Topline:
The new movie Marty Supreme recreates the gritty subculture of ... table tennis. The titular character is loosely based on a real person.
Who was he: In the 1940s and '50s, New York City table tennis was a gritty subculture full of misfits, gamblers, doctors, actors, students and more. In this world, a handsome, bespectacled Jewish teenager named Marty Reisman was a star.
Read on ... to learn more about the real Marty.
In the 1940s and '50s, New York City table tennis was a gritty subculture full of misfits, gamblers, doctors, actors, students and more. They competed, bet on the game or both at all-night spots like Lawrence's, a table tennis parlor in midtown Manhattan. A talented player could rake in hundreds in cash in one night. In this world, a handsome, bespectacled Jewish teenager named Marty Reisman was a star.
His game was electric. "Marty had a trigger in his thumb. He hit bullets. You could lose your eyebrows playing with him," someone identified only as "the shirt king" told author Jerome Charyn for his book Sizzling Chops and Devilish Spins: Ping-Pong and the Art of Staying Alive.
The new movie Marty Supreme recreates this world. Timothée Chalamet's character, table tennis whiz Marty Mauser, is loosely inspired by Reisman.
Nicknamed "The Needle" for his slender physique, Reisman represented the U.S. in tournaments around the world and won more than 20 major titles, including the 1949 English Open and two U.S. Opens.
Like Chalamet's Marty Mauser, Reisman was obsessed with the game. In his 1974 memoir The Money Player: The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler, Reisman wrote that he was drawn to table tennis because it "involved anatomy and chemistry and physics."
Reisman was a daring, relentless showman, always dressed to the nines in elegant suits and hats. "His personality made him legendary," said Khaleel Asgarali, a professional player who owns Washington, D.C. Table Tennis. Asgarali would often see Reisman at tournaments. "The way he carried himself, his charisma, his flair, the clothing, the style … Marty was a sharp dresser, man."
He was also one of the game's "bad boys," just like the fictional Marty Mauser. In 1949 at the English Open, he and fellow American star Dick Miles moved from their modest London hotel into one that was much fancier. They ran up a tab on room service, dry cleaning and the like and then charged it all to the English Table Tennis Association. When the English officials refused to cover their costs, the players said they wouldn't show up for exhibition matches they knew were already sold out. The officials capitulated — but later fined the players $200 and suspended them "indefinitely from sanctioned table tennis" worldwide for breaking the sport's "courtesy code."
Reisman grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side. His dad was a taxi driver and serious gambler. "It was feast or famine at our house, usually famine," Reisman wrote. His parents split when he was 10. His mother, who had emigrated from the Soviet Union, worked as a waitress and then in a garment factory. When he was 14, Marty went to live with his father at the Broadway Central Hotel.
Hustling was "just baked into his DNA," said Leo Leigh, director of a documentary about Reisman called Fact or Fiction: The Life and Times of a Ping Pong Hustler.
"I remember [Reisman] telling me that when he wanted to eat, he would wait until there was a wedding in the hotel, put on his best suit and just slip in and just sit and eat these massive, amazing meals," said Leigh, "And then he'd be ready for the night to go and hustle table tennis."
Reisman suffered panic attacks as early as nine years old. Playing ping pong helped with his anxiety. "The game so engrossed me, so filled my days, that I did not have time to worry," he wrote.
"Finding this game of table tennis — and finding that he had this amazing ability — became almost like an escape, a meditation," said Leigh.
Reisman wanted to be the best ping pong player in the world. "To be an Einstein in your field, or a Hemingway, or a Joe Louis — there could be nothing, I imagined, more noble," Reisman wrote. "And table tennis champions were to me Einstein, Hemingway, and Louis wrapped into one."
The game was respected throughout Europe and Asia, turning ping pong stars into big names: In Marty Supreme, one who was imprisoned at Auschwitz tells the story of being spared by Nazi guards who recognize him. (Reisman's memoir tells a similar true story of the Polish table tennis champion Alojzy "Alex" Ehrlich.)
But in the U.S., ping pong was considered a pastime people played in their basements. New York City was an exception: "Large sums of money were bet on a sport that had no standing at all in this country," wrote Reisman.
Reisman dazzled spectators with his flair on the table.
"If you look at footage of Marty in the '50s and '60s, you could almost compare it to the footage of Houdini," said Leigh. "He would blow the ball into the air and then he would, you know, knock it under his leg or just do some acrobats. It was almost like putting on a show."
One of his gimmick shots was breaking a cigarette in two with a slam.
