Ruth Doan MacDougall

Paul <sigh> Newman

Those of us who are lucky enough to receive Jen Davis-Kay’s Christmas letters know that she dedicated the latest to “a man we loved and admired . . Mr. Paul Newman.” She added, “Our personal connection: When people compliment our children’s bright-blue eyes, Jen has been heard to say that she was thinking of Paul Newman at the moment of conception.”

After I saw on the news that Paul Newman had died, I thought of a letter I had received back in the 1970s. Gloria—my friend from Bennington days—started off this letter by asking me, “Are you sitting down?” I sat. She then proceeded to tell me that Paul Newman was going to be coming to her house in Woodbury, Connecticut! Gloria and her husband, Larry, were very involved then in politics, with Larry even piloting various politicians and associated folks around in his Cessna. Thus they were asked to host this get-together at their home—featuring Paul Newman! Gloria wrote me after the great event to tell me all about it, and she mentioned that Larry had remarked to Paul that he and Paul had two things in common: They both raised bantam chickens and they both were in love with Paul’s wife. So of course Larry couldn’t be jealous of Gloria’s love for Paul. Years later at their house I saw framed photos of that memorable day, and the delight on Gloria’s face still blazed through. (Blaze! Another wonderful Paul Newman movie!)

When Gloria had written me about the plans for the event, she had used our shorthand: PSN. Back in our college days, we realized that we always sighed romantically whenever we mentioned Paul Newman, so we made a joke of it, saying, “Paul (sigh) Newman,” and this got shortened to “Paul Sigh” and then “PSN.” As has most of the female population, we’ve certainly done a lot of sighing and swooning throughout all our years of watching him on the screen. My earliest memory is seeing him and Joanne Woodward in 1958 in The Long Hot Summer and—oh my God, wow!

After Paul’s death, Gloria reported that the Woodbury Public Library was putting on a film series of his movies, which she and Larry were attending. In lieu of such a series here in Sandwich, I announced to Don that we would have our own Paul Newman Film Festival. Over the following months, I’ve taken out all the Paul Newman movies available at our library and a neighboring library. I resorted to inter-library loan to get The Long Hot Summer, and I’ll do that again or use Netflix to get the rest. So it’s an ongoing festival, and it keeps confirming how very good an actor Paul was, as well as good to look at and to sigh over.

Some years ago my sister gave me a quote from Joanne Woodward that she’d run across. I posted it on our refrigerator:

“Sexiness wears thin after a while, and beauty fades. But to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat!”

And with Don, the man who makes me laugh every day, at our Wednesday supper tonight I’ll be dining on spaghetti with Newman’s Own Sockarooni Sauce.