# What was Feynman's "John Big"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 11, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952 "2013-08-11T18:50:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/1 "2013-08-11T18:50:30Z")
In his autobiography, Richard Feynman tells the tale of hooking up with some celebrity who kept him around as a sidekick for a while. I’d guess it was sometime in the 1950s, from the details, but Feynman describes the celeb only as “John Big.” Has anyone ever discovered who it was? ETA: Shit, that should be “Who was…” in the subject. I turned the question into a dirty joke… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/2 "2013-08-13T08:51:53Z")
John F Kennedy is a known regular in Vegas in the 50’s … ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/3 "2013-08-13T09:51:07Z")
Now I see how he got so much action ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/4 "2013-08-13T11:32:29Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > ETA: Shit, that should be “Who was…” in the subject. I turned the question into a dirty joke… ☹ I’m sure Feynman would have approved. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/5 "2013-08-13T15:09:21Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > John F Kennedy is a known regular in Vegas in the 50’s … In a thousand biographies of Kennedy, don’t you think someone would have mentioned Feynman? Besides, you clearly never read the book or even bothered to look up the cite (easily found on [Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=7papZR4oVssC&pg=PA227&dq=feynman+%22john+big%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=H0sKUvL3CeaNygHFz4CQDQ&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=feynman%20%22john%20big%22&f=false) - scroll up to p226 to start) or you wouldn’t say anything so silly. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/6 "2013-08-13T15:45:22Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Now I see how he got so much action Feynman or Kennedy? ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/7 "2013-08-13T16:07:15Z")
Sinatra dabbled in photography like Feynman’s John Big, but not much else seems to match up. As for not being mentioned in John Big’s (whoever he was) biographies, Feynman was not famous outside of the theoretical physics community, and it sounds like he was only around John Big for a total of a few hours, so it’s entirely possible that nobody who would be a source for a John Big biography even knew his name, other than “Dick.” ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/8 "2013-08-13T17:36:37Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Feynman or Kennedy? He also got action in [Nash](http://xkcd.com/182/)-ville. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/9 "2013-08-13T19:40:34Z")
Feynman’s memoirs do sometimes seem, how shall I say it, less than fully objective, hmm? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/10 "2013-08-13T20:36:13Z")
How old is Chris Noth? ---
**Author:** ![David\_H\_Singanas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@David\_H\_Singanas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_H_Singanas)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/11 "2013-08-14T09:28:25Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > In his autobiography, Richard Feynman tells the tale of hooking up with some celebrity who kept him around as a sidekick for a while. I’d guess it was sometime in the 1950s, from the details, but Feynman describes the celeb only as “John Big.” Wasn’t Feynman at Los Alamos during W.W.2 ? Let’s look at the Big Johns of the 1940’s John Wayne John Garfield John Hodiak John Barrymore ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/12 "2013-08-14T15:09:52Z")
The chapter in the book gives us a number of clues. Feynman says he drove across country every summer, stopping off in Vegas for booze and show girls but no gambling. This obviously makes it happening during the war impossible, because Santa Fe wasn’t across the country, tire and gas rationing would have made the trips difficult - especially since he didn’t own a car at the time, the Feds would never allow such a thing, and he was married to a dying wife he loved. Where was he coming from? Ithaca, NY, since he taught at Cornell from 1945-1950. He mentions the Flamingo, whose first summer was in 1947. But he continued to make visits through the 50s even after he moved to Caltech because he tells a group of L.A. prostitutes who recognize his picture from an article in \*Time \*magazine that he was from Pasadena, and that article was in the Nov. 18, 1957 issue, in the after-Sputnik glow about science. The adventures with John Big has to be earlier, because they go to the Last Frontier and that casino changed its name to the New Frontier in 1955. (It’s probably not 1952, though, because Feynman was in a short-lived married that year.) Big lives in Los Angeles. But although one girl claims she’s his wife and that they’re on their honeymoon, which would be a great clue, that turns out to be false. He’s not married. She’s just a pickup. We’re never told what kind of celebrity Big is, so we can’t assume he’s an actor. He travels with armed bodyguards. He goes around the country to high-end casinos and resorts and has started to dabble in photography. There’s no way even to assume that his name was John. Feynman could have adapted it from John Doe. While none of that identifies John Big, it’s enough to rule out lots of people. John Barrymore was dead. John Wayne was married. Neither John Garfield nor John Hodiak was much of a celebrity in the early 50s and wouldn’t have traveled with bodyguards. I doubt if any Hollywood actor did, even Frank Sinatra in the 1950s. Sinatra was technically married throughout the period, but legally separated from first wife Nancy in 1950. He had already started his affair with second wife Ava Gardner by then and married her 10 days after his divorce came though in 1951. The big assumption is that these details are true and not themselves fudged to make identification impossible. You have to assume truth or else the game is no fun. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/13 "2013-08-14T15:21:07Z")
