Gertrude Moran liked to be on display.
“Gussy was a beautiful woman with a beautiful body,” said Jack Kramer in 2002.
And the conventions of the day did not concern her. The tan tennis star showed off that beautiful body at every opportunity, earning her scorn from the traditionalists who ran the sport in the first half of the 20th century.
“If Gussy had played in the era of television, no telling what would have happened,” said Kramer, a Wimbledon and Forest Hills champion who died in 2009. “Because, besides everything else, Gussy could play."
That she could. The lanky Californian had a power baseline game some 50 years before it became the de rigueur style for the ladies of the WTA. The compactness of her swing would surprise opponents; it was level and mean, parting the air with the sound of a jacket unzipping. The ball came across the net flat, screaming for the line.
Alas, she did not become famous for that forehand. At the 1949 Wimbledon, she wore a shorter-than-normal dress -- and lace panties. At her first match, eyes bugged out all over the stadium, and photographers scrambled to get low positions to capture the frilly full moon of her rump. It was a different world. The All-England Club chastised her for bringing “vulgarity and sin into tennis.” The press dubbed her “Gorgeous Gussie.” (Moran spells her nickname with a “y”; the press preferred the sexier “ie.”)
That was it. Even though she would reach the doubles final at that Wimbledon and had won the U.S. Indoor Championships in singles earlier in the year, no one took her seriously as a tennis player anymore. She was instead a celebrity.
Moran would later claim the lacy-underwear brouhaha took her by surprise, and that she was so ashamed that she left the court that day with her racket over her face.
Maybe so, but she quickly got over it. She later posed in the titillating garment -- and little else -- at swank department stores around the country.
In 1950, Moran turned pro to take advantage of her sex-symbol fame, meaning she no longer would be allowed to play at Wimbledon, Forest Hills or any of the sport's other glamor tournaments.
The pro tennis circuit at that time -- nothing more than barnstorming tours involving a handful of players -- was anything but glamorous. The six-month tour that featured Moran pitted her against Pauline Betz, with Bobby Riggs and Kramer taking the other singles match each night. (They’d then close out the program with mixed doubles.)
“When things were dull, Riggs set up a ping-pong table on the traveling green canvas court and played Betz at table tennis,” Moran wrote to me recently. “They were both excellent, just as they were in golf. And keeping the audience happy like today’s T.V. give-away shows with items for each attendee, Riggs drew a winning number at intermission for a fine watch; Kramer passed out plastic rings from Corn Flakes; and I handed out orchids flown in daily from Honolulu. Now ain’t that all something?”
It was something, but it wasn’t a good career move for Moran. The pro tour was small time. And while Gussy was good, Betz was sublime.
Betz had won four Forest Hills titles in the 1940s. She also won Wimbledon the only time she played it. The prigs who ran amateur tennis barred her from the circuit in 1947 simply for considering pro offers. She resented that Gorgeous Gussie was now getting all the attention, and so, three years after her banishment from the spotlight, she set out to prove she was still the best female tennis player in the world. Night after night, she crushed Moran, who quit the tour a month before the end of its run.
“Really, that tour was a tragedy for Gussy,” said Kramer. “I don't think she got much money out of it either."
Moran, now 88, has had some hard times in the 60 years since her tour with Betz and Co., but she remains a cheerful and charming woman. She held a wide variety of jobs over the years, including nightclub entertainer and tennis columnist. She also married and divorced a few times, did a perilous USO tour during the Vietnam War and later survived a vicious physical attack.
Seeing as February offers a long lull in the tennis season, this seems like a good time to give Moran a little attention. She’s remembered, if at all, only for the lace panties at Wimbledon. She deserves better from tennis history.
to read a lengthy profile of her that appeared in the Los Angeles Times 10 years ago. But first enjoy a few images of Gorgeous Gussie in her heyday.
And last but not least, Moran's bete noire during that barnstorming tour, the incomparable Pauline Betz