Jeane Hoffman: Tennis & Toons
Discover the groundbreaking sportswriter and cartoonist who captured the golden age of tennis.
Star woman sportswriter Jeane Hoffman joins tennis' ranks
Beginning in April 1948, American Lawn Tennis magazine introduced a new column and writer to inform and entertain its readers with candid reports of what was happening with the individuals involved in the sport of tennis around the world.
Jeane Hoffman - celebrated woman sports journalist
By the time Jeane Hoffman (American, 1919-1966) joined the staff at American Lawn Tennis, she had already developed an accomplished and widely published sports writing and cartooning career.
Sports journalism career started in her teen years
A California native, Hoffman studied journalism, art, and cartooning at Los Angeles High School. At age 15, her sports cartoons were published in the Hollywood Citizen-News, and after graduation, she began reporting on baseball, football, and hockey for that newspaper.
Chasing major league dreams in Philadelphia and New York
In 1940, with a goal of breaking into the East Coast market, Hoffman drove across the country chasing an opportunity at the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. In 1942, she joined the New York Journal-American covering baseball under her own byline "From the Feminine Viewpoint."
Marriage and Continued Success
Marrying Thomas Allen McIntosh of the British Merchant Marines in 1944, Hoffman continued her thriving career both domestically and abroad. Following World War II, the couple settled in New York. While still at the Journal-American, she added American Lawn Tennis to her resumé.
Collage of cartoons that appeared in American Lawn Tennis magazine by Jeane Hoffman (1948/1951) by Jeane HoffmanInternational Tennis Hall of Fame
No player or topic was immune from Hoffman’s artistic hand
With Hoffman serving up the gossip following the sport from tournament to tournament, club to club, and everywhere in between in her “Bouncing Around” column, players, officials, other athletes, and even Hollywood celebrities were all fair game for her editorial cartoons.
Collage of cartoons that appeared in American Lawn Tennis magazine by Jeane Hoffman (1948/1951) by Jeane HoffmanInternational Tennis Hall of Fame
Hoffman’s work appeared in over 50 issues of American Lawn Tennis (1948-1951). She even continued the column and cartoons for the next iteration of the magazine (titled The Racquet (1951-1953)). Here are a selection of just a few of her cartoons from our archive.
1. The Life of a Professional Working Tennis Player
In 1946, British tennis players Mary and Charles Hare joined Wilson's Advisory Staff. This marked a move from amateur status to professional tennis as a means of income, showcasing the changing landscape of the sport.
Life on the road was not easy
Mary, who toured professionally with Alice Marble, Don Budge, and Bill Tilden during WWII, likely had more experience barnstorming around the United States than her husband. The couple racked up significant mileage—as illustrated by Hoffman—in their time working for Wilson.
Barnstorming = A term primarily used in the United States to refer to individual athletes or sports teams who operate outside of an established athletic league and travel to various locations to stage exhibition matches, games, or events.
"But the way the barnstorming life worked was that roadies and players alike were both unsung heroes." - Joel Drucker, International Tennis Hall of Fame Historian-at-Large
Traveling cross country to spread the joy of tennis
As Wilson Sporting Good Advisory Staff members, the Hares hit the road beginning in the spring of 1949 to play exhibition events and teach clinics across the United States to encourage more people, especially children, to pick up a racquet and learn how to play tennis.
2. "Gorgeous Gussy" and scandal at Wimbledon
In 1949, Gussy Moran, American Lawn Tennis magazine’s stylist who penned the “Tennis & Togs” column, made her Wimbledon début. Designed by Ted Tinling, her outfit featured lace-trimmed undershorts that showed when she ran down a ball on court. How risqué for the time!
"Gussy’s panties caused shock waves that reverberated from Alaska to Antarctica...it deeply shocked the establishment. But…gave press photographers their new position for ’49, lying flat on the courts." - Ted Tinling in Love and Faults
Gussy Moran's popularity soared
Though accused of bringing “vulgarity and sin into tennis,” Moran’s popularity parlayed into a professional tennis, modeling, and fashion career. She appeared on magazine covers worldwide and on the silver screen. Hoffman’s cartoon emphasizes Moran’s influence on tennis fashion.
Cartoon poking fun at Suzanne Lenglen's use of brandy on sidelines (1951-06) by Jeane HoffmanInternational Tennis Hall of Fame
3. Even tennis stars of the past were not immune
American Lawn Tennis magazine often made mention of past champions. France's Suzanne Lenglen (1899-1938), was not only one of the greatest champions of the first half of the 20th century, but a trendsetter as well as this cartoon "suggests."
"Suzanne Lenglen, the most spectacular feminine tennis player of all time, always brought along a flask of brandy when she played. If things were not going her way she would pause between games and take a generous swig of brandy. Suzanne also brought along a mixture of whiskey and olive oil. She used that for not drinking purposes but for massaging her feet." - E.V. Durling in his nationally-syndicated column "On the Side"
Suzanne Lenglen: superstar athlete and diva
Lenglen, the 1920s global tennis star, filled the stands with her flamboyant brilliance on court while her eccentric personality—which included having a flask of brandy at the ready on the side of the court—blurred the lines between superstar athlete and diva.
Cartoon of "The Other Jack Kramer" (Baseball) (1949-10) by Jeane HoffmanInternational Tennis Hall of Fame
4. Could another Jack Kramer take on Pancho Gonzales?
This cartoon intertwines Hoffman’s main sporting journalistic success and passion, baseball, with tennis. Jack Kramer, international tennis star, attended a baseball game at Yankee Stadium with Bobby Riggs and witnessed another Jack Kramer pitching for the Boston Red Sox.
Kramer prevails over Gonzales
In September 1949, Gonzales turned professional and signed a one-year $60,000 contract. The World Championship Tour would take him, Kramer, Bobby Riggs, and Frank Parker on the road to every major U.S. city. Kramer edged Gonzales in the head-to-head 94 matches to 29.
Collage of cartoons that appeared in American Lawn Tennis magazine by Jeane Hoffman (1948/1951) by Jeane HoffmanInternational Tennis Hall of Fame
Hoffman's legacy preserved
Sadly, Jeane Hoffman’s career and life were cut short when she passed away in 1966 at age 47. The International Tennis Hall of Fame's Museum has over 70 of her original drawings and cartoons to help keep this groundbreaking sports journalist’s legacy available to the public.
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