60 pages • 2 hours read
Mario PuzoThe Godfather
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1968A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Johnny Fontane is entertaining a young actress for dinner. She does not want to sleep with him, and he takes the rejection well. Then he calls his first wife Ginnie and asks if he can come over. That night at Ginnie’s, he gets a call from Tom Hagen. Tom is going to fly out to Los Angeles the next morning and wants to meet with him. He will be flying back early the next morning. Johnny stays the night at Ginnie’s house and in the morning has breakfast with her and his two daughters. Afterwards, he picks up Tom at the airport.
At their meeting, Tom tells him that Jack Woltz is working to ensure that Johnny does not receive an Academy Award for his role in Woltz’s movie. He also says that Don Corleone can make sure that he does get the award. Further, Tom asks Johnny if he is ready to produce his own films. When Johnny protests about the money it will cost, Tom says he has a bank lined up that will give him funding. In other words, the Don is going to set him up as a movie producer. This is a relief to Johnny, who is facing the end of his career; he is 35 years old and has already lost his singing voice.
Johnny agrees and knows that he will owe the Don a favor, but he tells Tom that he will only accept a request from the Don himself, not Tom or Sonny. On the way home, Tom thinks about the fact that he will be working with Johnny a lot in upcoming years and wonders if Johnny is going to understand what the Don wants from him without the Don having to make the request.
Johnny is excited by this turn of events and understands that it is going to change his life. He goes back to Ginnie’s house and then begins to contact people in the industry, making connections for the future. He then calls Jack Woltz and thanks him for the part, knowing that when Woltz discovers his betrayal, it will be worth it. Finally, he thinks of something he could do that would make Don Corleone happy: He calls Nino Valenti, his singing partner before he made it big who is now a truck driver. Johnny offers Nino a plane ticket and a job working for him. Nino agrees.
Chapter 13 Summary
Johnny and Nino are making a record. Johnny is trying to help Nino get ahead in Hollywood and takes him to a party known as the Lonely Hearts Club. Arranged by Jack Woltz but held at someone else’s house, the parties are for older Hollywood actresses who are tired of competing with young starlets. Young actors are encouraged to attend and trade sexual favors in exchange for career help from the actresses. Johnny takes Nino to the party, where a famous actress from Nino’s childhood gives him oral sex during a movie screening. Nino is disgusted with the party, and Johnny realizes that Nino does not want to be a part of Hollywood; he just wants to be a singer. Nino pretends he is drunk so that he can say all the things he cannot really say to Johnny, and Johnny knows this.
When they find out the Godfather has been shot, Johnny wants to go to New York, but Tom tells him no. Nino tells Johnny that the Godfather said that it was his destiny to be an artist, and Johnny realizes that the Godfather has arranged it to be so. Johnny begins production on his first movie, but the union representative demands $50,000, saying that the Godfather has been hurt and he does not have the influence anymore. Johnny calls Tom, who tells him not to pay. Two days later, the union representative is found dead in his home.
Johnny asks Nino to go to the Academy Awards with him because he will not win, and he wants a true friend with him. Nino thinks about how sad it is that he is the one Johnny feels the closest to. Johnny does win the Academy Award, and Nino is there for him. Nino stays sober that night so that Johnny can celebrate. He ends up carrying Johnny out of a party after the guests decide they want Johnny and the female award winner to have sex in front of them.
Chapters 12-13 Analysis
Johnny Fontane, Don Corleone’s godson, appeared briefly in the first chapter of the book. Don Corleone, who secured his role in Jack Woltz’s movie, assures Johnny that he can also arrange for the actor to win the Academy Award, in exchange for his continued family loyalty. The Don keeps showing that his influence goes far beyond the reaches of New York City—further than anyone suspects—and this is illustrated again when he is able to call a nationwide conference of the major Mafia families.
Puzo also uses Johnny’s story to show the Don’s generosity from the perspective of the receiver. Johnny has everything he wants when he is in the Don’s favor. In the past, like when he divorced his first wife, Johnny fell out of favor with the Don. But he regains the Don’s favor and repays some of his debt by inviting Nino Valenti out to Hollywood and getting his career started. With this scenario, Puzo also makes clear that part of family loyalty, and being in debt to Don Corleone, is to consider what he might want you to do, even if he never asks directly. An individual’s ability to pass these tests keeps them in the Don’s favor.
Johnny also realizes that Don Corleone has arranged things according to his own vision of Johnny and Nino’s destiny. Johnny is helping Nino’s career, but Nino is also a stabilizing influence in Johnny’s life, at least at first. He genuinely cares for Johnny, which makes him invaluable to the singer, especially in the world of Hollywood, and Johnny truly benefits from his presence. He remembers what the Don said about Nino’s destiny being that of an artist. Johnny also notes that once the Don decided that was Nino’s destiny, he made it come true.
