🎾Star-Studded Serves: Celebrating National Play Tennis Day!

Happy National Play Tennis Day!

Did you know that actress Ginger Rogers was a dedicated player who regularly won tournaments? She adored tennis throughout her life and, by 1950, wanted some real competition. “Tennis is my game,” she said years later, “but I’m a tennis snob. I only like to play with very good players.” 

At age 39, she played mixed doubles with Frank Shields (Brooke Shields’ grandfather) at the US Open. In a rain-delayed first-round match at the US national championships at Forest Hills, Barbara Wilkins and William J. Tully defeated Rogers and Shields, 6-3, 7-5. 

Ginger Rogers playing a week before the U.S. Open in Forest Hills, NY

Take a look at some classic movie stars who have embraced the sport in publicity shots, their personal lives, and their films.

Barbara Stanwyck

Donna Reed

Lucille Ball

Paul Newman

Spencer Tracy

 

Carole Lombard

Claudette Colbert

Gary Cooper

Mel Ferrer & Audrey Hepburn

Ava Gardner

Jane Fonda

 

Cornel Wilde

 Dolores Del Rio

Judy Garland & Paulette Goddard

Lew Ayres

Rita Hayworth

Bette Davis

 

                                                             Norma Shearer

Debbie Reynolds

Fred Astaire

Jean Harlow

Directed by Ida Lupino, Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951) stars Claire Trevor as a demanding stage—or court—mother who is determined to mold her tennis-prodigy daughter, Sally Forrest, into a national champion. However, her relentless ambition ultimately leads to the creation of a monster.

On a train, wealthy sociopath Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) recognizes tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and strikes up a conversation in Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951). Guy is constantly being harassed and watched by Bruno, who wants him to murder his father after having just killed his soon-to-be ex-wife. Guy suspects Bruno's intentions and tries to distance himself from him. In a gripping and tense tennis scene, a crowd of tennis fans shift their heads side to side during the match, except for Bruno, who remains still, fixated on Haines.

Farley Granger practicing for the tennis scene with tennis pro Jack Cushingham who played Fred Reynolds in the film.

In the comedy Pat & Mike (1952), Katharine Hepburn portrays a professional athlete. She plays a tennis player and actually performed all the sports footage in the film herself.

“I could have accomplished three times what I’ve accomplished. I haven’t realized my full potential. It’s disgusting. I could have been a great tennis player.” - Katharine Hepburn (February 1979)⁣

 

Who remembers how Alvy Singer met Annie Hall? That's right, it was during a game of tennis doubles with friends. In Annie Hall (1977), Alvy played by Woody Allen encounters Annie, portrayed by Diane Keaton.

 

 

 

In the dark fantasy comedy The Witches of Eastwick (1987), the witches (Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer) engage in a not-so-friendly game of tennis with the devil, portrayed by Jack Nicholson. Envy and rivalry arise among them, and they inadvertently levitate a tennis ball.

Ending on a comedic note, Tom Hanks is caught in a not-so-serious tennis match with fiance (Tawny Kitaen) and his future in-laws (George Grizzard, Barbara Stuart) in the sex comedy Bachelor Party (1984). He keeps smashing the ball, sending it flying into the neighbor's yard.

 

"One of these days, I'm gonna burn the Thompson court right to the ground."