Marty Supreme co-writer and director Josh Safdie grew up playing ping pong with his dad in New York City. "I had ADHD and found it to be quite helpful," he told NPR. "It's a sport that requires an intense amount of focus and an intense amount of precision." Safdie said his great uncle played at Lawrence's and used to tell him about the different characters he met there, including Reisman's friend and competitor Dick Miles.
It was Safdie's wife who found Reisman's book in a thrift store and gave it to him. When he read it, Safdie was finishing a dream project that was years in the making, the 2019 movie Uncut Gems starring Adam Sandler. "Every step of the way, there was either a hurdle or a stop gap or a laugh in my face," said Safdie, "And very few believers in that project."
Safdie likened the experience to Reisman's obsession with becoming a table tennis champion "who believed in this thing and had a dream that no one respected."
In 1952, Japanese player Hiroji Satoh stunned the table tennis world by winning the Men's Singles at the World Championships playing with a new type of racket that had thick foam rubber. Unlike the traditional hardbat, the sponge rubber silenced the pock of the ball hitting the racket. Reisman wrote that the new surface caused the ball "to take eerie flights … Sometimes it floated like a knuckleball, a dead ball with no spin whatsoever. On other occasions the spin was overpowering."
"Marty really liked the sound of the old hardbat," said Asgarali, "When the sponge racquet came out, Marty wasn't competitive anymore. He totally fell out of the game."
Leigh said Reisman would tell just about anyone who would listen how Hiroji Satoh destroyed his game.
He was "constantly analyzing and reanalyzing his personality, who he is, where he's going," said Leigh. He would "sit with all these academics and these writers and these almost philosophers and just talk for hours" about how the rubber bat "completely" ruined his game. "He was always searching for something."
In 1958, Reisman bought the Riverside Table Tennis Club on Manhattan's Upper West Side, a popular spot frequented by celebrities including Matthew Broderick and Dustin Hoffman. In 1997, at age 67, he won the United States Hardbat Championship.
Marty Reisman died in 2012 at age 82. A The New York Times profile of him less than a year prior started with the headline, "A Throwback Player, With a Wardrobe to Match."
Copyright 2025 NPR
Topline:
Saturday marks one year since former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do started his prison term, after pleading guilty to taking bribes to award tax dollars to people who diverted $7.9 million that was supposed to feed needy seniors during the pandemic. What’s happened since Do went to federal lockup? How much money has been recouped for taxpayers? And will he and his family pay back the bribe money? Here’s what we know.
Prison time is shortening: In the year since he started his sentence, Do’s prison term has been shortened by five months, according to the federal prison system’s website. Federal law allows many prisoners to reduce their prison time by completing various classes, trainings and programs.
How much money has been recovered? The amount of taxpayer money recovered so far is less than half of the $7.9 million Andrew Do admitted was diverted from meal dollars.
More questionable spending: Forensic audits, commissioned by the county, found Do and his top aide had a longstanding pattern of misspending public money far beyond the focus of the criminal case. The audit also details the numerous times that top county officials were alerted to, but didn’t act on, potential irregularities regarding millions in county funds awarded to a nonprofit connected to Andrew Do’s daughter, Rhiannon Do.
Saturday marks one year since former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do started his prison term, after pleading guilty to taking bribes to award tax dollars to people who diverted $7.9 million that was supposed to feed needy seniors during the pandemic.
About $4 million has been recovered so far as a result of the criminal probe, which was prompted by an LAist investigation.
What’s happened since Do went to federal lockup? How much money has been recouped for taxpayers? And will he and his family pay back the bribe money? Here’s what we know.
Do was sentenced to five years in federal prison, which he has been serving at United States Penitentiary, Tucson since Aug. 15 of last year.
His original release date was set for four and a quarter years later, in November 2029. Federal prisoners serve 85% of their sentence if they maintain good behavior, under a nationwide law.
In the year since he started his sentence, Do’s prison term has been shortened by an additional five months, with a new release date of mid-June 2029, according to the federal prison system’s website. Federal law allows many prisoners to further reduce their prison time by completing various classes, trainings and programs.
A spokesperson for the prison system declined to answer specific questions about Do’s time at the facility, saying, “We cannot comment on the conditions of confinement of any individual.”
The amount of taxpayer money recovered so far is a bit less than half of the $7.9 million Do admitted was diverted from tax dollars he awarded to a newly formed group that was supposed to feed needy seniors during the pandemic.
The county alleges even more — at least $13.4 million — was lost due to the scheme, and that much of it was “plundered” into multiple home purchases in Tustin and elsewhere by various alleged co-conspirators.
