miss georgia & mr. shaker heights

Dedicated to Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward. In addition to their Oscar winning film careers, Paul & Joanne are notable for their social activism, philanthropy, & enduring fifty year marriage.

[wexler]

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward with their daughters, Lissy and Clea, 1974.

[thenewmans]

“Joanne Woodward is very much a Mother Earth. And on our set of Sybil, we didn’t have junk food. We had crudité. And we had sliced fruit, and whole wheat bread and sunflower seeds from the health food store. And the crew looked at this and said, ‘Where’s our jelly donuts?’ But then, they fell in love with Joanne, because everybody falls in love with Joanne, she’s infectious. And these big grips, they were eating sunflower seeds, and saying, ‘Good trail mix, Ms. Woodward! Really good!’” -- Sally Field 

Happy Birthday, Joanne Woodward | b. February 27, 1930

[thenewmans]

“My Pop was a brilliant and wonderful man with a wry sense of humor. His family originally came from Hungary and whether or not this shaped his political opinions I'll never know. Nonetheless, he always told us that if we didn't vote, he would disown us.

Both of my parents were politically and environmentally active. In their activism they marched with Martin Luther King and supported many small - and what would now be called - “liberal causes.” Pop referred to himself as a "bleeding heart liberal” when I was young, so much so that I considered it a positive attribute. He was gleeful when he ended up on Nixon's shit list (even thought he couldn't figure out why he was on it) and my parents held a party for that illustrious group at our home to celebrate.

Raised under that same roof, I can't help but to have ended up a left leaning liberal. I'm a human ecologist by training and spent a good deal of my time studying the natural sciences. My interest developed when I was eight and discovered that my favorite bird, the peregrine falcon, was almost extinct due to the use of DDT, something we sprayed on our food, according to my mother. The peregrine recovered after thirty years of management and millions of dollars; much of that money from the EPA via the Endangered Species Act. Despite those safeguards, I now carry the same chemicals in my body. My point is that we are a product of the environment we have created. We will live and die by the hand we've dealt, and hence we must face the FACTS. Not the alternative facts, but the FACTS. 

The world cannot move forward divided. We are all human. Together we rise and so will fall.”

- Nell Newman, reflecting on Trump (x) 

Above: Paul & Joanne with Martin Luther King, Jr. and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement; and with A. Philip Randolph, the director of the March on Washington, at a benefit for the March. 1963. 

[thenewmans]

“Sometimes God makes perfect people. Paul Newman was one of them.” - Sally Field 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAUL NEWMAN | January 26, 1925 - September 26, 2008

[thenewmans]

“Of all the things that were special about Westport, the tree house that first caught Joanne’s eye would become, perhaps, the most important in their lives. They created from it an adults-only space where they kindled their marriage in private. ‘That’s where Joanne and I have cocktails,’ Newman said. ‘The kids are not allowed up there.’ They’d repair with newspapers and beer and sherry, or, on special nights, champagne and caviar. At first it was a summertime idyll, but ultimately it was available to them year-round: Joanne had it winterized for him as a present.”

[thenewmans]

Hi! I was wondering do you know/have you heard if Joanna had any romantic relationships before having one with Paul?

Hi, I’m sorry for taking so long to reply to this! Yeah, Joanne definitely had other relationships - one biography of Paul’s said she dated Marlon Brando for a bit in the early 50′s, and also links her with the screenwriter James Costigan. It was actually Paul who introduced the two, telling Costigan that he could get him “a date with a wonderful girl.” (Costigan later wrote their play Baby Want a Kiss, the only time Paul and Joanne costarred together on Broadway). There’s been a lot written about an engagement between Joanne and the writer Gore Vidal. (Joanne and Paul shared a house in Malibu with Vidal and his companion Howard Austen in the mid fifties).  However, Vidal was gay and has stated before that it wasn’t a serious engagement. If anything, it was likely to nudge Paul into divorcing Jackie faster or to appease Vidal’s mother when she came to visit them. These are the more well known people I know of, however she definitely dated others and it’s possible she may have been engaged once or twice as well, though she once said of it, “All southern girls like to get engaged even when they aren’t ready to get married.” As from what I know of I’d say that she probably wasn’t ever as serious with anyone as she would be about Paul.

[thenewmans]

Are there any incredible (book) biographies you'd recommend reading about Paul - his life, or specifically his life with Joanne? Thanks! I love your blog.

Hi, so glad you love the blog! As for biographies, to be frank, there isn’t one particular book that I’ve read on Paul and Joanne which I think is incredible, but I also admit that I’m probably kinda picky when it comes to celebrity bios lol. 

The most recent, full biography is Paul Newman: A Life by Shawn Levy. I do have a few issues with it, but I can confess that I didn’t dislike it nearly as much as I thought I would’ve. That’s because there are still a lot of tabloid articles lingering online from when it was first released that play up certain parts of the book to make it seem as if it’s really salacious and presents a picture of Paul unlike anything we’ve ever seen before - plus it was released literally the year after he died so that also seems questionable -  BUT from what I can remember I didn’t find it to be all that sensational. My biggest issue with it it is that the author dug up the Nancy Bacon tabloid story and put it forth as fact, which I’ve talked about more extensively here; while no one knows the truth for sure, I feel that that was the author’s attempt to offer something “new” or “exciting”, and it’s ridiculous because it clashes dramatically with the way he presents Paul & Joanne’s marriage in the rest of the book (which is very true to what we’ve all perceived it as). Other than that, however, I think the book is fairly comprehensive and worth reading; it’s a somewhat harder look at Paul I think but not entirely disrespectful or anything. 

