Gussie Moran Passes Away

Written by: on 21st January 2013
Gussie Moran Passes Away   |

Few players have caused more of a stir in the traditionally conservative green acres of Wimbledon’s All England Club than Gertrude Augusta Moran, or ‘Gorgeous Gussie’ as she became famously known, who has died aged 89.

The reason; she turned up at the 1949 Wimbledon Championships in a tennis dress which revealed her lace-trimmed underwear.

Initially Gussie was told by Wimbledon officials that a colored outfit she planned to wear contravened the traditional ‘predominantly white’ clothing rule. So she sought shocking revenge and commissioned the well-known British tennis player turned fashion designer Teddy Tinling to come up with an outfit that conformed to the color-codes but which would still cause that stir.

Moran lost in the first round of the ladies singles competition but made it to the final of the doubles. With the 84-year-old dowager Queen Mary due to attend, the All England Club committee went into panic mode, accusing the Californian of bringing “vulgarity and sin into tennis”. Questions were asked in the British Houses of Parliament.

Although she later admitted to regretting her act of rebellion, it made Moran into a celebrity. She was dated by millionaires, played tennis with Charlie Chaplin, had a ship, a racehorse and a sauce named after her, and even appeared as herself alongside Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in their 1952 tennis comedy Pat And Mike.

Her tennis had first drawn attention in 1949 when she did the clean sweep at the US Indoor championships, winning the singles, ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles alongside Pancho Gonzalez.

In 1950 she reached the semi-finals of the US Championships in singles and returned to Wimbledon for her second (and last) appearance. She turned professional in 1951 but stayed just a month on a traveling tour organized by Bobby Riggs.

For a while she worked as a radio and television sports commentator in Los Angeles and New York but the rest of her life was a sad affair with three failed marriages and in 1986 she was evicted from the Santa Monica home left to her by her mother. She saw out her days in relative poverty in a one bedroomed apartment with only her five cats for company.

©Daily Tennis News Wire

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  1. Gertrude Moran | Tennis sensation, 89 – Philadelphia Inquirer | Sports News Cast says:
    January 21, 2013 at 10:06 am

    […] who …Gussie Moran, a Tennis Star Who Wore a Daring Wimbledon Outfit, Dies at 89New York TimesGussie Moran Passes Away |10sBallsFriend's love kept tennis star Gussy Moran in the game to the endLos Angeles TimesTennis […]







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