Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
This is Jimmy Powers, and I've got a most interesting
story for you today. Hi there, this is Jimmy Powers again,
(01:41):
and now let's discover who Granny Rice considered the greatest
tennis star of all time. With another chapter from the
Tumult and the Shouting. Now in first person, I'll tell
you about another champion in tennis. I covered a distance
(02:02):
of ground. I was conscious of the court game, in
fact played it back in nineteen hundred while an undergraduate
at Vanderbilt University Malcolm D. Whitman was the national champion.
I followed it down the years, watching the best Maurice
McLachlan's Little Bill Johnston's Lacostes, Vinnie Richards, Vines, Fred Perry,
Don Budge, Bobby Riggs, Jack Kramer, Tony Trabert and the rest.
(02:26):
I've seen the gals come and go all the way
from Eleanora Sears, she was the first female who invaded
a man's game. On through Suzon Longlan, Helen Wills, Helen Jacobs,
Alice Marble, Sarah Cook, and up to Maureen Little Mooe Connolly.
Now that's a lot of names, a wealth of talent
and dedication, but one name stands head and shoulders at
(02:47):
least to me above this crop of the racket world.
Big Bill Tilden, in my opinion, Big Bill was the
greatest player whoever stepped on the court. In September nineteen nineteen,
I went to Forest Hills to cover the National Tennis Championships.
I was after a column on the singles between Tilden
and Little Bill Johnston. That day I had lunch with
(03:10):
Little Bill in the dining room of the clubhouse. He
was no bigger than a sack of peanuts, weigh one
hundred and twenty one pounds. After a long match, he
weighed as little as one hundred and twelve pounds. His
right arm, the one that propelled his famed forehand, was
no bigger around than a billiard cue. The little guy
ate calmly and talked objectively of the coming match. He
seemed to be in a grand frame of mind. Tilden,
(03:32):
on the other hand, was cage walking like a tiger
around the clubhouse. Finally, as Johnston was toying with a
glass of iced tea, Tilden walked over and said, come on, Bill,
let's get this over. I'm ready, Bill, replied Johnston. The
match went down as one of those David and Goliath things.
If ever an adversary seemed outmanned for sheer size and
(03:53):
outgunned and stroking ammunition, it had to be Little Bill Johnston,
the California half pint who knew, never knew when he
was licked. Little Bill whipped Tilden three sets to one.
His forehand was devastating, an attacking weapon that swept Tilden
before it. That marked the first and last time Johnston
defeated Tilden in a title match. Big Bill won the
(04:15):
Cup from nineteen twenty straight through nineteen twenty five, and
again in nineteen twenty nine. Big Bill Tilden was born
in Germantown, a suburb of Philadelphia, in February eighteen ninety three.
His father was a giant physically, a robust swashbuckler, and
enormously successful in business. He was the leader of the
Republican Machine in Philadelphia and also president of the Union
(04:39):
League Club. His mother was beautiful, tall and refined, a
completely artistic woman whose voice had been trained for opera.
Bill's brother, Herbert, followed his father, while young Bill followed
his mother. Bill was just eighteen when she died, then
four years later both his father and brother died. Tilden
won his first national singer 's title in nineteen twenty
(05:01):
at the age of twenty seven, considered late for an
athlete to make his big move. At twenty eight, Bobby
Jones had declared himself through with competitive golf. But when
Bill finally did arrive with both big feet planted on
the Emerald turf of Forest Hills in nineteen twenty, the
sports world knew that this fellow Tilden was about to
become a second Rock of Gibraltar. One spring day in
(05:22):
nineteen thirty, Ty Cobb and I watched Tilden practicing at Augusta, Georgia.
Bill had been having trouble with his cut shot. We
watched him work for one solid hour on that one
particular shot. That Tiltan's quite a fellow, remarked Ty. He's
not afraid of work, like Tommy Hitchcock and Polo Willie
Hoppey and Billiards Cobb and baseball and Pudge Heffelfinger in football.
(05:44):
Big Bill was the notable exception to the ad age
that time and tide wait for no man. Benny Richards,
who played Tilden in more than one thousand singles, matches,
and teamed with him in doubles many times. Times. Recently
said to me, Granny, we know that scientists, writers, and
(06:05):
other creative persons reached the peak of their productivity between
thirty five and forty five. Statesmen and top professional people
frequently come into their own much later. But the headliners
and physical skills ordinarily are at their peaks at around
twenty seven or thereabouts, but rarely past thirty. From there on,
(06:26):
the process of their bodily decline takes its toll. By
this reckoning, Tilden was nearly a quarter century past due
in his field when he passed away, Yet he persisted
in meeting any challenge up to the very end. After
winning every tournament of importance both here and abroad, he
maintained in the twilight of his days a standard of
play for at least one set that thrilled fans and
(06:48):
experts alike. Competitive guts Big Bill had his share. Plus
few knew that long before he became a tennis headliner.
