There was this guy, you see. When he approached and passed you in the hallway at school, a shadow came over you, like the blotting out of the sun. Big guy. Big gentle guy. With a big, gentle smile. Never got into fights. Never had to, frankly.

Which is kind of ironic considering that he later became a professional boxer.

The next time I saw him, I was driving down the street in my little ‘65 Ford Falcon with the moon floor. (Apparently lots of these Ford Falcons had moon floors, but that’s another story.) And I heard a honk and glanced over, ready to be annoyed. And there was the same big guy smiling at me from the driver’s seat of a Corvette. Flirting with me, really, and I was terribly embarrassed about the ‘65 Ford Falcon with the moon floor, but he didn’t seem to mind.

That was Lee Canalito.

And the next time I saw him was in Paradise Alley.

And that, frankly, is why I really like this movie. Because in the movie, he is the same big, gentle guy and it seems like this movie was written just for him.

Maybe you just had to be there.