Inside the Chaotic True Story Behind “Marty Supreme”: All About Real-Life Table Tennis Legend (and Hustler) Marty Reisman
- - Inside the Chaotic True Story Behind “Marty Supreme”: All About Real-Life Table Tennis Legend (and Hustler) Marty Reisman
Avalon HesterDecember 25, 2025 at 9:00 AM
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A24 ; Bettmann/Getty
Timothée Chalamet as Marty in 'Marty Supreme' (2025) ; National Junior Table Tennis Champion Marty Reisman. -
Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser, is inspired by the life of table tennis legend Marty Reisman
Reisman won 22 major titles throughout his life and opened for the Harlem Globetrotters
He died in 2012 of heart and lung complications
In real life, Marty "the Needle" Reisman reigned supreme.
In A24's Marty Supreme, which hit theaters on Christmas day, Timothée Chalamet plays a table tennis legend named Marty Mauser. However, Mauser is inspired by Reisman, who became famous in the 1940s and '50s for his skills in the sport — in addition to his flashy style, which included wearing fedoras and colorful polos. Reisman made table tennis history after winning the World Championships in 1949, beating 37-time champion and legendary Hungarian table tennis player Viktor Barna, according to the Daily Beast.
Chalamet spent years learning table tennis to emulate Resiman’s style, telling the BBC in December 2025 that the preparation was similar to learning to sing and play guitar for the role of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.
"I think the responsibility in this movie, like in the Bob Dylan movie, if you were a Dylan fan or a guitar player, [is to make sure] that that looks real to you on screen," he said. "Similarly here, if you're a ping-pong aficionado, that that looks believable to you."
However, the film isn't an exact biopic of Reisman. Marty Supreme has the "broad strokes" of the table tennis legend's life but "its own engine," Leo Leigh, the director of the 2014 documentary Fact or Fiction: The Life and Times of a Ping-Pong Hustler, told Smithsonian Magazine in December 2025.
So, what is the true story behind Marty Supreme? Here’s everything to know about the film's inspiration, Marty Reisman.
Reisman was born and raised in New York
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Marty Reisman in his ping pong parlor, circa 1971 in New York City.
Reisman was a lifelong New Yorker, born in Manhattan on Feb. 1, 1930, according to the United States Table Tennis Hall of Fame. His father was a cab driver, a bookmaker and a gambler — “a compulsive loser,” according to Reisman in his autobiography The Money Player. His parents divorced when he was 10, per the organization.
He began playing table tennis when he was 9 years old following a nervous breakdown. Reisman quickly climbed the ranks to become the city junior champion at age 13, per The New York Times. Reisman lived with his mother until he was 14, at which point he moved in with his father who encouraged his table tennis success, according to the United States Table Tennis Hall of Fame.
When Marty Supreme opens, Chalamet's Marty Mauser is working as a shoe salesman — a position Reisman really held for a few days, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
He gained a reputation as a hustler
A24
'Marty Supreme' (2025).
It wasn’t long before Reisman took his skills to New York’s table tennis parlors and began playing for cash, hustling players at Lawrence's Broadway Table Tennis Club — just like in Marty Supreme — per the Daily Beast. His bets sometimes got him into trouble — when he was 15 years old, he placed a $500 bet on himself with a man he thought was a bookie, but who turned out to be the president of the United States Table Tennis Association. Reisman was swiftly escorted out of the tournament.
Reisman went on to compete with a three-man exhibition team in England when he was 16 years old, according to The New York Times. Three years later, Reisman became the opening act for the Harlem Globetrotters alongside fellow player Doug Cartland. The duo played “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with frying pans and hit balls across the net with the soles of their sneakers, as is shown in the film.
His signature trick, however, was to bet someone that he could break a cigarette in half from across the table with a ball — which he successfully did on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1975 and the Late Show With David Letterman in 2008, per Smithsonian Magazine.
Throughout his career, Reisman continued betting on himself, earning enough to become a three-time millionaire, but also losing enough to become a three-time former millionaire, according to The New York Times. He became known for measuring the height of the net with a $100 bill, according to the outlet.
“I took on people in the gladiatorial spirit,” Reisman told The New York Times in March 2012. “Never backed down from a bet.”
Once, he even offered a Sports Illustrated photographer a bet during a shoot, giving him an 18-point head start.
“His hustles were amazing,” Manny Millan, the photographer, told the outlet in November 2021. “It’s not like a one-time thing where he’d play somebody and just beat the hell out of them. He would get a person to say, ‘I just lost.’ And then they’d come back for more.”
Reisman won 22 major titles
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Marty Reisman in his ping pong parlor, circa 1971 in New York City.
Despite his occasional forays into showmanship and gimmick, Reisman was a truly gifted player. In a September 2005 interview with Forbes, Reisman was credited with having “the greatest drop shot ever seen on the face of the earth.” The outlet also noted that Resiman’s forehand swing clocked in at 115 miles per hour.
He won his first world championship at just 19 years old against Barna. He went on to win 22 international and national championships between 1946 and 2002, including the U.S. Open twice and the British Open once, according to Forbes.
He set a world record
NY Daily News via Getty
Marty Reisman on the cover of New York Daily News Sunday News Magazine on March 18, 1979.
In the 1990s, the hardbat paddle — which was covered with a thick layer of pimpled rubber — made a comeback in popularity, according to Smithsonian Magazine. In 1997, Reisman won the inaugural U.S. National Hardbat Championship at 67 — a feat that made him the oldest national champion in any racket sport, per The New York Times.
The Hardbat Championship was close to Reisman’s heart. In the 1952 World Championship, Japan's Hiroji Satoh introduced a new kind of paddle to the professional stage — the Bombay — and used it to beat Reisman. Reisman played with the traditional hardbat paddle, while the Bombay, which has become the standard for table tennis, has a smooth, thin layer of rubber that propelled the ball at greater speeds, according to The New York Times. The match played a crucial role in Marty Supreme.
Reisman maintained his crusade against the new paddles throughout his life, saying they lacked soul and the signature loud sound that he believed integral to the game.
“Before, there was a dialogue between the two players, wherein a 6-year-old child could understand the difference between offense and defense,” Mr. Reisman told The New York Times in 1998. “Today a point is made or lost with an imperceptible twist of the wrist."
Reisman was known for his style
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Marty Reisman.
In addition to his flair at the table, Reisman was known for his bold outfit choices, which helped build what he proudly referred to as the “Reisman myth,” according to Forbes.
He had a penchant for vintage Borsalino fedoras and Panama hats, as well as bold acidic colors and high rise pants, according to The New York Times. Reisman's pictures on the wall at SPiN, the downtown New York ping-pong club started by actress Susan Sarandon, feature him wearing leopard-print pants or high-waisted lime green slacks.
He founded a table tennis organization
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The top seeded players in the three-day National Table Tennis Championships; Marty Reisman, Richard Miles and William R. Price.
Resiman founded Table Tennis Nation in 2010, with the goal of spreading information about the sport and making the sport more fun, according to The Boston Globe.
That wasn’t Reisman's first table tennis organization. People once came from all over the city and the world to play at his Upper West Side club, the Riverside Table Tennis Club, according to Sports Illustrated.
Reisman died in 2012
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Marty Reisman.
Reisman passed away in New York at the age of 82 on Dec. 7th, 2012, due to heart and lung complications, per The New York Times.
He is survived by his wife, Yoshiko, his daughter, Debbie Reisman, and several grandchildren, according to The New York Times.
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