Katy Clark speaks with Marshall Jon Fisher about what he describes as the greatest tennis match ever played. Fisher's new book, "A Terrible Splendor," tells the story of the 1937 Davis Cup semi-final match between American Don Budge and Gottfried von Cramm, a German. With war on the horizon, Von Cramm was literally playing for his life as well as his homeland.
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KATY CLARK: I'm Katy Clark and this is The World. It's safe to say that 1937 was a pretty big year for sports.
MARSHALL JON FISHER: In the United States that summer the Yankees and Giants were cruising toward an autumn World Series show down. Seabiscuit had come east for the first time and was sweeping the horse races there. On June 22, Joe Louis captured the heavyweight crown he would wear for eight years with an 8th round knock-out of James J. Braddock in Chicago.
CLARK: But as Marshall Jon Fisher writes, no sporting event was bigger in mid July 1937 than the Davis Cup tennis match between American Don Budge and German, Gottfried von Cramm. Fisher's new book is "A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, A World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played." I wanted to play some archive sound from the match between Budge and von Cramm as it was broadcast that summer, but remarkably there isn't any available. We do, though, have some play by play from a few weeks before when Budge defeated Cramm at the All England Championships at Wimbledon. We'll play that right now.
SPORTS ANNOUNCER: Match point Budge. He serves to the left hand court now. Von Cramm returns on the forehand. Budge across the forehand corner. Von Cramm is there. Budge is going in. Von Cramm into the net. Budge has won.
CLARK: Again, that's from the 1937 All England Championships at Wimbledon a few weeks before Budge and von Cramm met for their Davis Cup competition. Marshall Jon Fisher you make a great case in your book supporting your claim that their Davis Cup meeting was the greatest tennis match ever played. Can you give us the abridged version here, what was so spectacular about the match?
FISHER: Yes, well, I say that because it was a lot more than just the tennis. When I call this the greatest tennis match ever it's because of everything that was going on behind the scenes. Particularly with Gottfried von Cramm, the great German player, who was being held up by the Nazis as the great Arian athlete and he had won the French championships twice which no German had ever done, and he had three times come within one match of winning Wimbledon and he was tall, handsome, blond, and blue eyed. One of the most popular players in the world, probably the most popular player. But, in fact, he was a homosexual and the Nazis at that time, of course, were rounding up homosexuals and sending them to concentration camps, so, Von Cramm, at the moment, was safe from that. It was made clear to him that as long as he kept winning and if he were able to bring the Davis Cup to Germany he would not have to worry. But he felt, and I think he had very good reason to feel, that if he were unable to do that he could fall into disfavor with the Nazis. And, as he said to Bill Tilden that spring, I'm playing for my life.
CLARK: Bill Tilden the American tennis great, at the time, who was actually serving as Cramm's unofficial coach at the Davis Cup match?
FISHER: Well, not Cramm's coach, but he was the unofficial coach of the German Davis Cup team, which was also remarkable because Big Bill Tilden, the American, who was without question the greatest tennis player of all time at that point, was also homosexual. So, incredibly the Nazi team had as their star a gay man and as their coach a gay American.
CLARK: Which he, just to point out to your book's subtitle, "Three Extraordinary Men," we're talking about the third extraordinary man in your story is Bill Tilden. I wanted to just take another step back to look at the match that's the focal point of your story. The Davis Cup today doesn't really garner that much attention, certainly not what it did back in 1937. Remind us, again, what the Davis Cup is in Tennis.
FISHER: It's the international competition in tennis between national teams and it was a huge, huge thing in the twenties, thirties, even, really, up through the sixties. Well, for one thing, tennis was a much bigger sport. And, within tennis it was much, much bigger than it is now. It was a bigger thing to win the Davis Cup than to win Wimbledon.
CLARK: You mean the match between Budge and von Cramm happened, I think, on a Tuesday in the middle of the summer and you talk about people on both sides of the Atlantic being glued to their radios. It's just pretty incredible.
FISHER: So, yeah, radio was it and it is said that the stock exchange slowed down during this match. I don't know if that's really true, but that's the quote.
CLARK: Well, this is the story about a particularly momentous moment in history. July 1937 is the eve of World War II. How much of this match was seen as German versus the United States, or German versus the world?
FISHER: You know, it's funny; in 1937 the Nazis were in power. Their domestic policies, their racial policies were already in place for everyone to see. But they were not as reviled as you might think around the world. Even in England the English crowd was clearly rooting for Germany in this match for two reasons, one that they loved von Cramm personally, also they wanted their team, who was gonna play the final round against the winner, they'd rather them play Germany which was a weaker team.
CLARK: And the characters are just so incredible. I mean, you talked a bit about van Cramm and he was a very dashing gentleman, a baron, everybody loved him, very handsome, very well mannered. Don Budge, the American, coming from a sort of scrappy upbringing in California, and I think his father was a truck driver. The characters were quite incredible and tragic it seemed in many ways. I mean, Don Budge, I found it interesting; you wrote that he seemed to be haunted by his win here. He never felt like he really should have won the match?
FISHER: No, I wouldn't say that. But he often wondered how his friend's life would've been different if he had won instead of Budge, and I don't want to give too much away but there were huge consequences for Cramm in this match. And the year after this match Cramm was imprisoned. He spent almost a year in jail. And afterwards was continued to be ostracized in the world of tennis because of this.
CLARK: Until the nineteen fifties, was it, Germany was allowed to international tennis competition, and didn't can Cramm return?
FISHER: He did return. The sad thing is that in 1939 he had his best chance ever to win Wimbledon. He was considered by most everyone to be the best armature in the game. I should say that at that time only armatures could play Wimbledon and the Davis Cup and other big championships. So, Budge had turned pro, Cramm was out of prison, playing very well, and to the great shame, Wimbledon would not allow him to enter because he had been convicted of homosexuality. Not only that, but the United States, for the rest of his life van Cramm could not get a visa into the United States because the Nazis had convicted him of homosexuality. But yes, he did come back eventually. He played into his forties. He came back and played Davis Cup for West Germany. And had a very good life afterwards.
CLARK: How do you feel about this book? I mean, it's talking about a really huge sporting event. But the personal stories and the politics involved were so intense.
FISHER: Well, I think in some ways, you know, van Cramm, in the end, really triumphed against great oppression. I mean, he survived the Nazi persecution; he survived the war because after prison he was drafted and sent to the Russian front and although he eventually died in a car crash, his life was a great triumph. Don Budge also had a triumph in life. He was a great, great super star in tennis and lived a long happy life. The tragic part of life is the third person, Big Bill Tilden. He was one of the most famous athletes in the world, he became extremely wealthy from that, and ended up broke and broken hearted.
CLARK: In the tennis world is this match remembered by many people?
FISHER: Yes. I think any time you draw up the ten greatest matches of all time this will always be there. Last year there was an incredible tennis final, the Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal, and for pure tennis, sure, that was at least as good. But, you know, what was it? It was a couple of millionaires playing for their own glory. So the stakes were just not nearly as high.
CLARK: Marshall Jon Fisher's book is "A Terrible Splendor" about the 1937 Davis Cup tennis match pitting American Don Budge against German Gottfried von Cramm.†Thanks for speaking with us.
FISHER: Thank you.
CLARK: You can see some great photos of Gottfried von Cramm, Don Budge and Big Bill Tilden at our website, TheWorld-dot-org. And you can also listen to a clip of Budge telling a story about von Cramm getting a call from Hitler just before the match.
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