With a 6-part HBO Max series and a newly published memoir, Paul Newman has been back in the spotlight lately.
Both include plenty of details about his half century in Westport.
It’s well known that Newman and his wife, fellow actor Joanne Woodward, found our town thanks to the Nike Sites.
Proposed at the height of the Cold War as missile defense systems to protect electronics manufacturing facilities in Bridgeport — with the missiles housed underground on North Avenue, and a launch center on Bayberry Lane — they were highly controversial. (Click here for the full back story.)
Westport writer Max Shulman wrote about the Nike Sites — the town’s reaction, and how it dealt with frisky GIs — in his novel Rally Round the Flag, Boys!
In 1958, the book became a movie. Newman and Woodward played characters based on town official Ralph Sheffer and his wife Betty. They soon moved here — and never left.
The defense system was outdated from the moment it opened. In 1960, control was transferred from the US Army to the National Guard. The Nike Sites were closed 3 years later.
The Bayberry Lane barracks are now the Aspetuck Health District office; behind it is the Westport Astronomical Society’s observatory. (Now it makes sense why those structures are there, right?)
A typical Nike site — much like the North Avenue one. Missiles were buried underground.
For years the North Avenue site — just north of Staples High School — was abandoned. In 1973, the US government transferred control of the land to the town.
Neither CNN nor Newman’s memoir mention what happened next.
The Westport Astronomical Observatory — the former Nike Site launch center on Bayberry Lane — in 1975.
On October 1 of that year, a ceremony was held. Paul Newman took part.
He called it “a great day for Westport.” The Staples band played a couple of tunes, including — inexplicably — “On Wisconsin” and Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4.”
Paul Newman (far left) at the Nike Site ceremony on October 1, 1973. From left: 2 unidentified men; 1st Selectman John Kemish. (Photo courtesy of Jim Kemish)
First Selectman John Kemish said, “The land once needed for war will now be dedicated to the pursuit of peace. The property will now be redeveloped by our Board of Education as a facility for our children.”
It took a while for that to happen.
A plan to create a “Workshop to Nike” for Staples students — with bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, storage space, dorm rooms and a dining hall for any school group to use — was never completed.
Project Adventure — a one-quarter physical education option — installed a ropes course, high wire and 30-foot balance beam there. It too was abandoned.
Generations of Staples graduates recall the Nike Site as an overgrown, unpatrolled area — perfect for teenage mischief, tantalizingly close to the school.
Finally, the town found good use for the land. Today — shorn of any trace of both the military and its then-derelict state — it is the site of Bedford Middle School.
Few people remember those days. Fewer still remember the Paul Newman connection.
The North Avenue Nike site today.