Jul

19

When a man has lived without illness to 99 years old and is still going strong, having won 122 national tournaments along the way, served as a lawyer for 70 years, visited hundreds of countries, played with every tennis player of the past 100 years from Bill Tilden to Jon McEnroe, won the Wimbledon doubles at 47, started a major animal rescue operation, witnessed murders, had a career in politics, played with all the famous Hollywood actors of 50 years, played with kings, Presidents and Duchesses, there is much to learn from him. I was pleased therefore to pick up Gardnar's autobiography written at the age of 95 and self published but available at the Newport Casino, where he was a thorn in the side of the powers that be there for 70 years. Writing at the age of 95, when many of his enemies have passed away, one benefits from his not holding back as so many auto's do these days for fear or libel or hurt feelings.

The first thing one learns from him is an anecdotal secret of a healthy life. He is a vegetarian, doesn't drink or smoke, has no air conditioning, gets to sleep early, and floats around the court at a single steady. His recipe for life is to enjoy the great pleasures of life — eating, exercise, sex, sleep, and bathing. (He recommends bathing with an olive oil cleaner rather than soap.)

Of course, as in all things, it's a combination of genes and environment that got him so far. He has two sisters in their 90s, his mother died at 95, he and his father were National father and son champions 3 times. He was a star football player, diver, and boxer at the University of Miami. He practiced on a home spun clay court with his father and was winning tournaments at the age of 13. He was married for 50 happy years to his college sweetheart, a beauty queen and swim champion.

Having played against or seen many of the players that he mentions in action, I was particularly interested in the stories about such low lifes as Bobby Riggs, Frank Shields, Herb Flam, Art Larsen, Ted Schroeder, and John Mac, who he praises as possibly the greatest tennis player but criticizes as a self centered poor sport who tried to kick him off a court at a Wimbledon prep because he was Mac. He has a beautiful, heartbreaking story about Gloria Butler whose father started the Monte Carlo club, but has given away all her possessions because her "master" has told her she should live as a hermit and give all her money away to guess who.

It is also quite educational to hear his take on the things that have changed during the past 80 years of tennis. He points out that just as important as the new materials in the rackets these days for faster and better play is the pressure of the balls. Because of the high pressure, and the change from a rubber center, topspin must be hit to keep the ball in, and this almost mandates the much lamented by all players of the era, extreme western grip. He believes that with modern equipment the old players would have fared quite well against the current crop.

Many other murders and near death incidents occur. For example, he describes how he got his friend Mike McLoughlin out of jail in Cuba as all the other casino owners were being executed. And he describes the suicide of Gladis Helman, the strange death by drowning of Frank Froeling's mother, and the attempted murder of FDR that he witnessed.

His love for his father shines thru and he describes with heart breaking detail how this 45th degree Mason lost his lumber business in the Hurricane of 1926, and was thwarted in all his entrepreneurial ventures thereafter because of the common problems of the depression. Apparently Mulloy inherited his father's inability to make money, as he seems to live very modestly in a two bedroom house, and he never seems to have 25 bucks extra to his name. I like the fact that of all the tournaments he's won he is proudest and happiest with the 3 father son tournaments he won with his dad.

Amazingly, although he has singles wins over almost every great player of the last 75 years including the two Pancho's, Bill Talbert, Vinnie Richards, Riggs, Welby van Horne, Frank Parker, Godfrey von Cramm, Rosewall, Borotra, Cochet, he is not remembered much as a singles player, but is mainly renowned for his many grand slam doubles and Davis Cup victories. There's a nice youtube video of him playing with Trabert in doubles and he plays a nice fluid, but not overly forceful game, with a medium sized serve, a mediocre overhead, and good backhand volleys as highlights.

He was constantly fighting with the powers that be of the official associations. And with good reason. He describes how James van Allen refused to give food to the tennis players that lost in the Newport tournament, how he was defaulted by the Californian official Jones for complaining about favoritism to the Wasps, and how the officials were only interested in siphoning off all the money in the game for themselves rather than let a player make an honest living from the game.

His example of rich man Avery Brundage who disqualified Jim Thorpe for playing semi pro baseball is typical of what he faced as the tennis association made it impossible for a self respecting player to play the game unless he were independently wealthy or a special favorite of the "sponsors".

In a chapter entitled the pompous dictatorship of the USTA, he describes his experiences with the officials– mainly Holcumbe Ward, Julian Myrich, Robert Jones, and James van Allen. They were constantly on his back whenever there was money to be made by them at his expense. His experience reminded me so much of what I experienced in squash when I decided to turn pro because I couldn't afford to be a gentleman amateur any more. These experiences are sisters and cousins to what we experience so much today where those with access to power, money, and information gracefully slide from the political arena into the banking arena, consulting, private sector, or institutional arena as opportunity and advantage arises.

Gar is a man of respect and as he nears his 100th birthday, still winning the 90 and over's regularly in doubles, one should pause to hope that one could live as happy and productive a life as he doing the thing he loved the most and was so good at.

Jeff Watson writes:

That was the best biography that you have ever reviewed. Mulloy reminds me of my grandfather in so many ways. It would be interesting to list the similarities between productive old centenarians like them, because they all seem to share a common thread. I don't know exactly what the thread is, but it probably includes luck in the genetic lottery, and guys like these seem to have something extra, a joie de vie or something like that. Not like the miserable old 95 year old people that I run into here in Florida on an everyday basis. Mulloy also reminds me of a Mr. Woodykind, who I knew as a kid. Woodykind was an avid tennis player who retired to Pompano Beach and played tennis at the clay municipal courts back in the 60's when I lived there as a kid. He was in his 80's, very healthy, and was a champion who supplemented his retirement by wagers on his matches. He was a great guy who was also very sharp with many stories to tell about the old days. He gave me some advice that I still live by today.


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