Anne Newman

Interview Description

Oral History Interview with Anne Newman

Born in 1932, Anne Newman grew up in Chino, California. The daughter of a father who became Chino's mayor, she attended Chino High School and went on to major in political science at Pomona College and University of California, Los Angeles. While a graduate student in social work at University of Southern California, she appeared in a student film and was drawn to acting. In 1959, Newman entered a Miss Rheingold contest as the Brooklyn-based brewery was cracking the California market. As a semi-finalist, she was flown to New York City and booked at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. She was interviewed there, chosen as a finalist, and received a prize of $25,000. For weeks in the summer of 1959, finalists campaigned to be Miss Rheingold of 1959-1960. Newman met her first husband, "Harper's Bazaar" publisher Robert MacLeod, when he was judging the contest. Although not chosen as Miss Rheingold, she joined the Ford Models agency and took acting classes. The couple relocated to Malibu, California in the mid-1960s and had a son. She later divorced and married actor Paul Mantee. While acting, she was repeatedly cast by one agency for commercial work. Her third husband, Joe Bacal, cofounded that agency. When she moved back to New York, Newman worked in children's television production in the mid-1980s and then volunteered with Bread and Roses, a cultural project of the 1199 Service Employees International Union. Leading up to this 2009 interview, Newman had chaired a women's theater group and was staying politically active with EMILY's List. She reunited with several Miss Rheingold finalists in 2012 at New-York Historical Society's exhibition on local breweries, and this inspired her 2015 documentary "Beauty and the Beer: 1940-1963."

In this interview, Anne Newman speaks about much of her early adult life as a graduate student seeking acting roles and her lucky break at becoming a finalist in a Miss Rheingold contest in 1959. She also recalls pivotal moments like meeting her first husband, modeling, becoming a mother, getting into television production on "The Great Space Coaster" show, marrying her best friend and third husband, and volunteering. Newman considers the unique social significance of the beauty contest in the late 1950s, contrasts that with political campaigns and reality shows circa 2008, and reflects on her early recognition of her feminism and how that empowered her choices through much of her life. Interview conducted by Sady Sullivan.

The Voices of Brooklyn oral histories: Arts and entertainment series features a dynamic range of narrators. Some are well-known public figures and others are well-known in their communities or field. This ongoing series focuses on the arts and the experiences of these Brooklyn narrators, as well as documents local, national, and international cultures. The narrators often discuss their production of works of art or entertainment media. The oldest narrator in this series was born in 1917.

Citation

Newman, Anne, Oral history interview conducted by Sady Sullivan, July 08, 2009, Voices of Brooklyn oral histories: Arts and entertainment, 2008.031.1.007; Brooklyn Historical Society.