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sidney wood

Rafael Nadal – Nick Kyrgios Not The Most Famous “Wimbledon Walkover”

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by Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

Rafael Nadal’s withdrawal from his semifinal with Nick Kyrgios is not the most famous “Wimbledon Walkover” in the history of The Championships.

In one of the most unusual episodes ever in sport came in the 1931 Wimbledon final when American Sidney Wood when he won the men’s singles title by forfeit. Wood, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 97, tells the story in his book “The Wimbledon Final That Never Was…And Other Tennis Tales From A By-Gone Era” (for sale and download here https://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257847/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_MJT771VHG5P7VNGMVCW1) of how he won the Wimbledon title over Frank Shields, his school buddy, doubles partner, roommate and Davis Cup teammate – and the grandfather of actress and model Brooke Shields – when Shields was ordered by the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) to withdraw from the final to rest his injured knee in preparation for a U.S. Davis Cup match following Wimbledon. He then discusses his “private understanding playoff” that saw his match with Shields at the Queen’s Club tournament final in London three years later be played for the Wimbledon trophy.

Wood, who could be called the greatest story teller tennis ever had, also relates fascinating anecdotes and stories that involve some of greatest titans of tennis and such legendary Hollywood personalities as Grace Kelly, Errol Flynn, Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx, Gary Cooper among others. Wood also critiques all the best players and all the best strokes for every top player through the years – from Bill Tilden, Rene Lacoste and Don Budge all the way to the modern era of the game.

Wood was born on November 1, 1911 in Black Rock, Conn., and was a long-time resident of New York, N.Y., Southampton, N.Y., and Palm Beach, Fla. When he won the Wimbledon title in 1931 at age 19, he was the youngest man to win the singles title at the All England Club — 17-year-old Boris Becker breaking his record in 1985. He still holds the record of being the youngest player to compete at Wimbledon at age 15 in 1927. He was a singles finalist at the 1935 U.S. Championships and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1964.

Founded in 1987, New Chapter Press (www.NewChapterMedia.com) is also the publisher of “Juan Martin del Potro: The Gentle Giant” by Sebastian Torok, “Althea Gibson: I Always Wanted To Be Somebody” by Althea Gibson, “The Pros: The Forgotten Era of Tennis” by Peter Underwood, “The Greatest Tennis Matches of All-Time” and “Pete Sampras: Greatness Revisited” by Steve Flink,  “The Education of a Tennis Player” by Rod Laver with Bud Collins, “The Secrets of Spanish Tennis” by Chris Lewit, “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” by Bud Collins,  “Titanic: The Tennis Story” by Lindsay Gibbs, “Macci Magic: Extracting Greatness From Yourself And Others” by Rick Macci with Jim Martz, “Andy Murray, Wimbledon Champion: The Full Extraordinary Story” by Mark Hodgkinson, “Cattle To Courts: A History of Tennis In Texas” by Ken McAllister, “Sport of a Lifetime: Enduring Personal Stories From Tennis” by Judy Aydelott, “Trojan Tennis: A History of the Storied Men’s Tennis Program at the University of Southern California” by S. Mark Young, “Absolute Tennis: The Best And Next Way To Play The Game” by Marty Smith, “How To Permanently Erase Negative Self Talk So You Can Be Extraordinary” by Emily Filloramo, “Acing Depression: A Tennis Champion’s Toughest Match” by Cliff Richey and Hilaire Richey Kallendorf, “Your Playbook For Beating Depression: Essential Strategies For Managing and Living with Depression” by Cliff Richey and Mary Garrison, “The Greatest Jewish Tennis Players of All-Time” by Sandra Harwitt, “Roger Federer: Quest for Perfection” by Rene Stauffer, “The Days of Roger Federer” and “On This Day In Tennis History” by Randy Walker, “Jan Kodes: A Journey To Glory From Behind The Iron Curtain” by Jan Kodes with Peter Kolar, “Tennis Made Easy” by Kelly Gunterman, “A Player’s Guide To USTA League Tennis” by Tony Serksnis, “Court Confidential: Inside The World Of Tennis” by Neil Harman, “A Backhanded Gift” by Marshall Jon Fisher, “Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games” by Tom Caraccioli and Jerry Caraccioli (www.Boycott1980.com), “Internet Dating 101: It’s Complicated, But It Doesn’t Have To Be” by Laura Schreffler, “How To Sell Your Screenplay” by Carl Sautter, “Bone Appetit: Gourmet Cooking For Your Dog” by Suzan Anson, “The Rules of Neighborhood Poker According to Hoyle” by Stewart Wolpin among others.

Sidney Wood (left) and Frank Shields were set to play the 1931 Wimbledon final

No, It’s Not The Asterisk U.S. Open

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By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

 

One of the statements that has irked me with regard to the upcoming 2020 U.S. Open tennis championships is that it will have an asterisk.

As the U.S. Tennis Association announced that the event will take place as scheduled in this coronavirus pandemic but without fans (and perhaps a few top players), some people voiced their opinion that because of this, the event should have an asterisk next to it when documented in tennis history.

As a tennis historian, I say….hogwash!

If the USTA hosts the U.S. Open and says it is the U.S. Open, it’s the U.S. Open. Period.

I can say, as the editor of “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” book, which is about as close to you can get to an official “record book” for tennis, there are no asterisks in the champions rolls or any Grand Slam event.

You can’t say a Grand Slam tournament is not a Grand Slam tournament just because it has no fans, some of the top players decide not to play or even based on the number of competitors the event has. If the governing body for the tournament (the French, Australian and U.S. Tennis Association’s for Roland Garros, the Australian and U.S. Opens, respectively, and the All England Lawn Tennis Club for Wimbledon) say it is their official championship, it is.

If fan attendance deems whether your event has an asterisk or not, then should Rod Laver’s 1969 Australian Open win (that kick-started his historic second Grand Slam) have an asterisk? The largest daily crowd for the tournament was only 4,500 fans for Laver’s quarterfinal win over Roy Emerson. His final-round win over Andres Gimeno was played in front a very small crowd. Obviously in the late 1800s and early 1900s tennis galleries were more like tea parties. In the 1940s, as Sidney Wood documented in his book “The Wimbledon Final That Never Was,” tickets were given away to try to get some fans to watch the modern-day U.S. Open at Forest Hills.

