Paul Newman
Sotheby’s has brought together almost 400 objects from the star couple’s holdings that testify to a relationship of intense passion
Wed 31 May 2023 at 6.30pm BST
You too can own a piece of Newmans…anything.
Nearly 400 items from the personal belongings of legendary actor Paul Newman and his wife and former co-star Joanne Woodward are up for auction at Sotheby’s latest celebrity estate auction.
The James Dean auction features previously unpublished objects that show the star from a new perspective
The movie stars and perennial lovebirds met on the Broadway set of Picnic in 1953 and lived in what appeared to be conjugal bliss for around 50 years. The couple collected Americana while retaining the Hollywood memorabilia and trifles of a life that managed to be unpretentious yet high-flying. Alongside Woodward’s wedding dress, an Oscar plaque and memorabilia from The Color of Money, the auction also includes the thrift store find that was the centerpiece of what Woodward described as a “fuck shack” — a room of your own if you don’t.
The event will be chaired by Mari-Claudia Jiménez, Managing Director of Sotheby’s and Global Head of Business Development at Global Fine Arts. She signed up for a video call with the Guardian US, having just learned that she was willing to bring a selection of rare objects to the Today Show set the next day, as Hoda Kotb’s people were fascinated by Newman’s cabinet of curiosities.
Newman and Woodward, who lived primarily in Westport, Connecticut but also had homes in New York City and briefly in Los Angeles, epitomized “shabby chic” before shabby chic was even a thing, Jiménez said. Her fondness for high-low extended to her collection of flea market finds and Newman’s small but well-regarded stash of Rolex watches.
In Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward’s barn in Westport, Connecticut. Photo: Sotheby’s
The enthusiasm for the sale was already greater than the auction house was responsible for. When the Memorial Day Classic, a race car event at the Connecticut track that racing enthusiast Newman called home, caused a flood of online clicks, the auction house decided to open the sale earlier than planned. “There have already been a lot of offers, which is unusual,” said Jiménez. In the world of celebrity auctions, she went on to explain, “people usually jump in at the last minute because nobody wants to bid upfront.”
Not so with the personal effects of Newman and Woodward, whose glamor and passion is more or less unrivaled. Items on sale include Cool Hand Luke’s shackles, a pocket watch and a selection of baseball caps, which were the actor’s go-to accessory. “They’re already at multiples of their estimated price,” Jiménez said. “They started at $100 or $200 and now we’re looking at $900 per lot.”
Jiménez said Sotheby’s had worked with Newman’s five daughters (his only son Scott died in 1978) on the event for many years. Newman died in 2008 and Woodward has had Alzheimer’s for several years. Proceeds will be split among the children, including two daughters by Newman and his first wife, Jackie Witte. “They’ve been thinking about their parents’ legacy and how to live up to it and what to do physically with all the objects they’ve acquired,” Jiménez said. “And so they just felt like this was a good moment.”
The many pages of the offered hodgepodge testify to the complexity of the lives of Newman and Woodward. “We know them as movie stars and actors,” Jiménez said. “They were also extremely philanthropic and activist.” And she pointed out that they were couch potatoes and were content to have a martini at night between their ephemera salvaged from flea markets and the old film scripts, which they quartered with paper cutters and made into notebook paper recycled.
Photocopy of Nixon’s enemy list with his notes on Paul Newman’s “Radic Lib Concern” ($150-$250). Photo: Sotheby’s
Other items for sale include the overalls Newman wore when tuning his racing cars; Richard Nixon’s enemy list, which included Newman, who was a friend of Martin Luther King Jr.; and Rolex watches that he wore as a hobby racer. Newman won the Daytona 24 Hours at the age of 70.
She and her team expect to be inundated with Hollywood memorabilia fanatics as well as general collectors of cool ephemera. Newman and Woodward weren’t presumptuous at all, she insisted. “He lived his life the way he wanted to live it without having to pose as a movie star. He was just very reserved. And I think people really appreciate that about him, which is why it’s not all about the glitz and glamor. He actually had a high-low taste. That extended to the things he surrounded himself with.”
The biggest exception to the reserved tenor are the few luxury watches (Newman was an icon of watchmaking). The Daytona Rolex, which he bought for himself and which later inspired many more similar purchases, is for sale, as are some valuable paintings. However, most items are warm to the touch.
Jiménez wasn’t an expert on Paul Newman when this project began, but she read his critically acclaimed posthumous memoir and understood how uncomfortable he was with the role of a movie star and his disarmingly good looks, which he described as an aberration to the flawed whole of his being. Her understanding deepened when she saw the six-part documentary by Ethan Hawke, another actor who knows what it’s like to be married to a fellow actor who has dreams of his own. “When you watch the documentary, you hear [Newman] When you talk to your family members, you see there’s so much more to him than just the person.”
The infamous bed from Paul Newman’s memoir, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, early 20th century ($500-1,000). Photo: Sotheby’s
He and his wife made about 15 films together, but Woodward, who was a movie star before him, devoted himself to raising their children and running their home. “They weren’t the Architectural Digest type,” Jiménez said. “They cultivated homes that someone wanted to live in, and they surrounded themselves with the items they wanted to see every day.” The couple frequented flea markets and antique fairs, and were constantly on the lookout for new treasures. “They were frugal and considerate,” Jiménez said. “It wasn’t like I went to Sotheby’s and spent $10 million on a painting. It was: I found this great find and I really liked it.”
They were also completely in love with each other. In his memoir, Newman revealed that Woodward outfitted her Beverly Hills home with a modest brass frame bed she found at a flea market “for probably $20,” Jiménez estimated, and the room she described as the centerpiece of her “shithouse.” set off for intimate encounters.
“It’s interesting, we think [Newman] “I’m this really handsome stud with these beautiful blue eyes, someone that people must have flattered everywhere, but he doesn’t think of himself that way,” Jiménez said. “He always found himself a bit awkward and uncomfortable about his physicality. Joanne is the one who he thinks made him this sex symbol. Even in their 70s, people who knew them said they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.”
Bids are still being accepted for the Fuck Hut bed, which is listed for an estimated $500-$1,000.
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