Bill Tilden Autograph Letter Signed - Los Angeles Tennis Club Stationery
Famed American tennis player (1893-1953) whose major tournament victories number in the dozens (including six consecutive years as U.S. Singles Champion). Though his reputation was tainted by a pedophilic scandal and a jail term in the 1940s, a 1950 Associated Press poll named him the greatest tennis player of the first half of the twentieth century.
Fantastic autograph letter signed “Bill Tilden”, circa 1930s, attractive Los Angeles Tennis Club stationery, great tennis-related content, in part:
This…will acknowledge your check for $200 which is either a loan or to be used for 20 tennis lessons at $10 a lesson for yourself or anyone you wish me to teach.
The entire loan or any unused balance to be repaid you by April 1st.
This is a fascinating letter as most Tilden letters were sent to his protegee while he was in prison. This is the first such on LATC stationery we have ever seen and it combines tennis content with direct mention of his well-known personal struggles. The Los Angeles Tennis Club was the preeminent club of the day and by the 1930s, a steady stream of future Hall of Famers made the LATC their base of operations. Wimbledon and U.S. singles champions Ellsworth Vines, Bobby Riggs, Jack Kramer and Ted Schroeder were among the notables in that decade. Bill Tilden, world No. 1 for most of the 1920s, relocated to Los Angeles and played frequently at the LATC, as did Don Budge in the 1940s. Soon after came Pancho Gonzales.
Famed American tennis player (1893-1953) whose major tournament victories number in the dozens (including six consecutive years as U.S. Singles Champion). Though his reputation was tainted by a pedophilic scandal and a jail term in the 1940s, a 1950 Associated Press poll named him the greatest tennis player of the first half of the twentieth century.
Fantastic autograph letter signed “Bill Tilden”, circa 1930s, attractive Los Angeles Tennis Club stationery, great tennis-related content, in part:
This…will acknowledge your check for $200 which is either a loan or to be used for 20 tennis lessons at $10 a lesson for yourself or anyone you wish me to teach.
The entire loan or any unused balance to be repaid you by April 1st.
This is a fascinating letter as most Tilden letters were sent to his protegee while he was in prison. This is the first such on LATC stationery we have ever seen and it combines tennis content with direct mention of his well-known personal struggles. The Los Angeles Tennis Club was the preeminent club of the day and by the 1930s, a steady stream of future Hall of Famers made the LATC their base of operations. Wimbledon and U.S. singles champions Ellsworth Vines, Bobby Riggs, Jack Kramer and Ted Schroeder were among the notables in that decade. Bill Tilden, world No. 1 for most of the 1920s, relocated to Los Angeles and played frequently at the LATC, as did Don Budge in the 1940s. Soon after came Pancho Gonzales.
Famed American tennis player (1893-1953) whose major tournament victories number in the dozens (including six consecutive years as U.S. Singles Champion). Though his reputation was tainted by a pedophilic scandal and a jail term in the 1940s, a 1950 Associated Press poll named him the greatest tennis player of the first half of the twentieth century.
Fantastic autograph letter signed “Bill Tilden”, circa 1930s, attractive Los Angeles Tennis Club stationery, great tennis-related content, in part:
This…will acknowledge your check for $200 which is either a loan or to be used for 20 tennis lessons at $10 a lesson for yourself or anyone you wish me to teach.
The entire loan or any unused balance to be repaid you by April 1st.
This is a fascinating letter as most Tilden letters were sent to his protegee while he was in prison. This is the first such on LATC stationery we have ever seen and it combines tennis content with direct mention of his well-known personal struggles. The Los Angeles Tennis Club was the preeminent club of the day and by the 1930s, a steady stream of future Hall of Famers made the LATC their base of operations. Wimbledon and U.S. singles champions Ellsworth Vines, Bobby Riggs, Jack Kramer and Ted Schroeder were among the notables in that decade. Bill Tilden, world No. 1 for most of the 1920s, relocated to Los Angeles and played frequently at the LATC, as did Don Budge in the 1940s. Soon after came Pancho Gonzales.