So, if you say that because some of the top players aren’t playing at a major it should have an asterisk? How about the win at the 1977 French Open by Guillermo Vilas, who won the title when Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Vitas Gerulaitis and Manuel Orantes, all top 6 players, did not play? (This was partially due to a ban on players who competed that year in World TeamTennis.) How about the 1968 French Open (won by Ken Rosewall and Nancy Richey) when half the first round matches in both men and women’s singles were defaults due to riots in Paris. Chris Clarey of the New York Times documents this crazy Grand Slam tournament, the first ever “Open” major championship here: : https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/27/sports/tennis/french-open-1968.html

Then there is the infamous 1973 Wimbledon when 82 men’s players boycotted in support of Nikki Pilic, the French Open singles runner-up who was banned from playing the event because he refused to play Davis Cup for his native Yugoslavia. Jan Kodes, the eventual champion at the event, documented his run to the title in a new ebook “Jan Kodes and the Boycotted Wimbledon: The Story of the Czech Champion’s 1973 Triumph” here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B3342PP/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_Cas7EbSQT43ZC

One of the best examples of events where critics could place asterisks comes at the Australian Open from 1976 to 1982,  when, due to the length of trip and the proximity of the competition dates to Christmas player fields were embarrassingly weak, with an average of about one player in the top 20 in the field. Players who shined include No. 111 ranked Chris O’Neil (the 1978 Australian Open women’s champion), No. 188-ranked John Marks (the 1978 Australian Open men’s runner-up) as well as 1980 men’s champion Brian Teacher and 1979 women’s champion Barbara Jordan. Of course, all the majors played before 1968 were amateur-only events and the best players – the pros – were banned from playing.

Should Kevin Anderson have an asterisk next to his runner-up showing because No. 2 seed Andy Murray withdrew from his half of the draw after the draw was made? The highest and most accomplished player he beat to get to the final was No. 12 Pablo Carreno Busta in the semifinals! When Novak Djokovic won the French Open in 2016 should it be said that Rafael Nadal had to withdraw in the third round and thus his title have an asterisk?

Do you place an asterisk by all of Margaret Court’s majors because many only featured 32 to 64 players (many of her Aussie titles had virtually no competition from outside of Australia). I outlined the draw sizes of all of Court’s major wins here: http://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/18604

What about the men’s singles event at U.S. Open in 1975-1978 when for the first three rounds, men’s matches were only best-of-three sets matches while they were the traditional best-of-five starting in the fourth round? Should that have an asterisk? What about the early years of the U.S. Open (and Wimbledon) when the defending champion got a bye into the final?

As Jon Wertheim wrote on SportsIllustrated.com “I think we’re on an oleaginous slope if we start devaluing events because of draws. We say it again: you can beat only the players placed before you. Roger Federer won the 2017 Australian Open by beating Nadal in five sets. He won the following year by beating no player inside the top 20 until he got Marin Cilic in the final. So it goes…Want an asterisk? What about this? Here’s are the first two sentences of Petr Korda’s Wikipedia bio: “He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 2 singles ranking on February 2, 1998 and won the 1998 Australian Open. He tested positive for doping in June 1998 at Wimbledon, was subsequently banned from September 1999 for 12 months, although he retired shortly before the ban.”

Each Grand Slam tournament is it’s own story. It’s a separate book with lots of different characters, with one major plot line – who will be the champion – and lots of different side plots. This is what makes them all so fascinating and why tennis fans follow them more closely than any other event in the sport. Who plays and who doesn’t play is part of each individual story.

Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal

 

Tennis History And Instructional Books Available For The Holidays From New Chapter Press

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“The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time” by 2017 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee Steve Flink highlights many New Chapter Press tennis book offerings that make for excellent gift ideas this holiday season.

“The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time” features profiles and rankings of the greatest matches of all time dating from the1920s featuring Bill Tilden and Suzanne Lenglen up through the modern era of tennis featuring contemporary stars Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Flink breaks down, analyzes and puts into historical context the sport’s most memorable matches, providing readers with a courtside seat at these most celebrated and significant duels. Flink also includes a fascinating “greatest strokes of all-time” section where he ranks and describes the players who best executed all the important shots in the game through the years.

The book is published by New Chapter Press, the premier global publisher of tennis books.

The hard-cover book, that makes for a centerpiece of a coffee table or at your local tennis club, retails for $28.95, and can be purchased here on Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257936/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_Qj-rybVBRK7ZW or at www.NewChapterMedia.com and where ever books are sold.

Flink, one of the most respected writers and observers in the game, is currently a columnist for TennisChannel.com. A resident of Katonah, N.Y., he is the former editor of World Tennis magazine and a former senior columnist at Tennis Week. The book has received high praise from some of the most respected names in the sport, including Chris Evert, a winner of 18 major singles titles in her career, who wrote the foreword to the book. Said seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras, “Steve Flink was there reporting on almost every big match I played in my career. He has seen all of the great players for the last 45 years. I encourage you to read this book because Steve is one of the most insightful writers on the game that I have known and he really knows his tennis.”

The Secrets of Spanish Tennis ($19.95 for sale here https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559491/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_2DUjAb11C47RB by New York City elite tennis teaching professional Chris Lewit, is the culmination of years of study on the Spanish way of training by Lewit, who visited many of the top Spanish academies and studied and interviewed some of the leading coaches in Spain to discern and distill this unique and special training methodology.

The Greatest Jewish Tennis Players of All Time ($19.95 for sale here https://www.amazon.com/dp/193755936X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_WKUjAbQJMXVJG) by tennis journalist Sandra Harwitt is unique among other books on tennis as it is a guide to the best and most influential Jewish tennis players in the history of the sport. It includes features and biographies of the greatest players, stories of both break-out success and anti-Semitism. This history also discusses the ways in which Jewish individuals have been instrumental behind the scenes, playing key roles in the growth of tennis into one of the world’s most popular sports.

