Althea

Althea

DVD - 2015

Althea Gibson emerged as a most unlikely queen of the highly segregated tennis world of the 1950s. Her roots as a sharecropper₂s daughter, her family₂s migration to Harlem, her mentoring from Sugar Ray Robinson, David Dinkins and others, her fame that thrust her unwillingly into the glare of the early Civil Rights movement, all bring the story into a much broader realm of African American history, transcending sports.

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DVD/796.342092/Althea
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Location Call Number   Status
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Subjects
Gibson, Althea, > 1927-2003.
Tennis players > Biography.
African American women athletes > Biography.
Documentary television programs.
Biographical television programs.
Video recordings for the hearing impaired.
Genres
Documentary television programs
Biographical television programs
Video recordings for the hearing impaired
Published
[Arlington, VA] : PBS Distribution [2015]
Language
English
Other Authors
Rex (Cinematographer) Miller (producer), Althea Gibson, 1927-2003 (performer)
Edition
Widescreen
Item Description
Widescreen.
Originally broadcast as a single episode of the television program American Masters on the PBS Network.
Physical Description
1 videodisc (90 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in
Format
DVD, region 1, widescreen presentation; stereo.
Audience
Rating: TVPG.
Production Credits
Edited by Elisabeth Haviland James; cinematographer, Rex Miller; original score, David Majzlin.
ISBN
9781627895101
Contents unavailable.
Review by Library Journal Review

Though many people know that Arthur Ashe was the first (and only) African American man to win a singles title at Wimbledon, in 1975, fewer recognize the name Althea Gibson (1927-2003), though she won the women's singles title twice nearly 20 years earlier. This film tells the story of Gibson's life, from her early years in the cotton fields of South Carolina and her adolescence in New York's Harlem where she first picked up a racket to her rise to the top of the predominantly white world of competitive tennis and her ultimate departure from the sport that, despite her superstar status, did not pay her a living wage. The film's style is spare, with minimal background music, incorporating personal recollections and observations from Gibson's friends, family, and playing partners as well as liberal use of archival photographs and video footage of matches and interviews. VERDICT A poignant chronicle that shatters many assumptions about the world of tennis and the lives of superstar athletes. It will appeal to fans of tennis, sports history, and female players.-Sara Holder, McGill Univ. Lib., Montreal © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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