Bill won his spurs in a bodily contest export as
one of the best hockey players ever to represent the
University of Pennsylvania. But to me, the big Fellow never
showed more intestinal fortitude than in the Davis Cup matches
(07:10):
at Forest Hills. In nineteen twenty one. I covered those matches.
Zenzo Shimazoo, greatest of the Japanese, had Big Bill down
two sets to love and was within two points of
taking set, game and match when Tilden put on one
of his historic rallies. The crowd and most of the press,
including Years, truly thought Big Bill Tilden deliberately let the
(07:32):
jap push him to the wall so he might make
the most out of a dramatic comeback. Vincent Richards again
straightened me out some thirty years later when he said
Bill was an agonizing pain during those first three sets.
He'd gone into action that afternoon with a boil as
big as a walnut on his right end step, and
it had burst during that third set. At intermission time,
(07:55):
a physician decided the infection had gone so deep he
would have to lance the foot from the underside. Bill
submitted to the painful incision without flinching, and then insisted
on resuming play With the foot tightly bandaged and wincing
at every step. He limped back to the court and
crushed Shimazoo in the next two sets, while losing but
(08:16):
three games that Granny took guts. At the age of sixty,
Big Bill Tilden played in the Professional Championships, defeating Wayne
Sabin in an early round and had Frank Kovacs hanging
on to whip him in the next round. And that's
quite a span of tennis. He passed away a year later.
The last time I saw Big Bill was in January
(08:37):
nineteen fifty three. Kit and I were spending a few
weeks at the Beverly Wiltshire in Beverly Hills, and our
fifth floor rooms overlooked the tennis courts. Down on the
court below Tilden, a gaunt, bespectacled figure in shorts, would
work out with Frank Feltrop, the professional. One morning, while
I was watching Bill work out, Kit stood by my shoulder.
(09:00):
Annie she reflected, somehow, it's a tug watching Bill down there,
isn't it. He's still magnificent in spurts, but compared to
the Bill we knew, it's like watching a scarecrow going
through the motions. Well, here in the studio today is
the man who battled Big Bill Tildon in singles and
team with him in doubles for a lot of years.
(09:20):
Vinnie Richards, the boy wonder of the golden twenties. Vinnie,
it's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Well, it's good to see you too, Jim. I'm getting
quite a joel out of Granny's life and his treatment
of Big Bill Tillon. I understand and appreciate the summation
of Tillan, both as a person as the old time
top in tennis.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Vinnie, I know you and Tillon won the national doubles crown.
What year was that?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
By the way, the first time we wanted, Jim was
in nineteen eighteen.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
And when did your team together for the last time?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
The last time was in nineteen forty five, Jim. We
teamed together in the National Pro Championship at FoST Hills
and we won that event. And that, incidentally was twenty
five years to the day that we won the Amateur
tournament in Boston.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
That's a truly remarkable performance. Now, can you give us
something that tip of eyes? Tilden's greatness, you know, as
well as his humorous side or eccentric side.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Well, there's so many stories about him, as you know,
Jim and I live so many stories with him that
you could be all day reciting him. But I think
one of the funniest ones was the time I was
playing him down at Jacksonville, Flada, and there was a
big tree right on the side of the court and
we'd been playing there all week. Of course, it was
a good tournament. Everybody was in a Johnson Tillon, williams Alonzo,
(10:38):
all the first ten players were in the tournament and
came Sunday until until I were in the finals, and
I said to Bill, Bill, you, you know we're going
to go fire setsus afternoon, so you order to remove
the limbs of that tree because the sun will hit
it and there'll be shadows on the court. And he
of course insisted immediately that the limbs be taken off,
(10:59):
which it was impossibility because they were there for years
and years and years to take all the day to
do it, but that was typical of Tillon. Uh.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Have you any thing to tell about your association with
Granny Rice.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well, it was a lovely friendship, as you know, Jim
and Uh. I think I was one of the first
ones to welcome Granny to Forest Hills many years ago
in Assari coll we named him at the time the
International sportsman, and he certainly deserved that uh title.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Well, thanks of any richards they had true credit to
the golden age of sports. And today vice president of
the Dunlop Rubber Company Sports Division. It must be a
very satisfying job.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
It certainly is. Jim Well, this is.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Jimmy Powers, transcribed closing another chapter in Grantlin Rice's best
selling autobiography, The Tumult and the Shouting. Next time we're
going to meet another of Granny's extra special favorites. Until then,
of Wirt
This is Jimmy Powers, and I've got a most interesting
story for you today. Hi there, this is Jimmy Powers again,
(01:41):
and now let's discover who Granny Rice considered the greatest
tennis star of all time. With another chapter from the
Tumult and the Shouting. Now in first person, I'll tell
you about another champion in tennis. I covered a distance
(02:02):
of ground. I was conscious of the court game, in
fact played it back in nineteen hundred while an undergraduate
at Vanderbilt University Malcolm D. Whitman was the national champion.
