Alice Marble

Alice Marble
Alice Irene Marble, world's foremost tennis player of 1939, played on the public courts at Golden Gate Park as a teen, as did another great, Margaret Osborne duPont.
In later years Marble lived at the Point Happy Date Gardens belonging to Margaret's husband, William duPont Jr. She shared a house with another tennis hall-of-famer, Mary K. Browne. In fact, Alice Marble supervised the construction both of her and Ms Browne's house and of the duPont house on the ranch.
As a teen, Alice was great at sports overall. She played seven different sports in school and captained the baseball team. Presumably she also studied academic subjects, but I could find no evidence of this. Her brother strongly encouraged her towards tennis believing it to be more "feminine". Alice was reluctant until she met her future mentor, Eleanor Tennant. Tennant put her on a diet of rare steak, butter, and cigarettes and took her to Hollywood. In Hollywood Tennant introduced Marble to her friend, Marion Davies. Being part of that circle meant that young Alice played with stars like Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, and Spencer Tracy. She also partied with them - at one party George Bancroft threw her up in the air so high that she hit the ceiling and saw stars1.
The pace Tennant set for Marble was grueling. In 1933, during a qualifying tournament Marble played 108 games between 10 am and 7 pm, losing 12 pounds. She suffered heatstroke and had to forego the rest of the season. In 1934, Marble was picked for America's team fighting for the Wightman Cup, a U.S. versus U.K. competition, but during the American-French team matches in Paris she collapsed on the court and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Tennant paid for months of rest cure and Marble emerged with her lungs scarred, but functioning.
The USLTA tried to stop Marble from returning to sport. To convince them she beat four men of their choice one after the other. Having clearly made her point she went on to win 18 Grand Slam championships2 between 1936 and 1940 and was named her female athlete of the year twice by The Associated Press.
In 1941, saying that "she had nothing left to prove" in amateur tennis Marble turned professional and went on tour with Britain’s Mary Hardwick and male greats Don Budge and “Big Bill” Tilden. Startling the tour manager Marble insisted on being paid as much as the men.
Marble claimed3 that just before WWII she married a pilot, James Crowley, who was killed over Germany. In the same year she claimed4 to have suffered a car accident leading to a miscarriage. These two tragedies led her to attempt suicide. As a way of recovering she joined the US Intelligence Service as a spy and was shot in the back by a Nazi agent.
Marble was a firm believer in desegregating tennis and one of the biggest public supporters of Althea Gibson.
After the death of William duPont Jr caused his household to disband Ms. Marble settled in Palm Desert and taught tennis5. Her most famous students were the astronaut Dr. Sally Ride and another tennis great - Billie Jean King, who called Marble "a picture of unrestrained athleticism" and "one of the greatest women to play the game because of her pioneering style in power tennis."
1 Of the non-human variety, as opposed to Marlene Dietrich who was high-stepping just a few feet away.
2Including singles, doubles, and mixed doubles
3 There is no reliable evidence of any of this actually happening, but plenty of Ms Marble claiming it did. At least one person said that Ms Marble showed her the bullet scar.
4 I'm going to stop saying "claimed" here, but take all of this with a grain of salt. It is verifiably true, however, that Marble also worked at DC Comics, and was one of the editors on Wonder Woman.
5Marble said that she won't ever retire, "not as long as I have my forehand and my backhand."

Doubles partners Alice Marble and Katherine Winthrop McKean in 1937