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American Icon

Remembering the late Paul Newman and his visit to Huntington in 1966.

by: Jack Houvouras

Paul Newman with a suit and sunglasses. Editor's Note: The following article first appeared in the Winter 1993 edition of the Huntington Quarterly. It has since been updated and revised.

An early September morning in 1966 found my father and Paul Newman driving down Eighth Street. They were hungry. Their original plans were to head straight for Wayne County but on this morning they had a hankering for some sweet rolls.

My father pulled his Ford station wagon into the Torlone's Bakery parking lot and got out of the car. Newman stayed behind.

"Good morning, Mr. Houvouras. How are you?" Mrs. Torlone asked.

With that, a young woman from behind the counter inquired, "Are you Andy Houvouras?"

"Yes, I am," he replied.

"Is Paul Newman really up at your house?" she asked with trepidation.

"Well, yes, he is..."

"I don't believe it!" the young woman shouted.

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Torlone interrupted with her thick Italian accent. "Last night I see him with Mrs. Houvouras on the television. What you so excited about? He's a man just a like your husband."

"The hell he is," the young woman countered.

I was only two years old when Paul Newman came to my home. Of course, I have no personal memories of that visit 42 years ago, but over time I have heard the stories, one and all, from my family. It is something they will never forget. I wish I could say the same.

Newman came to Huntington in September of 1966 for three days to prepare for his role in the movie Cool Hand Luke. He wanted to master a dialect, an accent if you will, that conveyed that his character was from a small town in rural Appalachia. And, as part of that preparation, he needed a West Virginia contact to introduce him to some people in the area.

Newman was told to call on my father through a mutual friend -- Sargent Shriver, then head of the Peace Corps and a major player in President John F. Kennedy's run for the White House. Shriver's secretary set it up and in early September my father was given notice that the actor would be "in touch that evening."

My father remembered the call he received that night with uncanny clarity.

"Andy? This is Newman," the actor said casually. "Sarge Shriver tells me you might be able to help me out." The two chatted for a few minutes about his upcoming movie and politics and then got down to the business at hand.

"When I land at the airport in Huntington I'll be incognito," Newman explained. "I'll be wearing dark sunglasses so no one will recognize me."

Day 1

When Eastern Air Lines found out that Paul Newman was on board, they sent word to Huntington's Tri-State Airport. When my father arrived to pick him up, the actor walked off of the plane and was hit by a sea of floodlights. The airport workers shouted, "Paul Newman!" The disguise hadn't worked.

My father then drove Newman to our house where my mother and six brothers and sisters had been waiting with anticipation. When my father walked through the front door with the movie star, the family was flustered. But their nervousness quickly vanished as Newman was, in their own words, "very down to earth."

So earthy in fact that he sported a pair of raggedy old corduroys that didn't quite fit his Hollywood persona. It was ironic that my parents, who wanted to make a good impression, had forbidden my oldest brother Drew from wearing a pair of corduroys that were nearly identical to Newman's.

"He was very charming," my mother recalled, "and so nice to everybody. He was easy to get along with and you could feel right at home with him immediately."

The first thing Newman did upon arriving at our house was to ask to use the telephone. "I want to call my broad," he said.

"Oh, Lord," my father remembered thinking to himself. "He's got a gal in every town." But instead, he was calling Joanne Woodward, his wife and favorite leading lady.

After some casual conversation in the living room with the entire family, Dad drove Newman to the Uptowner Inn, where he checked into the downtown hotel for three nights.


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