Other recommended tennis titles are as follows;

The Wimbledon Final That Never Was ($19.95 for sale here https://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257847/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_6LUjAb1CNQJSG) tells of one of the most dramatic and unusual episodes in tennis history told by 1931 Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood. The volume also features tales of a by-gone era of sports and society via a compilation of short stories that deliver fascinating anecdotes of the 1930s and a signature document of the play and styles of 20th-century tennis legends.

Titanic: The Tennis Story ($19.95 for sale here https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559041/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_FNUjAbV8X1V9K) by Lindsay Gibbs is the stirring and remarkable historical novel that tells the story of the intertwined life of Dick Williams and Karl Behr who survived the sinking of the Titanic and went on to have Hall of Fame tennis careers. Two years after both had harrowing escapes from the famous disaster, the two met in the quarterfinals of the modern-day U.S. Open. An emotional and touching work, this novel brings one of the most extraordinary sports stories to life in literary form. This real-life account – with an ending seemingly plucked out of a Hollywood screenplay – weaves the themes of love, tragedy, history, sport and perseverance.

On This Day In Tennis History ($19.95, 528 pages, for sale here https://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257421/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_HOUjAbD91C0SF) is a fun and fact-filled, this compilation offers anniversaries, summaries, and anecdotes of events from the world of tennis for every day in the calendar year written by Randy Walker. Presented in a day-by-day format, the entries into this mini-encyclopedia include major tournament victory dates, summaries of the greatest matches ever played, trivia, and statistics as well as little-known and quirky happenings.

Macci Magic: Extracting Greatness From Yourself And Others by Rick Macci ($19.95 for sale here https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559254/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_XPUjAbS7M86V5) offers the secrets to success both on and off the tennis court by master coach and motivator Rick Macci, who coached tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, Jennifer Capriati, Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova among others. Through anecdotes and more than 100 sayings that exemplify his teaching philosophy, this inspirational manual helps pave the way to great achievement not only in tennis, but in business and in life.

Founded in 1987, New Chapter Press (www.NewChapterMedia.com) is also the publisher of “Andy Murray, Wimbledon Champion: The Full Extraordinary Story” by Mark Hodgkinson, “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” by Bud Collins, “Sport of a Lifetime” by Judy Aydelott, “Macci Magic: Extracting Greatness From Yourself And Others” by Rick Macci with Jim Martz, “How To Permanently Erase Negative Self Talk So You Can Be Extraordinary” by Emily Filloramo, “Acing Depression: A Tennis Champion’s Toughest Match” by Cliff Richey and Hilaire Richey Kallendorf, “Your Playbook For Beating Depression” by Cliff Richey and Mary Garrison, “The Education of a Tennis Player” by Rod Laver with Bud Collins, “Roger Federer: Quest for Perfection” by Rene Stauffer, “The Days of Roger Federer” by Randy Walker, “Jan Kodes: A Journey To Glory From Behind The Iron Curtain” by Jan Kodes with Peter Kolar, “Tennis Made Easy” by Kelly Gunterman, “On This Day In Tennis History” by Randy Walker (www.TennisHistoryApp.com), “A Player’s Guide To USTA League Tennis” by Tony Serksnis, “Court Confidential: Inside The World Of Tennis” by Neil Harman, “A Backhanded Gift” by Marshall Jon Fisher, “Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games” by Tom Caraccioli and Jerry Caraccioli (www.Boycott1980.com), “Internet Dating 101: It’s Complicated, But It Doesn’t Have To Be” by Laura Schreffler, “How To Sell Your Screenplay” by Carl Sautter, “The Lennon Prophecy: A New Examination of the Death Clues of The Beatles” by Joe Niezgoda, “Bone Appetit: Gourmet Cooking For Your Dog” by Suzan Anson, “The Rules of Neighborhood Poker According to Hoyle” by Stewart Wolpin among others.

 

"The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time"
“The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time”

"The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time"
“The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time”

 

Saving Nine Match-Points – All With Backhand Down-The-Line Passing Shots: A Throwback Article From World Tennis Magazine

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By George Lott, Jr.

The following is an article published in the June 1964 edition of World Tennis magazine by International Tennis Hall of Fame member George Lott on his U.S. Davis Cup teammate Sidney Wood, one of the most fascinating figures in the history of tennis, as described in the book “The Wimbledon Final That Never Was…And Other Tennis Tales From A By-Gone Era” (available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257847/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_PFQyybYRVBMSJ

 

When you watched Sidney Wood play you got the impression that you were seeing a genius at work. He went about the match as would a mathematician while executing strokes with skill and dexterity. His main strength was lovely, deadly accurate backhand with he could thread the needle. The first serve was big and deceptive, but the second twist was a bit uncertain. His forehand was a constant experiment but never a weak stroke when compared to his superb backhand. He was a deadly volleyer with a strong overhead. Put this combination together, then add one of the finest brains the game has seen, plus a great competitive spirit, and you have Sidney B. Wood, Jr.

My first experience with Sid was at Southampton in a two out of three set quarterfinal. I led 5-1 and 40-love in the third set, then 5-3 and 40-love. I had a total of nine match points – and lost. This is remarkable enough of itself, but those nine points were from another planet: I attacked his strength and came to net, and each time covered the crosscourt return. Each time he beat me with a down-the-line passing shot. Now you would think that after three or four of these parries I would do something different, but each time I came in I told myself he would not still go for it, that he would not think I was not that stupid; but there was not one player in a thousand who would think the way he did, let alone make those nine straight backhand passing shots!

He had a great tournament that week, beating Frank Shields, who’d scored a major upset against Big Bill Tilden, the day before, in five sets after losing the first two, and doing exactly the same thing against Wilmer Allison, fresh from a win over the great Henri Cochet in the Wimbledon semis. Sid was a real Silky Sullivan – not only that week but in every match he played.

