Crime in Sports - #340 - Charlie Chaplin Can't Save You - "Big" Bill Tilden

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

This week, we check out of the greatest tennis players who has ever lived. He's a hall of famer, and a lot of his records still stand, today. He was also a real character, writing Broadway plays, starring in silent films, and hanging out with the biggest celebrities of his day, including Charlie Chaplin. He also led a life of secrecy from the general public, hiding his true life from the outside world. He is eventually arrested for a terrible crime, and when you think it can't get any worse, he does it again. And again. His tale has a pathetic ending, from one of the most prolific people of his time!!Hide your true self from the world, be the greatest tennis player on earth, while also selling insurance on the side, and never ever learn your lesson with "Big" Bill Tilden!!Check us out, every Tuesday! We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!!  Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman  Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail]  Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com  Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS & STM!!  Contact us on... twitter.com/crimeinsports [e-mail] facebook.com/Crimeinsports instagram.com/smalltownmurderSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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It's streaming. You can say anything. It's an all-new season. Judy Justice. Only on Freebie. Hello everybody and welcome back to Crime and Sports! Yay! Yay, indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host.

I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another wild edition of Crime and Sports. And every day of Crime and Sports is wild when we're alive. And we're alive, the show's alive, and we love it so much. It's all working. Oh, it's been so crazy lately, too, with Evelyn Stevens and a couple of blonde guys. We had two blondes in a row. I don't know how often we've ever had that on this show. Two blonde people in a row. It was almost three. But then I went a different way. I was like, wow, not for that reason. But just I realized it was almost three. But we'll get to everything. We have a crazy ass episode. We'll get to all of that. three but we'll get to everything we have a crazy ass episode we'll get to all of that but first we need to tell you of course go to shut up and give me murder.com especially for february the 10th cleveland ohio kicking off small town murders 2023 tour we're very excited for that

get your tickets there's still some left in cleveland right now cleveland in february because our agents yeah because our agents sent us to new, because our agents hate us. Sent us to New Orleans in July last year. Just fucking hatred. I don't know what we did to these people, but they do not like us. So there, then St. Louis. And also Extra Shows added, an Extra Show in Seattle, an Extra Show in Portland. So those tickets are available right now. Also, of course, Pittsburgh and Detroit in May.

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Oh, God damn it. Everything. Everything. That's right. This week, what we're going to handle is for crime and sports. We're going to do it's been talked about so much. We've had to come up on episodes. So we're just going to handle the whole thing. We're going to talk about

Tencent Beer Night, the history of baseball Tencent Beer Nights and on several occasions there was a crazy shit that happened and the fields got destroyed and people got hurt and we'll talk all about it, as you might imagine. It's almost like cheap alcohol causes problems.

Weird. It's almost like if you get a bunch of young guys and cheap alcohol together, they'll start fighting with each other after three hours of a baseball game. Strange, right? And then for small town murder, we're going to talk about something very cool. Get away from the murder for two seconds here and talk about some scams. Back in the day, there was a lot of small town scams where people would have these developments and they would send all these advertisements back back east to people come to this small town where it's going to be beautiful. And then when they get there, nothing's developed and there's no roads and they don't have like a grocery store. We're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about these scams where,

you know, they bought a swamp. They can't build a house on stuff like that happened during the Dust Bowl a lot and stuff in Oklahoma. We'll talk all about that small town scams patreon.com slash crime and sports and of course you'll get a shout out at the end of the show where jimmy's gonna mispronounce your name while he desperately tries to get it correct that said let's get right into this right now with our asshole of the week holy shit we're going to an old timey asshole here today. Yeah. And different and usually a little, a little more modern,

but we're going, I've been loving the old timey shit lately. Ty Cobb, even Evelyn Stevens. I know that wasn't that old timey, but it still felt. It's a different time. It's a different thing.

That was acceptable. It's fascinating. This was what this guy did was, has never been acceptable. Maybe in Greece, but otherwise probably not. We're going to talk about William Tatum Tilden Jr. Jesus. Junior, right away, right off the bat here.

So it's Bill Tilden is his name. He is one of the top five tennis players of all time. Oh. On every list. I mean, he was the dominant player of his era. Hands down. The Babe Ruth of tennis is what he kind of was like. He was really good.

They called him Big Bill, Big Bill Tilden. That's his nickname. Also, easier to market people back then. Big is plenty. And big back then was six, one and a half. He was. It wasn't it wasn't like six foot six six one and a half that's big bill over there he's huge uh he well he's born february 10th 1893 so that explains a lot of it

here that one tennis rackets look like badminton rackets exactly he even has his own he's one of the first guys that has like his own signature equipment that he said that sells because of him yeah i mean he's got endorsements he this guy's a star star star um so he's born in germantown pennsylvania and uh he's born into a very wealthy fam family here germantown's in philly and he is from a very wealthy family in the city of philadelphia um yeah very generally the people that play tennis it's back then it was exclusively that one of bill's things was to try to spread tennis to people of quote other classes he wanted no that's dangerous he wanted the lower classes to play tennis also because he said it's a fun game and everyone should play it so but you need very specific things for tennis that

often aren't available if you're poor. That's the thing. It's expensive, yeah. That's a very expensive sport. It's not easy, absolutely. So his family, three of his older siblings died. Is that right? Like, yeah, when he was little and before he was born from, you know, this is pre-Penicillin.

Yeah, this is pre-Penicillin we're talking. So late 1800s, you get anything, it'll kill you. So his father was obviously William Tatum Tilden. He was a wool merchant and a local politician. Okay. Selling coats and running for office. Running for office. And his mother, Selina Hay, was a pianist at the time.

So these are very. Classy folks. Yeah, this is they have one of these old brownstone houses probably. You know, it's very classy. Servants. They have butlers. All the best things in Philly. Butlers and cooks and, you know, everything. This is a very this is like Downton Abbey American style.

You know what I mean? It's interesting. So as a boy, Bill was nervous, high strung, and had a terrible temper, everybody said. He was really like just amped up all the time. Real hard to deal with. So what you're saying is he was rich. He was a little rich twat. Back then, though, little rich twats were like the world is my oyster.

So they usually – Calm because you don't have to worry. They might have a bad temper, but they're not high strung or nervous really they're not nervous at all i'm taking care of forever what am i nervous about shit i already have a trust fund yeah i don't even do laundry i already have a trust fund this is awesome god that's got to be great did their servants all all get sick at the same time? Is that what he was worried about? He's going to have to cook and clean and shit now? Jesus Christ, they're in here.

They're shaking hands with each other, these people. I don't know what's going on. His older brother, Herbert, introduced him to tennis to, quote, soothe his unruly temperament. He's hyper and unruly, his brother said hey hold this racket and run back and forth for two hours and i bet you're less of a pain in the ass when you get home yeah and it worked sleepy and it worked um he says later on he'll write a book called my story and it's at a very weird time in his life that he writes it. And there's a couple things here that we have to talk about that are major, major issues in his life that we'll get to. He says, quote, My childhood was happy, sheltered, and I fear rather that of a slightly spoiled brat.

That's from his book. Yeah. He's a really good writer, by the way. He actually, for a while here, will make his living writing while he's playing tennis. He wrote plays. He wrote episodes of TV that came out later on. He's a very prolific writer. He said, in other words, mine was the typical well-to-do Philadelphia family life of the late 90s, meaning 1890s.

This is like Gilded age shit this is yeah um there was a show that was like that they tried to make i think it was on amazon or hulu or i don't fucking remember but it was a show where it was like american downton abbey late 1800s america with like you know guys were like roughly like the robber barons who were building these big mansions in new york city and all that and that's exactly what this is. Like, sir, they were living a whole different life. They were worried about social calendars and, you know, things like that. Etiquette books and, you know, cricket games and shit that people who worked in a factory 16 hours a day definitely didn't worry about back then.

Just generally being better than you. Yeah. Every day, all day. And this was the time when 10-year-olds worked in a factory 16 hours a day definitely didn't worry about back then. Just generally being better than you. Every day, all day. And this was the time when 10-year-olds worked in mines and shit. So this is – their life is so different from everybody else in this country. The vast, vast majority. It's wild. So he says, quote, I detested school and avoided it by virtue of private tutors. Quote, I detested school and avoided it by virtue of private tutors.

So he grew up not going to school until he was a junior in high school was the first time he went to school. Before that, it was all at home. He said, quote, I was no wonder boy in athletics, but I did have game sense. That is, I played all games naturally well and except for tennis, none outstandingly. So tennis, he's got a thing because his style too. I've been reading a lot about his style and I know small amounts about tennis, obviously. I'm not an expert in like the history of tennis, but I've played the game some. Like there was a park when I was a kid by my house and my grandmother had a tennis racket and some other kid had a tennis racket.

So we'd all use and switch off and try to play. You know, not none of us were fucking good. We played basketball mainly. But, you know, you could fuck around with that, too, a little bit. And so I know like angles and it's difficult. It's a difficult game. Obviously, he plays like the sit back by the back line there and play the angles of everything. He's very good at, must be just good at knowing how to hit a ball, how to spin a ball.

He's that kind of guy who kind of lets the game come to him. It's a hard fucking game, man. It's a very hard game. The side to side of it is you got to be so quick. And to be able to get speed on that ball at the same time as no loft yeah and get it to drop to get in it's fucking crazy the reaction time you need to return a serve that's over 120 miles an hour is wild i mean you gotta have some serious reaction time that's crazy and also coming off the ground on a on a hop so you have to worry about what kind of spin that ball has on the ground coming up it's

it's a lot so um he said though quote i must have been pretty hot on the courts as a kid because i won the and listen to this shit i won the 15 and under junior boys championship so years 15 and under at the on on taroa club in 1901 at the age of seven seven he beat everybody he was beating the 15 year olds at seven i must have been good it must have been pretty good i mean i don't know hilarious his mother is called a quote semi-invalid all the time like that's the phrase that keeps coming up she had bright's disease i don't even know what that is i don't know i know people still have it uh but i think you can treat it now. Back then, I don't think you could treat it at all because she died when he was 18 years old.

Jesus. And from this disease, and it had been slowly debilitating her over the years as well. And the weird part is his dad is still alive. His dad has a giant house with staff to the gills with servants every kind of servant you could possibly want but they sent bill to live with his aunt instead listen i yes they could all take care of you but i'm a single man i can't have you in my home like you gotta fuck off sorry you're not as impressive to the ladies yeah this house and this staff you understand when i have like a party where i'm like doing coke off the table at two in the morning i can't have you

wander into this room do you get how this works because back then that's people were getting down with coke like a motherfucker so yeah this was like party time back then this was like the 70s of that oh yeah the early 1900s were like huge because you could just buy it over the counter anywhere. Recreational shit everywhere. Oh, it was wild. Yeah. We did an episode about that, a bonus episode about drugs back then. Yeah.

So he was sent. It was only a few houses away, but that's got to be weird. His dad just going, well. That's worse, isn't it? Your mother has died. Okay. Yeah. Because back then, I'm sure it wasn't like listen, son, and a big hug and tears being

shed. He's like this. he probably sat down. He probably sent a servant in to tell him. They said, your mother has died. And he's like, really? And they're like, yes, you'll be moving out now. And they just start packing his shit. What are you talking about?

Your father would like me to serve you with his eviction notice. Yeah. And he was 18, but still. You wouldn't even – it's a huge house. You could probably not even realize he was there. You could probably just avoid that wing. He likely doesn't even need his father to really do anything for him at 18. That's the weird part.

He's sent to live with an aunt who's a never married maiden aunt, they called her. So that's the aunt here. Some useless bitch. Yeah, you hang out with him, you useless twat. She didn't here. You write you useless bitch. Yeah. You hang out with him. You useless. She didn't even have kids. This useless bitch back then. It would be like Jesus. She didn't even have kids that half of them would die from disease anyway.

