Catty Reminiscences

Life on a California prison farm was a humbling experience for Big Bill Tilden. During his 7 1/2 months in jail (for "contributing to the delinquency of a minor") he worked in the kitchen scouring pots & pans, waited on table, and worked up to storekeeper ("a very responsible post"). But his prison term hadn't really changed him. He had just published a book, and in it he was still the arrogant and unblushing showoff.

In My Story (Hellman, Williams; $2.75),* on the bookstands this week, he tramps boldly through the years (1920-25) when he was king of tennis. "I can stand crowds only when I am working in front of them," he writes, "and then I love them!" He seems to have loved none of his partners or opponents.

Tilden v. the Machine. No man ever scared him, but Rene Lacoste did give him the jitters: "The monotonous regularity with which that unsmiling, drab, almost dull man returned the best I could hit. . . often filled [me] with a wild desire to throw my racket at him, or hit him over the head with it."

He considers Jean Borotra the game's greatest showman and most expert faker. The best player: Don Budge, who had "no subtlety, no finesse, little grace and practically no variety to his game, but for hitting power--Wow!"

Tilden v. the Women. Big Bill is cattiest about the game's two greatest women--Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills. On Lenglen: "Her costume struck me as a cross between a prima donna's and that of a street walker." On Wills: "I regard her as the coldest, most self-centered, most ruthless champion ever known to tennis."

The current object of Tilden's dislike is Big Jake Kramer, whose disrespect for ex-greats is "apparently quite typical of modern youth in many fields." (Kramer says that Tilden dislikes him because, when Jake was 17, he blasted Tilden off the court in a practice match.) Tilden rates Bobby Riggs today's best player.

At 54, Bill Tilden's 6 ft. 1 1/2 in. frame is bowed, his grey hair shaggy, and he reaches for his glasses before he can read a line. But he is anxious to make another pro tour, if "the public will accept me." In Hollywood last week, he shuttled from court to court giving tennis lessons to such high-paying movie clients as Mrs. Charles (Oona O'Neill) Chaplin, the Joseph Cottens, the David Selznicks. Said he: "There's a lot of money here for anyone who can teach the game."

*A "complete rewrite" of Aces, Place? and Faults, published in England in 1938.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.