British tennis official and fashion designer
Cuthbert Collingwood "Ted" Tinling
(23 June 1910 ? 23 May 1990), sometimes known as
Teddy Tinling
, was an English fashion designer, spy and author. He was a firm fixture on the professional tennis tour for over 60 years and is considered the foremost designer of tennis dresses of the 20th century.
[1]
Early life
[
edit
]
Tinling was born in Eastbourne, on the south coast of England, the son of James Alexander Tinling, a chartered accountant. In 1923, suffering from
bronchial asthma
, his parents sent him to the French Riviera on doctor's orders. It was there he began playing tennis, particularly at the Nice Tennis Club where
Suzanne Lenglen
practised.
[2]
Despite Tinling's youth, Lenglen's father asked him if he would umpire one of her upcoming matches. He became her personal umpire for two years in between a short career as a player himself.
[3]
This friendship with Lenglen led him to his first
Wimbledon Championships
in 1927, where he became player liaison until 1949. During the Second World War, he was a
Lieutenant-Colonel
in the
Intelligence Corps
in Algiers and Germany.
[4]
[5]
Career as designer
[
edit
]
Tinling designed a wedding dress for the British two-time Wimbledon singles champion,
Dorothy Round
on the occasion of her marriage in 1937.
[6]
He also designed dresses for almost all of the great female players throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. His dresses were worn by the Wimbledon ladies' champion throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The last Wimbledon champion to wear a Tinling creation was
Martina Navratilova
in 1979 when she wore his designs to triumph in both the singles and doubles events. In 1983,
Billie Jean King
wore a Tinling dress in a final for the last time, when she reached the Wimbledon Mixed Doubles final. The last Tinling dress worn at Wimbledon was by
Rosemary Casals
in 1984, when she lost in the first round. Although he only ever designed dresses for
Chris Evert
's Federation & Wightman Cup appearances, he designed her wedding dress when she married
John Lloyd
in 1979.
A close friend of Billie Jean King ? designing her dress for the famous "
Battle of the Sexes
" tennis match in 1973 ? he became player liaison on the
Virginia Slims
Women's Tennis Association
tour that King helped to create.
[7]
He continued to design daring and unusual dresses for stars such as
Martina Navratilova
,
Chris Evert
,
Evonne Goolagong
and
Virginia Wade
throughout this time but his role in the infrastructure of tennis became more important and he became an official media spokesperson for the game.
1949 Wimbledon controversy
[
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]
It was a design in 1949 that led to him being asked to take leave from his position at Wimbledon. That year he designed not only the dress for
Gussie Moran
, but also a pair of white underwear that were adorned with lace, creating a sensation, with photographers fighting for positions where they could get low-angle shots of Moran.
[8]
This led to Wimbledon chairman
Sir Louis Greig
to become furious with Tinling for "having drawn attention to the sexual area".
[9]
He was banned from the tournament for 33 years, only being invited back on the grounds of the
All England Lawn Tennis Club
in 1982, when he retook his position as player liaison.
[10]
The incident created a media frenzy, drawing public attention to both Tinling and Moran. While the Wimbledon officials accused Moran of "putting sin and vulgarity into tennis",
[11]
the media dubbed her "Gorgeous Gussie".
[12]
According to Tinling himself, "the situation snowballed out of all proportion. Gussie was inundated with requests for personal appearances ? hospitals, garden fetes and beauty contests.
The Marx Brothers
, in London at the time, invited her to join their act. A racehorse, an aircraft and a restaurant's special sauce were named after her. She was voted the best dressed sports woman by the US Fashion Academy. The whole thing was staggering."
[13]
Later life
[
edit
]
In 1975, Tinling moved to Philadelphia. He remained a consultant to the women's tour even after he gave up design in his old age. He was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame
in 1986.
[14]
He wrote several books on tennis in the 1980s, but respiratory problems continued to affect him and he died in 1990. After his death it was revealed he had been a
British Intelligence
spy during the Second World War.
[15]
[16]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Tinling was
openly
gay.
[17]
[18]
[19]
His brother,
RAF
officer
James Collingwood Tinling
, was a member of the team that built the first jet engine.
