This fall, THIRTEEN's American Masters presents Althea, premiering
nationwide Friday, September 4, 2015 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings)
during the U.S. Open. The 90-minute documentary reveals the highs and
lows of this remarkable athlete whose life and achievements transcend sports
and have entered the annals of African American history. From her roots as a
sharecropper's daughter in the cotton fields of South Carolina, to her emergence
as the unlikely queen of the highly segregated tennis world in the 1950s, her
story is a complex tale of race, class and gender.
In recounting Gibson's story, the filmmakers were meticulous in finding period imagery, including over 450 vintage photographs. Producer and director Rex Miller weaves this archival visual material and interviews with those who knew Gibson, such as former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, Wimbledon champions Dick Savitt and Billie Jean King (who also serves as one of the film's executive producers), Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, widow of Arthur Ashe, and more.
She learned to play that sport on the streets, but it was
bandleader Buddy Walker, who was also the neighborhood play street director,
who introduced her to tennis and The Cosmopolitan Club, a private black tennis
club.
At the club, she met Fred Johnson, the one-armed coach, who
taught her how to play. Under the auspices of the American Tennis Association
(ATA), an organization of African American players, she began to develop as a
tennis player. It was during this time that she met boxer Sugar Ray
Robinson, who would become a friend and mentor.
Though a talented tennis player, Gibson was a street kid who
lacked the genteel manner associated with the sport. It was under the tutelage
of Dr. Hubert Eaton of Wilmington, NC and Dr. Robert W. Johnson of Lynchburg, VA,
two African American physicians who loved tennis and helped young African
Americans who wanted to play, that she flourished.
She honed her skill, while receiving lessons in etiquette
and the social graces, traveled and played in the segregated south, and even
earned her high school degree. Her success in tennis earned her an
athletic scholarship (basketball and tennis) to Florida A&M, where she
received a BA in 1955 at the age of 27. Yet, with all she achieved, she never
felt comfortable with the black middle class.
Gibson's first appearance at the U.S. Nationals in 1950 is
an extraordinary and dramatic story. Her triumphant return seven years later to
win the U.S. Nationals in 1957 and then again in 1958 has been attributed to
her coach at the time, Sydney Llewellyn (her second husband). In 1957 and 1958,
Gibson was at the top of her game, winning major tournaments including at
prestigious Wimbledon.
Though now a world champion, Gibson was unable to make a
living playing amateur tennis. In 1959, she turned professional, touring with
the Harlem Globetrotters and played paid exhibition matches. Branching out to
other areas, she recorded a jazz album for Dot Records, appearing on The Ed
Sullivan Show, and even landed a role in a John Wayne/John Ford movie, The
Horse Soldiers (1959), In the 1960s, she took up golf and in 1964 she became
the first African American woman to become a member of the LPGA (Ladies
Professional Golf Association).
In 1965, she married the love of her life, William Darben. Angela
Buxton, Althea's doubles partner and friend, and Sandra Terry, Darben's niece,
speak lovingly about their relationship, though Gibson and Darben's marriage
ended in 1975. Gibson would remarry in 1983 to former coach Llewellyn. Art
Carrington, ex-professional player, tennis historian and Athea's friend,
recalls she married Llewellyn because she was invited to bring a spouse on a
trip for former champions. Buxton shares that they were just very good friends
and that Gibson felt Llewellyn had done a lot for her. Five years later, this
marriage also ended in divorce. Gibson and Darben remained close, reuniting
towards the end of her life.
By 1968, Gibson had stopped competing and for a while worked
as a tennis teaching pro. In the years that followed, Gibson found it
difficult to make ends meet. Was her failure to achieve financial success
partially her own doing? As portrayed in the film, Gibson is crushed when
she is turned away — unrecognized and unwelcome — at the on-site restaurant on
U.S. Open Championship Day.
Depressed and impoverished, in 1996, Gibson called Buxton to
say goodbye. In a generous outpouring of financial support, orchestrated by
Buxton, the tennis community showed Gibson she was not forgotten. Gibson died September
28, 2003. She was 76.
Though Gibson's accomplishments put her in the forefront of
the struggle to eliminate segregation in tennis and to gain equal rights for
players, she was a reluctant figure of the civil rights movement.
"As far as Althea was concerned, it was not about representing the
race," says Arvelia Myers, Althea's friend and tennis professional.
Says Billie Jean King, "Arthur and I used our tennis as a platform,
that's not what she wanted. She just wanted to play."
"Gibson's athletic prowess was unmatched on the tennis
court, making her a formidable competitor," says Michael Kantor, executive
producer of American Masters and tennis enthusiast. "Her story remains an
important part not only of sports history and African American history, but of
American cultural history. American Masters is proud to share the story
of this trailblazing athlete and extraordinary woman."
Launched in 1986, American Masters has earned 28 Emmy Awards
— including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series since 1999 and five for
Outstanding Non-Fiction Special — 12 Peabodys, an Oscar, three Grammys, two
Producers Guild Awards and many other honors. Now in its 29th season on PBS,
the series is a production of THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET and also seen
on the WORLD channel.