"Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer" REVIEWS
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"Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer"
WEDNESDAY at 10 PM, HBO.
Tennis champion Billie Jean King is given the "up close and personal"
treatment as the subject of a new one-hour documentary airing tomorrow
at 10 p.m. on HBO. In this case, it may be a bit too up-close-and-
personal, because it's such a just-friends affair.
"Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer" is presented by HBO Sports,
and the program's story adviser and interviewer is King's long-time
friend, Mary Carillo. Carillo and King, after their tennis careers were
over as active players, both served as TV commentators at Wimbledon -
for HBO.
Frank Deford, another familiar HBO face (on "Real Sports With Bryant
Gumbel"), is one of King's many friends on hand, as is King herself, to
recount her life's triumphs and tribulations. Deford's tone, reflecting
on the way she played tennis, championed women's equality, and launched
and promoted both the Virginia Slims and World Team Tennis tours, is
typical of the reverence that, in this documentary, seems fit for a
King:
"And on the seventh day," Deford says, "Billie rested."
That's about as critical as things get.
Carillo and producer Margaret Grossi shaped and presented "Portrait of
a Pioneer" without a narrator, so the story is told exclusively through
the accounts of King and her friends.
These friends include Martina Navratilova, ex-husband Larry King (not
the talk-show host) and life partner Ilana Kloss, as well as Chris
Evert, Rosie Casals and Elton John.
The biggest moments in King's career are covered, with accompanying
snippets of footage. Her first Wimbledon title, winning women's doubles
with Karen Hantze in 1961, is here. So are her 1973 "Battle of the
Sexes" match with Bobby Riggs, and winning a total of 20 Wimbledon
titles by 1979.
"Portrait" does cover the palimony suit against King that outed her as
a lesbian, but mostly in the context of giving King one more adversary
to conquer.
Undeniably, her on-court achievements are impressive, just as her
off-court social contributions are many. Told this way, though, it all
comes off a bit too simply - like King taking on, and beating, old man
Riggs.
* * *
NY POST/LINDA STASI...
HOW exactly will history remember Billie Jean King, the first female to
knock the world of tennis on its wallet? Hipster, hustler, hero or all
of the above?
If HBO's new documentary, "Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer," is
any indication, King will be remembered for all of the above, as well
as for being a lesbian, record breaker and activist.
But we already knew that. What isn't as well known, or at least as well
remembered, is that King was married for two decades. But don't count
on "wife" being thrown around much when they tell the stories about her
around the campfire in 2050.
While it's hard to imagine it now, before Billie Jean King (nee
Moffitt) women's tennis was considered a sport that no one believed
would ever bring in the fans. In fact, in the 1970s, male winners of
tourneys were earning $12,000 in prize money while female winners were
getting $1,500.
And it was King who led the charge to change all that - by joining with
Virginia Slims in a women's tennis tour that paid real money.
So enraged was the U.S. Tennis Association that it threatened anyone
who joined the tour with banishment from the pro tour.
Undeterred, King joined, as did many of her contemporaries, making her
the first female tennis player, in 1971, to earn over $100,000.
While the film is mostly a valentine (and why shouldn't it be), it
isn't a wart-free card.
In fact, her relationship with her hairdresser, Marilyn Burnett - with
whom she had a passionate affair while married to her husband Larry
King (no, not that Larry King, even though Billie Jean may be the only
woman in the U.S. the other Larry King hasn't married) - is dredged up.
But it must have been more than mere sex between the tennis player and
her hairdresser because Billie Jean had undeniably the worst haircut in
professional sports.
However, it wasn't a bad hair day or horrifying haircut, or even King's
then-spectacularly gorgeous husband that broke up the affair. Billie
Jean says, "I started seeing parts of her I didn't like. She was
selfish and extremely controlling." And money hungry.
Remember palimony? That affair, the lawsuit and its outing cost King -
then the No. 1 ranked female tennis player in the world - all of her
endorsements.
"Portrait of a Pioneer" isn't as ground-breaking as its subject, but it
is a fair look at the sports icon. And besides, it's good to remember
that she was indeed a ground-breaker not just a breaker of Bobby Riggs.