What an idiot. So he sent down there and he will live with her at least 41 or 46. Some shit. He'll live with her well into his 40s. Figure it out, man. Dude. Through being famous, he's like best friends with Charlie Chaplin, and he's like, all right, guys, I got a curfew. My aunt really gets pissed when I come in past 11.

Like, what is happening? He's in Hollywood movies and shit, and he lives with his aunt. She hears the key in the lock. She wakes right up. I don't want to disturb her. Right? She hears the key in the lock. She wakes right up. I don't want to disturb her.

Right? Well, he also keeps a room, a suite at the Algonquin Hotel in New York, which is very expensive. But he keeps that also just on the side. And he's very wealthy. I mean, they're a wealthy family. Wow. He says about his whole childhood and his mom dying and everything, quote, These events took much of the usual youngsters wildness out of me i was in no mood for wild oats or anything else i was in no mood

i like the way he writes i was in no mood wild oats or anything else couldn't you just say i wasn't i mean you could say a lot of things that's a fascinating way of saying i don't fuck random broads it's well yeah or Well, he'll talk more about that. Then I started to gain prominence in tennis, and at an age when the average boy contemplates settling down with one girl, began my wanderings all over the world. So he says, normally you start courting a girl at this age back then. That's when I'm going all over the world playing tennis. So I didn't have time for that shit. world playing tennis so i don't have time for that shit um he said i never stayed in one place long enough to become emotionally involved over a considerable period with any one girl which did

not help my chances for marriage besides i believed perhaps foolishly that on one hand i could not expect a woman to chase me all on the one hand i could not expect a woman to chase me all over to chase all over the map with me and on the, that no woman would sit home and wait for me. In spite of myself, however, I found many times that I was strongly attracted to this girl or that one, greatly to the detriment of my peace of mind.

Twice in my life, I even considered marrying. This is all not true, by the way, because we'll find out later. In the last two pages of the book. He just said drops bombshells like you're like, well, that just negates a lot of what you said. He said twice in my life, I even considered marrying. Both women were famous and both of the stage.

I did not flatter myself that either would have married me. But if circumstances had been a little different, who knows? As a matter of fact, both married others later and managed to get on quite happily without me. I might add that while quite aware of my admiration at the time, neither girl ever learned just how serious were my feelings. The first one was Peggy Wood. Came into my life in 1918 or thereabouts. Glamorous, successful, already a star. She was a very real person.

She was a star of stage and screen, Peggy star. She was a very real person. She was a star of stage and screen, Peggy Wood. She was big. I went head over heels. But the beautiful Peggy was busy with her acting chores and buddies, and I, that's some movie or some play, I mean, and I was beginning the travels, which were to take me all over the world, so I had very

few opportunities to see her. Peggy never knew how close she came to having a proposal on her hands one day back in 1919 okay let's just get this out of the way he's gay bill's gay bill's a gay guy um really absolutely he's he's gay as they come um so he's gonna he's not a woman no reason that's what i mean well because back then you just did that but he's absolutely gay um and he'll later on say that and it was it wasn't a secret in hollywood in hollywood they're like now now you know they don't know everything well we think of like now like we know everybody

hid their gayness even in the 50s the 60s the 70s but like in hollywood amongst the hollywood people like nobody gave a fuck about what it was. It's artists. They don't care about that shit. Like, OK, are you a good director? OK, great. Well, if you can make me look good on the screen and we make money, I don't give a shit who you fuck. It's just that there's always a more open to suggestion type of climate out there. So like a super addiction where you have to say cut so you can suck a cock.

Yeah. How gay are you exactly? Can you not do a scene with another man because you'll be cock gazing the whole time no well good then you're a normal human being so yeah then let's go don't worry about it whereas yeah the rest of the world that was considered different so uh and we'll get into all of that and that's a lot of his troubles come from the fact that he has to hide this uh but his crimes come from something much different as as we'll talk about. So he in October 1910, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, which is a tremendous school, by the way. That's, you know, wild, where he joined Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and enrolled at Pierce College also, but never graduated. He said himself he wasn't into school.

So he was mainly there for social activities and sports. He knows what he's going to do. Yeah. At the loss at 22, his father and his older brother, Herbert, who he was very close to, who helped him start tennis and everything. They both died that year. Oh, no. I think at the same time, a car accident, something like that. So, yeah. So that fucked him up, too. he said that was really that was really tough on him and um yeah what was that 1915 so that was difficult on him he said there was everything uh he got a lot yeah he's but i mean i don't know who got the mayan share of it because later on he will definitely uh either blow all his money that he inherited or not inherit as much as you would think he would inherit one of the two but after his dad and brother died, he said several months of deep, deep depression, obviously, as you would imagine. But with encouragement from his aunt and tennis, these were the two things that saved him, was encouragement from his aunt and tennis became his primary means of recovery from his. So now he's under 30. Both parents are dead,

and he lives with an aunt that he will be with for quite some time still. Yeah, yeah, it's fucking weird, man. So he's with this aunt, and he, by the way, they tell you he took up tennis at age six, and by seven he was beating 15-year-olds. So that tells you how incredible's very good incredible yeah he took up tennis by the way at the family summer house in the catskills oh yeah yeah those places i'm so if your kids don't take to tennis maybe it's because your summer house in the catskills

isn't quite as good as you think it is you should improve your summer house you lazy fuck that's all it is yeah trim up your your yeah. Trim up your lawn game. Maybe that's the deal. Put a better tennis court out back. What? That's so privileged. I can't imagine. Can you imagine that shit?

Oh, God. He's got a biographer named Frank Deford, and he says that he he says that Tilden then would spend his entire adult life attempting to create a father son relationship with a long succession of ball boys and youthful tennis protégés over time. So that's that's his thing. He's trying to find trying to find that relationship again here. And a close one that's just right there. Yeah. Being lazy about it. That's it's got to be tennis there. Yeah. He's kind of being lazy about it. It's got to be tennis related.

Yeah. He's a little lazy. It's all he does. He's a tennis obsessed. Tennis and acting. So he went to the prep school. The weird part is he was so good, but he wasn't known for tennis in school, like when he went to the Germantown Academy, and he didn't make the college team. Oh.

Which is crazy, because a few years later, he'll be like one of the best players in the world. So it makes no sense how- He's a collector to go to school with. Right? As a young child, he's better than everybody. Right after college, he's better than everybody. But during college, he can't even make the team.

I don't understand. That's really, really really really fascinating and weird um uh he would but he became he practiced tennis more and more and more um he um he started becoming nationally recognized he wins his first national title um actually a mixed doubles championship with a woman named Mary Brown in 1913, and then they went in again in 1914. So pretty good. From 1914 to 1917, Bill won the Philadelphia championship. So he's the best tennis player in Philly. Prior to 1920, he won a number of Canadian doubles titles and all that kind of thing.

In the U.S. National Championships in 1918 and 1919, he lost the singles final to Robert Murray and Little Bill Johnson. Little Bill. Little Bill. He loves Little Bill, by the way. Even in his book, he raves about Little Bill. Loves Little Bill. That's his boy. He ends up winning between the years of 1920 and 1925.

He wins six consecutive U.S. singles championships. Six? Six. He's the fucking man. Wow. Just the man. This makes him, even to this day, he ended up skipping a year, then doing it again it again winning seven which makes him the co-record holder with two other guys too so is that right he still holds so many tennis records it's not

even never heard of him that's right i mean either and i was just reading too who was it um i think it was roger fetterer was saying i think it was him was saying how at a time when he was playing a lot he said he was trying to match bill Tilden's record of something and kept bringing up Bill Tilden all the time. So apparently if you're a big tennis fan, you know, Bill Tilden, like without a doubt, like, you know who he is. But if you're not, then you have no fucking clue. I love tennis for a minute. It was on all the time early in the morning. Maybe it's because ESPN difference when we were kids.

It's when we were kids. I used to watch it when I was a kid, too, because it was on ESPN. You'd just be like, oh, I guess this is on. I loved it. Yeah, it was good. But it translated, because it goes everywhere. Everybody knows what fucking tennis is, so I guess it's a safe bet for ESPN. Yeah, I think that's

what it was for. And plus, it was all they could get. The networks weren't clamoring to air tennis at 6 a.m., probably. on nbc for martina navratilova maybe for her but not for the other people you know what i mean not for that that's where i saw her that's where i saw pete sampras that's where i saw all those guys that's how i learned about him yeah i remember the highlights all the time yeah even so um in, 1920, he moved to Rhode Island where on an indoor court he devoted himself

to working on his backhand. Oh. That's what he wanted to do. That's all he wanted, huh? That's what he wanted to do here. In 1920, he'll become the first American man to ever win Wimbledon.

Really? Yes, he's the first one. first American man to ever win Wimbledon. Really? Yes, he's the first one. First American man to win it. Nobody ever won it until 1920. Nope. And like the French Open, you're only allowed to play in it if you were French until this time period, which is crazy. They knew there was better players. They were like, this is just for us.

No one wants to play on the clay anyway. Those clay games are weird. They stop and hit the thing and slide like four feet. It's so weird. It's kind of cool. It's cool, but it's like this is the weirdest surface. You're going to hurt somebody. It's so strange.

It just looks like you have to be like, like your feet are always moving. You have to be like doing the Axl Rose dance all the time. Now with the way TV is and such, with the graphics and how close and how many pixels, you can really see cool shit. But back then it was just gliding people. That's all you'd see. Yeah, a lump of mud.

So he does that. He dominates the international tennis world in the 1920s and pretty much for the whole time, from 1911 to 1930 and this and we'll explain this but this is his amateur period back 19 years as an amateur back then wimbledon for all the majors they were amateur tournaments technically technically amateur they wouldn't get paid for that shit no and so yeah so back then you'd have all the great players were amateurs and then when they were too'd have all the great players were amateurs. And then when they were too old to be the great players anymore, then they'd be professionals and go play all these tournaments around.

And, you know, it would be guys you've heard of playing each other. And they'd do tours of tournaments. And that's how they made money. Selling tickets to that shit, I guess? Yes. Yeah. And we'll talk about how many people used to come watch this shit. It's fucking mind-blowing. It's mind-blowing.

They're still doing it because there's a muni, like a court out in Surprise near my kids that they fucking, the bald, the guy that had hair, now he's bald. God damn it. Andre Agassi? Yes, he was just out there. And they're charging tickets to see that shit. Had hair, now he's bald, has cameras. I don't know.

Well, it's Nikons. I don't know. I don't know. The Rebel Eos or whatever the fuck he is. Remember that? I don't remember that. Remember those commercials so clearly. He was really into cameras.

He was really into cameras. I know that. So during this time, 1911 to 1930, he's in 192 tournaments. He won 138 of those. Jesus. That is a sick winning percentage for tennis tournaments. 60%. That's more than that.

138 of 192? That's like 75%. That's a shitload. That's great. That is impressive as balls. That's a lot. It's like 75%. That's a shitload. That's great. That is impressive as balls. That's a lot. It's about 70%. That's awesome.

Yeah. That's pretty cool. I don't know. It's a lot. He also, here's a funny thing here. There's a tennis player named Suzanne Langland who is one of the top women's players in the world in the 20s. And they asked him, what do you they asked him? What do you think about her?

Your counterpart? Yeah. And the women's, you know, just like you. What do you think? He said, quote, her costume struck me as a cross between a prima donnas and that of a streetwalker. What? How did you not know he was gay?