The two books that focus on both Paul and Joanne are both from the 80′s (one by Morella/Epstein, the other by Susan Netter), and they’re pretty average bios that are reflective of the era they were published in, if you’re familiar with 80s celeb bios? They do have some good anecdotes (I’ve shared a few on here) that the authors mostly extracted from other print materials; my main concern with those is that you can clearly tell that some of it’s made up. Like, the authors use vague references such as “a close family confidant” and “an on set cameraman” as citations for the more ambiguous stories. And as always when you’re reading the older stuff the information can be a bit dated for today. Of the two, I’d say the Morella/Epstein book is more informative. 

The only thing I would really steer clear of is the Paul Newman bio by Lawrence Quirk, I’ve never read it in full but I have read sections and the author is hideous and terribly disgusting towards Joanne, not professional or accurate at all. Besides that, not straight up biographies but I just bought Stewart Stern’s book on Paul’s directing, which I think will be good because he truly was a family friend, and I’d recommend A.E. Hotchner’s book too for the same reason. There are at least a handful more of old 80s biographies singularly on Paul which I’ll probably check out sooner or later, but I figure I’ll find them similar to the Paul & Joanne 80s bios. 

Sorry for rambling so much, but I hope that helped a bit! Therefore in my opinion there’s nothing “definitive” on them quite yet, so we’re really due in for a new bio on Paul, or the both of them, or something just on Joanne - so far she hasn’t even gotten a book where she is the primary subject! 

[thenewmans]

Joanne shares the story of the first time that she and Paul met; from a joint interview on the Today show, 2002.

[thenewmans]

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward preparing to attend the 41st Annual Academy Awards (1969), where they were both nominated for their work on Rachel, Rachel.

[thenewmans]

“I remember we were staying there (in their home in Beverly Hills) right after I had lost the Academy Award for The Hustler. I was really hurt by that one. I thought old Fast Eddie was a fairly original character. Anyway, being the perfect therapist, Joanne dragged me out by the hand to the garage. We had a little hideaway out there, really away from the family. She said, ‘We’re going to take a little caviar and a little champagne out there and watch a very bad show on television.’ Well...we never got around to the show.”

[thenewmans]

Happy 86th Birthday, Joanne Woodward | b. February 27, 1930 

“Her friendship means a great deal to me. We share so many common interests; in addition to ballet, both of us love theater, knitting, antiques, and so much more. With just one word, we can start laughing at something silly, or singing the title song from Anything Goes. If prompted and encouraged, she’ll even do the bump-and-grind she did in the film The Stripper. On a moment’s notice, she’ll revert to the thick Southern accent of her childhood in Georgia. And she’s taught me a few of her favorite expressions, such as “hissy fit” and “tough as a west Texas boot.” She still says “y’all,” and “bacawse” instead of “because.” She loves to laugh, she loves the arts, relishes good food, and has a sweet tooth that has to be satisfied, always insisting we have desert.” - Joan Kramer

[thenewmans]

“They didn’t have a choice. They were inexorably tied to each other by every molecule of their being. The good, the bad, the ugly. They were stuck together.”  - Lissy Newman 

“It was so evident that they were madly in love with each other forever.” - Mario Andretti 

“On January 29, 2008, we celebrated Paul and Joanne’s fiftieth [and last] wedding anniversary. The way they jointly cut the first piece of cake was a moment of happiness for all of us. And then, putting the cake knife aside, Paul took both of Joanne’s hands in his and drew her close to him. They looked at each other with intimate conspiracy, a look of endearment for those fifty years, and Paul said, ‘Joanna, being married to you has been the joy of my life.’” - A.E Hotchner 

Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward | m. January 29, 1958 

[thenewmans]

Thankyou for your blog!!!!!!!!

Aw, thank you! We’re glad you like it :) 

[thenewmans]

"We are such spendthrifts with our lives. The trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I'm not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out."

- Paul Newman

Happy Birthday, Paul Newman! | January 26, 1925 - September 26, 2008

[thenewmans]

“I had a driver once, and I asked him, ‘Who was your favorite person you ever drove?’ He said, ‘The nicest guy was Paul Newman. He asked me about myself, but he also had his wife, Joanne Woodward, in the back seat, and this guy was like 80 and he was making out with his wife. They were just PDA and they were giggling and his arm was around her and he’s kissing her.’” [x]

[thenewmans]

"What was it about the Newmans' marriage that made it last so long? How do they make it work?

'I have no idea,' Woodward replied, seeming utterly stumped. 'Absolutely not one single idea on the subject. Probably sheer luck, wouldn't you say?' She squeezed her husband's knee. 'Darling, say something. You have a different notion - I would say that.'

'I'm never comfortable talking about these things, because they're nobody's business,' he said.

'Sheer luck. Luck! That's what it is,' Woodward repeated, ignoring her husband's unresponsiveness."

[thenewmans]

A fan once recalled meeting Paul and Joanne at a Westport wedding party in the early 1970s. “Later there was a string quartet. Guests arrayed themselves on the sunny lawn,” she remembered. “Up behind me, Joanne Woodward sat on the ground with her back against the trunk of a big tree, her legs stretched out in front. In her lap rested the head of Paul Newman, who occasionally reached up to touch her face and hair as he savored the music. It’s possible I gaped. To this day it’s the most romantic thing I ever witnessed.” [x]

A few decades later, an employee at an Arizona desert museum witnessed a similar incident, years apart:  “One time I was walking between the main buildings and looked over to a bench where I saw a woman and her husband. The woman was sitting with the husband's head on her lap as he lay down. You could just see the love as she ran her hand over his head and hair. I thought at that time, ‘My, what a handsome couple. Isn't it nice that this older couple cares so much for each other, it just radiates. This is just such a wonderful sight.’ I continued on my journey with a glance back and I saw that the nice handsome older couple so much in love was Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.” [x]