[20]
Portrayals
[
edit
]
Tinling has been portrayed in two movies concerning the
Battle of the Sexes
tennis match played in 1973 between
Bobby Riggs
& Billie Jean King. In the 2001 TV Movie
When Billie Beat Bobby
, he was portrayed by American actor
Gerry Becker
[21]
and in the 2017 cinema release
Battle of the Sexes
, Tinling was played by British star
Alan Cumming
.
[22]
Cumming played the role with a full head of hair, whereas Becker had played the part bald; accurately reflecting Tinling's appearance.
Works
[
edit
]
- Tinling, Ted (1979).
Love and Faults: Personalities Who Have Changed the History of Tennis
. Crown. ASIN B000RQF87C.
- Tinling, Ted (1983),
Tinling: Sixty Years in Tennis
.
ISBN
978-0283989636
- Tinling, Ted (1984).
Tinling
. Sidgwick & Jackson.
ISBN
978-0-283-98963-6
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Evans, Richard (20 January 2013).
"Gussie Moran obituary"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
Gorringe, Christopher (2009).
Holding Court
. Penguin Random House.
ISBN
9781846055089
.
- ^
Le Grand, Victor.
"Ted Tinling, A Matter of Style"
.
wearetennis.bnpparibas
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
"Tennis Designer Ted Tinling Put the Panties on Gussie and the Glitter on Billie Jean"
.
People
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
Robson, David (18 June 2018).
"How the tennis 'ballerina' left Wimbledon gasping"
.
Daily Express
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
"Dorothy Round's Bridal Frock"
.
Table Talk
. 26 August 1937. p. 28
. Retrieved
16 January
2019
.
- ^
"Ted Tinling, Tennis Fashions Became Perfect Match"
.
NewsOK.com
. 29 January 1986
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
Newman, Paul (20 January 2013).
"Gussie Moran: Tennis player who shocked Wimbledon with her controversial clothing"
.
The Independent
. London.
Archived
from the original on 26 May 2022
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
Wagg, Stephen (6 October 2015).
"Sacred turf: the Wimbledon tennis championships and the changing politics of Englishness"
(PDF)
.
Sport in Society
.
20
(3): 398?412.
doi
:
10.1080/17430437.2015.1088726
.
ISSN
1743-0437
.
S2CID
147036948
.
- ^
"Ted Tinling: International Tennis Hall of Fame"
.
tennisfame.com
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
"The Championships, Wimbledon 2018 ? Official Site by IBM"
. The Championships, Wimbledon
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
Isaacson, Melissa (23 January 2013).
"espnW: Remembering Gussie Moran, the gorgeous and the tragic"
. ESPN
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
Tinling, Ted (1983).
Tinling: Sixty Years in Tennis
(First ed.). London: Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd.
ISBN
9780283989636
.
- ^
Thomas, Robert McG. Jr. (24 May 1990).
"Ted Tinling, Designer, Dies at 79; A Combiner of Tennis and Lace"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
"Innovator ? Ted Tinling"
.
Inside Sport
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
Sidell, Misty White (27 August 2015).
"U.S. Open Fashion: A Look Back at Tennis Dress Design Legend Ted Tinling"
.
Women's Wear Daily
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
Williams, Bradley David (June 2006).
"Martina Calling"
. Archived from
the original
on 27 September 2007
. Retrieved
15 August
2007
.
- ^
Kimball, Warren F.
(2017).
The United States Tennis Association: Raising the Game
. Lincoln and London: U of Nebraska Press. p. 320.
ISBN
9781496204646
.
- ^
"Ted Tinling, gay tennis-fashion designer, gave Billie Jean King style | Q Voice News"
.
Q Voice News
. 22 March 2018
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
Giffard, Hermione (2016).
Making Jet Engines in World War II: Britain, Germany, and the United States
. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. p. 156.
ISBN
9780226388595
.
- ^
"Gerry Becker"
. IMDb
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
- ^
"Alan Cumming joins 'Battle of the Sexes' as Ted Tinling"
.
Entertainment Weekly
. Retrieved
22 November
2018
.
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