How did you not know he was gay? If you ask a man, what do you think of her tennis game, and he talks about just her costume, and it's not about how it makes her tits look, that's a gay man. Straight men don't care what a woman's costume looks like unless it's showing her ass. We don't care. If you ask a man about a woman's performance in sports, and he talks about her clothes, that's a gay man. And how they're, quote, that of a it's a gay man that's a catty that's a catty thing to say no no how about her shot yeah her skirts a bit you know i mean yeah so her costume

as a cross between a prima donna's and that of a streetwalker. So I was like, awesome. Didn't know. He said later on, he'll say about this time period, I myself have had something of a writing career. It traces back to 1915 when I was the assistant to Gilbert Seldes, the music editor, and Kenneth McGowan, the dramatic editor of the Evening Ledger in Philadelphia, a daily newspaper in Philly. He said, before I escaped, I found myself doing sports work and even covering some stories for the City Desk. So he was a reporter and journalist while he was winning every tournament. He's a national singles champion.

At the same time, he's like, I got to get home because I got a deadline. How many jobs has he got? A lot. He sells insurance sells insurance too during this period we'll talk about serious he's a insurance salesman journalist tennis greatest tennis player in the world it's fucking crazy is it because tennis doesn't pay well yeah he's got doesn't pay anything it's you're an amateur so you can you can do like uh autographs but people didn't pay for autographs back then. I don't know how you'd make extra money. That's why I think these endorsements came in tennis and these tennis rackets and shit like that because you could do that. But you couldn't be paid to play tennis.

That was part of it. The wait is over. So far, you're not losing. The only thing you're losing is my patience. Quickly, I see that. Bing! The queen of the courtroom is back. I didn't do anything.

You wouldn't know the truth if it came up and slapped you in the face. I see he's not intimidated by anything. I can fix that. New cases. She wanted to fight me. Leave her alone. OK, so, um.

This is not a so. This is a period. Classic Judy. Did you sleep with her? Yes, Your Honor. You married his cousin. His brother. That's not him. Yes, ma'am.

I would make a beeline for the door. The Emmy Award-winning series returns. How did I know that? I have a crystal ball in my head. It's an all-new season. It's streaming. You can say anything. Judy Justice, only on Freebie. Taylor Swift is soaring high, her every move captured in the news cycle and devoured by her devoted fans. She's broken billboard records and made Grammys history, not to mention becoming a billionaire in the process. But along the way, Taylor has had to wage war,

first by taking on a very powerful, very famous manager, Scooter Braun, and then by going up against the biggest live events company, Ticketmaster. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery's show, Business Wars. We go deep into some of the biggest corporate rivalries of all time. And in our latest season, Taylor Swift will shake up not only the music business, but Hollywood and the NFL. Follow Business Wars wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. He said that while he was working doing that at his tennis peak, he would do syndicated articles to the newspapers and magazines. He was making $25,000 a year back then doing that, which is like making $400,000 or $500,000 a year now. Yeah, he's crushing.

He did that just in writing, so that's pretty impressive. In the 20s, the 20s are a big time for sports. It's known as the golden age of sport at the time. Yeah, it's when sports became – before that, sports were – it was little pockets of people who followed things, but it wasn't this giant national awareness thing. And then in the 1920s, you had Babe Ruth. You had Jack Dempsey, you had Red Grange, you had all of these giant names that everyone in America knew about. And sports became enormous in the 1920s. And he was the main man of tennis.

So he's considered – they put him among the – they say there's six dominant figures of the golden age of sports. And it's Babe Ruth, Howie Morenz, Red Grange, Bobby Jones, Jack Dempsey and Bill Tilden. What the fuck? That's what I'm saying. Jack Dempsey. But I mean, I've heard of Red Grange, Jack Dempsey and Babe Ruth for sure. You know, so now here's there's a picture of him that i'll post it on the social media where um he is out he goes to california and he's hanging out with movie stars here um and other

tennis players and they're holding up charlie chaplin has his head on bill's shoulder while laying straight across and has his feet on another guy's shoulder you know five feet away planking him yeah yeah so he's planking Charlie Chaplin with a smile. It's Charlie Chaplin, Bill Tilden, Douglas Fairbanks, who's another tennis player, or no, Manuel Alonso, Mary Pickford, who's like the biggest movie star in the world back then, next to Charlie Chaplin. So he's just hanging out with all these people.

He also wrote two books about the strategies of playing tennis, like Ted Williams wrote hitting books about the strategies of playing tennis like like ted williams wrote hitting books he wrote like how yeah yeah like really intricate tennis books of how to be a good tennis player his uh they said that his mental acumen because he's such a strong player he had the strongest serve he had the strongest forehand they they said that people didn't realize what a you know strong strategic player he was that was really his strength that's what the tennis people say uh they said that he would often throw opening sets just to make it more interesting for himself so he'd be bored would

use his use his closer to open just to challenge himself that's what he would do yeah that's what he would do he would lose the opening set just to give them one he'd tell his friend he go i'm gonna go lose this opening set and then see if i can beat him straight sets after that and he'd do it just because he was fucking bored um he was a showman also and he wanted and he's performing for an audience he's also a writer he's a playwright and shit like that so he knows how to build drama and you know beating. So he knows how to build drama. And you know beating someone in straight sets doesn't build drama.

That's boring as fuck. If the underdog wins the first set, everybody's on the edge of their seats. He's got a chance. Even if now the big guy comes back and nails him in the second set, that third set, that guy won the first set.

He could do it. Now you've made an interesting match out of it. Basically, he said he invented wrestling. That's what he invented yeah with that so and drama and drama um in 1927 here's an article about him about to take off for europe uh new york april 20th 1927 by robert senson furfur Sensenferfer. Sensenferfer is his name. That's a tough name. S-E-N-S-E-N. Sensen. F-E-R-F-E-R. Sensenferfer.

Wow. Just go with Sensenfer. Drop the other two. Jesus. Yeah, that's it. It's just that again. Fuck. Big Bill Tilden loaded down with 24 tennis rackets, a wide brimmed straw hat with a band shading, shading from shading the crimson and 168 pounds of bone, muscle and determination departs for Europe Thursday for the first step in his effort to be to come back into in the tennis world. The last details of his, quote, luggage mentioned is an important one.

It represents more than 15 pounds gained since he stepped off the court at Forest Hill, Long Island, last September, defeated for the first time in seven years. He didn't lose for seven years for the for the American Championship and four pounds more than the best weight he ever carried. It shows in Tilden's face, his step and actions, and best in his mental state. He is brimful of confidence and enthusiasm. They're saying it's good that he gained weight, not like he's looking a little fat. He says, quote, I've never felt better in my life. He said, last fall, a lot of people said I was done. So I decided then and there to show them that I wasn't.

And I decided to start eating ice cream and put on a few pounds. What a weird time the 20s was. I sat down and watched a lot of TV and just ate. Yeah. And then during this interview, quote, have a cigarette, Bill, he was asked. Why not? Be unhealthier? Imagine walking up to the top tennis player in the world talking to him like, cigarette?

What do you think the odds that they're going to say yes are 0.0000 they're not smoking he uh tilden shook his head and laughed i haven't smoked for three weeks and i don't expect to until after the american championships next september so this is april and he's not planning to smoke until September. But he's definitely going to pick it back up again. Jesus. I'll get it later. This is significant, the article goes on to say. Tilden usually smoked at least a score of cigarettes a day, even during tournaments. What's a score?

A score? Is that a pack? Four score is 20. So that's a pack. Yeah. Four score would be Abe Lincoln. So there we go. Yeah.

There we go. So he's smoking a score, Jimmy. He's doing that during tournaments. It's a lot. He said, I started to prepare for the 1927 season on January 1st when I closed my theatrical affairs and went to California. I took things easily out there. And after five weeks, went to Florida. I am satisfied with myself now in every way. They said, how do you think the game you're playing now compares

with yourself, say, four years ago? He said, quote, I would bet money on myself today if such a match were possible. You can bet money on yourself, no problem. In other words, I like to gamble on myself the principal trouble i had last year was lack of control my knee is an old story i've always had it but sometimes it behaves better than others he says has this quote knee injury that nags for his whole career probably got some shit floating around in there nowadays you could fix it in 15 minutes with a scope and he'd be playing tennis by the weekend and feel great he's gonna deal with this for 20 years 20 years fucking dragging himself across the world making it worse yeah

the injury dates back to a soccer game 12 years ago and i gave it a bad twist down south early last year then i went right on playing and it got sore so that later when it slipped again it didn't come back as readily as it as it ought to it hasn bothered me so far, and I'm hoping it won't. As for control, I have it again. So 1926, he's in a movie called The Highbinders. And he has the leading role, it looks like here. And he also stars in it with a woman named Marjorie Daw, who he'll talk about here in a second.

George Hackathorn is in this. Walter Long, Edmund Breeze. So these are stars from back then. So directed by George Terwilliger, The Highbinders. There is no description of it, unfortunately. I don't have a plot for it. He said, my second bout with romance took place in the middle 20s when i met marjorie daw i was making a silent picture with

her called how a haunting hands which is another movie i couldn't find the imdb for that one so yeah it must not have went well and before it was finished i found myself in the middle of another warm infatuation well look at you bill you, Bill. Marjorie had everything, including a host of admirers, so I felt like I was wasting my time. I saw Marjorie whenever I went to the coast or when she came east. I thought she liked me, but I could not get up enough nerve to find

out how much. Then, right in the middle of our peaceful little romance, which is not a romance, she met Manuel Alonso, the brilliant Spanish tennis player, swept her off her feet in a whirlwind courtship that almost reached the altar, but suddenly blew up.

So relationships among Hollywood people now are exactly the same as they were then. Same shit. 1927, he's in another movie called, it's a silent film called the music master which um yeah and the description of it is american silent drama film about music how the fuck do you do a movie about music with silence how does that work i mean i know there was a guy on the piano like in the theater but he's's not going to play all your music for you.

Like, what the hell is going on? What a terrible thing to do. So he's in this movie as well. This is a movie starring Alec B. Francis and Lois Moran. And he is in it also playing Joles. I don't know what that is, but that's who's in it there. Helen Chandler plays Jenny. So there you go.

So amateur status to talk about that here he was always fighting with the united states lawn tennis association which is the governing body of tennis at the time yeah about amateur status and they would bitch at him for that he made income from newspaper articles and he well, fuck you. I'm not making money otherwise. Right, but one has nothing to do with the other. But that's why tennis was for the wealthy because not only is it for the wealthy to play it as your kid to be able to get good at it,

but then when you're actually doing it, you're not allowed to make money doing it. So during the prime of your life here, you have to do it just for love of the game, which means you have to have a significant amount of money already to doing it. So during the prime of your life here, you have to do it just for love of the game, which means you have to have a significant amount of money already to play it. You can't go to work. That's so silly. Yeah, you can't go to work at the brick factory

and then practice your tennis game afterwards. That's not how it works. Right, because somebody's making money off this, right? You know what I mean? Yeah, the stands are full, man. It's crazy. Where's all that money going, you bastards? Yeah, he won his last Wimbledon title, Stands are full, man. It's crazy. Where's all that money going, you bastards? Yeah.

He won his last Wimbledon title, his last major title, because he had to be an amateur to win a major, in 1930 at age 37. And then he says, I'm not going to do this amateur shit anymore. This is from the Atlantic Magazine in 1924, talking about the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association's amateur clause. Because they were discussing Bill Tilden not being able to make money, being so good. This is section four of the rule here. An amateur tennis player is one who plays tennis solely for the physical benefits he derives therefrom and to whom the playing of the game is nothing more than a pastime. And we're going to sell thousands of tickets to watch people leisurely play tennis. That's not how it works.

This is dumber than the NCAA. Yeah. Because it's the same. It's the same. If you just read that and rolled your eyes, I hope that you don't think that players shouldn't get shit for playing college football because it's literally the same thing. If they're generating money for a bunch of other people, cut them in for Christ's sake. That's any time someone is making money for someone else, that's bullshit. They should get paid for that.

