As dusk anticipated relieving the sun of its duties during the twilight of October 3, 1956, Paul Newman hustled through the stage entrance of the Mansfield Theatre, an august Broadway institution on West 47th Street in Manhattan. Before he achieved icon status in the 1961 movie The Hustler, Newman plied his acting trade in legitimate theatre and live television dramas. But his appearance at the Mansfield did not require his thespian skills.
Newman arrived at the theatre to prepare for a prime time television appearance on I’ve Got a Secret, a game show featuring Garry Moore as host and a panel of four celebrities trying to deduce the contestant’s secret through questions and answers. On this October night, Newman was a contestant. His secret? He paraded around Ebbets Field as a Harry M. Stevens vendor during Game 1 of the World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees earlier that afternoon. And he sold a hot dog to panelist Henry Morgan without Morgan realizing his identity.
After Morgan surrendered his guessing, Moore encouraged Newman to go offstage. Then, he followed with a description of the prank: “Henry, we not only knew that you went to the World Series ball game this afternoon. We even contrived to have a friend call you up and invite you to go to the ball game. We knew what seats you were sitting in. We knew exactly where you were. Through the good offices of Sports Illustrated, we did have a photographer out there taking pictures from time to time. But you don’t remember the occasion. Paul, are you ready? Maybe you’ll recognize him better this way. Paul, come out!”
Newman returned in his vendor garb, shouting a familiar refrain with heavy Brooklynese in his voice: “Get your hot franks here, ladies and gentlemen! Get your hot franks!” Morgan replied, “I didn’t know that you looked so ordinary!” He then certified Newman’s Ebbets Field presence.
Morgan: “Weren’t you the one that we had all the trouble with? You waited on like fifty people?”
Newman: “Yes.”
Morgan: “And we were screaming and yelling.”
Newman: “I understand that you were very irritated because you were very hungry and didn’t have any breakfast.”
Morgan: “You were there.”
Going incognito as an Ebbets Field held an inherent risk of recognition. Newman built an extensive résumé with credits including a breakthrough role as Middleweight Champion Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me, a film that premiered during the summer of ’56. Additionally, a week prior to the Ebbets Field charade, Newman starred in The United States Steel Hour television adaptation of Bang the Drum Slowly, the second book in Mark Harris’s literary quartet of baseball fiction featuring pitcher Henry Wiggum.
After the secret’s revelation, Newman admitted that he was “terribly nervous” in carrying out the hoax. But his commitment to the role would have made Thespis beam with pride—he sold dozens of hot dogs to unsuspecting fans!
Morgan remarked that Game 1 was “some game!” Newman exclaimed, “I didn’t see any of the game!”
The Dodgers beat the Yankees 6-3. Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Gil Hodges, and Jackie Robinson went yard. Mantle’s dinger knocked in two runs for the Yanks; it was the Oklahoma-bred slugger’s only hit for the day. Enos Slaughter went 3 for 5 and scored on the Mantle home run. Martin’s was a solo shot and also his only hit.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on December 1, 2013.