ALICE MARBLE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 55, 20 March 1937, Page 17

ALICE MARBLE

UNCLE SAM'S NO. I FOR WIMBLEDON IN APRIL A. chaxxy inteeview Arnerica's reigning tennis queeli, Alice Marble, who did what they sald she couldn't do when she won the women's singles championship of the United States last year, has her heart set on two new objectives. The first, and foremost, is to capture the women's title at Wimbledon this summer. The other is to go lnto motion pictures. Blonde Alice has definite ideas about the game and herself. Around April, Miss Marble and her coach and mother and guardian, Eleanor Tennant, will leave for Europe to tune up for Wimbledon. At the moment, she is taking screen tests, studying dramatlcs and voice and writing, all to be put mto practice after the 1937 tennis wars. "I'm looking forward now, most of all, to playing at Wimbledon," said the determined young woman. "And don't think I have the Idea that I am going to win in England. I don't. It's easy for someone to say, 'Yes, Alice, after you win at Wimbledon, and so on,' but I know it's not that easy. My, I wish It were." She said she "looked forward" to another meeting with Helen Jacobs but not without grave. forebodings. "She plays such a consistent game," Alice explained. "You can't alford to have an off day against her." Was she surprised when she was given No. 1 ranking among the nation's women players? "No," she answered frankly. "I would have been surprised If It had been otherwise. After all, I belleve there has been but one instance when a national champion didn't get the top rating. I. forget who It was." Miss Marble will give an answer to any question.. She does not voiunteer predictions, impressions or opinions. For instance, she thinks Donald Budge plays too much winter tournament tennis for his own good, and was not 1 surprised at the setbacks handed the Oakland star by Bitsy Grant in Florida. - She thinks Ellsworth Vines is & better player. than Fred Perry, at* tributes Vines' initial defeats in the professional series to the Englishman's physical condition, and rates the lanky Pasadena player "as the greatest player I have ever seen." Will she turn professional? "I haven't thought about it," she

replied. "Later on I might, provided the proposition looks good. It would have to be good, because pro. tennis is a hard life." Miss Marble's prospective fllm career will not involve her tennis. She expects to get by on her capabilities, and hopes she possesses some. Her close friend, Carole Lombard of screen fame, is helping her tremendously. "I took one test last week. They said it was all right. I saw it.. It looked all right to me," Alice smiled. She didn't mean to sound self-satis-fied — and didn't. Miss Marble, a native of San Francisco, daughter of a family of moderate circumstances, has battled for most of the thlngs she nas. Either as a result, or perhaps by her nature, she views herself and affairs with cairn serxousness. Whatever she may attain in the 'future will be the result of this same serious attitude.