"Wonder Girl"

At the women's track & field championships in Evanston last summer, a lean, rangy, dark-haired girl from Dallas, Tex. won six first places. She amassed for her team--of which she was the only member--a total of 30 points, to 20 points for a team of 22 which finished second. Overnight Mildred ("Babe") Didrikson, a typist for Dallas Employers' Casualty Co., had become a national sports figure. At the Olympic Games two weeks later she won two first prizes (javelin throw, 80-meter hurdles), a second in the high-jump when her best jump was disqualified for ''diving." She complained bitterly because she was not allowed to enter more events. Sportswriters Grantland Rice, Paul Gallico, Westbrook Pegler et al. were sufficiently amazed by Babe Didrikson to investigate her abilities further. She played her nth round of golf for their benefit, amazed them afresh by averaging more than 200 yd. with her drives, scoring under 90. When it was established that Babe Didrikson is also an expert swimmer, basketball player, baseball pitcher, football halfback, a proficient billiardist, a clever tumbler, a boxer and wrestler, a fencer, weight lifter and adagio dancer, she could only be described by appalled reporters as a "wonder girl." Last week, Wonder Girl Didrikson had cause for wonderment herself. The Amateur Athletic Union suspended her from amateur competition in the U. S. and then promised to reinstate her if & when she took an action which would seem far more like professionalism than the one for which she had been suspended. In newspaper advertisements for Dodge automobiles last week appeared a picture of Miss Didrikson with a testimonial by her, saying: "One look at its trim beauty and you know it has class." A. A. U. officials decided that the advertisement broke a regulation which says that amateur athletes may not give out testimonials. Miss Didrikson's reply was that she had not been paid for the testimonial, that she had not authorized it. E. Gordon Perry, auto dealer of Dallas, revealed that he had sold a car to Miss Didrikson a year ago, mailed her compliments on it to his home office. A. A. U. officials announced that if Miss Didrikson could prove, by suing the advertisers for causing her to lose her amateur standing, that she had not been paid for the testimonial, she would be reinstated. While pondering this nice point in an argument which invariably reduces itself to tedious hairsplitting. Miss Didrikson must also have wondered what A. A. U. officials would have to say about a Grantland Rice "Sportlight" cinema called Wonder Girl, to be released next month. In Wonder Girl, Wonder Girl Didrikson high-jumps, broad-jumps, hurdles, puts the shot, throws the javelin and discus, dives, swims, plays baseball, football, golf, tennis, basketball. Grantland Rice, who at the Olympics called Miss Didrikson "an incredible human being" and urged her to enter the U. S. women's golf championship, went to Dallas to make the picture last September. Miss Didrikson received no money for performing in it. Football Coach Andy Kerr of Colgate, after watching her tackle 185-lb. male footballers of Southern Methodist University, was even more amazed by the way in which she sidestepped a tackler before throwing a 40-yd. pass. Naturally, Wonder Girl does small justice to Wonder Girl Didrikson's accomplishments. If it made any pretense at listing all the pastimes at which Miss Didrikson is about as expert as anyone of her sex, it would have to include weightlifting, wrestling, fencing, croquet, field hockey, soccer, polo, shooting, rowing, skating, bowling, pool, lacrosse, cooking. She holds the women's world record for throwing a baseball. She got her first newspaper publicity when, in a Dallas store "One look at its trim beauty and you know it has class." two years ago, she hoisted a 50-lb. weight over head. A physical freak in her ability to co-ordinate her actions with her eye, Miss Didrikson is not freakish in appearance. Now 19, she weighs 126 lb., has slim hard wrists and ankles, long spatulate hands. No one person is greatly responsible for her proficiency in heterogeneous sports. Her manager and coach, Melvin J. McCombs, is director of athletics for Dallas Employers' Casualty Co. Her father. Ole Didrikson, is Scandinavian, a onetime sailor. Beyond a tendency to use explicit language and to despise small girls who play with dolls, Wonder Girl Didrikson's demeanor during intervals between her physical exertions is not unfeminine. She likes to cook, dance, sew. Last year she constructed for herself a box-plaited dress. It won first prize at the Texas State Fair.

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