They should get paid for that. You can't be one way and then not when it comes to that. That's crazy. So another element worth considering, this is from the article, is that Tilden made more money selling insurance than he does writing tennis articles. He was a huge insurance salesman, one of the best in the country. It should not be considered, even a little bit. You shouldn't call your insurance agent and hear, oh, he's in the finals at Wimbledon. He'll call me back tomorrow. That's crazy.

He's got other shit to do. He quit the former pursuit, meaning insurance, for reasons honorable to his sporting instinct because he disliked the work. Well, yeah. Who the fuck likes selling insurance? Who wants a day job at all? Selling insurance is not something that you dream of as a child. Selling insurance is something that you fall of as a child selling insurance is something that you fall into it's like real estate when your other careers go away you sell insurance or real estate

or how many i know and on this i'm not sniping real estate people because i know plenty of people that do real estate and all of them had fucking jobs before this that were they were attempting a career none of them were like 22 and they're like real estate all the way, baby. And that was never happened. I don't think the kid whose dad comes in at career day that sells insurance. Everybody else goes, what? Yeah. What is that? Well, what you do is and then they figure out the risk.

What do you kids know about? What do you kids know about risk management? OK, that's not that doesn't go over well in the fourth grade, probably. know about risk management okay that's not that doesn't go over well in the fourth grade probably so uh he said he disliked the work and because it was the baldest recognition of his tennis fame he said that tennis gave him entree into offices when other solicitors weren't allowed in basically he said that big businessmen bought insurance from him just to be able to hang out with him because it was him yeah he said they'd buy they go yeah come on in yeah what are you selling yeah great i'll buy that and then sit down and then all they do is talk about tennis with them for an hour because that's all they wanted to do was hang

out with bill tilden so it was worth buying some insurance for that whatever yeah i'll bet michael jordan could move some fucking product oh crap michael jordan could sell so many timeshares it's not even funny you could if it was you come here and you get a prize and michael jordan is delivering the timeshare speech it'd be full every time full what was that clothing company that utah moms packed in their garage oh uh lulu lemon no it was lulamon lulamon no not lulamon well what the yeah i know that's what i said It was a joke, Jimmy. Thank you for catching that. That was the joke. It was fucking LuLaRoe.

It was LuLaRoe something. LuLaRoe. We did the bonus episode about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He would have moved a shitload of that. A shitload of it. None of it would have... And this is actually a current athlete, so this would be like if Patrick Mahomes was

in your office trying to sell you leggings. Like, you'd buy them just to... Okay, sure. These ones have ice cream counts. Sure, Seth Curry, I guess I could use some extra life insurance. What is happening? How weird would that be? Why would they not do it?

I would do it if I was a famous athlete. I'd be out there on my spare time hawking all kinds of horseshit. Listen, Mike Trout, i don't really need life insurance right now but no i wouldn't at all that's what you make supposed to make enough money to be able to make your living you know keeping to do that keeping your body in shape to do the thing that you make your money off of and then when you retire if you're not into coaching then go sell insurance but not in the prime of your life christ so he ends up turning professional and a big part of this also was that the stock market crashed in 1929 yeah and he was

said to have lost 75 000 on one stock alone that he owned so he got he ate dicks i don't know if his family got wiped out too which is very possible that his family would be, you know, a lot of rich people became not so fucking rich when that happened. That was a problem. There were a lot of rich people in soup lines. There was a lot of net worth going on. Like now, you know, this guy's got a he's a hundred billion dollar net worth, 80 billion dollar net worth. They don't have 80 billion dollars tomorrow. They could be 10 billion dollar network worth if your stock goes down.

So that's what happens to these people. They were all so rich just on paper. Bullshit, yeah. It's not real money. So December 31, 1930 is when he turns pro, turns professional, joins the pro tour, which the pro tour only began in 1927. Wow. So this was just like a you know go around and make money 100 years old absolutely not even no not now yeah pro tennis is not even 100 years old

he later on he was asked if he regretted going pro and he said the only regret i have is that i didn't turn professional 10 years sooner he, which there was no professional game 10 years sooner, so that's probably why he would have had to create it. He said the amateur stars are, he said that it's bullshit too because he said pro tennis, he says it's harder competition because everybody's trying to win. He said the amateur stars, the way he put it, are fed easy opponents until the semifinals.

So they're given tomato cans to get through the first couple rounds to get to the semifinals which is you know like boxing same thing build the record up um they said he they asked him how do tennis stars compare with the players of his day and he said quote they don't we were better yeah so he would barnstorm across the United States and Europe doing these one night tennis matches, just one night stands at these places. And they were all paying to see Bill Tilden. There was other people on the tour. None of them were names like Bill Tilden. So that's who they're playing. He beat one of his major opponents here on the 1931 tour. And there's tons of people here too don budge who people put in the same class as him um as well um he uh he insured box office receipts though that's the thing about him is people would come to watch him they'd pay to watch him he was ranked number one uh in the world in 1931 and 32 and in 1933 as well so So in the pro game. So he's fucking badass.

Even in pros, he's the best there is. He's just good. He says from his book, above all else in the world, I enjoy fighting what I consider injustice. I'm a believer in the rights of the individual, and once I think these rights infringed, I will battle as long as I have breath.

That accounts for many of the rows between officials and myself. He was, by the way, also known as the John McEnroe of his day. He would freak the fuck out on these officials, yell at them. They said his stare. He just he'd give him this fucking stare while he was like bouncing the ball to serve. He'd still be staring at the official and he'd scare the shit out of these people because he was big compared to them and he's a big athlete and you know he'd scare them so that was what he would do though he was like he would freak out about shit yeah yell at judges and do the mackinac he said um my lack of enthusiasm for a good number of today's artists and athletes can be chalked up to a strong distaste for shirkers.

I feel that these people are not fulfilling their talents. I have wholehearted admiration for anyone who makes himself a master of his job, no matter how small it may be. But I have no patience with those who are satisfied to just skimp by when they could do better. Not trying hard enough. Not trying hard enough, you fucking slackers um to children dogs and cats i am devoted but horses don't like me and i don't like horses okay let's just take that for face value that wasn't a euphemism or something no no he goes on to explain it here all right this is in the sentence after he yells at people for being lazy. Okay.

He says, I don't like horses and horses don't like me and I don't like horses. And I suppose I'm lazy, but I hate to walk merely for the sake of walking. Although I could drive

an automobile forever and love every minute of it. Okay. Okay. I hate lazy people, including myself. But I am lazy. I don't even write out L-A-Z-Y.

It's just L-A-Z. You get what i'm saying and then i drive everywhere everywhere january 10th 1934 and this is just like as an example of the kind of crowds they would draw for this type of shit because you're thinking now retire like old tennis player who's watching who's paying to watch 40 something year old tennis player? Who's paying to watch 40-something-year-old tennis players against each other? Well, January 10, 1934, a crowd of 14,637, the largest crowd ever to assemble to watch a tennis match at the time, came to Madison Square Garden, the old, old iteration of Madison Square Garden, as Ellsworth Vines makes his professional debut against Bill Tilden. That's 14,000. Almost 15,000 people came to see that. The 41-year-old Tilden emerges

victorious in the debut match of a 73-match barnstorming tour. 73-match tour. Beating the 23-year-old Vines, 866362. The match grosses $30,125 with courtside tickets being sold for five bucks. 30 grand back then was a huge gate,

huge, monstrous gate, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is, that's huge. Um, vines wins the overall tour, 47 matches to 26 with the overall tour grossing $243,000.

The most ever for a pro tour. That's millions and millions of dollars now. So that's, that's why he went pro right under this, by the way, if you happen to be in Nashville, Tennessee in on March 21st, 1935, make sure to swing by the Sears store down there, the old Sears Roebuck, because you can, the scoop of the season, it says, meet Bill Tilden in person at Sears.

Hey, Bill's making appearances. At Sears. He's going to be at Sears promoting. This is the same thing wrestlers would do. They'd go to these small towns, they'd go to the thing the thing and they promote back in the day at the whatever store was in town they'd have them show up at the you know the grocery store to do some arm wrestle with locals or some shit the biggest fucking thing on earth at that point they sold houses at that point yeah you just bought you ordered a house and they fucking delivered you all the parts to a house and

you bought cars you bought houses you bought You bought cars. You bought houses. You bought everything. They sold like Ikea houses back then. That's what they were. Is that right? Build it? Yeah. They'd bring all the materials to your house and you'd build it. And that's how it was.

But these are really quality houses too. There's a lot of the Sears houses are still standing today. Fascinating. Still standing. It's a really interesting rabbit hole, Sears houses. We'll have to do that as a bonus episode for Small Town Murder. And the cars too. I think it was the Edsel that they sold through them i don't remember which one

or weird packard i don't remember but it was through fucking sears robo that's all you could buy it there's no dealership for they sold everything at sears it was your one-stop shop uh big bill tilden world's tennis champion will give you the inside dope and show you his winning shots at sears tomorrow okay oh wow um he asks you to be his guest no charge naturally yeah see and hear this celebrated king of the court in sears's sporting good department at 3 30 tomorrow afternoon see him in action see bill tilden in action in competition on the indoor court at the Hippodrome Friday evening at 845. Okay, so there's that. Then it says you can buy all of his equipment.

Equipment endorsed by Bill Tilden. There's the Bill Tilden model racket. Big Bill Tilden autograph on it. This is way ahead of his time. The new three-piece laminated frame makes this racket outstanding at this price. $5.95. Already in it. The Tilden Junior, full-size, moisture-proof strings, reinforced shoulder and throat, $2.95 for the kids' model there. You're going to get the kids' money, too.

Yeah, $0.39 a tennis ball, three for $1.05. Perfect balance, white and red. The tennis balls were all red and white back then, by the way. Isn't that weird? They didn't go to yellow until later. Yeah, I can see it. Yeah. They have the red side and the white side.

Yeah, the yellow. White, I mean. Sorry. Tennis Oxfords also. Shoes, white uppers, rubber soles, cushion heels, $119. They only had sizes 6.5 to 10. How small were people back then? I can't wear it. I'm a 13.

I'd be fucked. 6'1 was big, James. They'd be like, can I get two of those and Frankenstein them into a shoe I can wear? This sucks. Tennis shirt, 75 cents. Cool, lightweight, sturdy mesh, not meth, mesh fabric, talon opening style.

So it's a zipper. And then flannel shorts are 98 cents. White cotton flannel, blue side pinstripes. So you can get your whole tennis. The whole thing. Shoes, shorts, shirt, ball, and racket, baby. Come buy it at Sears. Meet Bill and come see him this Friday.

So, yeah, he's making money now. He, in total, by the way, in his amateur career, he won 14 major singles titles, including 10 Grand Slams and one World Hardcourt Championship and three professional majors as well.

He has a shitload of records still, including the career match winning record and the career winning percentage at the U.S. championships. Now, money. He's making a ton of money during this time, obviously, as we can hear it. I mean, the tickets are selling. He's got rackets going off the charts here. But he's pissing it away faster than he can make it.

On what? Not only does he keep a fancy hotel room and all that kind of shit and also just kind of an extravagant rich guy lifestyle, but he is dumping money into financing Broadway shows that he writes, produces, and sometimes stars in. There's his passion. None of which are successful. If you want to lose your ass, put it in showbiz. You know what I mean? If you want to lose your ass, put it in showbiz. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I mean, people, gangsters would give money to shitty movies just to show losses so they could launder their drug money. Like, that's how, that's the level of money that you burn in this fucking business. Especially in Broadway. The producers is the whole fucking thing. You know what I mean? Is he trying to make money in it or is he doing it on purpose? No, no, no. He's trying to make money in it or yeah no no no he wants to he

wants to transition from tennis star to broadway star yeah and make money being the star the director the writer the producer everything getting all the credits getting everything instead when it all fails you're responsible for all of it right Right. And that's what happened, including money, which is terrible. In 1941, a short film comes out. It's played with Warner Brothers. It's made by Warner Brothers and played, you know, on the film reels

before the movie start back then. And it is Big Bill Tilden. It's a movie about him from the Warner Brothers Sports Parade Collection with Del Frazier being the writer and director. And so it's a whole big, the life of Bill Tilden.

