On one side of the net, Billie Jean King and Rosie Casals, five-time Wimbledon doubles champions. On the other, Ilana Kloss, a former No. 1 doubles player, and her playing partner, Gladys Heldman.
The stakes weren’t quite what they had been a few years earlier when the women were playing at the All-England Club. This was Heldman’s 80th birthday party, and the court was in her backyard. But octogenarian or no, Heldman and women’s tennis were synonymous.
Founder of World Tennis magazine and the Virginia Slims circuit that revolutionized the women’s game, Heldman died June 22 in Santa Fe, N.M. She was 81.
Heldman didn’t begin playing tennis until she was 25 and a mother of two. Four years after taking up the game, in 1951, she was the top-ranked player in Texas. In 1954, she played at Wimbledon. But it was as a businesswoman that she reached world-class success.
In 1953, she founded World Tennis, a 16-page newsletter she produced out of her home. Heldman was editor-in-chief, writer, publisher and chief of advertising for many years, routinely spending 48-hour sleepless periods getting the publication out on time.
World Tennis grew into a glossy magazine with 250,000 readers and an influential voice. Dubbed “the bible” by tennis players, it inspired two generations of young pros. Martina Navratilova credits Heldman’s periodical for “connecting her to the world of tennis” as a child growing up in communist Czechoslovakia.
Heldman’s loyalty belonged to the athletes. From writing scathing editorials about the tennis establishment to raising money to fly European players to the U.S. national championships, “she had the interest of the players at heart,” says her husband, Julius, PhD ’42. “She was the mother of tennis.”
In 1970, Heldman approached Philip Morris CEO Joe Cullman with a proposal. The tobacco company had recently launched a cigarette aimed at women; its slogan invoked the feminist movement and became an advertising icon—“You’ve come a long way, baby.” Heldman convinced Cullman that the new brand would benefit from a partnership with women’s tennis. One year later, the Virginia Slims circuit began. Nine players signed $1 contracts, including Casals and King and Heldman’s youngest daughter, Julie, a former Stanford player who rose to a top-5 ranking as a pro. As Heldman had predicted, the circuit drew fans, money and attention. By the mid-’70s, female tennis stars were as well known as their male counterparts. “Without Gladys, there wouldn’t be women’s professional tennis as we know it,” says King.
Heldman eventually sold World Tennis to CBS, started a successful junior tennis circuit and retired to Santa Fe in 1981. The magazine folded in 1991.
Heldman is survived by her husband; daughters Carriz and Julie, ’66; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