Sidney holds records which are likely to hold up against the onslaughts of time. He won the Arizona men’s State Championship at fourteen and, at fifteen, was the youngest ever to compete at Wimbledon, meeting previous year’s winner, Rene Lacoste, on the Centre Court. He had qualified by gaining the third round at the French, and he is the only Wimbledon champion to win his crown without playing a point, when an injured Frank Shields was forced to default in the finals (later to lose a friendship pact playoff to Sid at a Queens Club finals).

When all 100 pounds of Sid first appeared on the adult tennis scene, he had two at least two strikes against him: he had survived a seriously ill, often bedridden pre-teenage life, and he was the nephew of both Watson Washburn, a top five ranking player and Julian S. (Myke) Myrick, better known as the Czar of American tennis, who ruled much as Stalin dominated Russia. When Myke was not the president of the USLTA, he was the power behind the throne. However, Sid made his own way and the Czar never lifted a hand to help him unduly. The only evidence of their relationship was the smile on Myke’s face when Sid won something, which was plenty. It didn’t take long for the players to accept Sid for the fine player and gentleman that he was. I cannot recall a single instance in which Sid was engaged in a rhubarb on the court. In those there were no awards for sportsmanship; if there had been, Sid would have been at top of the list when the votes were counted.

 

 

Sidney Wood
Sidney Wood

Arnold Palmer’s Tennis Connection

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Arnold Palmer did more for golf than perhaps any other person in the sports history. He did, also, have a slight connection to the sport of tennis. Palmer was known as one of the best corporate spokespeople in sports marketing and was one of the first athletes to be used in using sports to market products. One of his early associations with in a partnership in a laundry business with 1931 Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood. In his biography “The Wimbledon Final That Never Was” ($15.95, New Chapter Press, available for sale here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257847/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_yNv6xbA0ER7MQ writes of his association with Palmer in this excerpt below.

 

In 1939, I thought I’d like to try something where the value of a name in sport could be exploited in a competitive business, where the name would have a greater value than “Mr. Smith.” I looked into different businesses that were essential to people’s lives and I picked the laundry business.

I started it with Frank Shields because I thought it would be nothing but a laughingstock, so I said, “Frank, let’s get laughed at together,” and it was an instant success. Frank was otherwise involved in the insurance business and was asked by his bosses to drop the laundry pursuits, so he dropped out and Don Budge came in. Don was a great friend of mine and somewhat a protegé in a sense. I believe Don would have confirmed that it was I who got him to change from a Western forehand to an Eastern forehand. I was the one who actually initiated with the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association that Don should travel with the U.S. Davis Cup team that first year when they weren’t going to take him. Don actually replaced me on the team, so maybe I shouldn’t have been so generous!

Anyway, we went into business with the idea that Don would open us in California, but Don got much more involved in professional tennis after winning the Grand Slam in 1938 and really didn’t have an opportunity to do this. However, it turned into a terrific success (one of our slogans was “Rub-adub-dub, Budge-Wood have a tub”) and subsequently I introduced the idea to golfing legend Arnold Palmer and his camp.

The first time I met up with Arnie was in the bar of a Philadelphia Marriott Inn near the Whitemarch Club where he was playing in a tournament. It was essentially a business meeting, but undoubtedly there would be sporting overtones. My wife Pat was there, as was Arnie’s Winnie and his chum, super-agent head of International Management Group, Mark McCormack.

When I dreamed up the idea of setting up a marquee name, national franchise laundry and dry cleaning chain, there was no question that Arnie’s name was far and away the one that would sell the best. So I called Mark, who was interested and asked me to meet with him. A couple of days later when I knocked on the hotel door, it flung open and this guy points his finger at me and hollers, “I saw you beat Frankie Parker in Chicago!” That was my introduction to Mark McCormack, and you can say I liked his style!

I asked Arnie if he ever hoisted one during a tournament, and he said, “One after a good round; and two if it was a lousy day.” That afternoon it was just the pro-am, and Arnie, a Pennsylvanian to the core, asked for a boilermaker and looked at me. I nodded, and after another round there was little talk of business and much comparing of golf and tennis play and players. We ended up founding the Arnold Palmer Cleaning Centers, which was an immediate success and was subsequently sold out among some of Arnold’s other enterprises.

Wrote McCormack in Sports Illustrated in 1967, “What Sidney Wood knew, and we all learned, was that if two dry cleaning shops are going to open in the same block and one is called Arnold Palmer and the other is Jack Smith’s, it is the Palmer shop that a new customer is more likely to try.”

 

1931 Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood with Arnold Palmer
1931 Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood with Arnold Palmer

The Indiana Jones of Tennis

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The life and times of former Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood is straight out of a Hollywood movie. Not only did the 1931 Wimbledon champion hob nob with such famous actors as Gary Cooper and Errol Flynn, but he seemed to be a character in one of their action movies – an Indiana Jones of yesteryear, so to speak. Many of his tennis tales and fascinating off-court exploits are documented in the book THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS…AND OTHER TALES FROM BYGONE ERA ($15.95, available here on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257847/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_tEINsb1XMDZFK25E or here at via amazon

The book not only features stories of Wood winning the 1931 Wimbledon final without striking a ball, and setting the record straight on what indeed happened, him playing a French Open final drunk, why he once dumped Grace Kelly, how he qualified for the modern-day U.S. Open doubles championship with the aforementioned actor Errol Flynn and his analysis of the greatest male tennis players of all time from the only person who saw them all from Bill Tilden to Roger Federer.

As a publisher of the book, one of my favorite tales is the following, excerpted below, where Wood pulls a stunt out of an Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark movie in order to get to the tournament in Los Angeles.

 

My maiden voyage, at age 19, was when my train trip to the Pacific Southwest Tournament in Los Angeles was derailed in Kansas City. The conductor told me we would be in the station for a half hour, so I made a quick call to a Kansas player friend, Junior Coen, and bought some magazines. After meandering back to the gate, I was startled to see the lights of our observation platform heading west, not only with my six racquets and bags, but with a newly-met, dazzling starlet en route to Hollywood.

