ALBANY, N. Y.. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1938 FAMED TENNIS STAR INA Net Queen Neglects Game for Platform By DE WITT SCHUYLER Helen Wills Moody, the nimble nymph of the tennis courts, is just as adept at volleying with questions served by a reporter, if anyone should drive up with a forehand smash and ask you. Without the ceremony of tossing a coin for sides, the game began in the Ten Eyck hotel lobby, con- tinued up and down State street iu a taxi and ended at Chancellor’s Hal] where this reporter was last seen looking for a net to jump over, to congratulate the winner. TURNED DOWN PRO OFFER “Do you have any intention of turning pro?” was the first ques- tion, which Mrs. Moody cannon- balled into a corner with a nice- ly-placed negative, “I did have a professional offer not long ago,” she explained, “but I turned it down. I would rather not play professionally.” Love—15. “As long as you are known in the tennis world as ‘Little Poker Face,’ I would like to know if you ever play poker,” fell into the net as the Wimbledon champion look- ed askance and said no, she didn’t even know how. Love—30, TOO BUSY TO PRACTICE “Do you practice every day?” came back with a high lob out of reach, “No, I hardly have a chance to since I have taken up lecturing,” she said. “Still, I always keep in trim.” Love—40, “When are you going to play again?” rebounded to the far corner, just inside the base line. “T think it will be not until next season,” was the answer. “It also depends on how I happen to feel at the time. I like to play when I am feeling my best, you know. That’s why I often decide to enter many matches at the last minute.” Game. “MAKE LIFE }— TOURING NATION After that whirlwind finish, this reporter conceded the match and retired to the sidelines while Mrs. Moody inspected the Chancellors Hall platform, where she spoke last night on “Make Life a Game,” un- der the auspices of the Albany As- sociation of the Alumni of Girl’s Academy, Albany is the first stop on a lec- ture tour that will end in Califor- nia, Newsreel pictures of her ten- nis matches are shown to illustrate the lecture. California-born, Mrs. Moody was educated at Berkeley Girls’ school and the University of California. She began swinging a tennis rac- quet at the age of 10, and now holds the championship of Ireland and Wimbledon, the latter won from Helen Jacobs in a much-dis- cussed comeback match, In her lecture, she sketched her early life in match play and smil- ingly explained her farnous nom- de guerre of “Poker Face” as a concentrated facial determination to win. Her thumb-nail sketches of the people she has met in Eu- rope and America were delight- fully drawn, particularly her vig- nette of the 70-year-old King of Sweden, whose tennis playing is devoted to a net game, most of the footwork being qone by amem- ber of his tennis cabinet. A series of newsreel shorts, de- picting her career on the courts of the world was introduced c”* proved her contention that, though the styles in tennig and clothes undergo a decided change from time to time, the early acquired form remains throughout. the en- tire sports life. ' LBANY EVENING OCTOBER 20, 1938 ‘“‘Won’t Be Pro,’’ Declares Hele Former Tennis Queen, Opening Lecture Tour Down Town Club, Tells of Her Plans for Future NEW YORK ———— HERALD TRIBUNE OCTOBER 26, 1938 Helen Moody Asserts Sports Simplify Life Mrs. Helen Wills Moody stressed the simplicity and relaxation which sport brought in a complex world. “Maintaining a balance in our lives,’ she said. “It means that we defer, possibly forever, that point where complexity cannot become more complex, and a static point is reached where new ideas are rare, and enthusiasm dead. There is no denying that there exists a trend towards complexity in the individ- ual, aS well as in almost every field that belongs to man. One sees it in government, in business, even in art. “Complexity in people’s lives must be balanced, and sport is one of the things which can help to do it. No better proof can be given than the great growth of interest in all games which has swept the country. They are, in a way, a return to what so many of us refer to as ‘the simple life’-—the life close to nature.” *“T say ‘I am going out to have a game of tennis.’ But what I really mean is ‘I am going to have a won- derful time under the sky, in the sun. I am going to rush around, feeling the motion of the ait and the movement of my body through space. I am going to forget every- thing except the game. For a while, for me, the world will not exist. I won’t know how old I am—whether I am a child or whether I am grown up. I shall lose myself in the fun of the game, in competition which seems real but is not important. I am going to play. “The individual can balance the busy routine of his day with diver- sion and the simpler the diversion the better. The great rush of inter- est today in sports is proof that the whole country knows that modern life must have as an integral part the play element. The simple pleas- ure of the latter must serve as a balance against the problems and complexity of the present day.” A GAME" A lecture by HELEN ee Moody with us. excellent, "We enjoyed exceedingly last night having Helen Wills Her personality is charming, her pictures were very helpful to her talk, and her lecture most especially the concluding part wherein she developed her theory that what would produce success in a game would produce success in life." ue. Jd. PRICE, Sec’ y.., THE WEDNESDAY CLUB, Newark, N. J. 500 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW ee : AKINS, Inc. VISTA DEL ARROYO, PASAC “No, I’m not going to turn fessional,” emphasized Helen W. Moody when questioned at the Dov Town Club last night. ; ‘I am going to stick to the amateur game, play it when I feel like it and enjoy it as befits ine ‘advanced age,” continued E seven-times national champion. stay in the circuit and go to vari tournaments as it pleases Whether it’s the National at Forest. Hills or Wimbledon or other gather- ings, I can’t say just now. making the game a profession is not my intention.” Mrs. Moody, looking her prettiest, had a few other remarks, too. 1e was sorry she couldn’t enter the singles championship this year, but explained her side injury was much too painful, It’s much better now, she said, except that the intercostal nerve (between the ribs) still bot = ered her to some extent. Marble Is Best She thinks Alice Marble is by far the best woman player( modestl excepte dherself) in the game t day. “It’s too bad she didn’t — further at Wimbledon this year. & wasn’t up to her game at that time,” was Mrs. Moody’s observation, “but she certainly was when she too the title at Forest Hills last month.” And what are Helen’s plans now? “Well, I’m just starting on th lecture business’ was her reply,’ I’ve got to make a tour of the East, speak at several forums this Fall and then I’m heading back to San Francisco as soon as I can.” La going to keep up my game out there and although I’ve closed my stt 'll dabble a bit in art. As for my designing, that’s another thing. It really requires too much time, especially away from California, and I would much rather be on the Coast.” Effective Mrs. Moody made a good beg ning with her new speaking p Her looks, her personality an spoiled mannerism won the attention of her first gallery. Wednesday Club. In fact her charm even wen far as to belie the rumors that was anything amiss between her and Helen Jacobs, whom she feated in England this past She shook her head when if she had read Miss Jacobs’s azine story in a current mag which also denied the rift as ; sult of the Wimbledon trium “If she denies it, too, then,( ought to satisfy those who are stantly seeking to build up som sort of a fued between us,” sr Helen. She was introduced to an ence of over 100 by Judge F Hartshorne. Following Mrs. Moody’s motion pictures were sho _ the forme