Scandalous life of ‘ping pong hustler’ Marty Reisman who was chased naked by lover’s shotgun-wielding husband
HE was a sporting renegade who claimed to have made and lost a million dollars, smuggled gold and was once chased naked by his lover’s shotgun-wielding husband.
But the late Marty Reisman will achieve an even more impressive feat — making ping pong seem sexy.
Last week heart-throb Timothee Chalamet was in New York filming scenes for a new movie, Marty Supreme, inspired by the table tennis titan who became an unlikely global star.
The Dune actor had his hair slicked back and was wearing thin-rimmed glasses, with the undeniable look of the American sportsman.
The part-fictionalised biopic will also star Gwyneth Paltrow as Marty’s mum.
Marty, who used to perform a comedy ping pong routine as the warm-up act for the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, counted Hollywood stars such as Susan Sarandon among his friends and was a proud American — but it was in the UK that he really found stardom.
Nicknamed The Needle due to his thin physique, he rose to fame at the 1949 British Open in front of 10,000 hushed spectators.
The 19-year-old was given a standing ovation at Wembley Arena as he unexpectedly beat Hungarian five-times world champion Viktor Barna.
The win brought world attention to the teenager, but also shone a light on his escapades away from the table.
For Marty was a charismatic rebel who hustled his way through life.
When he arrived in austerity-ravaged Britain, four years after World War Two, the innocent-looking youngster carried a suitcase full of lingerie to sell to women desperate for a bit of luxury.
The contrast between table tennis player and wayward risk-taker was not lost on Marty, who called ping pong the “lowest athletic endeavour on the world totem pole, next to marbles, maybe”.
The British Press were so enamoured by him that they called him the “Danny Kaye of table tennis”, after the comic actor known for his physicality.
But such showmanship came at a cost.
Marty ended up spending almost three years in the professional wilderness after he and team-mates charged first-class hotel rooms to their British Open hosts.
He later moaned how “the [original] room was the size of a closet and the decor was awful”.
Disgusted by his behaviour, the American table tennis governing body temporarily banned him.
It was a typical showboating move for a man who later became known for his trademark Panama hats, wearing sunglasses indoors and his ability to break a cigarette in half with his forehand, which could propel a ball at 115mph.
Sometimes before games he would even whip out a a $100 bill to measure the net.
Sunglasses indoors
Paul Stimpson, of governing body Table Tennis England, said: “The 1940s were a real golden era for the sport.
“The Reisman-Barna match is comparable to a big tennis tour event today.
“The competition attracted all the best players in the world.
“Marty is legendary and there’s a lot of excitement around the film among players and fans.
“He was one of the best of his time.
“People are naturally drawn to great characters and Marty was the first real rock star of the game.”
Born in 1930 to Russian mum Sarah and taxi driver dad Morris, Marty experienced poverty early on.
He grew up in Manhattan’s Lower East Side during the Great Depression, and though his father had once owned 17 cabs, he lost them all playing cards.
Marty is legendary and there’s a lot of excitement around the film among players and fans
Paul Stimpson
Marty, who died in 2012 aged 82, said: “I saw him lose six taxis during one session of poker.”
The youngster discovered ping pong after a bizarre episode which began when he was ten and suffered a breakdown at school while singing the American national anthem, then spent a month in a local mental facility, before picking up a table tennis bat at a community centre.
A year later he was hustling adults — playing for bets and prizes — during games at the local park, and later recalled: “The idea is to make your opponent think he is hustling you.
“That’s why I developed a special hustler’s grip.
“I hold the racket the way a thirsty truck driver holds a beer bottle.
“That way, every win looks so crazy, so completely accidental that the guy is willing to bet anything that you can’t do it again.”
If the bet was large enough, he would play sitting down, or even blindfolded.
At 15, while taking part in the US national championships, Marty bet a man who he thought was a bookie $500 on himself to win — only to discover it was the president of the US table tennis association.
His age stopped him being arrested for illegal gambling, but he was escorted from the building by a uniformed police officer.
Following his UK win in 1949, Marty spent three years showing off his skills with teammate Doug Cartland as they toured with the Harlem Globetrotters.
The pair played with five balls at once, halved cigarettes with a swipe of their bats and used pots and pans as bats to bang out the tune Mary Had A Little Lamb.
They went on to scrape a living touring Asia, and all the while, Marty carried on hustling at every opportunity, even setting up games with pizza delivery men.
Marty was one of the best of his time. People are naturally drawn to great characters and Marty was the first real rock star of the game
While in China, he accepted a job smuggling gold out of Hong Kong to evade high taxes.
He earned £700 a time strapping gold bars to his chest concealed under a muslin vest and a latex swimsuit.
By 1952 his popularity had soared around Asia and he was one of the favourites to win the world championships in Bombay — but there was an upset.
While Marty had always used a hard bat, Japanese player Hiroji Satoh turned up with one covered in sponge.
Marty lost, later putting the defeat down to feeling unwell, but a new dawn of ping pong was born with sponge-layered bats instead of the hard ones.
He returned to New York in 1957, reportedly wearing a dozen Rolex watches under his sleeve.
‘Gladiatorial spirit’
There he met the woman who was to become his first wife — who happened to be already married — and he was discovered naked, hiding in a wardrobe by her angry husband, who was carrying a 12-gauge shotgun.
Despite the drama Marty and his new love settled down and he briefly dabbled with “straight” work, selling shoes at a Manhattan department store.
But he admitted: “No one has probably ever been less suited for regular employment than I was.”
In 1958 he opened a table tennis club in Manhattan, which was frequented by celebrities such as Dustin Hoffman and chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer.
He later became close pals with Susan Sarandon, who described him as being “as smooth on the social scene as on the court”.
In 1997 Marty came out of retirement to win a new US “hardbat” championship at the age of 67.
During his sporting career — which lasted more than half a century — he won 22 major titles, as well as five world championship bronze medals.
He was survived by his second wife Yoshiko, daughter Debbie and several grandchildren.
Marty himself once said: “I took on people in the gladiatorial spirit, never backed down from a bet.
“It’s a funny way to spend a life.”
Now the wizard of table tennis is set to have one last shot in the spotlight.