Gladys Heldman, Art by Jeffrey Sparr

 

This is an excerpt from my latest book, Tennis Players as Works of Art, now available on Amazon. Called “madly ambitious” and named one its 5 featured books of 2024 in the category of Art/Imagination/Creativity by Publisher’s Weekly Booklife, Tennis Players as Works of Art has also been named “One of the Best Books we Read in 2024” (Independent Book Review) and “Book of the Year” (Inside Tennis Magazine.)

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. 

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. 

Julie Heldman, ranked #5 in the world in 1969
and 1974, won 22 women’s singles titles.

About the Artist (taken from JeffreySparr.com)

A mental health advocate and self-taught artist, Jeffrey Sparr was a four-year starter and team captain on the Ohio State University tennis team. When he graduated in 1985, he was the 3^rd winningest player in Ohio State History. Diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in college, Jeff battled with this disease for many years before discovering, on a whim, that painting dramatically subdued the symptoms of his OCD, providing a creative outlet and sense of control. Sparr has been crowned the “Forrest Gump” of painting: Forrest didn’t stop running, Sparr hasn’t stopped painting. This discovery changed the course of Jeff’s life. Ever since then, Jeff has been on a mission to help others through the arts, founding, along with his cousin, the nonprofit organization PeaceLove. You can learn more about Jeff Sparr’s art and work as a mental health advocate on his website.

About PeaceLove

For those looking for an easier way to find emotional relief, PeaceLove is the no-pressure self-care method whose simple creative activities foster a more joyful journey to peace of mind. Through their on-demand classes and kits, they offer a safe, enjoyable way to relieve anxiety, stress, and tension. Through their CREATORS program, they train front line professionals in their approach and curriculum so they can help people express what’s going on inside when finding the words feels tough. CREATORS are facilitating vital emotional healing in the schools, hospitals, prisons, and community centers where help is needed most. You can learn more about the great work PeaceLove does with its many partners on their website. 

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