It's a big deal. When they made a movie like that about you, that was a big deal back then. So he finally moves out in 1941, by the way. He's lived with his aunt this whole time. This whole fucking time. She's got to be dead by now. He's 48, so how

old is she? He's had two almost marriages, for Christ's sake. Yeah, you could say that. He's also started to get a little eccentric in his things here. He is spending a lot of his money hanging out with young men that he's chasing around as well, spending it on young men and also sinking it into theater projects, filled projects, nothing goes well. And these,

he just loses every dime. Every time his fortune dwindles, he's getting more and more famous, but he can't make, he's like losing money on the whole deal. Um, so he ends up being banned from multiple tennis clubs and tournaments for what was described at the time as his, quote, blatant homosexual behavior.

Oh, what's that mean? We don't have any idea. I don't know if he was just reviewing a Broadway show or if he was like, that's blatantly homosexual. He's like, what? It's derivative. They're like, I don't want to hear it. Out of here, gay boy. Let's go.

I don't know if that was how it worked chicago it's beautiful yeah their costumes wait a second is he talking about get him out of here or if he was blowing guys or i have no idea what or if they just found out he was gay and there wasn't very tolerant back then that might have been it also we don't fucking know did he skip yeah we don't know we don't know if he was i don't know if he was this was a discriminatory and a guy was acting like a fucking mary we don't know you know what i mean how are we supposed to know that you know we can't tell so we don't know what the deal is but in the 40s obviously things weren't too tolerant so 1944 he takes an 18month road trip through 44 and 45.

That's fucking crazy. He's going to participate in more than 200 exhibitions during this time. And benefit matches at army camps throughout the nation. This is for the government because it's World War II time. So he's going around playing. Athletes are doing matches, USO type shit. 1945, he is 52 years old, and his longtime doubles partner, Vinnie Richards, who's one of the guys he was helping with tennis from the time he was very young, they won the professional doubles championship. They had won the US amateur title 27 years earlier.

So they win it again. Yeah, they win the professional one 27 years after the amateur one. So it's pretty impressive. It's very impressive. The guy has, I mean, he's badass. If you don't know when Crystal Pepsi was discontinued, what was in Al Capone's vault, or which famous meteorologist

is Lenny Kravitz's second cousin, then you haven't spent enough time on Wikipedia. But that's okay. I am here for you. I'm Darcy Carden, and I'm inviting you to listen to my new podcast, WikiHole from SmartList Media. Discover the craziest rabbit holes on Wikipedia with me and my funny friends as we bring the cyber frontier directly to your tympanic membrane. And if you listen to my podcast, you'd learn that that's the science-y term for eardrum. We embark on a hyperlink roller coaster as we start out on a Wikipedia page and go from link

to link to link to link, careening through trivia, oddities, and unexpected connections until we collectively shout, how the hell did we get here? Follow WikiHole on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to WikiHole ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. 1946 comes around, and I'll let him describe the year. It's a tough year. It is. It's a tough year for him as well. America was going great in 46.

The war was over. Fucking things were you know going well but for him he said the year 1946 proved the longest and hardest in a long hard career so for his tennis because he's fucking old he's in his he's 53 years old that's not exactly prime tennis time when you're talking about lateral movement and quickness and shit and in the 40s to be to be post 50 that's oh my friend it's not a good time you were ready for your kids to put you in the attic for the remaining time you know remaining six years remaining six seven years you live and that's that so he's all done we wash our hands of him so uh the hardest and longest the formation formation of the Professional Players Association, of which I was one of the organizers, and my subsequent appointment as tournament manager put considerable strain on me.

I was running and at the same time playing in a series of 32 tournaments ranging from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Oh, that's exhausting. That sounds like shit. Yeah, I don't want to do that either. I don't want to do that either. At the end of March, I had a narrow escape from death, a miraculous episode, but one to which in some measure I lay my ultimate misfortune. Okay. Jack Jossie and I were driving back from Phoenix to Palm Springs in my Roadster.

We're talking 1946. There is oogats between Phoenix and Palm Springs. This is desert um he said uh we were going about 60 miles an hour down a wide open highway near wendon arizona where is wendon w-e-n-d-e-n that's got to be gone by now it has to be a yeah it's probably a town that doesn't exist anymore i'll bet it's one of those ones where just that gas stations there in the shell what the fuck was that yeah the shell of like a thing with with graffiti on it and trees growing out of it. And you go, that must have been a gas station at some point.

That was probably the town of London. Yeah, because it's a it's a highway. They're going on the highway. I mean, it wasn't the interstate yet, but still. It was Wendon, Arizona. Wendon, Arizona. When I felt the car start to swing off to the right, I tried to bring the car back to the center of the lane. And I was horrified to feel the wheel spin in my hand.

The steering wheel lost. It broke. No steering. No steering. The steering assembly had parted in the middle of the rod, and we were aimed for a concrete culvert with a 15-foot drop into a ditch beside it. Oh, dear Christ.

That's not good. And certain death waiting. I could not afford to panic and by alternately pressing and releasing the brake, I managed to swing the head of the car across to the left where lay open sandy desert. There was no way

to hold it on the road, so we skidded and finally rolled over one and a half times. Oh my. In a roadster? There's no roof on that. No roof, no fucking seatbelts. Yeah. It's just steel to crush you. That's all it is.

And plate glass to cut your fucking arteries. That's all that exists there. He said, with Jack and me spilled all over the car. I guess so. We were extremely lucky. He escaped with a badly bruised arm. I did a nosedive over the wheel and landed under the windshield. Ouch.

Fuck. I picked up a jammed and seriously strained shoulder, a wrenched neck and back, an assortment of cuts and bruises, but no breaks. Once I reached Los Angeles, I got a hold of my osteopathic physician, Dr. Robert Loveland,

who had extensive x-ray pictures taken and then pronounced his verdict. He said, Bill, the next 10 days will tell whether you will ever play real tennis again. It depends on how and as much it depends as much on you as on me. He said, you'll have to play with this arm and shoulder and play hard through all my treatments to get it better. Don't rest it. He said, Autumn brought the professional circuit back to California. The second annual world's hardcore championships was to be contested as in the prior year at

the Los Angeles tennis clubs. This, by the way, is going somewhere during the layoffs. I'm not just telling you his schedule in 1946. It's going somewhere during the life. He's got I had some lunch with this lady she seemed nice i don't know i had the chicken salad sandwich it was good i i chose the salad over french fries i figure i'm trying to keep my weight down um during one of the layoffs i was working as always with the youngsters i am one of those who believe that it is up to the older players to do all they can for the kids.

Besides, like many people, I find in youth a constant source of stimulus and incentive. I met one lad on the courts who showed unusual promise. I had known him casually for some time. He was keen to learn and I wanted to help him. He and I worked together several times and became good friends. He ends up working. He works there at this tennis club, this kid. Okay. Somehow we drifted into a foolishly

schoolboyish relationship which I should have prevented. Did I mention he's 14, this child? This isn't an 18-year-old kid. This is a 14-year-old kid. So this has nothing to do with gay or straight or anything like that this is legality this is and just don't be a fucking gross asshole yeah jesus chris kid's in

the ninth grade get the fuck out of here 50s mid 50s pushing hard jesus so he said my nervous strain was such that at the time I seemed to lack will. I seemed dissociated and beyond control of my actions. I don't like where this is going to you. One evening coming home from a movie, I allowed him to drive my car, which I should not have done since he had no license because he's 14. You also shouldn't have taken a date. No. 14 to the movie. You shouldn't go out on a date with a 14 year old first of all don't do that and if it's a big brother big

sister situation then you shouldn't be physically attracted to kids so that there's no none letting them drive the car nope none of that shit especially on sunset boulevard which is where they're driving he's not like oh we'll go to a parking lot or down a side street. They're on fucking Sunset. They're in the middle of Hollywood. It's crazy. So he said, we were fooling around, indulging in horseplay. What does that mean?

We were stopped by the Beverly Hills police. Now, when they were actually stopped, they weren't pulled over. They were already parked after the cop. Well, the cop had seen them swerving around, like the car jerking to one side, jerking to the other, and then saw them park and then went up to them after a minute. So that's what happened here. Stopped by the police in Beverly Hills. I gave a complete statement of fact, hoping to save the youngster and take responsibility myself. I was found guilty of the misdemeanor of contributing

to the delinquency of a minor we'll talk about this there was never any other charge other than contributing to the delinquency of a minor to repeat a misdemeanor nor any hint of one that's bullshit there was a big hint of one here um huge huge hint of one. Yeah. He is, okay. He's on Sunset Boulevard. And he is, they said that he was, they were basically fooling around sexually in a moving vehicle. Jesus. Both their pants, they were found in different states of undress. Both their pants are unzipped.

The kid's pants were halfway down when they pulled him out of the fucking car in a car in a car so they were fucking around while driving and then pulled over i assumed to finish what they were ever they were doing yeah and uh this kid is 14 years old unbelievable you just wanted to pretend not diddling your own kid is still bad i don't know you don't even have an excuse as to why you're in the same car with this kid yeah alone why your pants are off why your pants are going down why the cops saw you doing things right now he will say that he did not carry his glasses with him at the time and when they took him into the police station he just signed a confession without reading it he said he just confessed to letting the kid drive and not engaging in any kind of you know anything bad or sexual or illegal for that matter and um

you know he said he just signed a confession and um this isn't a confession by the way there was still sodomy laws and shit like that back then but this isn't a this isn't a gay charge this is a kid charge this is a you were with a child charge not a you were you know found jerking off some other guy in a car which would be no i'd go who cares fuck it you know what do you care there's worse shit going on on sunset i'm sure so jerking off children can't jerk off children. So that's in November of 1946. Right under that, I found this article, by the way, that it's just interesting. Permits granted for 359 homes. And this is an L.A. newspaper. So they're talking about the permit issued to the Kaiser Community Homes to construct 359 three-bedroom homes in a new tract bounded by Coldwater Canyon.

This is the tract housing of L.A. being built now. This is when it's being built, a bunch of three-bedroom homes. They said that other permits listed were Morris B. Brown for a home at 3785 Recklaw Drive in Studio City that cost $13,750 to build. It's like $4 million now. Well, we'll talk about it. Samuel J. Chiapone, 6430 Elmer Street, North Hollywood, $10,000. And Lester Downdall for 23250 Burbank Boulevard, $10,000.

I found all of these properties still exist. They're all there. They're all there. They're all there still. The rec law one, the first one that was what? $13,750. Three bedroom two bath 1,993 square feet. The estimate right

now is $2,050,180 for that. The other ones are less. That's not bad. No. The one on Elmer in North Hollywood is $889,495. That's two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,520 square feet. And then the Burbank one, three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,627 square feet. The estimate is $1,024,000. Jesus.

Still stand in these houses. $10,000 investment. Not bad. Yeah. Not bad at all. That's $131,000 investment. Not bad. Yeah, not bad at all. That's $131,000 for inflation would be $10,000 investment. So 13 times your investment is anyway, but it's worth 20 times that.

So not bad. The list of celebrated people in this age and previous ones who have deviated from the norm makes it obvious that this is not a sign of degeneracy in the usual case. The last part of his book, he talks in a coded way, says he's gay. And this is after he talks about wanting to marry two women. Then he says he's gay. And he's basically trying to reconcile. Yeah, because this is gay and he's basically trying to, he's trying to reconcile. Yeah. Cause this is, this is released after he's arrested with this boy, the book it's released the next year. So then he goes on to say, which is a very common thing in the day, back in the day, the DSM, the, you know, diagnostic mental disease manual still had gayness listed as a disease like 30 years ago. So it's or 20 years ago.

