Robert Vivian Newman

When Carroll was born, Lionel & Beverly asked Bobby to be Carroll's Godfather. He played the part well.

Bobby was a remarkable man, brilliant, successful, always close to and behind the scenes of the powerful. As a young man he was a publicist and then later a Broadway producer, producing shows as well known as Abie's Irish Rose (? of a revival company), and plays of his friend Vina Del Mar (who Robbie always thought was a bit....well...pretentious). His wife to be Sascha acted in some of the plays he produced (see IBDb). He was also very active in Democratic Politics in NYC (Tammany Hall), where he was a close financial advisor and friend to Mayor Jimmie Walker. Rumor had it he had one of the famous "Little Tin Boxes" awarded to Walkers friends--also family lore states that Robert loaned Walker the money he needed to leave the US after the graft of his administration became clear. Robert truly worshipped Walker, denied any wrongdoing on his part, and would not allow anything negative to be said about him.

I owe my very existence to Bobby's political connections. After my father was expelled and black balled from Med Schools for slugging the antisemitic dean of U Alabama, Robert had the Governor of Louisiana appoint Irving to LSU med school--where he met my Mom and the rest is history.

He and Sascha lived in a large home in Great Neck NY. When the family moved to LA, following Al who came in 1929, Bobby eventually followed. In the movie industry he became known as the consummate budget expert and was one of the most respected production executives in Hollywood literally until the end of his life. He worked at Goldwyn Studios, John Wayne's Batjac Productions, Motown Productions and was in charge of syndicating Howard Hughes' movie properties to TV. On one Howard Hughes sales trip to Asia, he brought Rob and they did a five country tour, selling the Hughes films. The only problem was that some countries had to pay in cash and the money had to be smuggled out and then not declared when the money was back in the United States. Uncle Bob solved the problem by putting the wads and wads and wads of cash in Rob's blue "Pan Am Bag" and Rob smuggled the money back out of each country and back into the United States. Who would ever think a kid 13 year old kid in a suit and bow tie with a Pan Am bag on his shoulder would have $100,000 in cash stuffed inside?

When it came time to make the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," Quaker Oats hired him to oversee production for them, and he and Rob moved to Munich, Germany for four months. Roald Dahl, the author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," HATED Mel Stuart the director, and since Bob and Roald were friends (Roald had lived next door in the Palisades when his wife, actress Patricia Neal had her stroke), he played the role of the middleman between the two, trying to keep Roald happy and not too condemning in the press.. At the end of his life he was a vice president of Paramount.

Bob loved being the fix it man. If your phone needed to be repaired and GTE (as it was then known) would tell you it would take a week, you'd call Uncle Bobby and he'd have the repairman there in two hours. If you had a problem and you DIDNT call him, he would be FURIOUS with you. When the Dodgers were trying to take over Chavez Ravine to build Dodger Stadium and kick out all the Mexicans living there to build Dodger Stadium, the story goes that Bob got the City Council's last needed vote...from Councilman Rundberg, and the rest...is history as the Dodgers moved to LA and the Mexicans moved....to who knows where. We understand they're still angry.

He was surrounded by influential friends from around the world--Walter O'Malley, Sam Goldwyn, John Wayne, Dave Chasen to name a very few. When Bob had some financial problems in the late 60's, he would eat at Chasen's all the time and sign his name and Dave would simply throw away the bills.

Bob always claimed that he created the idea of the midnight buffet on cruise ships. In the early 30's,he frequently traveled on the Ile De France between the US and Europe, and he said that the idea of the midnight buffet was his idea. Knowing how much he loved food, this seems entirely plausible! (as he probably was hungry around midnight!).

 After the death of his first wife, Sascha, he married Rosemary Peters and had a son, Rob, whom he loved unreservedly.

Bob was a generous man both to family and friends. He helped (with George and Al) support Emil through most of his life, and allowed Emil to live in his house on San Remo drive at the end of his life.

He was a talented photographer as well--many of the wonderful photographs that exist of the family were taken by Robert. Alan Newman (and Rob Newman)