Paul Newman R.I.P.

B

Brad Kane

Brad Kane
Just heard the sad, but not unexpected news that Paul Newman succumbed to the lung cancer he was suffering from. What a brilliant actor and a real down to earth mensch who did a lot of good.

Just a quick local story about him. His New York apartment was in my current neighborhood, which is the same one I grew up in. One day about 25 years ago he walks into the local Korean corner market and my mother, who's eating a froze fruit pop, tries to play it cool like most New Yorkers do around celebrities. Newman walks up to her and says with a grin and a twinkle in his eye, "Ma'am, you just put your ice cream in your purse."

He'll be missed.
 
I always thought of him as a really solid driver and racing team owner . I'm not much of a film person but I liked the way he exuded control in everything I've seen him act in. Presence is a wonderful thing, and he seemed to use it in a positive way, enhancing the performances of the other actors in the movie rather than using his charisma to trample them in the wake of his performance.

-Eden (good popcorn, too)
 
Where are the romantic idols who made their reputations on their appeal to women, the John Barrymores and Leslie Howards to whom women offered themselves in marriage? ... (L)ike most of their colleagues, (Robert) Redford and (Paul) Newman would rather be real people than actors, and would rather be real actors than romantic leads. ... Women respond to them perhaps because they represent the wine of the old romance in a new bottle. Molly Haskell in From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, 1974.
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Hmmmm...
Ice cream in purse urban legend.

I recognize it because someone at work told me the same story happened to their mother, except it was Robert Redford.
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I really don't think my mother lied to us, Chris. This was around '82-'83, long before urban legends were spread on the Internet. His apartment was two blocks from the OK fruit market, which was/is a block away from my parent's apartment. We saw him around frequently.
 
Yeah, that's what my friend at work said, too. People seem to have an emotional investment in these tales. Lisa almost came to blows with someone when she explained the whole Nieman-Marcus chocolate chip cookie recipe tale couldn't have actually happened to his aunt.
 
Btw, fwiw, I know I've told the story before on the Internet, I think on the WLDG sometime when I just started posting online, and my mother's been telling it since it happened to her, so it is entirely possible that we're the original source of what I guess has become an urban legend.
 
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:

I always thought of him as a really solid driver and racing team owner .
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I used to work the Grand Prix event in St. Petersburg, FL, and saw him race on several occasions. Also saw him pop wheelies with an ATV and bounce it off a fence such that he landed on the back wheels and maintained balance.
I wouldn't even want to try that.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
I don't think anyone mentioned the internet, but yes, I'm sure that's the case. Carry on.
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Whatever, Chris. It's interesting this has become a legend, but I remember this incident vividly because of how excited my mother was and it's been a Kane family story for 25 years.

A is where Newman had his city apartment, B is the OK fruit market and you've been to my parent's place a block away from B.
 
I'm sure you're right, and that Newman's denial of the whole thing is probably due to some other pressing concern on his part.
 
When I was in junior high school, Paul Newman was THE MAN.

Kids in the Elysian Fields subdivision fell into two groups, those whose parents had let them go to see "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and those whose parents thought the material too racy for kids. I am pretty sure they could run that movie on Nickelodeon today.

Anyway, I had to rely on Larry, a kid who lived across the street in an olive-colored ranch house for the full story of Butch and Sundance. Larry's parents were generally very strict - they made him rake the brown and yellow shag carpet in the ENTIRE HOUSE every Saturday morning before letting him go play baseball (I think the carpet had to be raked in conjunction with vaccuming but I don't really remember how that worked)) - but in this one curious instance they let Larry, fortunately for all the other kids in the neighborhood, go see the movie.

Larry was nothing less than the Homer of Elysian Fields, remembering all the best lines and scenes of the movie and re-telling them full of dramatic pauses and sweeping gestures. We were, of course, mesmerized by the story and scandalized by his recounting of the opening scene with Katherine Ross. We laughed every time he repeated the line from Butch to the Sundance Kid about not worrying about not being able to swim because "the fall will probably kill you." "The fall will probably kill you" became the punchline for all the best jokes. Everyone bought the "Raindrops Keep Falling on Your Head" single.

Then somehow there was a second release of the movie, and my parents finally gave in to our begging, and my brother and I got to go see the movie. The movie exceeded all expectations. It was the best movie I had ever seen without a doubt. My brother and I spent all weekend afterwards imagining being a part of the Hole-In-The-Wall gang and wondering if you could still sign-up for such a group. Who doesn't dream of going out in a blaze of glory with guns blazing while robbing some bank in South America when they are in 7th grade?

And then we moved away from Larry and Elysian Fields and on to Redwing Woods and a new ranch house, one with a garage instead of a carport, and I have no idea of what happened to Larry or any of the other kids. But we got to see "The Sting" when it came out. Instantly the debate became whether "The Sting" or "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was the greatest movie of all time. I always argued for Butch.

jb (who really likes the peanut-butter cups)
 
It really wasn't that long ago that he was still winning SCCA races - maybe 2 or 3 years. When I heard about his last lap at Limerock, it seemed like the end was near. For all the fame, at the racetrack he was a regular guy. I'd guess that was how he'd like to be remembered.
 
originally posted by Bwood:
... and on to Redwing Woods...
jb (who really likes the peanut-butter cups)
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Sounds like a neighborhood I would like!!
Redwinger (who really likes cinnamon raisin bagels)
 
Amy's biggest actor crush. She will be drinking heavy tonight.

He's the best, IMO. Just now, without knowing about this, I was going to walk downstairs and ask Amy "Who own da Chiefs?"
 
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