So he says, quote, It is, if anything, an illness, in most cases, a psychological illness. He says reams of testimony from medical and sociological experts who have spent their lives dealing with the problem, the problem indicate that the illness at its worst can be classed as a psychoneurosis or other psychological disturbance. And in the great majority of cases can be cured by reconditioning or reeducating, which we have found out doesn't work at all. Yeah. You put a bunch of gay kids together. They're just going to be gay together. They're not going to turn out. You know what I mean?

High five and start talking about football and run off looking for girls. They might pretend for a minute, but at the end, wanting dick is wanting dick. I like boobs. You're not going to, no matter what you tell me when I leave, I'm still going to want to see boobs. Sorry.

You're not going to make them any less appealing. I don't care. You could say anything you want to say to my mental, and then when I see boobs, my brain will still be stimulated. It's just the way it works. Sorry. It's natural, and I can't help it. And that's same for this guy. So not with boobs.

It just tastes like pistachio ice cream. I still like boobs. I still like – exactly. Yeah. And I love pistachio ice cream, but less now. Amazing. Less now. Less after you said that.

You go, does this taste – Sarah, I'm going to ask Sarah, does this taste jizzy to you a little bit? So he says, greater tolerance and wider education on the part of the general public concerning this form of sex relationship is one of the crying needs of our time. That was true. If only for the support which thereby would result for serious studies of the crying needs of our time that was true um if only for the support which thereby would result for serious studies of the problem so he's trying to figure it out and make sense of yeah it's sad that you have to think like that i hate that it's a problem yeah his problem that's fine you can fuck whoever you want as long as they're an adult once you're fucking kids your problem isn't your gayness.

Why do you want to fuck kids? That's your problem at that point. Be attracted to whoever. Just make them legal. Make them legal. 1947, he goes to court. And apparently he believed, because he had told people this too, that because he's such a big celebrity for so long and because he hangs out with Charlie Chaplin and all these people that he he's like they're not gonna send me to jail no fucking way this is crazy so he basically didn't really defend himself in court he just was they called it they called it a quote less

than vigorous fashion he defended himself in so like that sarah boone just yeah like i'll never have a kid in the car again i'll tell you that right now diane downs oh no that yeah yeah and you're with diane alcohol again i'll never drink alcohol again that's i love herself her self-imposed sentence for locking a guy in a suitcase so january 16th 1947 he's in court for this. And he is going to plead guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The judge is going to order him to see a psychiatrist after this is all over with. And denied Tilden's plea for an immediate probation and stay of execution. He says, quote, it comes as a great shock to all, particularly sports fans, that you should admit to such practices, is what he said.

So, yeah, Tilden also will be sentenced to, you, sir, may fuck off. The kid was in junior high still, 14. Come on. No. He is sentenced to nine months in the county jail which he'll end up spending on an at an honor farm he'll be like working 40 hours a week doing labor so because that way you can get out earlier if you do that and do well so um they he said that also you're on probation for five years and must never be in the company of either male or female juveniles unaccompanied by their parents in that time.

They took it serious. They took it, yeah. He said later, quote, I am not a criminal. I am a tennis player. I feel awkward saying this, but I consider myself an artist, an artist of the game. I have to create. Great. Create adults that you want to have sex with, please.

Is that to a judge? No, no. He said that to the press, I think, afterwards. If you said that to a judge, you would have been there for 10 years probably. Yeah. They'd have fucking, who knows. We'll re-sentence you now. We're going to go ahead and do that.

He ends up serving seven and a half months at the county honor farm. Okay. So he says later on in his book if a man must pay for an error there's no better place at which to do it than an honor farm a culprit should thank his lucky stars if he manages to get sent there oh this i what is this like a that sounds like what's this yeah you know what i'm saying we're both saying looking at each other saying the same yeah it's i just man that's frightening i i just picture this is like brokeback mountain the musical now you know what i mean and like for criminals yeah that's that's what i mean where

they're like they all have like farm implements in their hands and they have full of dances and this is which is very stereotypical why did you love it sir thank his lucky stars if he manages to get sent to a work camp with a bunch of guys. Sounds. A lot of pistachio ice cream, if you know what I mean. Yeah, if you said that, I'd be like, okay, Jimmy. Jimmy likes guys now. Okay, that's fine.

Cool. He said, I was treated with kindness, courtesy, and fair play at all times by the officers. The discipline, of course course was the strictest kind and all infringements were punished but i never felt that any punishment was handed out unnecessarily nor did i see any sign of favoritism or laxness and enforcement of the rules good work can secure promotion on the job ladder on arrival i was sent to report to the kitchen and was put on on the scouring gang which polishes the aluminum utensils used in the kitchen. Yikes.

Jesus. After about a week, I was made a table setter and waiter in the main mess hall where most of the men eat in two big shifts. In another week or so, I was transferred to the commissary storeroom where I helped handle supplies

and hand out to the cooks the food ordered by the head chef for each week. So, yeah. He thought that was a good job to have, which it doesn't sound like it was like hard labor, so that's good. It's just a lot of food work. A lot of food work. 1947, in September, they let him out of jail here. They let him out of jail.

He is set free. He asks for another chance when he's set free. He said that uh quote the success of the comeback i hope to make will depend on the public and the newspapers so he's like you guys treat me well and say hey give big bill a chance i'm gonna do all right but if these motherfuckers skewer me i'm not gonna be doing shit here he got out 45 days early for good behavior asked about his plans he said quote that his future remains with the American public, indicating he said he'd like to resume his tennis career. And he said at the time when the interview was over here, friends were waiting.

This is what the newspaper said, quote, friends were waiting for him when he was released at the county jail and drove him away. Just remember that line. Friends were waiting for him, drove him away. 1948, okay? He returns to pro tennis, even though he's in his 50s. He just needs to make money. He's playing a series, a short series of matches against Wayne Saban. He also puts out the book, My Story,

which I think he just went out on the tour to promote the book, is what he's doing. So this is published by Hellman Williams and Hellman Williams and Company of New York. 318 pages, $2.75 to start out with. That's a deep book. It's a deep book. Yeah. It says, if you follow the tennis closely, the name of Bill Tindon will be a familiar one.

Even if you have paid little attention to tennis, chances are you still know of Big Bill Tilden as one of the nation's most amazing athletes and tennis stars. That's the ad, which is pretty unbelievable, I would say, but not even close to as unbelievable as the ad underneath it because it's not a sale, but it does tell you,

so if you're in wherever in February 12, 1948, it says, How to to relieve bronchitis. They figured it out in 1948. Thank God. Creomulsion. Creomulsion relieves promptly because it goes straight to the seat of the trouble to help loosen and expel germ-laden phlegm and aid nature to soothe and heal raw, tender, and flame bronchial mucous membranes.

Tell your druggist to sell you a bottle of Creomulsion with the understanding you must like the way it quickly allays the cough or you are to have your money back. I don't want to take it based on the name of it. Creomulsion? You know that Creomulsion? Hey, Doc, man. It's just like you got to make a stink face to order it. You sell me some of that Creomulsion? You know that creomulsion? Hey, Doc, man. It's just like you gotta make a stink face to order it. You selling me some of that creomulsion,

man? They took that off the market years ago. You gotta have some left back there, man. Come on. Is that like the first Mucinex, or is it the first like Robitussin, do you think? It's probably a narcotic Mucinex, I'm sure. It's something with meth in it. It causes three

forms of cancer, and you're not allowed and you're not allowed to drive on it it's just a disaster probably addicted after two doses yeah either that or it's nothing medically helpful at all it's just shit in a pill and yeah it's a lie like more like gnc so he says that um by uh he says that by acknowledging his condition and claims in his book, meaning he acknowledges his condition means he's gay, by the way. That's what that meant. He claims, quote, history further demonstrates that in frequent instances, creative, useful, and even great human beings have known such relationships. So he's just saying like, hey, gay happens. have known such relationships. So he's just saying like, hey, gay happens.

Once in a while you get anybody, some Greek philosopher, this guy, that guy. Once in a while they take it in the fucking can. What do you want? He says he even speculates that his homosexuality would be more likely within athletics given its emphasis on physical perfection he says oh uh yeah and then he obviously says that we need greater tolerance wider education um then he says about also they talk about his degeneracy and his illness and psychological and all that stuff too but he might have a problem not as gayness but another problem, because in 1949, he is being sought by the police in February of 1949.

The Santa Monica police are searching for him so they can charge him with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and violation of parole. He is. Yeah, he apparently there is a complaint. A young boy made a complaint that Tilden picked up a youthful hitchhiker while driving around Santa Monica and made improper advances to the youth. We have greater detail on that in a moment here. The lieutenant for the Santa Monica Juvenile Department of the Police says that he obtained the complaint from the district attorney. The warrant was issued and they're going to try to arrest him. He is arrested at his Westwood Village home upon returning, for he had given a tennis lesson earlier that day. When they arrest him, there is a 17-year-old boy in his apartment.

I wonder what he was there for. Not, okay, not allowed to, absolutely not allowed to have teenage boys in his apartment. And so this is a different boy than filed the complaint, by the way. Was his dad there? No, it was weird. Just the two of them. No, he had his dad, his brother, his grandma was over. She was cooking something in the kitchen.

It was a really nice family affair. This is real bad. Nope. He's picking up a different kid and then has a 17-year who knows this many teenage boys like i don't know any teenage boys any i know one he's my son yeah that's i know my son that's i don't count my own kid outside of him i know zero teenage boys who got none none big goose egg. I don't want to know any. They're horrible people, teenage boys. I want to hang out with them. Christ.

That is a, being attracted to them is a horrible thing to have, even if you're a teenage girl, because no one should want to. That is certainly the problem. The problem is their fucking attitude. Oh, my God. So he's booked, obviously, on this. So he's booked, obviously, on this. He is ordered for held for trial, by the way, too, for contributing to the delinquency of a 16-year-old boy. And it was an automatic violation of parole when they walked into his apartment.

So he's immediately violated, and then it goes further with these charges here. So while the charges are being read, he slumped in his chair and staring at the floor while the boy who he picked up hitchhiking, Michael Shachel. This is from the newspaper in 1949. S.C.H.A.C.H.E.L. He is an unemployed grocery clerk. What? You're 16. Of course. If you're 16, you're just I don't have a job right now.

You're not unemployed, grosser. I'm looking for work. I got to tell you. I don't know. Why roast a child in the newspaper? This lazy fucking kid unemployed. Why? Why are we doing this to him?

He can't make ends meet, this fucking bum. Fucking loser. He gets up in the court and testifies that Bill Tilden picked him up in his car in Westwood and molested him. Now, listen to how different they handle this in court back then. This is a teenage boy who's accusing a man of molesting him. And I was going to say molestation, and it came out molesting him. So, molest. He said that the boy lives in Inlewood uh and he was hitchhiking to santa monica when tilden picked him up he said that he tilden quote molested him several times and then suggested they take a ride along the beach the boy said he had no idea that bill tilden was like a famous guy or

who he was he's just some guy who picked him up the judge oh i'm sorry on cross-examination now yeah cross-examination for an accused child molestation you're gonna go easy on this kid usually because you don't want to look like a monster right tilden's attorney said did you make any protests it doesn't matter he's 16 did you tell him you didn't like it it doesn't matter if he protested or if he said oh yeah give me that big cock right in my mouth he's sixth fucking team it's the same thing now you're just talking about that molestation or molestation and rape which one and you know forcible what are we talking about either way it's very similar you know and if the answer is the latter there, you don't want that in open court. No. And he said, quote, no, sir, I guess I didn't.

The reason is this kid is like a fucking magnet for perverts for some reason. This boy was molested previously two and a half months ago in another case in Englewood. Somebody like forcibly picked him up and like, what is up with this kid? Just like 10 weeks ago? Yeah. He's like a – Good lord. Just can't stop.

