Paying Tribute to Paul Newman

Neon Memes • The crown whispers in the chalk, even as the ivory spheres clatter into the wooden triangle. Then, as spectators stand rapt and silent and greenbacks change hands, it begins: the sticks―really 57-inch spears in a metaphoric act of war as unremitting as Thermopylae―alternatively click and clack into the balls. Reality diminishes to vectors in a geometry of conquest, and hours pass. Eventually, the younger pool player turns to his portly, viper-eyed opponent and, with a boyish chuckle, assures him, "I'm the best ya ever seen, Fats." And almost immediately in his epic battle with Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), Fast Eddie Felson begins to learn a dread lesson in hubris... The preceding, of course, comes from The Hustler, the 1961 movie starring Paul Newman, who died September 26 at the age of 83. Over the next four nights, the Webster University Film Series salutes Newman in the Moore Auditorium in Webster Hall (470 E. Lockwood Avenue, 314.968.7487) by alternating screenings of new 35 mm prints of that cinematic classic (tonight and Saturday) and 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Friday and Sunday). Tickets cost just $6, and the screenings start at 7 p.m. each evening. Go―and marvel. ―Bryan A. Hollerbach, Managing Editor