Saturday, September 27, 2008

So long Fast Eddie

Wah! Paul Newman has died.

He was the first celebrity I've ever saw in person. When I was 12 or 13, he came to beautiful downtown Valleyfield to participate in a car race that was held on our frozen bay.

I hated winter even then, but I still trudged down to the bay to try to see him in person. Which I did, and from quite close-up. Certainly close enough that when I got home I said to my parents "he really does have very blue eyes". They were very, very blue.

He was in a lot of cool movies. We should play pool in his honour today.

6 comments:

cityofmushrooms said...

paul newman was in valleyfield??!

Anonymous said...

I hate to be Mr. Memory again, but I believe that Mr. Newman was in Valleyfield when we were at the end of our high school tenure. So you would have been 16 or 17.

Cityofmushrooms: he was in Montreal filming Robert Altman's QUINTET and took part in the race on ice. I desperately wanted to go, but Valleyfield was over 10 miles from my house, which at the time was the equivalent to crossing the Atlantic.

Nanuk of the North, older but no wiser said...

Thank goodness for Mr. Memory. Indeed I see that Quintet was released in 1979, so assuming it was filmed in 1978 or thereabouts, I would've been 17. I really don't remember being that old!

I am perhaps confusing it with when I became a fan of his (Mr. Newman, not Mr. Memory*) and that would've been when The Sting came out which was 1973, when I was 12.

*Obviously, I was and remain a fan of his, too.

cityofmushrooms said...

J-fan: and you wouldn't cross the atlantic to see mr newman??! (oh, and mr altman!)...shame!

cityofmushrooms said...

oooops -- been informed I'm mixing up the anon's-

seems "anon J-fan" didn't miss mr newman and altman--"anon mr anon" did

I stand corrected

mr anon: missed altman?!??

Anonymous said...

"I as in high school" .

(The all-purpose excuse for any stupid moves in one's past)