Skip to:Content
|
Bottom
Cover image for Althea
Title:
Althea
ISBN:
9781627895101
Physical Description:
1 videodisc (approximately 90 min.) : sound, black and white and color ; 4 3/4 in.
General Note:
Title from container.
Personal Subject:
Gibson, Althea, 1927-2003.
Subject Term:
Tennis players -- United States -- Biography.

African American tennis players -- Biography.

African American women athletes -- Biography.
Genre:
Biographical television programs

Educational television programs.

Films for the hearing impaired
Added Corporate Author:
PBS Distribution (Firm)
Added Uniform Title:
Container of (work): American masters (Television program)
Local Subject:
DVD collection.

DVD collection (Closed captioned)
Summary:
Althea Gibson emerged as a most unlikely queen of the highly segregated tennis world of the 1950s. Her roots as a sharecropper's daughter, her family's migration to Harlem, her mentoring from Sugar Ray Robinson, David Dinkins and others, and 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.
Holds:

Available:*

Library
Material Type
Call Number
Item Available
Copies
Status
Searching...
 Nonfiction DVD DVD 921 GIBSON 1 1
Searching...
Searching...
 Nonfiction DVD DVD 921 GIBSON 1 1
Searching...
Searching...
 Nonfiction DVD DVD 921 GIBSON 1 1
Searching...
Searching...
 Nonfiction DVD DVD 921 GIBSON 1 1
Searching...

On Order

Summary

Summary

This documentary, which originally aired on PBS, is about Althea Gibson, one of the greatest female tennis players of all time and a pioneer for African-American athletes. Althea tells Gibson's story, spanning from her youth in South Carolina and on the streets of Harlem to her historic Wimbledon titles in 1957 and 1958. ~ Tom Ciampoli, Rovi


Reviews 1

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.


Go to:Top of Page