Of the $3.7 million recovered and returned to the county, the vast majority was from the main nonprofit and business accused of bribing Do. County supervisors are deferring to Do’s successor, Supervisor Janet Nguyen, to recommend how to spend the money.
More than a decade ago, Nguyen was Do’s mentor and boss when she was supervisor the first time and Do was her chief of staff. She helped him win election to her supervisor seat, before the two had a bitter falling out by 2016. The animosity grew so intense that in 2018 the county Republican Party’s then-chair emailed Do, a fellow Republican, to tell him to immediately stop publicly attacking Nguyen, another Republican, as she ran for reelection to the state Senate.
So far, Nguyen’s gotten approval from her fellow county supervisors to allocate $500,000 of the recovered funds to compensate residents affected by multiday evacuations over a Garden Grove chemical tank that was at risk of exploding. Nguyen has said she wants the chemical tank company to reimburse the county for it.
The county is trying to get back more of the stolen tax dollars from the scheme through an ongoing civil lawsuit against Do, his youngest daughter Rhiannon Do and others alleged to have been involved. The trial is set for late 2027.
Federal prosecutors have an ongoing criminal case against two of Andrew Do’s alleged co-conspirators: Peter Pham — who led the nonprofit Viet America Society that handled most of the meal money — and Thanh Huong Nguyen, who led the nonprofit Hand to Hand Relief Organization that also handled meal money directed by the former supervisor.
Federal authorities say Peter Pham remains a fugitive, after flying to Taipei in December 2024, a few months after authorities executed a search warrant at his home.
Following several postponements, Nguyen’s trial is scheduled to start in February.
If she’s convicted, federal prosecutors plan to seek restitution payments, according to Ciaran McEvoy, the U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson.
During the first part of Andrew Do’s scheme, his wife, Cheri Pham was the supervising judge over Orange County’s largest criminal courts, before being promoted to the number-two judge position at the county Superior Court.
As assistant presiding judge, she was on track to become the presiding judge, but in mid-2024 decided not to run amid the controversy swirling around her husband. She now oversees divorce and domestic violence cases in Orange County’s family court, where she started her judicial career. She has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office hired Rhiannon Do as an intern in early 2024 after LAist reported that her father routed millions in unaccounted-for dollars to an organization she was listed as helping lead. The internship ended about three months later. Six months later, the DA’s office and federal prosecutors agreed to a diversion agreement that avoided charges against Rhiannon Do, in exchange for her admitting to mortgage fraud and giving up her ownership of the Tustin home that was purchased as a bribe to her father.
Last year, Rhiannon Do graduated from law school and passed the bar exam that’s required to become an attorney in California. She is not currently listed as an attorney on the state bar’s website. To become an attorney, people must also pass a moral character review that looks, among other things, at any past fraud accusations and cases involving the applicant. That review is confidential.
Ilene Do, Andrew Do’s oldest daughter, previously worked as a customer engagement coordinator at Moulton Niguel Water District and left sometime before late 2024, the water district previously told LAist.
Kate Corrigan, an attorney for Cheri Pham, said she and Cheri Pham do not have any comment. Andrew Do, Rhiannon Do and Ilene Do did not respond to requests for comment from LAist through their attorneys.
In the wake of the Andrew Do scandal, his former colleagues on the county Board of Supervisors commissioned a series of forensic audit reports by an outside firm into the broader picture of county contract spending during the pandemic.
The first phase, released this March, found Andrew Do and his top aide had a longstanding pattern of misspending public money far beyond the focus of the criminal case that landed the former supervisor in prison.
The audit found Andrew Do and his chief of staff at the time, Chris Wangsaporn, undermined procedures meant to prevent abuse of county money, while using their influence to steer taxpayer contracts to friends, family and businesses — often with little information about the services being provided. Those contractors would then donate to his election campaigns “shortly after,” auditors found.
If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is ngerda.47.
Among its many findings, the first report found Andrew Do routed hundreds of thousands more dollars than previously reported to companies affiliated with Peter Pham.
The audit’s second phase, released this week, identified more questionable spending directed by Andrew Do, including a $500,000 grant to the company of Frank Jao, a major real estate developer in Little Saigon. That taxpayer contract never required the company, Bridgecreek Realty Investment Corp., to provide supporting documentation for how the money was spent — such as invoices or receipts, according to the audit. In the end, there is no documentation for how more than half of the taxpayer funds were used, it says.
