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By Jim Buzinski
Outsports.com
The
funniest moment in the new HBO documentary "Billie Jean
King: Portrait of a Pioneer" comes in a scene from 1973,
when Chris Evert is asked who she thinks will win the
"Battle of the Sexes" between King, 29, and 55-year-old
Bobby Riggs.
 Riggs,
Evert answers with confidence, a few days before King would
demolish him in straight sets on prime time national TV. So
much for sisters sticking together. The camera cuts to Evert
today: "I was such an idiot," she says with a laugh when
shown her prediction.
It seems
absurd now that anyone would think the top female tennis
player in the world would lose to any 55-year-old man, but
it shows how far women's sports and our thinking have come,
thanks in huge part to King.
The
compelling documentary (debuts April 26 at 10 p.m. EDT and
repeats often) is a superb look at the life and times of
King. And what a life it's been:
The first
female athlete to earn $100,000 in a year (which got her a
congratulatory phone call from President Nixon). Winner of a
record 20 Wimbledon titles. An ardent feminist who had an
abortion in 1973 (and whose husband told Ms. Magazine about
it, much to her chagrin). Best buds with Elton John (who
wrote "Philadelphia Freedom" in her honor). Founder of the
Women's Tennis Assn., which pushed for bigger paydays for
women players. Married for years before being outed in 1981
in a palimony suit. Named by Life magazine as one of the 100
most important Americans of the 20th century.
Whew.
King's
philosophy was simple and powerful: "Equal opportunity for
boys and girls." Yet such an obvious statement was
considered by many to be revolutionary and King was fought
every step of the way. That she persevered is a gift to
women athletes and to anyone who believes in equal
treatment.
The film
sucks you in from the start, from King's formative years
growing up in Long Beach, Calif., through her career to the
present day, where she remains active with World Team Tennis
and lives with longtime partner Illana Kloss, herself a
former player. King seems at peace with herself, especially
since her parents have come to terms with her sexuality. As
Kloss says, King's idea of the perfect meal these days is a
hot dog and soda with her parents at Costco.
The film's
strength lies in the honesty of those interviewed. For the
longest time, Billie Jean King resisted having her
ex-husband Larry King (not the CNN talk show host)
appear, yet making a film that was anywhere near complete
would not have been possible without his cooperation. Theirs
was far from a perfect marriage, yet as Larry King says,
"She's inspiring
I never regretted a day I spent with
Billie Jean. I don't think anybody does."
"Portrait
of a Pioneer" is a great history lesson seen through the
eyes of a trailblazer. The footage dug up by producer
Margaret Grossi and her associates is amazing and offers a
whirlwind tour through the late '60s and early '70s when
King was at her peak, and the Vietnam War and equal rights
marches brought millions onto the street. It's a film that
should be required viewing in high school history classes,
showing how the personal can become the political and one
man or woman can make a difference.
The most
entertaining segment is the famed contest with Riggs, no
doubt the most anticipated and viewed tennis match of all
time (any event held at the Houston Astrodome that featured
Howard Cosell in the booth, George Foreman as King's
bodyguard and a dressed-up pig had to be big). The stakes
were high for King and women's tennis; just months before
the September "Battle of the Sexes," Riggs had stunned
Margaret Court in straight sets. As Deford said of King: "If
she lost [to Riggs], it truly would have hurt women's tennis
and it would have hurt Billie Jean King
I don't think
she would have remained as substantive a character
thereafter."
One
previously unknown bit of news from the match we learn was
how King forced ABC sports bigwig Roone Arledge to drop Jack
Kramer from the telecast. Long a male chauvinist, Kramer had
derided women's tennis for years. "He doesn't believe in
women's tennis," King said. "Why should he be part of this
match? He doesn't believe in half of the match. I'm not
playing. Either he goes or I go." King, as she often did,
got her way. (King told the Los Angeles Times recently,
"What didn't make the show, is that Jack and I made our
peace in 1984, before the Olympics in Los Angeles, at the
home of UCLA chancellor Charles Young.")
If the win
over Riggs left King on top of the world, her nadir had to
have been the 1981 palimony suit filed by Marilyn Barnett;
the two had an affair in the 1970s. King won the lawsuit,
but the resulting publicity caused sponsors to drop her and
ultimately ended her marriage. She called the affair "a
mistake," a phrase that angered many gays and lesbians who
felt she was making a comment on homosexuality. In the film,
King regrets the choice of words and said "mistake" referred
to the fact that she believed in monogamy and yet was
cheating on her husband. Given King's openness about her
orientation and her activism, its an explanation that
should satisfy any critic.
No narrator
is used, a technique that works extremely well in this case.
King, of course, is on camera a lot, and there are terrific
interviews with her biographer Frank Deford, Evert, Martina
Navratilova, Elton John, Kloss and King's parents. At a
screening in Hollywood, Mary Carillo, one of the off-camera
interviewers, joked that the producers demanded such
emotional honesty from King that they extracted her heart,
lungs, liver and pancreas.
While
admitting that baring her soul and secrets was often
painful, King said after the screening why it was
important.
"If we
could help one person be more comfortable in their skin,
it's been worth it."
Photo of
Billie Jean King by
Leroy Hamilton
Watch a preview of the HBO documentary on King.
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