Heldman, Gladys

Gladys Medalie Heldman
Born: May 13, 1922
Died: June 22, 2003
Hometown: New York, New York, United States
Citizenship: United States
Inducted: 1979

Contributions
Founder, Owner, Publisher, Editor-in-chief and Writer World Tennis Magazine

Founder Virginia Slims Circuit

For more than two decades, brilliant Gladys Medalie Heldman was the game’s anchor, first as founder-owner-publisher-editor-chief-writer of “World Tennis” magazine (launched in 1953), later as the instigator and housemother of a separate professional circuit for women, begun in l970. Under her guidance, WT became the international literary voice of tennis. A slim, petite dynamo, who often seemed shy, she came to tennis through marriage to a first-flight player, left-handed Julius Heldman, who was the U.S. junior champ in 1936.

She, a previously non-athletic New Yorker, quickly absorbed his enthusiasm for the game, becoming a maven. Their two daughters, Trixie and Julie, held national junior rankings, and Julie went on to win the Italian Open in 1969, and rank No. 5 in the world that year and in 1974. In 1970, Gladys and her magazine became the allies of disgruntled female players–Billie Jean King and Rosie Casals foremost–who felt, justifiably, that they were being demeaned, financially and attitudinally, by the game’s male establishment. They believed it was necessary to break away from the traditional dual-sex tournament format and go it alone.

Heldman encouraged them, and urged a friend, Joe Cullman, head of Philip Morris, to provide an initial bankroll. Joined by the “Houston Nine” (King, Casals, daughter Julie, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kerry Melville, Valerie Ziegenfuss, Nancy Richey, Kristy Pigeon, Judy Tegart Dalton), Heldman staged the first Virginia Slims tournament in that city late in 1970. Although the Americans among the Nine risked(and received brief) suspensions from the USTA, that tourney, and another in Richmond, VA succeeded.

They promoted Virginia Slims to underwrite a 1971 tour, and the stunning progress of the “Long Way Babies” commenced. Heldman counseled and editorially backed the circuit which she first dubbed “Women’s Lob” featuring “The Little Broads.”

Heldman, who became a better-than-average player herself, sold the magazine and withdrew from tennis politics in the mid-1970s. She was born May 13, 1922, in New York and entered the Hall of Fame in 1979.

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