He's like a black hole for molesters, literally and figuratively. So yeah, police came to get him after the complaint. They found the 17-year-old there. Not okay. The 17-year-old is still a high school boy and everything like that. The officers found the youth with tilden when they went to arrest him on the new charge of contributing to a delinquency of a minor and um yeah so richard maddox his lawyer tilden's lawyer told the judge that tilden

is at the mercy of his friends for finances he's got no fucking money friends are loaning him money so um wow that's that's fucking terrible so this kid's testifying against him, obviously. He's going to have to go to jail for this, as you know, obviously. The judge asked him, what would you like? Do you have anything to say? And he said, quote, this is Bill, quote, I don't know anything about this. Therefore, there's little I can say except that I think a great error has been made. And I think I can prove that conclusively later so um yeah great errors i'll fight this on appeal give

me whatever you want well i think a great error has been made it's okay that's i mean that's not how you do this later wow that is fucking wild um tilden, this is right from a newspaper, Tilden, the 55-year-old bachelor, that's one way to put it, was dressed in sports clothes when he was arrested. Affable and smiling to reporters and photographers, he chatted only briefly but insisted on his ignorance of the charges against him. So, yeah, they end up sentencing him to jail. They end up sentencing him to jail on his birthday, February 10th, 1949. Here, Superior Judge A.A. Scott found him guilty of violating his probation on a conviction of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. They said that he's also arraigned on charge of this other minor, whatever. So they said, if you have anything to say, this is the goddamn time to do it. And he said, quote, No, sir.

I concur with everything mr maddox who's his attorney has already said so the judge said young fellows still look up to you thousands of kids and adults do uh you gave the your word as a sportsman that this would never happen again your word as a sportsman wow i wonder I wonder if Lawrence Phillips ever gave that word. Mr. Phillips, you gave your word as a sportsman. I'm highly disappointed in you. Feels like the word of a sportsman carries a little less weight today. Much less.

The word of a sportsman ought to be good enough is what the judge says. Wow. Holy shit. So the judge said, well, what have you been doing with yourself? And he said, I've been coaching, doing a little writing and attempting to rehabilitate myself with the help of young boys. Apparently the judge says you, sir, may fuck off one year in jail for you. One year. One year.

He'll serve 10 months. One year. One year. He'll serve 10 months. And here is the headline from the Daily News on December 19th, 1949. Big giant bold letters. Big Bill Tilden out of jail. A lonely, dejected ex-idol.

Ouch. Oh, it's gone downhill. He has hit grace a long fucking time ago. He served 10 months and eight days in two concurrent one-year sentences involving these charges uh here's what it says to the balding former net champ went through the release routine quietly and without enthusiasm as he turned to leave he made his only comment well here i go again let's, Bill. I don't like that. I don't like that at all. Well, where do you keep your young boys?

I don't know what to tell you. Here I go again. And on my own. Diddling every little boy I come across. I pick them up in my car. I hate this guy so much already. Oh, he's gross. Yeah.

Is that foreboding? Is that a threat? Well, the end of the article is my favorite from the newspaper. Quote, no friends or relatives were on hand to meet the former athlete as he left the jail yesterday and walked alone into the rain oh that just sounds with the rain with the rain you just see his head dropped in the rain coming down and all alone walking out it really paints a picture though i gotta say they really do the rain really is a exclamation point on the whole thing. No friends, no relatives, no family. Left the jail, walked alone into the rain.

Into the rain. Wow. Unbelievable. So after he gets out of jail, now he is shot. The first time they were willing to be like, maybe it was a mistake. Some of his friends, maybe he wasn't actually diddling anybody. Now he's been caught multiple times. This is not good.

So now they all cut him off. It's like everybody cuts him off. He's unable to give lessons at most clubs. He's not allowed in. Even on public courts, no one will hire him anymore. Oh, no. Because his whole thing was kids. No one wants to put their kid with this guy.

At one point, he's invited to play at a prestigious professional tournament being held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, and at the last minute, he was told he couldn't play and he had to leave. So they do that to him. Charlie Chaplin's his only friend, which is hilarious because Charlie Chaplin is known for his love of underage women, so this is perfect. He's like, listen, I get it. Trust me.

We'll go down to the high school you get half i get half i get it i just you just want to smell some ovaltine i understand well it's on their breaths let's get down there so charlie chaplin allowed tilden to use his private court for lessons to help him after his problems so basically it would it would mitigate the fact that he's a child molester that you get to go to Charlie Chaplin's house to do the lessons. So that's how they did it. Yeah, it's messed up. So the Philadelphia's Germantown Cricket Club, his family's been members. He's a member.

This is his old money deal here. His home court revoked his membership and took down his portrait. We will not have him around here. They Louis Winthorpe III his ass fast. How about that? They were singing Constance Fry when he walked in in a plaid jacket and they were like, you have a lot of nerve even showing

up here, Bill. My God. What the fuck? As the years passed, though, later on, the club began to embrace his memory a little more. Later on, they have some of his stuff there. And the guy who runs the place said he had to get it all on eBay because the club had thrown out everything of his. Really?

Yeah. His portrait reappeared and a catering service now offers a Tilden dinner buffet package. It's 18 and over. That's the catch. Or 18 and under, however you want to look at it so a lot of dino nuggets on this menu a little bit yeah a lot of those different colored chicken nuggets that's all a different shaped chicken nuggets corn dogs yeah. Phallic items and different shaped chicken nuggets is all we serve. 1950, the Associated Press does a poll about the greatest tennis player over the last half century from 1900. And by a huge margin, he wins 310 out of 391 votes of reporters.

Sports reporters voted him the greatest player of the first half of the century. How about that? It doesn't matter. They still know he's good. February 2nd, 1950. Yeah. He's at Charlie Chaplin's house, hanging out. Groundhog Day. And the cops come and take him away again.

On Groundhog's Day. On Groundhog Day. I was just gonna say he has got some familiar shit going on here what is he doing either his birthday or groundhog day he's fucked uh he is taken in for failing to register as a sex offender as required by the newly passed law oh there's a newly passed law that anybody convicted of a sex offense has to register and he didn't register. The newspaper says the graying 56

year old athlete was arrested at the home of film comic Charlie Chaplin by police who interrupted a tennis game between Tilden and an unidentified youth. He's still not allowed to be around children. Still. He's still doing it. Still doing it. You're not allowed to teach fucking kids. You're not allowed to be around children. Still. He's still doing it.

Still doing it. You're not allowed to teach fucking kids. You are not allowed to teach kids. What the fuck, man? He was booked at the Beverly Hills Jail, made bail of $100, and he also promised to register as a sex offender at the sheriff's office. So, wow. What a fucking idiot. That's just dumb. He just loves kids, man.

Oh, my God. 195. That's just dumb. He just loves kids, man. Oh, my God. 1951, return to tennis. Yes, he goes up against George Littleton Rogers in a tour in April and May. Loses in the quarterfinals, though, in some tournament in Cleveland. He's 58 years old at this point. And, by the way, a lawsuit will be filed against him against the kid he picked up and molested. The hitchhiker kid. Yeah.

That kid files a lawsuit against him. And it says later on, too, when it filed, he says he remained anonymous until years later. No, he didn't. I just read you his name from two different newspaper articles. And then he came out publicly. That's why I said his name. But it was released in the Daily news in 1949 in the newspaper so um yeah the lawsuit claimed that he suffered severe mental physical and emotional damage from the encounter

i believe it um june 5th 1993 or 1953 not 93 june 5th 1953 his apartment 2025 north argyle in los angeles california which i looked that up by the way and it's one of these like yikes like someone who not not dangerous but one of these shitholes that somebody moving there trying to be a screenwriter would live in okay you know what i mean one of these tiny little like i'll deal with it for now because i'm going to be rich and famous she's an actress that one's on only fans this one you pointed out all the people doing shit there and they live there for 25 years 25 years well he then they lived there for 25 years. 25 years. Well, he doesn't live there for 25 years

because he's dead. Oh, they found him in it? Yep. He wasn't answering the phone so the manager of the apartment complex went into his house and found his body

sprawled out on the bed. Firemen worked for 30 minutes in an attempt to revive him but they said the acting captain of the fire department said that the Tilden had appeared dead for two hours before they arrived.

How about let's not try to revive him then? What are you, magic? Two-hour dead man? What is he, Nosferatu? He's not waking up. It's not going to happen, guys. What the fuck are you doing? Unless you're magical,

unless you come in and go, I'm magic, hold on a minute, I got this, or it worked for jesus or something i don't know what you're thinking he's been dead for two hours he's cold already it's a way for the family not to say that we didn't do everything we could he's in rigor for christ's sake he's done it's over it's two hours it's over that's like that small town murder where they were driving the guy all over the place. He's been dead for a day and a half.

What are we talking about? The crazy one with the church. So the coroner's office in Los Angeles said he succumbed to a heart, some heart thing by all apparent indications. They discovered the body in his apartment. His bags were packed as he was ready to leave for a tennis exhibition here. He was going to the U.S. Professional Championship Tournament in Cleveland. And, yeah, he died there. He's buried in the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Turns out he died from coronary thrombosis, which sounds delicious. That sounds like a stromboli or something. I got a good, I got an awesome thrombosis the other day from this oddest one fucking place the pizzas are ripe with the thrombosis oh my god you gotta try it i'm telling you oh god get the sausage get the sausage thrombosis is the only way to go he is he had 88 dollars and 11 cents to his name at the time of his death oh god the only way it would have been worse is if he got on that plane to Cleveland and died in Cleveland. Yeah.

No one wants to die in Cleveland. That's not good. So his tennis legacy here, Alan Zanzig, who is the main tennis writer for the New York Times from 1923 through 1968, because probably no one else wanted to do it. He was the editor of the Fireside Book of Tennis called Tilden the greatest tennis player he'd ever seen. He said he could run like a deer. He hit everything all over the place and all that kind of shit. He was amazing.

1975, Don Budge, who's also ranked very highly, ranked his top five players of all time and ranked Tilden number four behind Vines, Kramer, and Perry. In 1979, his autobiography by Jack Kramer, one of the guys named by the other guy,

he was a great player. He included Tilden on his list of six greatest players of all time. Kramer began playing with him at age 15 at the Los Angeles Tennis Club. Really? In 1983, Fred Perry ranked the greatest male players of all time and put them into two categories, before World War II and after, and he ranked Tilden number one in the pre-World War II.

I think that's fair. Equipment changed. Everything changed after World War II. So in 1959, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and there is some stuff about him here. I found his records very here. I found his records very quickly. Here are his records that he's accomplished. Okay. In Grand Slam

competition, 51 consecutive match wins. Unprecedented. Stands alone. 42 match win streak in a single Grand Slam tournament, which was the US Championships. that stands alone um he has seven titles overall he's tied with somebody else this is for u.s championships

10 finals overall stands alone eight consecutive finals only avon lendl has more than him 91 win percentage in those stands alone 42 match. 42-match win streak. Stands alone. 16 combined singles, doubles, and mixed titles overall. Stands alone. For all tournaments, he had a 98-match win streak, which stands alone. 71-1 single-season match streak in 1925. Stands alone. He

won 19 consecutive titles in 1924 and 1925. Only Anthony Wilding is there. 52 consecutive finals reached in a four-year period. Most appearances in the final of a Davis Cup, 11, with a record of 21 and 7 in singles. 43 consecutive clay court finals reached. 23 consecutive grass court finals reached. These are all records, by the way.

