The Infamous Bed from the Memoir, Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, Early 20th Century

This seemingly ordinary double bed was found and purchased by Joanne at a thrift shop, and was kept in the Newman home. In excerpts from his posthumous memoir, Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life of An Ordinary Man, Newman recounts finding Joanne in their Beverly Hills home in a paint-covered smock, upon returning from their honeymoon in 1958. She led him to a small room where she had moved “some thrift-shop double bed with a new Sealy mattress,” recently re-painted by her. Joanne proudly coined the room the ‘Fuck Hut,’ and the two would spend “several nights a week and just be intimate and noisy and ribald.”  Newman credits his wife by claiming she “gave birth” to the “sexual creature” inside of him, which helped him embrace his legendary sex symbol status in Hollywood. The bed and its accompanying story has gained wide attention for demonstrating Paul and Joanne’s affection, playfulness, and lust.