I followed it down the years, watching the best Maurice
McLachlan's Little Bill Johnston's Lacostes, Vinnie Richards, Vines, Fred Perry,
Don Budge, Bobby Riggs, Jack Kramer, Tony Trabert and the rest.
(02:26):
I've seen the gals come and go all the way
from Eleanora Sears, she was the first female who invaded
a man's game. On through Suzon Longlan, Helen Wills, Helen Jacobs,
Alice Marble, Sarah Cook, and up to Maureen Little Mooe Connolly.
Now that's a lot of names, a wealth of talent
and dedication, but one name stands head and shoulders at
(02:47):
least to me above this crop of the racket world.
Big Bill Tilden, in my opinion, Big Bill was the
greatest player whoever stepped on the court. In September nineteen nineteen,
I went to Forest Hills to cover the National Tennis Championships.
I was after a column on the singles between Tilden
and Little Bill Johnston. That day I had lunch with
(03:10):
Little Bill in the dining room of the clubhouse. He
was no bigger than a sack of peanuts, weigh one
hundred and twenty one pounds. After a long match, he
weighed as little as one hundred and twelve pounds. His
right arm, the one that propelled his famed forehand, was
no bigger around than a billiard cue. The little guy
ate calmly and talked objectively of the coming match. He
seemed to be in a grand frame of mind. Tilden,
(03:32):
on the other hand, was cage walking like a tiger
around the clubhouse. Finally, as Johnston was toying with a
glass of iced tea, Tilden walked over and said, come on, Bill,
let's get this over. I'm ready, Bill, replied Johnston. The
match went down as one of those David and Goliath things.
If ever an adversary seemed outmanned for sheer size and
(03:53):
outgunned and stroking ammunition, it had to be Little Bill Johnston,
the California half pint who knew, never knew when he
was licked. Little Bill whipped Tilden three sets to one.
His forehand was devastating, an attacking weapon that swept Tilden
before it. That marked the first and last time Johnston
defeated Tilden in a title match. Big Bill won the
(04:15):
Cup from nineteen twenty straight through nineteen twenty five, and
again in nineteen twenty nine. Big Bill Tilden was born
in Germantown, a suburb of Philadelphia, in February eighteen ninety three.
His father was a giant physically, a robust swashbuckler, and
enormously successful in business. He was the leader of the
Republican Machine in Philadelphia and also president of the Union
(04:39):
League Club. His mother was beautiful, tall and refined, a
completely artistic woman whose voice had been trained for opera.
Bill's brother, Herbert, followed his father, while young Bill followed
his mother. Bill was just eighteen when she died, then
four years later both his father and brother died. Tilden
won his first national singer 's title in nineteen twenty
(05:01):
at the age of twenty seven, considered late for an
athlete to make his big move. At twenty eight, Bobby
Jones had declared himself through with competitive golf. But when
Bill finally did arrive with both big feet planted on
the Emerald turf of Forest Hills in nineteen twenty, the
sports world knew that this fellow Tilden was about to
become a second Rock of Gibraltar. One spring day in
(05:22):
nineteen thirty, Ty Cobb and I watched Tilden practicing at Augusta, Georgia.
Bill had been having trouble with his cut shot. We
watched him work for one solid hour on that one
particular shot. That Tiltan's quite a fellow, remarked Ty. He's
not afraid of work, like Tommy Hitchcock and Polo Willie
Hoppey and Billiards Cobb and baseball and Pudge Heffelfinger in football.
(05:44):
Big Bill was the notable exception to the ad age
that time and tide wait for no man. Benny Richards,
who played Tilden in more than one thousand singles, matches,
and teamed with him in doubles many times. Times. Recently
said to me, Granny, we know that scientists, writers, and
(06:05):
other creative persons reached the peak of their productivity between
thirty five and forty five. Statesmen and top professional people
frequently come into their own much later. But the headliners
and physical skills ordinarily are at their peaks at around
twenty seven or thereabouts, but rarely past thirty. From there on,
(06:26):
the process of their bodily decline takes its toll. By
this reckoning, Tilden was nearly a quarter century past due
in his field when he passed away, Yet he persisted
in meeting any challenge up to the very end. After
winning every tournament of importance both here and abroad, he
maintained in the twilight of his days a standard of
play for at least one set that thrilled fans and
(06:48):
experts alike. Competitive guts Big Bill had his share. Plus
few knew that long before he became a tennis headliner.