88.29 winning percentage, grass court match winning percentage 479 career bagels scored well i've eaten more than that probably i love bagels but how many i don't know 479 i've had way more than that oh yeah it's low come on get it together pal uh uh 106 career double bagels wow 11 career triple bagels his mouth he must be able to unhinge his jaw this guy how's he doing that he's crushing me there 10 consecutive years with a match winning percentage of over 90 11 consecutive years with a match winning oh 11 years overall with a match winning percent over 90 and 16 years overall with a match winning percent over 80 all of these are records that he has just born in the wrong time. Yep.

Well, it's never time to molest kids. No, no, no. The other stuff. I just mean, like, if Gay was more acceptable, maybe he wouldn't have gone after kids. I don't know. Those are separate wants. I don't know if maybe he couldn't find a dude and he just if you couldn't find a woman if you couldn't find a woman would you look for a 14 year old girl then neither would neither would a gay guy who can't find a gay guy no it's the same thing a gay person doesn't go for someone younger just because they can't find a gay guy but i mean the point is like the're either attracted to kids or not. Aiming at youth was, like, a thing for, like, I mean, it still is, obviously. For Hollywood, yeah. These guys used to marry 14-year-olds back then.

Jerry Lee Lewis, way after this, married someone that young. It wasn't out of the realm at all. That's true. The kid thing was different back then. It sure was. Yeah. Now, March 2016. Still, 14's crazy. It's crazy. It's bon back then. It sure was. Yeah. Now, March 2016. Still, 14's crazy.

It's crazy. It's bonkers crazy. March 2016, a proposal to honor him with a historical marker at the club he was at there was voted down by the state of Pennsylvania panel charged with evaluating nominations. You can't ever again. The panel wrote, Tilden's accomplishments in tennis are unquestioned but he said they said the criminal history led to the denial they said quote the climate about this type of sexual misconduct is too fresh in the minds of Pennsylvanians.

Jerry Sandusky oh this was post-Penns all right this was like three years after the Penn State scandal they were like let's put a fucking statue of this molester up there. Even 70 years is too fresh. It's too fresh. No, no, no. They're like, not here. They said any crime involving children is a touchy subject that people want to stay away from. It was a sports historian at Penn State. It's especially hard in the

state of Pennsylvania where we kind of made it our whole thing for a long time. We did that for a long time. At least the college. A long time. Sports writer Frank DeFord, who wrote Tilden articles for Sports Illustrated and a biography about him later, he said the state's rejection is short-sighted and that the Tilden Memorial is long overdue. Should those two arrests outweigh everything he did as a tennis player?

Yeah. Not in tennis. He still keeps all the tennis records, but off the court. We don't have to celebrate this guy. And also, the only reason they caught him for those two is because he stumbled. How many times did he get away with it? That's what I mean. You know what I mean?

If there's two, there's a lot more. Fuck yeah. And even when he was on probation and it was illegal, he still had a kid in his fucking apartment. He can't help it. He said, it seems like a certain amount of charity and forgiveness would play into this are you ew nope what now on the other side just so you know that he didn't molest every kid he ever came across a former uh person george lott a guy named

george lott l-o-t-t who's a player and later a coach at depPaul University. He said that Tilden never made advance to players, whether adults or pupils, is what he said. Art Anderson of Burbank, who took lessons from Tilden from the age of 11 and remained a lifelong friend, reported that Tilden never made advances toward him. Sorry, you're ugly.

Yeah, you're not too cute. Sorry, you're not a hot kid. Yep. Jack Kramer said Bill had all these rumors floating around about his sexuality, but they didn't know. He said he doesn't know if these rumors were based on stereotypes or what the hell the deal was, but California didn't repeal its sodomy law until 1976. And Alabama did it, what, three weeks ago, I think? Unless you're related, obviously then I mean if it's your sister your own sister you can do whatever you want to bugger the hell out of her

it's there so they said that his his because he lived in that era that might have played a part in is what he's trying to say and they said you know they were people, they think that maybe a lot of this was that people were surprised that there was any gay guys in sports. They were like, oh my goodness. So can't get enough. Can't get enough. You can still pick up at auction those Bill Tilden Sears tennis rackets. You can still get them.

A set of them, a youth model and a regular model just sold for 312 dollars and 50 cents which is not bad i want those that seems 30 it's 80 years old yeah but it's got a molester's name on it that's the point of it yes that's why it's only 312 dollars and 50 cents they're 80 they're 80 years old. They'd probably be a lot more if they weren't fucking, like, it's got his face on it, for Christ's sake. Jesus. I'm sure the youth model does anyway. I can see it right there.

He's looking at you while he's making sure you're keeping your tennis game intact. Anyway, that is Bill Tilden, everybody. Oh, my God. Hell of a crazy, dirty, filthy, weird little story of a child molester. Famous tennis players want to be him. They want to fucking beat him, yeah. Well, he's got all those records. That's why everybody now is shooting for tons of records that he has.

It's crazy. Yeah, we've got to wipe his name off the walls. Let's get his name off of the ranks of tennis. It's giving us all a bad name. Try harder, Federer. Fuck. I think I was going to say, I just don't know modern. off of the ranks of tennis or it's giving us all a bad name try harder federer fuck so if you're retired i think i was gonna say i just don't know modern i don't know many tennis players now so i don't know i know i stopped when they started banging uh super hot chicks and like rubbing it

in all of our faces i'm like your life's better than ours we get it i don't want to yeah you can you can marry another tennis chick but outside of of that, give me a break. You should have to marry Steffi Graf and that's it. Yeah, that's all you get, which is what they did, actually. That's what, what's his name, married. Chris Everett. You get Chris Everett. Enjoy. So, that said, everybody, if you like that, do tell everyone about it.

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they get there and it was just a block of rocks and and shit and they did this all the time. And they'd give them wonderful names. You know, Sunrise Vistas and all this crazy shit. And it would just be garbage. So we'll talk about all of this and people losing their money. It's going to be a lot of fun. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports is where you get all of that. And what you'll also get is a goddamn shout out. Hey. When will you get that shout out?

Right now. Hit me with the names of the people who would never ever ever play tennis very well just to have access to my children for sexual purposes. Jimmy, hit me with them now! This week's executive producers are Wanda Lovejoy, Karen O'Donnell, Brayden Vanderblom. What? Vanderblom? Hey. Alright. Sure. All of you

guys, thank you so much. Thank you. For being above and beyond way more than we you guys thank you so much for being uh above and beyond way more than we deserve thank you so much other producers this week are charles emerson winchester the third mitch comstein uh peyton meadows stephanie ioga fartberg school for the gifted captain lou albino charles bird in tokyo chris davis happy hour in Mansfield, PA. Brandy Huntley, Melissa Crothers, Tracy Keith, Janice Hill, Eros Tequila and Whiskey at Centennial Kennels up in Ontario. Kyle King, Samantha Alexander, Whitney Lee, Krista Werba,

Renee Picard, Mike and Sarah Mellis, Milas, Corey Hamilton, Jason Ohanian, Beth Haas, Suckafree Becca, Lisa Yone, Edward Depoy, I think, Mariah Boswell, Jonah with no last name, Kristen DeMars, Michael Grad, what is this, Colm? Oh, boy. It corrected your name. It's not called. What is it? Colm? Probably.

Shite, I think. I don't know. David Footit, Brandi Mason, Kate Christie, Janie's got a, I guess, a question mark. Molly Burbeau. Janie's got a Patreon is what she's got. She does. Michael Tugneri and travis sandal aaron whittaker sean robinson anna gald kelly nope that's gall uh kelly carter laura wood toodles with no last name sylvia isaac chuck stockler bonnie cutlip nathan summers cory but

bis buys maybe uh josh antrim heather nope, that's Heaven. Heaven Lee, okay. Is that real? Nick Webb. Cole Rideout. Funk Ninja. Q Solomon. Stephanie Anderson. Andrew Lane. Tate Sandy. Mimi Wee. Okay. Mookie Blaylock. Probably not that one, though. David

Dorsheimer. He's not spending it on booze and driving. Charity with no last name. Camille Stelmack Dor-shimer. Dor-shimer? Christopher Quinn. He's not spending it on booze and driving, so. Yeah. Charity with no last name. Camille Stelmachiewicz-Murolf. Stelmachiewicz. Yeah. Oh, boy.

Sarah McDougall. Zangrib Zagana. Jennifer Robinson. Manda Chris. Michael with no last name. Tess Bukok. Whoa, boy. Cody Peck.

Daniel Jennings. Shannon Doyle. Bryce Carlson. Hannah Johnson. Michelle Womack. Thomas Haggart. Cody Peck. Daniel Jennings. Shannon Doyle. Bryce Carlson. Hannah Johnson. Michelle Womack. Thomas Haggart. Daryl Stokland. S. Gelender.

Carrie Roberts. Joseph Molina. Lisa Hairston. Bo Ta. Bo Ta. Okay. Maybe they were trying to say Bo Tai, or is that really their name? Bo? Bo Tux.

Oh, maybe. Al with no last name. Cameron Merrill. Renee Lopez. Clement with no last name. Cameron Merrill. Renee Lopez-Clement with no last name. Laura R. Jacob Walker. Jana Wright. IAT Win Mom.

Kyle Prine. Stephanie Romines, I think. Pat Belmont. Start over. Claire Bolin. Tori Tori. Jeannie with no last name. Parker Satterfield.

Dustin Goldman. Sarah Mae Fisher. Chattitude. Chattitude Fitness. Radjko. What is this? I don't know. Andrea Plotz.

Sean Robinson. Seth Hansen. CDL Sphinx. William Simpson. Justin Kern. Rory Nankervis. Nankervis? Nankervis?

It's Nankervis, isn't it? I don't know what it is. Good job either way. Debra Hardwick, Kevin Click, Justin Stark, Anthony Reck, Lucian from West God. West by God. What's West by God? Where is that? I don't know. From the West by God?

I think that's what it is. By God? I don't know what it is. Ben Tillotson, Francesca Vargas. Francesco Vargas. That's a male or female pronunciation. I was going to say. That's all.

Francesco is the guy's name or her name. Who knows? What do we know? Francesco. Raymond Richard, Easton Holiday, Annalee Alston, Stephen Devine. The 89 Broncos, I'll take that. Buck Melanoma, Moley, Russells, Wart,

Emily Tucker, Heather Autry, Judy Pedska, Pesdek, Pesdek. This is ridiculous. Janice White, Dustin Irvin, Nat with no last name, Roy Grayley, Polina, Poliana, Poliana Feebles, Febbles, Feblees,

Feeblees, Justin Pimentel, Brooke Now, Jalen V, Fine Great, Ryan Connor, Sonia Perkins, Brandy Jadgman, Christy Kufchak, Brian Cathers, Chris Lees, Rip Cove, I don't know. What is that? You look so confused right bunny taylor jamie delong uh kyle jones sherry with no last name brad dietzler dietzler rebecca smith kimmy kimmy kimmy kimmy greco what kind me it's got to be kimmy uh sarah sarah walters leah grover katie and liam heather nope that's hammer hammer hayes sarah burn uh chrisne, Chris Hughes, Hunter Brannon, April Maynard, Kathy Kopech, Christy Swain, Alex Doyle, Dylan Webb, Lisa with no last name, Lysa maybe, Scott Anderson, six, Alberto Garcia, Callie, Callie,

Kaylee maybe, Lopsher Bratt, Kelly Smith, Riley with no last name, Big Red, Daniel Hatton, Madie, Kaylee, maybe. Lopsher, Bratt, Kelly, Smith, Riley with no last name. Big Red, Daniel Hatton, Madeline, and Christopher Colbert. Not just one, just both. Stuart, Domini, Domini, Domini, Domini, Domini. God, this could go on all night. Samantha, Emilio, Madeline, George, Aaron Waddell, Waddell, maybe. Christine, Salmon, Salmons, Matt Rodriguez, Terry Hilowski, Terry, you got a tough name, Daniel Crowley, Michael Michon, Michon Snow, Deborah Harrison,

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