Another good source is Andrew Coe’s Chop Suey:
It might be worth noting that, while Chinese takeout was definitely available in New York City in 1946 the Corleone compound was on Long Island. But I think it’s safe to assume that if the Corleones wanted Chinese food they would have somebody like Paulie go get it (but obviously not Paulie).
As you know, filmmakers use takeout Chinese for simplified continuity. Footage of someone digging in a box can be edited easier than piles of food on plate that mysteriously contracts and re-expands.
Also, the Corelone house was full of Italian women. What was the need to send out? When they “went to the mattresses,” cooking rather than takeout might be done for security, but not at the home.
well in the book Connie had moved out and mama was in town staying with friends near the hospital … and it was Clemenza that was actually cooking like the “old days”
Another good source is the documentary The Search for General Tso. While it’s ostensibly about the origins of the dish “General Tso’s chicken”, it covers a lot of the general history of Chinese restaurants in the United States as well.
I always thought they were eating Italian takeout.
Mobsters do not live by gabagool alone.
There was at least one Chinese restaurant in Little Rock in the 1930s where one could get Chinese takeout. So if we had it in Little Rock, I’m sure they had it in more cospopolitan areas of the country.