I raced back to the phone and somehow talked a barnstorming-type, probably broke, pilot into chasing after the Super Chief. Of a lot of bumpy rides I later had in those days, this was the worst. We flew perhaps 200 feet above the Santa Fe tracks in the hot sun, and when we passed over the numerous corrugated-roof buildings at rail-side, the little plane would pitch up and down like a kite, and yaw wildly in the thermals.

 A couple of hours later, we caught sight of the train and it looked like we could beat it to Herrington, Kansas in time. Herrington had no airport, but my dauntless pilot headed for any clear area he could find. In due course, we spied the station and a mile or two away we swooped down onto a fallow field and taxied up to an astonished farmer. Our host immediately entered into the spirit of the chase and led us to his barn where he had a nicely preserved Model T which he cranked up, and we tore at a mad 50 mph to the station with only minutes to spare before the train got there. My bags and racquets were still aboard, as was my disbelieving fair maiden friend.

Sidney Wood
Sidney Wood

What Vika Azarenka Has In Common with Brooke Shields’ Grandfather

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by Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

 

Victoria Azarenka’s nasty-looking knee injury suffered early in the second set of her 6-1, 6-2 win over Maria Joao Koehler in Monday’s Wimbledon first round had the feel to a similar circumstance that happened in the 1931 Wimbledon semifinals featuring the grandfather of actress and model Brooke Shields.

Azarenka, seeded No. 2, was leading 6-1, 1-0 when she slipped on the lush grass on Court No. 1 at the All England Club and awkwardly stretched her right knee. As she sobbed on court in pain, she was treated, helped to her courtside chair, had her knee taped and resumed play after about twenty minutes. Azarenka hobbled gingerly after the injury and blasted her way with quick points, mixed in with winces of pain, to close out the victory.

The circumstance was reminiscent of a famous incident involving Frank Shields during his Wimbledon semifinal match against French Musketeer Jean Borotra.

The dramatic events – that some have described as a real-life tennis version of the conclusion to the Robert Redford movie “The Natural” – is described in the book THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS…AND OTHER TENNIS TALES FROM A BYGONE ERA by Sidney Wood ($15.95, New Chapter Press, available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257847/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=tennisgrancom-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0942257847&adid=1AQ5QP7HDX2NG1FHNB7F&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tennisgrandstand.com%2F

This excerpt, compiled by Wood’s son David in the book, is excerpted below.

Shields led Borotra two sets to one and serving at 4-3, 40-30 when the infamous injury happened. He slipped on a ball at the net and fell hard to the ground in clear pain, twisting his knee. Borotra ran to the net to help Shields. He held his arm, guided him to the sidelines and brought him water and his coat for comfort. He even began to rub the injured knee of his fallen opponent. Shields eventually wobbled back to the baseline and attempted to continue play. So uncertain of the match continuing as Shields limped, the chair umpire needed assurance and asked, “Are you alright, Shields?”

Wrote Ferdinand Kuhn in The New York Times, “The crowd thought it was about to witness a debacle almost at the moment of Shields’s victory. Once more, both players left the court, but this time Shields, though still limping, would not hear of a postponement. The Frenchman, still skeptical, ran back to his position, waiting for Shields to finish his service. Shields answer was swift and ruthless when it came.”

Shields limped to the line and delivered one mighty unreturnable cannonball serve. Borotra was not able to return the bolt of lightning, and with one swing of the racquet, Shields held serve for a 5-3 lead. Faced with the prospect of only having to hold serve on his next service game to reach the Wimbledon final, Shields did not put forth any effort as Borotra served the next game, saving his fitness and the risk of further injuring his tender knee. After Borotra held serve easily for 4-5, Shields then served for the final.

Shields fired an ace on his first swing of the racquet. 15-0. Another cannon shot was fired that Borotra got his racquet on, but the Frenchman hit the ball beyond the baseline. 30-0. Shields missed a volley on a sojourn to net on the next point to draw Borotra to 30-15, further confirming that Shields would likely have to win the point outright on the serve if he were to close out the match. After missing a first serve on the next point, Shields was given a gift as Borotra netted the second-serve return, giving Shields double match point at 40-15. All he would need is one more swing of the racquet, blazing another ace past Borotra to close out the dramatic victory.

Wrote Kuhn in The New York Times, “Finally, at match point, a sizzling serve flew past Borotra with the speed of a high velocity shell. The match was over and Shields walked off the court amid one of the greatest and friendliest ovations any American winner has had at Wimbledon.”

Shields famously did not play in the Wimbledon singles final against his U.S. Davis Cup teammate, roommate, doubles partner and good friend Sidney Wood – in even more unusual circumstances as outlined in the book. Azarenka’s status for the rest of the tournament is somewhat questionable. She told ESPN on Monday that she has seen a doctor who said that the injury “doesn’t seem that bad” but that time will tell if she will be able to play her second-round match on Wednesday or if the knee will hold up for the two weeks of the tournament.

 

 

Brooke Shields Grandfather Frank and Vika Azarenka
Brooke Shields Grandfather Frank and Vika Azarenka

Who Is The Guan Tianlang Of Tennis?

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By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

 

At the age of 14, Guan Tianlang of China became the youngest player to ever compete at the Masters golf tournament.

The success of this young man on the grandest stage in golf brings to mind of similar circumstance on the grandest stage in tennis.

Browsing at THE BUD COLLINS HISTORY OF TENNIS record book and tennis encyclopedia, one will find that the youngest player to compete at Wimbledon was Jennifer Capriati, who made her debut in 1990 at the grandest tournament in tennis at the age of 14 years, 90 days, just one day younger than Kathy Rinaldi, who debuted in 1981.

The youngest “man” to compete at Wimbledon came a generation earlier in 1927 when Sidney Wood debuted at the age of 15 years, 234 days.

Wood, who passed away at age 97 in 2009, was one of the most charismatic and interesting characters in the history of the sport. Among his many fascinating life stories, including winning the Wimbledon title in a defaulted final, Wood describes when he became the youngest man to compete at Wimbledon in his posthumously published memoir THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS… AND OTHER TENNIS TALES FROM A BYGONE ERA, available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257847/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=tennisgrancom-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0942257847&adid=0113H5XY9AVE1Y16RW7S&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tennisgrandstand.com%2F

The exclusive excerpt is found below.