Feynman’s memoirs are definitely subjective, but they’re also definitely fun to read. Though he referred to the mystery figure as “John Big,” he clearly didn’t mean to suggest that the man’s real first name was John. Though JB’s identity is never revealed, I always imagine Sinatra when I read that chapter. All we know about JB from the chapter (if we can believe Feynman) is: he was very famous, and very rich; the casinos in Vegas assigned armed security guards to protect him when he comes in; he drove a big red car with two antennas and an automatic transmission, which was a novelty at the time; he was married (because when Feynman asked about his wife, he answered that his wife wasn’t currently in Vegas), but he still played around, and his wife wasn’t well-known (since Feynman believed a showgirl who claimed to be JB’s wife); and he fancied himself a photographer, though he didn’t know very much about the expensive camera equipment he carried. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/14 "2013-08-14T15:29:21Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > But although one girl claims she’s his wife and that they’re on their honeymoon, which would be a great clue, that turns out to be false. He’s not married. She’s just a pickup. He is married, beacuse when Feynman refers to the girl as his wife, JB answers, “My wife? My wife’s not here in Las Vegas.” But since Feynman accepted the girl’s story, that would suggest that JB’s wife wasn’t as well-known as he was. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Neither John Garfield nor John Hodiak was much of a celebrity in the early 50s and wouldn’t have traveled with bodyguards. I doubt if any Hollywood actor did, even Frank Sinatra in the 1950s. The book says, “waiters [were] moving tables around, security guards with guns coming in. They were making room for a celebrity. JOHN BIG was coming in!” I assumed from that that the guards were hotel security, not JB’s personal bodyguards. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/15 "2013-08-14T15:40:56Z")
> [@](#): > > The big assumption is that these details are true and not themselves fudged to make identification impossible. You have to assume truth or else the game is no fun. That, or find the minimal set of fudging (or misremembering; even Feynman was still human after all) to make it consistent. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/16 "2013-08-14T15:45:21Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > He is married, beacuse when Feynman refers to the girl as his wife, JB answers, “My wife? My wife’s not here in Las Vegas.” But since Feynman accepted the girl’s story, that would suggest that JB’s wife wasn’t as well-known as he was. Yes. Good catch. Every line is a potential clue. > [@](#): > > The book says, “waiters [were] moving tables around, security guards with guns coming in. They were making room for a celebrity. JOHN BIG was coming in!” I assumed from that that the guards were hotel security, not JB’s personal bodyguards. You could be right, although the wording is ambiguous. Would the casino need armed guards to move tables around, though? They would be moving nobodies, not gangster bosses. It makes more sense to me that Big’s bodyguards would have the guns on them and be an advance team to oversee the activity. That fits more closely to the “coming in,” repeated for John Big and seemingly separate from the waiters. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/17 "2013-08-14T16:08:46Z")
I have a hard time believing that Sinatra would need Feynman to introduce him to hot girls. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/18 "2013-08-14T16:40:35Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > I have a hard time believing that Sinatra would need Feynman to introduce him to hot girls. It was actually SInatra introducing Feynman. It only looks the other way around if you run the scene backward in time. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/19 "2013-08-14T16:55:45Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > It was actually SInatra introducing Feynman. It only looks the other way around if you run the scene backward in time. Doesn’t this mean that there is only one girl and she interacts with everyone? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952/20 "2013-08-14T17:12:34Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Doesn’t this mean that there is only one girl and she interacts with everyone? :eek: and that my dear Expno is how VD is spread. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-feynmans-john-big/665952.md?page=2)