There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily Add Free.

Listen with Wondery Plus in the Wondery app,

or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at intohistory.com.

It's December 24, 1971, Christmas Eve in the Big Apple.

Film director Martin Scorsese hurries through the cold,

wet streets of New York City. He's running late to a party with some friends in Greenwich Village.

When he finally arrives at the building, he steps inside and shakes off the cold.

But as he makes his way up the stairs to his friends place, Martin's mind is fixed on a

screenplay he's been working on. It's the story of three friends growing up on the mean streets of

Manhattan's Little Italy, a neighborhood run by the Mafia. He wrote the leading role for Harvey

Kytel, an actor who starred in Martin's last film. But he hasn't found anyone to play the movie's

main antagonist, a character named Johnny Boy. Eventually, Martin arrives at the apartment,

and the door is unlocked. So he pushes it open and heads inside. He looks around, grabs himself a

drink and starts to mingle. Within minutes though, he's greeted with a smile by another party guest,

fellow filmmaker Brian De Palma. Brian insists that he has just the actor Martin is looking for,

and he's at this party. Brian drags Martin over to an intense and painfully shy young man,

standing up against the wall and watching the evening unfold from a distance. He introduces himself

as Robert De Niro. Robert is the son of two painters and has a bit of a bohemian background,

looking something of a punk. But what Martin doesn't know is how hard a worker

Robert is and how he loves to become his characters, a quality that will make him one of the most

electrifying actors in the business. After some small talk, Martin and Robert realized that in their

youth, they traveled in some of the same circles. Robert smiles when he realizes that they were both

...