 

I finally went to school in New York one winter, when I was 14. I suffered so much that I lost 14 pounds in the space of three months and was immediately rushed to Arizona because I developed some problems with my lungs.

For four months, I rested and played checkers with some older people in Memorial Park in Tucson. I always wondered why these people would always have colds and be coughing a lot (nobody told me they were there because of tuberculosis).

I learned to play checkers with a passion, but continued to keep up with my tennis. I went off to Phoenix to play in the Arizona State Men’s Tennis Championship at the age of 14 and weighing well under 90 pounds. To some surprise, I won the title, beating in the final a young guy who was very frightened because all of my friends from my checkers games came over to watch me play. And I got a headline in the Tucson paper about four inches high “Tucson Boy Genius Returns.” 

The win got me an invitation to play in the French Championships and Wimbledon. In Paris, I won my first round match 0-6, 8-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 over Paul Barrelet de Ricou of France, but I lost in the second round to Jack Condon of South Africa 6-3, 6-1, 6-4.

From there, I played my first Wimbledon. I met the great Frenchman Rene Lacoste, the No. 1 seed, in the first round. (They probably wanted to get this over-precocious American out of the tournament.) One of my nicest memories is that I have a picture of the scoreboard and it shows me leading 3-1 in the second set, either because of his kindness, or carelessness. I lost the match 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 but entered the record books as the youngest man to ever compete at The Championships at age 15 years, 231 days.

The next year, at the age of 16, I returned to Wimbledon and got to the third round where I lost to Pierre Henri Landry of France in four sets. The next day, Landry lost to Bill Tilden in five sets.

 

Wood would famously win the Wimbledon title in 1931 at age 19, becoming the youngest man to win the singles title at the All England Club until an 17-year-old Boris Becker broke his record in 1985.

Sidney Wood, right, was the youngest player to play at Wimbledon when he played Rene Lacoste, left
Sidney Wood, right, was the youngest player to play at Wimbledon when he played Rene Lacoste, left

Wimbledon Champion’s Life With Hollywood Legends

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It’s Oscars week in Hollywood as the film industry is in a full frenzy in anticipation for Sunday’s Academy Awards

One character from the tennis world that is among the most associated with old-school Hollywood is 1931 Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood.

In his posthumously published memoir THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS… AND OTHER TENNIS TALES FROM A BYGONE ERA ($15.95, New Chapter Press, available here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Wimbledon-Final-That-Never/dp/0942257847/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361372335&sr=8-1&keywords=the+wimbledon+final+that+never+was  ) Wood relays numerous stories from old school Hollywood, including having his hand prints “temporarily” at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and anecdotes of some of old school legends from Hollywood including Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper, Charlie Chaplin, “Gone with the Wind” producer Dave Selznick and Grace Kelly among others.

The following a story from the chapter called “Groucho Gets Bagged” about comedian Groucho Marx.

 

In this case, Groucho Marx, the world’s greatest dish-it-outer, showed he could take it. I had arrived at Fred Perry’s and Ellsworth Vines’ newly acquired Beverly Hills Tennis Club from my Inyo County sulphur property to play an exhibition, along with Frank Shields, to open the club, which Fred was to head up. Groucho and Charlie Chaplin, two tennis dedicatees, were also going to put on a show of doubles with us (those days it was all for fun and friendship.)

I thought it would make an interesting entrance to bring Groucho onto the court in my sleeping bag which I kept in my gear for mining trips. So we put him in the bag, closed the zipper, and Frank slung him over his shoulder and carried him out. I had neglected to tell Groucho that the bag was laden with our refinery’s sulphur dust which, while not harmful, would cause me to gush a tear or two before going to sleep.

While the umpire was making the announcement, there were stirrings and muffled sounds emanating from the bag, but I motioned to Frank to ignore them until the umpire was finished. When Groucho was finally released, tears were streaming down his cheeks, and he thought I had gassed him for life. He grabbed a racquet and chased me around the court as the crowd howled in laughter.

 

Another tale from Wood includes beating King Kong’s girlfriend Fay Wray in ping pong using a slipper as a racquet, as excerpted below.

 

I once ran across King Kong’s main girlfriend Fay Wray leaving the General Motors Building in New York City, radiant in an ankle length sable. I grabbed her arm and we waltzed across to The Plaza for a cup of tea, babbling away about happy Hollywood memories. Fay said, “When I’m in New York I look at the Empire State Building as though it belongs to me or is it vice-versa?”

In her autobiography On the Other Hand she discusses not only her role as the heroine in Merian Cooper’s classic production of King Kong, but also tells the tale of the ping pong party she hosted at which I beat her using a bedroom  slipper for a paddle!

 

Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx

No man – even Rafa or Bjorn – has won more French titles than this musketeer

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“Whenever Paris comes to mind, their images loom,” wrote 1931 Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood in his book THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS of the famous Four Musketeers – Rene Lacoste, Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra and Jacques Brugnon. Roland Garros, the site of the French Open, was built as sort of tennis version of the Arc de Triomphe, as the four Frenchmen wrestled the Davis Cup from the hands of Bill Tilden and the United States in 1927. In need of a site to host the matches the following year, the French constructed Roland Garros, which also became the home to their annual French Championships, the modern day French Open – or Roland Garros if you will.

Wood was a contemporary of the Four Musketeers and in THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS ($15.95, New Chapter Media, available here in hard copy or on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/The-Wimbledon-Final-That-Never/dp/0942257847/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338836272&sr=8-1 he devotes a chapter to Cochet, which is excerpted below. Cochet, in fact, has won more titles at the French Championships than anyone – nine in all, including four in singles, three in doubles and two in mixed. Only Rafael Nadal and Bjorn Borg have won more men’s singles titles (six each).

The excerpt from the chapter called “The French Connection” is found below.

