A.E. Hotchner. Paul and Me: Fifty-three Years of Adventures
and Misadventures with My Pal Paul Newman.
New York: Nan A. Talese, 2010.
as reviewed by Ted Odenwald
What had begun as a collaboration of screenwriter and performer progressed into a relationship of neighbors and fishing buddies, and eventually evolved into a business partnership of philanthropists. Hotchner, primarily known for his biography of Ernest Hemingway, traces his long friendship and partnership with Paul Newman in a collection of anecdotes which reveal a great deal about the author’s friend, a star who sought to avoid public scrutiny and celebrity.
The two met in the television production of a Hemingway short story, “The Battler,” for which Hotchner had written the script. Newman, playing the role of Ad Francis, a washed up prize-fighter, impressed the writer with his aggressive observation of the behavior of “scarred professionals.” Newman reveals the importance of that role in his career: “That initial experience I’d had with that difficult character …became the modus operandi for many of the parts I played. But I always took my time to assimilate it. You don’t attempt that kind of thing unless it finally becomes organic. Otherwise it’s just imitation.” That production helped both men’s careers take off and brought the two together in mutual respect.
As neighbors in Westport, Connecticut, Newman and Hotchner shared many adventures: they boated and fished frequently on Caca, Newman’s decrepit whaler. (Actually, there wound up being four boats with that inauspicious name.) On location in Bimini for the filming of another Hemingway story, the two “pals” did some big game fishing. Hotchner describes Newman’s epic battle with a two-ton marlin, echoing (not very subtly) The Old Man and the Sea. Not one to flaunt his victory, Newman had himself tied up on shore and hoisted by the ankles next to his catch.
Neither Hotchner nor Newman took himself or the other seriously; they worked together “to make juvenile fantasies come true.” “Paul always maintained that the best actors…were the ones who preserved the child within them, performing as they do with makeup and costumes and toy guns and all the other make-believes of their childhood.”
This attitude explains Butch Cassidy’s doing “giddy acrobatics on a bicycle, using too much dynamite on the train safe and raining money down on everyone’s head, staging bank holdups in Bolivia while struggling with the language; eating all those eggs in Cool Hand Luke; pulling off the phony card game in The Sting….” This attitude also helps to explain their unorthodox approach toward business.
Neighbor-and -Pal Hotchner became Partner Hotchner as Newman convinced him to join in what seemed a hare-brained scheme. Always having been “perverse about complacency,” Newman determined at age 50 that he had to do things more meaningful and productive. He decided to produce and sell a salad dressing, turning all profits over to charities. True to his character, he did everything his own unconventional way. “It was his theory that he had to keep things off balance or it’s finito.” He concocted his first batch in the “pristine” setting of a deserted stable-still aromatic from its previous occupants. He met with bottling companies seeking one willing to risk commitment to an untried product of inexperienced businessmen. He consulted with a large marketing firm, but dismissed them as being too costly for his experiment. He conducted corporate taste tests in Martha Stewart’s kitchen. He refused to advertise, believing it was too tacky, not always productive, and too expensive. In virtually all aspects of the venture, Newman was the driving force. “It occurred to [Hotchner] that [Newman] was Tom Sawyer and I was painting an endless fence.” The pair was shocked to discover that their first year pulled in more than $3,000,000 in sales for a profit of nearly $400,000. This success led to more successful years with introductions of other salad dressings, spaghetti sauces, gourmet popcorn and lemonade.
As amazing as their business success was, even more amazing was the generosity that they demonstrated. “We are still convinced that our little business lark has made us rookie philanthropists, a triumph of irresponsibility over reason.” They donated to major charities such as Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Lahey Clinic, and NY Foundling Hospital. They also contributed to “obscure organizations that cannot generate the publicity that attracts donors.” For example, they gave Hope Rural School in Indiantown, FLA $26,000 in order to purchase a schoolbus to transport children of migrant workers. Newman said, “I never thought I’d get into science, but being able to turn salad dressing into a school bus-that’s the kind of chemistry that tickles the fancy.”
A major accomplishment of Newman and Hotchner is the establishment of the “Hole in the Wall Gang,” a camp for kids with life-threatening diseases, “to give [them] a little respite from the hospital….” Consulting with Dr. Howard Pearson , Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital, they purchased land in Ashford, CT and had their expenditure of $5,000,000 matched by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. Many camps have grown out of this one, so that in 2008 44,000 kids were blessed with the camping experience.
Mystified, Newman exclaimed that he did not have the slightest idea of why he and Hotchner succeeded. “We have no plan. We never had a plan. Hotch and I comprise two of the great witless people in business-none of this is supposed to work, you understand. We are a testament to the theory of Random-whatever that means.”
Hotchner’s love and respect for his friend and partner pervade this work. The author often downplays his own role in their successes; but it is clear that Newman was not one to suffer narrow-mindedness and short-sightedness and he often refused to work with people whom he did not admire. (He vehemently opposed Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Charlton Heston; he claimed that the greatest honor of his life was being named to Nixon’s list of enemies.) The number of years that they worked together harmoniously is ample evidence of deep-seated camaraderie.
Ted Odenwald and his wife, Shirley have lived in Oakland for 40 years. He taught HS English at Glen Rock High School for all of those years plus one more. Now he is enjoying time spent with his family, singing in the North Jersey Chorus and quenching his wanderlust. Ted is also the Worship Leader at the Ramapo Valley Baptist Church in Oakland.