They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
- Philip Larkin, “This be the Verse”
Gladys Heldman
Photo courtesy International Tennis Hall of Fame
Bring me my Scotch! Tone is everything when Gladys speaks to her ten-year old daughter Julie. Bring me my Scotch! Imperative demanding royal and riddled with anxiety’s ambition, its genetics its fire its ice, its lack of mother love multiplied by Gladys’ alcoholic father of wealth, accomplishment, generosity, charm. Gladys Heldman: a brilliant woman who earned a BA from Stanford and an MA in Medieval History from UC Berkeley in just four years. Gladys Heldman: a mother of two daughters who would give birth to two more remarkable children: World Tennis magazine in 1953, and the Women’s Tennis Tour in 1970. At the altar of World Tennis magazine, Gladys Heldman barebreastedinbedsmokingcigaftercig Gladys Heldman a smartcrazydrivenfemaleinthe1950s corresponding with readers around the globe Gladys Heldman writingeditingcallingschmoozingstrategizingrewritingTheRules. Easy question: Was there ever a more creative, consequential tournament director/promoter in the history of tennis? For the 1962 US national championships, at a time when few foreign players came to America to play, Gladys Heldman arranged a charter airplane to fly in 80 players from all over the world. Players before Profits! Or: Players and Profits! In 1970, a famous photo tells the story of how Gladys Heldman helped give birth to the women’s professional tennis tour: 9 women holding one-dollar bills like flags of solidarity against a male tennis establishment that threatened to end their careers. To create all this innovation and much, much more, “a woman,” as Virginia Woolf writes in her famous feminist essay of 1929, “must have money and a room of her own.” Gladys Heldman had both. Double scotch, double scotch, double scotch. I’m Sorry, I’m Sorry. (That’s what ten-year old Julie said when she failed to meet her mother’s demands.) I meant two double vodkas with lunch, then just before dinner: double scotch, double scotch.
*I was inspired to write this piece after listening to Julie Heldman read Driven: A Daughter’s Odyssey, a remarkable book of insights, honesty, and terrific writing. Required reading for anyone who loves tennis and would claim to know its history. Chris Evert calls it a “must read.”
A response from Julie Heldman:
I’m touched by David’s powerful portrait of my mother Gladys, and how he captured her contradictions by weaving in the power of her personality, her world-changing achievements, her nutty idiosyncrasies, and her failures as a mother.
Julie Heldman, ranked #5 in the world in 1969 and 1974, won 22 women’s singles titles.
Here’s a scene from my book Driven. After the end of the Houston tournament that started the women’s pro tour, Billie Jean King’s husband Larry arrived at our family home, hoping to replace Gladys as the tour director. He wanted her to speak to the players.
“Only Mom could have made this tournament happen through her creativity, her thoroughness, her connections, and her steel backbone. But at this moment she’s shut down. . . . She looks stricken. Her words are agitated and frantic, showing she can’t function. ‘I can’t do it. I can’t do it. You’ll have to do it for me.’
Driven is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle. I also spent hours in the studio recording the audiobook version, which can be found on Amazon, iTunes, Apple Books and Audible. What a joy to hear my voice bravely conveying the emotions I'd hidden for so many years.
If you wish to make any comments on “Gladys Heldman,” feel free to leave them below or contact me. My other innovative writings on tennis, along with audio recordings, are available on my website.