The audit also details numerous times that top county officials did not act after they were alerted to potential irregularities regarding millions in county funds awarded to Viet America Society, the nonprofit connected to Rhiannon Do. The audit details an occasion in which Clayton Chau, the former county healthcare director who asked that money be routed to Rhiannon Do’s clinic at the nonprofit, reprimanded a subordinate for raising concerns.
Chau is now chief medical officer at National Healthcare & Housing Advisors, which operates three healthcare campuses in California.
Two more phases of the audit are underway.
Topline:
This weekend, Susan Egan is being honored at the D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim as a Disney Legend along with more than a dozen actors, composers and other contributors.
What you know her from: She’s best known as the voice of Megara in "Hercules" and the original Belle in the Broadway version of "Beauty and the Beast." She was also the first actor to play a Disney princess on Broadway in 1994, and said at the time it was a risky decision.
A SoCal connection: Egan’s relationship with the world of Disney started at a young age. She grew up in Seal Beach, less than an hour away from Disneyland, and says her mother would take her and her siblings to the park on a school day every year.
Details on the event: D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event runs this weekend Aug. 14 through Aug. 16 at the Anaheim Convention Center. There will be performances and panels from the cast and producers of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Simpsons, Camp Rock 3 and others.
Read on... for more about Egan's work and impact.
Susan Egan is a trailblazer in the Disney world.
She’s best known as the voice of Megara in "Hercules" and the original Belle in the Broadway version of "Beauty and the Beast."
This weekend, Egan is being honored at the D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim as a Disney Legend along with more than a dozen actors, composers and other contributors.
Egan’s relationship with the world of Disney started at a young age. She grew up in Seal Beach, less than an hour away from Disneyland, and says her mother would take her and her siblings to the park on a school day every year.
“It just never occurred to me that you could actually work for that company, that could be what you do for a living,” Egan told LAist “It just seemed like play all the time.”
She was the first actor to play a Disney princess on Broadway in 1994, and said at the time it was a risky decision.
“We really didn't know if it was going to work. In essence, taking a cartoon and bringing it to the live audience, having to change some of the mythology because, you know, we can't be a 10-inch tall teapot. You have to be a full human-sized teapot,” said Egan.
But she says the audience loved the Broadway production as much as they loved the movie.
She went on to voice the sharp-tongued Megara from "Hercules," who she calls a “Disney heroine ahead of her time.”
“Honestly her flaws are what make her so relatable. I hear from a lot of young women ‘Oh Meg, I could relate to Meg.’ I go, ‘Me too. Honestly yeah, string of bad boyfriends, same.'”
Egan has harnessed her love for Disney into her production company, 10th & Main, with producing partner Adam J. Levy. Together they’ve produced Disney Princess: The Concert, which has toured across five continents, the recurring production aboard Disney cruise ships called Broadway Star Series and other programs.
10th & Main is also putting together a show for the D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event this weekend called Disney Rewind Concerts. Egan says it’s celebrating the Disney movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
“ We have the voice of Goofy, Bill Farmer, and Jodi Benson, the voice of Little Mermaid, is in the concert. We've got Disney icon Jim Cummings, who's the voice of 400 Disney characters,” said Egan. It’s happening on Friday and Saturday night and will be streamed on Disney+.
D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event runs this weekend Aug. 14 through Aug. 16 at the Anaheim Convention Center. There will be performances and panels from the cast and producers of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Simpsons, Camp Rock 3 and others.
Topline:
L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson filed a motion Wednesday asking the private Olympics organizing committee LA28 to commit to giving some Olympic contracts to businesses in the city of Los Angeles specifically.
Why it matters: The 2028 Olympics and Paralympics in Los Angeles will cost billions to put on, but there are currently no guarantees that any of that business will go to companies or small businesses in the city of Los Angeles. That's a problem for local officials, who point out that the city of L.A. is the host and financial backer of the Games and should therefore reap the benefits.
The background: The move responds to critiques of LA28's procurement plan, which council members in April warned could end up leaving out the city of Los Angeles entirely.
LA28 says it's aiming to keep 75% of its spending in the Greater L.A. area, and put 25% towards small businesses. Its procurement plan pledges to prioritize "hyperlocal" businesses in the city of L.A., but makes no explicit promises. Instead, it identifies "local" as anywhere in L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
Read on… for what LA28 is saying.
The 2028 Olympics and Paralympics in Los Angeles will cost billions to put on, but there are currently no guarantees that any of that business will go to companies or small businesses in the city of Los Angeles.
