Paul Newman and the connection

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Paul Newman and the connection

Postby softball66 » September 28th, 2008, 7:58 am

As a movie buff I always admired the oft-Oscar nominated Paul Newman's films.
Some of the forum members may not know this, but he had a sporting goods connection. One day I was watching an interview with Paul about his starting a career in acting and he remarked that he didn't want to go into the family sporting goods business in Cleveland. The thought hit me, "he's part of the Newman Stern sporting goods there." Several Newman Stern baseball gloves have shown up from time to time.
And of course there's the excellent baseball book by Mark Harris turned into a film, "Bang The Drum Slowly." In 1956 in a U.S. Steel Hour production for television, a relatively unkown actor took a lead role in the show. That was Paul Newman.
He loved sports competition too becoming a part-time race driver.
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Postby BretMan » September 29th, 2008, 3:36 am

Thanks for the info, Joe.

Being an Ohio boy myself, I knew that Newman was a fellow Buckeye, born in the suburbs of Cleveland. I had no idea he had any connection with the Newman Stern sporting goods company.

Another Newman sports connection- who can forget the 70's classic "Slap Shot", one of the all-time great sports movies.
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Newman

Postby softball66 » September 29th, 2008, 12:10 pm

Yes, loved "Slap Shot" and don't underrate "The Hustler" as a sort of sports movie and I really liked the book. The film "Rounders" reminded me a little of the theme. "Let's shoot some pool Fats!" George C. Scott nearly stole the film for me. It had to do, in the book, about winning and losing and attitudes
for each. Color of Money didn't quite do the same for me.
Paul supposedly got the racing bug from the movie he made about it auto racing.

8)
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Re: Paul Newman and the connection

Postby ScottWNJ » March 7th, 2011, 2:08 am

I picked up an Al Rosen glove on Ebay tonight and was searching on the net for info on the Newman-Stern company. I found the following, written by Paul Newman, regarding his father's company.

"On a messy winter day in 1931, in the middle of the Great Depression, my father, Arthur Newman--looking as gray as the day itself--left house and family and headed for Chicago to try and negotiate with Spalding and Wilson, the two giant sporting goods manufacturers, to get sports equipment on consignment. My father and his brother owned The Newman-Stern Company of Cleveland, Ohio, purveyor of sports equipment since 1915, a surviving company in the “luxury” arena of retailing which would see 80 percent failure rate before the depression ended. Goods on consignment would be difficult to bargain for in good times, so it seemed almost impossible to expect success in bad, because the manufacturers would only be paid as the goods were sold and not upon delivery. A dicey deal to monitor. Money was scarce.

My father came home two days later with a letter of agreement from both manufacturers for $100,000 of goods on consignment, a staggering amount in those days, especially under the economic circumstances. But those manufacturers knew that if The Newman-Stern Company sold a baseball glove for nine dollars and ninety-five cents, the manufacturer would have a check in the mail from my father the next day for the five dollars owed them. Such was the reputation of the Newman-Stern Company and the gentlemen who ran it. The business survived and so did we.

I learned a great deal by my father’s example and have tried to measure up. I learned from him that honesty is the best medicine. It nourishes the soul, and at the same time, keeps meat and potatoes on the table."
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