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Left to right: Henri Cochet, Jean Barotra, René Lacoste, and Jacques Brugnon

Henri Cochet, a steel sinewed rarity out of Lyon, France, was the only true magician the game has known. With a serve your grandmother wouldn’t trade for, Henri would step up to mid court, and handling his racquet like a toothpick, half-volley your returns.

The most imaginatively memorable shot I have ever borne witness to was at a France vs. U.S. Davis Cup doubles match in Paris. Cochet made a move to poach on an anticipated John Van Ryn crosscourt forehand return of a serve by Cochet’s partner Jacques Brugnon. Rather then belting his assured cross-court forehand return, Van Ryn instead belted the ball down the alley. Henri pirouetted 180 degrees clockwise and with back to the net and blind to the ball, made contact for a crazy winner. He was so damned creative he made us all feel we were in chains. Big Bill Tilden, John McEnroe, Frank Sedgman and perhaps Yannick Noah are the only other players I can think of to remind me of a few, but very few, of Henri’s electrifying improvisations.

Henri’s reasonably hard first serve landed in the box perhaps half the time, but neither first nor second could break a canary egg. However, he was deceptively clever enough to keep those run-around forehanders from cramming the ball down his or his partner’s throat. Henri’s primary objective: to make his way to the net, where his one-in-a-million powers of anticipation made him ten feet tall!

First-time opponents who might assume, as I once did, that Henri could be a profitable lobbing target, were quickly disabused. He had an uncanny ability to get comfortably under every ball, however deep, and sweet-spot hammer the ball for sharply-angled winners. Let me offer a provocative tidbit how this four-time No. 1 would have fared against such mid-moderns as Pancho Gonzales. It was about five years after Cochet’s retirement that Donald Budge rocketed onto the tennis scene. Knowing that from age 15 I had seen most of Henri’s big-time matches, as well as twice playing him, Don once asked me if Gonzales wouldn’t have made mincemeat of his second serve. You can say I gave Don pause by noting that Frank Shields could garner but a single set of the eleven he played against Henri in major events. It happened that Don’s question was posed only minutes after he had barely survived a 6-4 fifth set of a Newport match against inspired but over-the-hill Frank, and Don’s legs were aching from crouching down to receive Frank’s blockbuster serves.

Cochet spoke barely a word of English when he came to America and captured the U.S. Nationals in 1928, accompanied by a wife, mother-in-law and a mixed doubles partner. My sputtering French persuaded him to invite me to serve as both his interpreter and practice mate. I had played him fairly close at Roland Garros that May (Henri tended to get a bit careless at times), and though I was only 16 at the time and a bit startled by the menage a trois, it sure didn’t deter me from accepting Henri’s hugely flattering invite. France’s famous Four Musketeers of tennis, as Henri Cochet, René Lacoste, Jean Borotra, and Jacques “Toto” Brugnon were known, were ever supportive teammates throughout their decades of widely disparate careers. I frequently ran into Jean, a much-traveled businessman, but René and Henri were somewhat closer pals of mine, and whenever Paris comes to mind, their images loom.

U.S. Davis Cupper’s romance with Grace Kelly

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Book Excerpt From “THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS… AND OTHER TENNIS TALES FROM A BYGONE ERA”

NEW YORK, N.Y., April 4, 2012 – Davis Cup tennis is abuzz in Monaco this week as the USA visits the Monte Carlo Country Club (curiously located just across the border from the principality in France) to take on the French in the event’s quarterfinal round.

Monaco is of course a playground – and tax haven – for the rich and famous but it is perhaps best known as the one-time domicile of one of the most famous actresses of all time – Grace Kelly. After a storied career in Hollywood, Kelly became “Princess Grace” when she married Monaco’s Prince Rainier in 1956. What is not widely known is that the Princess was once involved in a romantic affair with a former U.S. Davis Cup hero and Wimbledon champion.

In his posthumously published book “THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS…AND OTHER TENNIS TALES FROM A BYGONE ERA ($14.95, New Chapter Press, www.NewChapterMedia.com), 1931 Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood, a standout on the 1931 and 1934 U.S. Davis Cup teams, dishes about this love affair with the future princess.

The chapter from the book called “Days of Grace” is excerpted below. To order the book, click here: http://m1e.net/c?136411417-3w83KDPEi1lCA%407396647-/15HLZyLawQ7k or order directly from New Chapter Press at www.NewChapterMedia.com

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DAYS OF GRACE

Way back in the late 1950s, my good friends Malcolm and Carolyn Reybold asked me to join them and their Manhattan neighbor Grace Kelly (whose father did the building’s brickwork) for the annual moose, elk or other large ruminant’s steak dinner at Rothmann’s Steakhouse. Being unattached at the time, I accepted with alacrity.

Grace’s acting career had just gotten underway with some TV roles, but even then she had a tendency to imbibe a bit more than enough. She’d been to a cocktail party before we headed for Long Island, and, apart from looking, to put it politely, quite disheveled, she was somewhat argumentative. End of “romance!”

A year later, another call came from Malcolm, telling me that Grace, whose career had enjoyed a meteoric rise, was totally on the wagon, and asked if I was game for a second Rothmann’s try? He added that she would like to make up for last year.

With a snowstorm predicted, I brought along a shovel, and off we went in Malcolm’s new Buick. This time Grace looked every bit the stunner that she sure was, and all went well. In fact, well enough for me to leave my snow shovel as kind of a fraternity pin in her foyer when I saw her home. We’d already made a date for dinner the next night, then another, and another.

The Reybolds, particularly Carolyn, who was later Grace’s maid of honor in her Monte Carlo royal wedding to Prince Rainier, were elated with their matchmaking luck. Showpeople friends Grace met with me included Ed Sullivan, swashbuckling actor Tyrone Power and Gary Cooper, with whom she later co-starred in High Noon. We’d also get together with Grace’s brother, John, and his nifty Miss America friend, whose name escapes me.

Much as you may delight in someone’s company, it’s tough to fall in love with a girl who just can’t help playing a role. One time, Grace put on a tape of multiple animal sounds (even whales!) and one by one proceeded to act out each as I fell asleep on the carpet. She lived in a kind of a fairy tale princess world, which she would ultimately occupy in reality. Grace was a huge box office success, and in my book, a superb actress.

