The real ping pong champion and hustler who inspired 'Marty Supreme'

"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."

"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." One of the game's "bad boys" 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."

In 1940s and '50s New York City, table tennis formed a gritty subculture of misfits, gamblers, doctors, actors and students who competed and bet at all-night spots like Lawrence's in midtown Manhattan. Talented players could earn hundreds of dollars in cash during a single night. Marty Reisman emerged as a star: a handsome, bespectacled Jewish teenager nicknamed "The Needle" whose electric play and thumb-trigger shots intimidated opponents. Reisman represented the U.S. internationally and won more than 20 major titles, including the 1949 English Open and two U.S. Opens. He embraced showmanship, dressing in elegant suits and cultivating a bad-boy persona. The new movie Marty Supreme loosely draws on his life for its protagonist, Marty Mauser.

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