Bill won his spurs in a bodily contest export as
one of the best hockey players ever to represent the
University of Pennsylvania. But to me, the big Fellow never
showed more intestinal fortitude than in the Davis Cup matches
(07:10):
at Forest Hills. In nineteen twenty one. I covered those matches.
Zenzo Shimazoo, greatest of the Japanese, had Big Bill down
two sets to love and was within two points of
taking set, game and match when Tilden put on one
of his historic rallies. The crowd and most of the press,
including Years, truly thought Big Bill Tilden deliberately let the
(07:32):
jap push him to the wall so he might make
the most out of a dramatic comeback. Vincent Richards again
straightened me out some thirty years later when he said
Bill was an agonizing pain during those first three sets.
He'd gone into action that afternoon with a boil as
big as a walnut on his right end step, and
it had burst during that third set. At intermission time,
(07:55):
a physician decided the infection had gone so deep he
would have to lance the foot from the underside. Bill
submitted to the painful incision without flinching, and then insisted
on resuming play With the foot tightly bandaged and wincing
at every step. He limped back to the court and
crushed Shimazoo in the next two sets, while losing but
(08:16):
three games that Granny took guts. At the age of sixty,
Big Bill Tilden played in the Professional Championships, defeating Wayne
Sabin in an early round and had Frank Kovacs hanging
on to whip him in the next round. And that's
quite a span of tennis. He passed away a year later.
The last time I saw Big Bill was in January
(08:37):
nineteen fifty three. Kit and I were spending a few
weeks at the Beverly Wiltshire in Beverly Hills, and our
fifth floor rooms overlooked the tennis courts. Down on the
court below Tilden, a gaunt, bespectacled figure in shorts, would
work out with Frank Feltrop, the professional. One morning, while
I was watching Bill work out, Kit stood by my shoulder.
(09:00):
Annie she reflected, somehow, it's a tug watching Bill down there,
isn't it. He's still magnificent in spurts, but compared to
the Bill we knew, it's like watching a scarecrow going
through the motions. Well, here in the studio today is
the man who battled Big Bill Tildon in singles and
team with him in doubles for a lot of years.
(09:20):
Vinnie Richards, the boy wonder of the golden twenties. Vinnie,
it's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Well, it's good to see you too, Jim. I'm getting
quite a joel out of Granny's life and his treatment
of Big Bill Tillon. I understand and appreciate the summation
of Tillan, both as a person as the old time
top in tennis.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Vinnie, I know you and Tillon won the national doubles crown.
What year was that?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
By the way, the first time we wanted, Jim was
in nineteen eighteen.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
And when did your team together for the last time?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
The last time was in nineteen forty five, Jim. We
teamed together in the National Pro Championship at FoST Hills
and we won that event. And that, incidentally was twenty
five years to the day that we won the Amateur
tournament in Boston.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
That's a truly remarkable performance. Now, can you give us
something that tip of eyes? Tilden's greatness, you know, as
well as his humorous side or eccentric side.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Well, there's so many stories about him, as you know,
Jim and I live so many stories with him that
you could be all day reciting him. But I think
one of the funniest ones was the time I was
playing him down at Jacksonville, Flada, and there was a
big tree right on the side of the court and
we'd been playing there all week. Of course, it was
a good tournament. Everybody was in a Johnson Tillon, williams Alonzo,
(10:38):
all the first ten players were in the tournament and
came Sunday until until I were in the finals, and
I said to Bill, Bill, you, you know we're going
to go fire setsus afternoon, so you order to remove
the limbs of that tree because the sun will hit
it and there'll be shadows on the court. And he
of course insisted immediately that the limbs be taken off,
(10:59):
which it was impossibility because they were there for years
and years and years to take all the day to
do it, but that was typical of Tillon. Uh.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Have you any thing to tell about your association with
Granny Rice.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well, it was a lovely friendship, as you know, Jim
and Uh. I think I was one of the first
ones to welcome Granny to Forest Hills many years ago
in Assari coll we named him at the time the
International sportsman, and he certainly deserved that uh title.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Well, thanks of any richards they had true credit to
the golden age of sports. And today vice president of
the Dunlop Rubber Company Sports Division. It must be a
very satisfying job.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
It certainly is. Jim Well, this is.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Jimmy Powers, transcribed closing another chapter in Grantlin Rice's best
selling autobiography, The Tumult and the Shouting. Next time we're
going to meet another of Granny's extra special favorites. Until then,
of Wirt
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