Charlie Krajewski Jr. is hoping that his Secaucus bar soon becomes a shooting location for the HBO TV mob drama “The Sopranos,” because a location scout recently stopped in to check the place out.
“I watch the show regularly. It’s got a lot of action,” said the 59-year-old owner of Charlie’s Corner on Paterson Plank Road.
In the last few weeks, the popular mob drama has shot in the V.I.P. Diner near Journal Square in Jersey City, Puccini’s Restaurant on Westside Avenue in Jersey City, the New Skyway Diner in south Kearny beneath the Pulaski Skyway, and the Kearny location for the fabricated Italian pork store Satriale’s.
Krajewski proudly showed off a business card left by the location scout. He also pointed to photos on the wall of Jersey rock icon Bruce Springsteen, who filmed interior scenes for a video at Krajewski’s brother’s house in Secaucus.
Krajewski had some strong opinions about characters on the popular show, which just entered its highly touted sixth season.
“I like Tony’s wife, Carmela [played by Edie Falco],” he said. “I’d like to see her come out smelling like a rose in the end, because she’s a good woman who tried to keep the family together, which is kind of hard to do. There are also a few characters who I would like to see get what’s due them.”
Other Hudson County residents last week predicted the future of the characters, particularly mob boss Tony Soprano, played by Jersey native and resident James Gandolfini.
Sean Bailey, 20, a Rutgers-Newark student and a TKE fraternity brother, sat behind the desk of Riviera Tan, a tanning salon on Paterson Plank Road.
“Tony is just going to bounce out of the Mafia,” he predicted. “He’s going to retire and pass the business down to somebody else, probably Christopher Moltisanti [played by Michael Imperioli]. He’s not going to get whacked. If he does, that would suck.” But his prediction differed from that of Krajewski, who said, “I think [Tony]’s going to wind up having a stroke or a heart attack and end up a vegetable in a wheelchair. That would be a little easier for the public to accept. Then Carmela can get in the car, go out, do her shopping, and come home, and he’ll always be there just like she wanted.” Jersey City native Rose Jasiczek, 61, who now lives in Secaucus, said she “can’t wait for the upcoming season.”
“I don’t want to see Tony get killed off,” she said. “He’s a family man who is trying to do the right thing now with his wife and kids. I think he’s going to go to prison. Christopher is going to rat him out, if he doesn’t become the heir apparent.”
But Jasiczek doesn’t approve of all of Tony’s actions. “I was brought up in an all Italian neighborhood in Jersey City,” she said. “You just don’t do things the way that Tony does. If he had really acted that way, he would have disappeared.”
Some offended
A 2001 story on the E! Network reported that the American Italian Defense Association had tried to sue HBO because it felt that the show portrayed Italians as criminals. Even leading up to this new season, there were several posts on popular online discussion forums such as Craigslist describing the show as “sick” and “personifying a very bad organization that kills innocent people.”
However, not everyone sees the show as negative. According to Vito Bavaro of Vito & Sons Bakery in the Secaucus Plaza Centre, one has to see more deeply into the plot to understand it.
“It all depends how you look at it,” Bavaro said. “Every nationality has a mob, and not everyone is in the mob anyway!”
Bavaro said he enjoys the show.
“It’s like a soap opera,” he said. “Everybody talks about it because you’re always trying to [guess] what’s going to happen next. In fact, the character Big Pussy used to be one of my customers whenever they were filming in this area. He pulled up in a limo once.”
Correspondent Al Bozulic contributed to this story.
Sidebar
Sopranos actor and JC native Frank Vincent speaks out
Hudson County native Frank Vincent is excited.
The “Sopranos” star and loyal son of Jersey City shares the same anticipation felt by all the locals who love the HBO TV series.
Speaking by phone on his way to the Sopranos set to work on an upcoming episode, the actor spoke about the essential nature of his character, Phil Leotardo, Tony Soprano’s main rival for control of dirty Jersey’s mean streets.
“Phil’s a bona fide bad guy,” Vincent stated with both a smile and a sneer in his voice. “He’s a bad guy who is going to do bad things.”
The new season will bring not only more bad behavior, but hints of the final resolution to the Sopranos saga. The wondering and waiting has made the people of Hudson County who so closely identify with what they see on the New Jersey-set show almost lose their collective minds. In a word: fuhgettaboutit.
Vincent grew up Italian-American in the Greenville section of Jersey City in the 1960s and 70s. The well-known character actor, who prominently appeared in such cinematic classics such as “Raging Bull” and “Goodfellas,” began his movie mob apprenticeship in the bars and clubs of Hudson County.
“I don’t want to mention any names, but there was a lot of mob stuff happening in Jersey City,” Vincent remembered. “All of the nightclubs that I used to perform in as a young musician that were located in Jersey City and Union City were frequented by those kind of people. That’s where I got an education on how to act and how to react.”
As for what the future holds for the Sopranos as the season unfolds, Frank Vincent is keeping up the reputation of the show’s creators, cast and crew for maintaining an almost Sicilian code of silence.
“When you make assumptions about what’s going to happen, you make an ass out of you and me,” Vincent declared. “You can assume all you like, and you’ll be very happily surprised with the outcome.”