the city’s heroin and expanding his operation to Pennsylvania and Canada in 1976. “What kind of drug dealer poses on the cover of Time magazine?” the crime boss asks about her Harlem competitor.įact, Fiction or Inspired by: While Fat Annie is pure invention, Leroy “Nicky” Barnes isn’t. But he’s more interested in disco dancing, and writing bad songs like “Boogie Oogie Disco Biscuit.” The only thing standing in the way of Annie’s expansion is Nicky Barnes. She wants to expand her operation into Harlem, presumably with the help of her tricked-out gangster son, Clarence a.k.a. Velez built a government-funded center in the South Bronx that provided medical and social services, and was credited with turning the National Puerto Rican Day Parade into a major event.īackstory: “I got this here club, plus the disco downstairs, plus three after-hours joints, prostitution, gambling, numbers, a day-care center, and I still got time to control half the cocaine in the Bronx,” declares the crime boss in the first episode. Velez, the son of a Puerto Rican farmer, was once called a “poverty pimp” by Koch, who later revised his opinion of the Bronx kingpin and lawyer, saying no evidence of corruption could ever be tied to the man known variously as “El Jefe” (“the boss”), “Don Ramón,” and “El Padrino” (“the godfather”). Soon he’s convinced to back Edward Koch over Beame for mayor - when he’s promised $10 million for his pet housing project.įact, Fiction or Inspired by: Ramon S. Spoilers ahead for the first six episodes of The Get Down.įrancisco ‘Papa Fuerte’ Cruz (Jimmy Smits)īackstory: Mylene’s leisure-suited Puerto Rican power-broker uncle is called a “poverty pimp,” and gets funds from Mayor Beame while working out of a community center that bears his name. But what’s fact and what’s fiction in the period piece set in New York City’s South Bronx, which tells the tale of aspiring DJ Shaolin Fantastic (Shameik Moore) and disco singer Mylene Cruz (Herizen Guardiola) as they vie for the attention of orphaned poet-pianist Ezekiel “Zeke” Figuero (Justice Smith)? We break it down. via Getty Imagesīeyond the real 1970s news footage and commentary woven into The Get Down, Baz Luhrmann’s music-infused drama that’s equal parts teen love story and ode to the origins of hip-hop, the hyperstylized extravaganza gets its street cred courtesy Luhrmann’s crew of collaborators: Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, DJ Kool Herc, the Furious Five’s Rahiem, Afrika Bambaataa, and hip-hop historian Nelson George. Photo: Anthony Calvacca/New York Post Archives/NYP Holdings, Inc. L-R: Francisco Cruz in The Get Down, Ramon S.
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