Paul and Me

"The majesty of the act was offensive to him," says A.E. Hotchner, explaining why Paul Newman never signed autographs in a USA Today piece by Bob Minzesheimer (3/23/10). A.E. — or Hotch as his friends call him — is out with a new book called Paul and Me, that Hotch began writing as "notes to himself after Newman’s death" in September 2008. The story goes that the two men became friends before either was famous, and both were struggling. "Paul and I were in the same boat," says Hotch. "I was trying to go beyond freelance magazine writing and Paul didn’t know if he could make it as an actor."

Their connection was through Ernest Hemingway, whom Hotch met in Cuba in 1948. Hotch ended up adapting a Hemingway short story, The Battler, into a TV play. Paul originally was cast in a supporting role, but got the lead after James Dean died in a car crash. Years later, Hotch and Paul coincidentally both bought homes in Westport, Connecticut, where they famously "began a line of food products that grew from a prank by two friends with no business experience into a charity that has given away $300 million since 1982" (link).

Paul came up with "Salad King" as the brand name, but thought the better of it after fellow Westporter Martha Stewart pointed out that "kings have always put their names in their titles, like King Paul the First." To which Paul replied, "This dressing is not for royalty, it’s for commoners. How about Newman’s Own?" The name was left over from a restaurant idea he and Hotch had conceived, but never hatched. "I’d tend bar and you’d be the ingratiating greeter," was how Paul described the concept to Hotch. (Paul eventually did open a restaurant, the Dressing Room, which remains alive and well in Westport).