That's a problem for local officials, who point out that the city of L.A. is the host and financial backer of the Games and should therefore reap the benefits.
Olympic contracts for things like IT services, cleaning and construction for the Games are worth up to $4 billion, according to LA28. L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson filed a motion Wednesday asking the private Olympics organizing committee LA28 to commit to giving some of those contracts to businesses in the city specifically.
The move responds to critiques of LA28's procurement plan, which council members in April warned could end up leaving out the city of Los Angeles entirely.
LA28 says it's aiming to keep 75% of its spending in the Greater L.A. area, and put 25% towards small businesses. Its procurement plan pledges to prioritize "hyperlocal" businesses in the city of L.A., but makes no explicit promises. Instead, it identifies "local" as anywhere in L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
Harris-Dawson's motion would direct city staff to request LA28 go further, developing an L.A.-specific spending commitment.
"There is no assurance that Olympic-related spending will meaningfully benefit Los Angeles businesses, workers, and communities in proportion to the City's role as host," the motion reads in part.
The motion still needs to get through council, but there are indications that it will meet an unwilling LA28.
LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover told the city council earlier this year that organizers would prioritize city businesses, but that he would not commit to a plan that would limit LA28's financial options.
"If I focus solely, first and foremost, on the city of L.A. for small business, then I am artificially reducing the pool of competition, placing greater risk on the city taxpayers and placing greater risk on the backstop of the city of L.A.," Hoover said.
The motion reflects the latest way city leaders are trying to limit risk and increase rewards for Los Angeles, which is on the hook for a potentially large amount of money if the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics are a financial failure.
Topline:
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is leading Republican businessman Steve Hilton by a double-digit margin in the race for California governor, according to a new poll from UC Berkeley.
More details: The Institute of Governmental Studies poll found about 55% of likely voters saying they’ll support Becerra, 37% backing Hilton and just 7% undecided.
The backstory: Becerra’s 18-point lead marks a stark contrast to June’s messy and crowded primary contest, which included numerous serious Democratic candidates and remained unsettled until the very end.
Read on ... for more on the new poll.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is leading Republican businessman Steve Hilton by a double-digit margin in the race for California governor, according to a new poll from UC Berkeley.
The Institute of Governmental Studies poll found about 55% of likely voters saying they’ll support Becerra, 37% backing Hilton and just 7% undecided.
Becerra’s 18-point lead marks a stark contrast to June’s messy and crowded primary contest, which included numerous serious Democratic candidates and remained unsettled until the very end.
“It’s shaping up to be a pretty traditional Democrat versus Republican general election matchup with strong partisan preferences kind of dominating everything,” poll director Mark DiCamillo said.
California’s electorate is largely Democratic — Republicans are outnumbered by Democrats nearly 2 to 1, and independent voters make up more than one-fifth of the electorate.
Partisan leanings appear to be driving voter opinions in the governor’s race, DiCamillo said: 88% of Democrats are backing Becerra, while 91% of Republicans are behind Hilton.
The poll’s findings overall track with trends in recent statewide races, including the 2024 presidential contest, which former Vice President Kamala Harris won by 20 points over President Donald Trump in California.
“When you ask voters, ‘Why are you supporting Becerra?’ they want a Democrat who takes the positions that Democrats traditionally take — that’s what they’re voting for. Plus they want somebody who’s going to fight Trump,” DiCamillo said.
Those partisan, anti-Trump views appear to outweigh Becerra’s history-making potential: If he wins, he would be the first Latino elected governor of California.
Yet just 1% of poll respondents said his identity as the son of Mexican immigrants is the reason they’re supporting him, the poll shows.
It will be difficult for Hilton to close the gap with Becerra, DiCamillo said, because the survey shows that he’s also struggling among voters not affiliated with one of the two major political parties.
The poll shows Hilton’s favorability rating underwater among independents, with 31% viewing him favorably and 59% unfavorably.
“In order for Hilton to win, he really has to go after the Democratic constituencies,” DiCamillo said. “If you look at, for example, no party preference voters, sometimes you try to peel those off if you’re a challenger on the Republican side.”
But with a strong majority of independents viewing the Republican businessman negatively, “it’s a tall order,” he said.
“Hilton represents the Republicans. He’s the standard bearer. And the reason people are voting for him is because that’s what they’re voting for,” DiCamillo said. “Unfortunately for Republicans and for Hilton, there’s not enough of them.”
The survey was conducted online in English and Spanish from Aug. 3 to Aug. 9 among 4,207 registered voters; a sample of 2,310 were considered likely voters in the November general election.
