Gladys Medalie Heldman (May 13, 1922 – June 22, 2003) was an American tennis player, promoter, manager and magazine publisher. She was the founder of '' World Tennis'' magazine. As a manager, she supported and represented

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former World number 1 ranked female tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in w ...

and eight other female tennis players:

Rosie Casals Rosemary Casals (born September 16, 1948) is an American former professional tennis player. During a tennis career that spanned more than two decades, she won more than 90 titles and was crucial to many of the changes in women's tennis during t ...

, Judy Dalton,

Julie Heldman Julie Heldman (born December 8, 1945) is an American tennis player who won 22 singles titles. In 1968 and 1969, she was ranked No. 2 in the U.S. She was Canadian National 18 and Under Singles Champion at age 12, U.S. Champion in Girls' 15 Singl ...

Kerry Melville Kerry Melville Reid (née Melville; born 7 August 1947) is an Australian former professional tennis player. During her 17-year career, Reid won a major singles title and 26 other singles titles, and was the runner-up in 40 singles tournaments. ...

Peaches Bartkowicz Jane Bartkowicz (born April 16, 1949), known during her career as Peaches Bartkowicz, is a former top tennis player from the United States in the 1960s. Career She played her first tournament in July 1963 at the Tri-State Championships in Cinci ...

Kristy Pigeon Kristy Pigeon (born August 12, 1950) is an American retired tennis player who was active at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s. Career Pigeon won the Junior Wimbledon title in July 1968, defeating Australian Lesley Hunt in two set ...

Nancy Richey Nancy Richey (born August 23, 1942) is an American former tennis player. Richey won two major singles titles (the 1967 Australian Championships and 1968 French Open) and four major women's doubles titles (the 1965 US Championships, 1966 Austra ...

, and

Valerie Ziegenfuss Valerie Jean Bradshaw (née Ziegenfuss; June 29, 1949) is an American former female professional tennis player. She started as an amateur player at the beginning of the 1970s, then turned professional. She is most famous for being one of the Or ...

. They were called the Houston Nine. She helped form the

Virginia Slims Circuit The Virginia Slims World Championship Series (its sponsored name) or WTA World Championship Series (its tour name) was the women's top tier tennis tour administered by the Women's Tennis Association that was first founded in 1970 as the Virginia S ...

in the early 1970s (the precursor of today's

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

). She is a member of the

International Tennis Hall of Fame The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, 13 grass tennis courts, an ...

and the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (IJSHOF) () is the international hall of fame for Jewish athletes and special contributors to the world of sport. The purpose of the IJSHOF is to honor Jewish individuals, worldwide, who have accompli ...

Background

Heldman, the daughter of

New York Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the supreme court, highest court in the Judiciary of New York (state), Unified Court System of the New York (state), State of New York. It consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeal ...

judge George Z. Medalie, was born in New York City on May 13, 1922, and first became interested in tennis after marrying

Julius Heldman Julius Heldman (May 9, 1919 – September 22, 2006) was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended Hollywood High School in Los Angeles and entered UCLA at age 15. He was the Tennis Team Captain at UCLA and became the National Junior Tennis Cham ...

, the United States Junior Champion of 1936. Gladys started playing tennis in 1946 after her two daughters were born. Gladys rose to a No. 1 ranking in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, as well as No. 2 in the Southwest; she even appeared at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

in 1954 and also competed in the U.S. Championships at

Forest Hills Forest Hills or Forrest Hills may refer to: Places United States * Forest Hills (Tampa), Florida * Forest Hills, Illinois, a neighborhood in Western Springs * Forest Hills, Kentucky * Forest Hills, Boston, Massachusetts ** Forest Hills Cemetery ...

. Her daughters, Carrie and

, had National Junior Rankings, and Julie was ranked as high as No. 5 in the World. She was a graduate of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and a

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

. Her two daughters went to Stanford as well. Gladys Heldman died at her home in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

on June 22, 2003, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after she had been suffering from a terminal heart condition at age 81.

''World Tennis'' magazine

Gladys Heldman is best known for founding '' World Tennis'' magazine in 1953, and for promoting the women's game during the 1950s and 1960s. She worked with female tennis players to create a separate women's circuit in 1970. Female players received less prize money than their male counterparts, e.g. in 1968, the women's champion received £750, while the men's received £2000. Following the Pacific Southwest Championships's decision in September 1970 to pay male players eight times more money, with Gladys' organization, top players, including

, and her daughter Julie, formed a separate women's tour. With backing from

Joe Cullman Joseph Frederick Cullman III (April 9, 1912 – April 30, 2004) was an American businessman, CEO of Philip Morris Company from 1957 to 1978 and tennis aficionado. Early life Cullman was born to a Jewish family on April 9, 1912, in New York City ...

of Philip Morris, the first participants in the circuit, known as the "Houston Nine," played the first

Virginia Slims Virginia Slims is an American brand of cigarettes owned by Altria. It is manufactured by Philip Morris USA (in the United States) and Philip Morris International (outside the United States). Virginia Slims are narrower ( circumference) than stan ...

Circuit tournament in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

in late 1970. The players accepted $1 contracts from Heldman. The tournament was a success, and although the American players were temporarily suspended by the USLTA, the Virginia Slims Circuit became so popular that it eventually merged with the USLTA. Heldman sold her magazine to

CBS Publications Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc. (HFM U.S.), originally known as CBS Publications, was a subsidiary of Hachette Filipacchi Médias (one of the world's largest magazine publishers), and was based in New York City. History It was formed in 19 ...

in 1975 and was out of tennis politics by the middle 1970s. Heldman was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1979, Texas Tennis Hall of Fame in 1988, ITA Women's Hall of Fame in 1998, and

in 2000.

Portrayal in film

Sarah Silverman Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She first rose to prominence for her brief stint as a writer and cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' during its ...

plays Heldman in the 2017 movie '' Battle of the Sexes''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heldman, Gladys 1922 births 2003 suicides American female tennis players Jewish American tennis players International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Tennis players from New York City American magazine founders American magazine publishers (people) Stanford University alumni American women's rights activists Suicides by firearm in New Mexico 20th-century American sportswomen 2003 deaths 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American publishers (people) Jews from New Mexico Jews from New York (state)