Cuthbert Collingwood "Ted" Tinling (23 June 1910 – 23 May 1990), sometimes known as Teddy Tinling, was a fashion designer, spy and author. He was a firm fixture on the professional tennis tour for over 60 years and is considered the foremost designer of tennis dresses of the 20th century.
Early life
Tinling was born in Eastbourne, on the south coast of England, the son of James Alexander Tinling, a chartered accountant. In 1923, suffering from
bronchial asthma, his parents sent him to the French Riviera on doctor's orders. It was there he began playing tennis, particularly at the Nice Tennis Club where
Suzanne Lenglen practiced.
Despite Tinling's youth, Lenglen's father asked him if he would umpire one of her upcoming matches. He became her personal umpire for two years in between a short career as a player himself. This friendship with Lenglen led him to his first
Wimbledon Championships
The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, All England Club in ...
in 1927, where he became player liaison until 1949. During the Second World War, he was a
Lieutenant-Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
in the
Intelligence Corps in Algiers and Germany.
Career as designer
Tinling designed a wedding dress for the British two-time Wimbledon singles champion,
Dorothy Round
Dorothy Edith Round (13 July 1909 – 12 November 1982), was a British tennis player who was active from the late 1920s until 1950. She achieved her major successes in the 1930s. She won the singles title at Wimbledon in 1934 and 1937, and the ...
on the occasion of her marriage in 1937.
He also designed dresses for almost all of the great female players throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. His dresses were worn by the Wimbledon ladies' champion throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The last Wimbledon champion to wear a Tinling creation was
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
in 1979 when she wore his designs to triumph in both the singles and doubles events. In 1983,
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States ...
wore a Tinling dress in a final for the last time, when she reached the Wimbledon Mixed Doubles final. The last Tinling dress worn at Wimbledon was by
Rosemary Casals
Rosemary "Rosie" Casals (born September 16, 1948) is an American former professional tennis player.
Casals earned her reputation as a rebel in the tennis world when she began competing in the early 1960s. During a tennis career that spanned mor ...
in 1984, when she lost in the first round. Although he only ever designed dresses for
Chris Evert
Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954), known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. Evert won 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record ...
's Federation & Wightman Cup appearances, he designed her wedding dress when she married
John Lloyd in 1979.
A close friend of Billie Jean King – designing her dress for the famous "
Battle of the Sexes" tennis match in 1973 – he became player liaison on the
Virginia Slims
Virginia Slims is an American brand of cigarettes owned by Altria. It is manufactured by Philip Morris USA (in the United States) and Philip Morris International (outside the United States).
Virginia Slims are narrower ( circumference) than st ...
Women's Tennis Association
The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenni ...
tour that King helped to create. He continued to design daring and unusual dresses for stars such as
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
,
Chris Evert
Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954), known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. Evert won 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record ...
,
Evonne Goolagong
Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. Goolagong was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s.
At the age of 19, she won the French Open sing ...
and
Virginia Wade
Sarah Virginia Wade (born 10 July 1945) is a British former professional tennis player. She won three Major tennis singles championships and four major doubles championships, and is the only British woman in history to have won titles at all ...
throughout this time but his role in the infrastructure of tennis became more important and he became an official media spokesperson for the game.
1949 Wimbledon controversy
It was a design in 1949 that led to him being asked to take leave from his position at Wimbledon. That year he designed not only the dress for
Gussie Moran
Gertrude Augusta "Gussie" Moran (September 8, 1923 – January 16, 2013) was an American tennis player who was active in the late 1940s and 1950s. Her highest US national tennis ranking was 4th. She was born in Santa Monica, California and died i ...
, but also a pair of white underwear that were adorned with lace, creating a sensation, with photographers fighting for positions where they could get low-angle shots of Moran. This led to Wimbledon chairman
Sir Louis Greig to become furious with Tinling for "having drawn attention to the sexual area". He was banned from the tournament for 33 years, only being invited back on the grounds of the
All England Lawn Tennis Club
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, also known as the All England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, England, is a private members' club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships, the only Grand Slam t ...
in 1982, when he retook his position as player liaison.
The incident created a media frenzy, drawing public attention to both Tinling and Moran. While the Wimbledon officials accused Moran of "putting sin and vulgarity into tennis", the media dubbed her "Gorgeous Gussie". According to Tinling himself, "the situation snowballed out of all proportion. Gussie was inundated with requests for personal appearances – hospitals, garden fetes and beauty contests.
The Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...
, in London at the time, invited her to join their act. A racehorse, an aircraft and a restaurant's special sauce were named after her. She was voted the best dressed sports woman by the US Fashion Academy. The whole thing was staggering."
Later life
In 1975, Tinling moved to Philadelphia. He remained a consultant to the women's tour even after he gave up design in his old age. He was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...
in 1986.
He wrote several books on tennis in the 1980s, but respiratory problems continued to affect him and he died in 1990. After his death it was revealed he had been a
British Intelligence
The Government of the United Kingdom maintains intelligence agencies within three government departments, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. These agencies are responsible for collecting and analysing foreign and d ...
spy during the Second World War.
Personal life
Tinling was
openly gay.
His brother,
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
officer
James Collingwood Tinling
James Collingwood Burdett Tinling (24 March 1900 – 1983) was an ex-RAF officer who joined with Rolf Dudley-Williams and Frank Whittle in 1936 to set up Power Jets Ltd, which manufactured the world's first working jet engine.
Tinling was born i ...
, was a member of the team that built the first jet engine.
Portrayals
Tinling has been portrayed in two movies concerning the
Battle of the Sexes tennis match played in 1973 between
Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore Riggs (February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995) was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December ...
& Billie Jean King. In the 2001 TV Movie ''
When Billie Beat Bobby
''When Billie Beat Bobby'' is a 2001 American sports comedy-drama television film written and directed by Jane Anderson that details the historic 1973 " The Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs and what led ...
'', he was portrayed by American actor
Gerry Becker
Gerry Becker (April 11, 1951 – April 13, 2019)
''lovehardbikeride.org''. Retrieved 20 September 2021. was an A ...
and in the 2017 cinema release ''
Battle of the Sexes'', Tinling was played by British star
Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming (born 27 January 1965) is a British actor. His London stage appearances include ''Hamlet'', the Maniac in ''Accidental Death of an Anarchist'' (for which he received an Olivier Award), the lead in '' Bent'', The National Theatre o ...
.
Cumming played the role with a full head of hair, whereas Becker had played the part bald; accurately reflecting Tinling's appearance.
Works
*
*Tinling, Ted (1983), ''Tinling: Sixty Years in Tennis''.
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tinling, Ted
1910 births
1990 deaths
English fashion designers
English sportswriters
LGBT fashion designers
LGBT sportspeople from England
People from Eastbourne
International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees
LGBT tennis players
Tennis writers
World War II spies for the United Kingdom
Intelligence Corps officers
English male tennis players
20th-century English businesspeople
20th-century LGBT people
British male tennis players