A no longer non-mentionable item: one day at my hobby-born Sutton Place, Town Tennis Club, Oleg Cassini remarkably asked if I would tell him when (and if) I was no longer seeing Grace. I told him we’d been secretly married for weeks. Shortly thereafter, a near daily delivery of a dozen long-stem roses began arriving at Grace’s apartment, sans any card. Knowing Oleg pretty well, I correctly guessed that he was the mystery sender. I’d bring some of the roses to my delighted office staff, others we’d send to the Reybolds and other friends. Heartfelt thanks, Oleg! Though Oleg’s was not exactly my style of approach, to each his own. In time, it worked well enough for Oleg (his florist as well) to become a serious suitor for quite a spell. Curtain call: alas our “brief encounter” was not destined to survive our disparate lifestyles, and one morning a taxi delivered the snow shovel to my office. The dramatic finale was so typical of Grace. That “inevitable sadness,” I couldn’t help guffawing until my staff thought I’d lost my marbles. I wrote a nice thank-you note.

Founded in 1987, New Chapter Press (www.NewChapterMedia.com) is also the publisher of “Roger Federer: Quest for Perfection” by Rene Stauffer (www.RogerFedererBook.com), “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” by Bud Collins, “The Education of a Tennis Player” by Rod Laver, “Titanic: The Tennis Story” by Lindsay Gibbs, “Acing Depression: A Tennis Champion’s Toughest Match” by Cliff Richey (www.CliffRicheyBook.com), “Tennis Made Easy” by Kelly Gunterman, “On This Day In Tennis History” by Randy Walker (www.TennisHistoryBook.com), “A Player’s Guide To USTA League Tennis” by Tony Serksnis, “Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games” by Tom Caraccioli and Jerry Caraccioli (www.Boycott1980.com), “The Lennon Prophecy” by Joe Niezgoda (www.TheLennonProphecy.com), “How To Sell Your Screenplay” by Carl Sautter, “The Rules of Neighborhood Poker” by Stewart Wolpin, “Bone Appetit: Gourmet Cooking for Your” Dog by Suzan Anson, “People’s Choice Guide To Cancun” by Eric Rabinowitz, “Lessons from the Wild” by Shayamal Vallabhjee, “Weekend Warriors: The Men of Professional Lacrosse” by Jack McDermott among others. In June, New Chapter Press will release “The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time” by Steve Flink.

Near Hollywood Immortality For Wimbledon Champion

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Los Angeles and Hollywood is in full Oscar mode as the annual Academy Awards will honor the best in motion pictures this Sunday night. In 1944, 1945, and 1946, the Academy Awards ceremonies were held at the famed Grauman Chinese Theatre, which is now the site of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. While tennis has not been a subject of many motion pictures (although the soon-to-be-released TITANIC: THE TENNIS STORY would make a phenomenal film), a Wimbledon champion actually had his hand print and signature among the Hollywood elite – albeit only for a short period of time. In his book THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS…AND OTHER TENNIS TALES FROM A BYGONE ERA ($14.95, New Chapter Press, www.NewChapterMedia.com, available here in hard and electronic versions on BarnesandNoble.com: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wimbledon-final-that-never-was-sidney-wood/1101127683?ean=9780942257847&itm=1&usri=the+wimbledon+final+that+never+was), 1931 Wimbledon champion Sidney Wood discusses his brief moment of Hollywood immortality.

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Tournament tennis competitors are no strangers to the roller coaster rise and fall of fortune, from the high excitement of victory to the near-inconsolable depths of defeat. But an experience that crossed my path at age 17 was a useful early lesson in just how rapidly a burgeoning pouter pigeon ego can suffer overnight deflation. It occurred, of all places, at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, where practically all the big movie “first nights” were then staged.

Sidney Wood and Anita Page

At the grand opening of the world’s very first talkie-musical Broadway Melody starring Joan Crawford and Eddie Cantor, I had the excruciating honor of serving as squire to the show’s featured starlet, Miss Anita Page, whose dazzling blonde beauty graced the covers of myriad movie magazines. Anita was also 17 and a real live Wampus Baby Star (Hollywood’s then equivalent of a junior Davis Cup squadder).

Looking back at what seems like another age, I remember the blinding Klieg lights, hordes of screaming idolaters and everyone darting around like so many hummingbirds among a surfeit of nectared flowers. Alighting from our MGM limousine, with the unattainable queen of my dreams at my side, I was intoxicatingly out of touch with reality. Anita, who must have been rehearsed for this amazing plunge into hysteria, would not let us be severed, as cameras flashed and microphones were stacked before her.

As we slowly advanced up the canopied entrance walk, Anita, swain on arm, was ushered across the theatre’s plaza to the roped off, hallowed sanctum where footprints of the heroes and heroines of the silver screen were cast in concrete cemented relief. A tuxedoed gentleman helped Anita off with a shoe and stocking, but, sweetly thoughtful girl that she was, she insisted that my foot too be encased side by side with her own dainty imprint for all posterity. The movie was interrupted from time to time by waves of applause, as the performers first appeared on screen, and I was aglow with a vicarious thrill as Anita’s resounding ovation enveloped us.

The next morning’s papers were devoured for pictures, but they had cropped off all but your unfamous hero’s elbow. Never mind. Fairly early, I summoned my cohort of tennis pals to foregather at Grauman’s to view friend Sidney’s claim to enduring fame. What a shocker! Overnight, a heartless mason, perhaps anticipating Hollywood’s future real estate escalation, had troweled over my immortal sole, leaving Anita’s delicate alfresco arch without its protector. Why, oh why, couldn’t they have waited just one more day?

Some years later, Anita who had retired from pictures to marry a Navy Captain and become a San Diego housewife, read in the local sports page that I was playing in the Pacific Southwest tournament in Los Angeles, and she drove up to say hello and watch some tennis. Because I seated the coruscant Anita in a front row box, few of the stadium spectators’ eyes were focused on the match in progress.