Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-17
MRS. MOODY BOON
TO GAME IN EAST
Lacks TiIden'S ShoWmanship,
but Might OutdraW Him
as Pro Performer.
BY LAWRENCE PERRY.

N JEW YORK, July 17.-Sport
M life, in fact-loses GER
4 y tain zest when devoid OF
outstanding personalities
which have a vivid color quail
ity. A mood thus philosophical
is evoked by the presence OF Mrs.
Helen Wills Moody in the East,
vat Longwood, in her capacity as
q lawn tennis player.
Personally, so far as color Is concer-
ned. an appraisement might place her
in the category of pastel shades. Her
beauty follows the digniflsd Greek ideal.
In demeanor she has revealed ever a
reserve whose sturdy qualities absolutely
prevented any implications of diffidence
Never for moment has she blazed in
the manner of many athletic luminaries:
but on the other hand no athlete has
better expressed all those elements that
are found in characters fundamentally
strong.
Lacks Showman Ship.
So now, engaged in doubles play at
Longwood, the very fact Of her presence
here has exerted a tonic effect upon
lawn tennis. 1t is quite likely, were
Mrs. Moody to turn professional and
some rival unearthed qualified to give
her stirring battle, that she would
reveal greater drawing power than
Big Bill Tilden. Yet she lacks Tilden's
showmanship almost completely.
One wonders whether or not the
public has read in Mrs. Moody's dis
tinguished career absorbing chapters
which the girl might be the last to
recognize. Certainly in the darling Of
Wimbledon and London drawing rooms,
in the adored figure of the Riviera and
of France 1t required no great flight OF
imagination on the part of the Ameri-
can public to attribute to her social
trtumphs and colorful experiences
generally which have fallen to few
American girls.
She Is remembered as sharing with
Suzanne Lenglen the attention of the
world when she and the French girl
met In their memorable match al
Cannes. and when the American beauty
lost after two stirring sets. But perhaps
her fortnight stand preceding that
match In driving the money changers
more clearly remembered.
The exhibition of her drawings in
London, with pictures selling briskly
at II euineas each, followed by the
New York exhibit, marked another
important phase of her career, Just as
her presentation at Buckingham Palace
and her taste in clothes marked still
another. She has written book about
tennis. Perhaps sometime when she
has retired she will write another book
portrayirg a career filled with the
material OF which fascinating biogra-
phies are fashioned.
Spurned Politics.
After she was married. ceremony
et cnocd by six men and women, in
which the word obey was omitted
1t was proposed that she play a tennis
match with Gov. G. c. Young, at the
I me a candidate for reelection Mrs
Moody declined, saying she did not
wish to mix her tennis with politics.
The interesting point about this was
that her father-in- law, Frederick S..
Moody, was a State highway commits
sioner under Gov. Young. CHANGING
thus over her career, one finally begins
to wonder whether those pastel shades
are not really of much deeper tone.
AT any rate here in very sketchy out
line Is the demure lass of 16 who came
East in 1921 and won the national
girls championship. Since that time
she has won the national championship
six times-she would have won it eight
had she not been prevented by an at
tack OF appendicitis from playing in
1925 and by voluntary retirement from
the game last year. She won four sue
cessive championships at Wimbledon
between 1927 and 1890. inclusive and
by all odds is. the greatest woman tennis
player in the world