ReportWire

Tag: Larry King

  • Billie Jean King Fast Facts | CNN

    Billie Jean King Fast Facts | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of tennis champion and LGBTQ activist Billie Jean King.

    Birth date: November 22, 1943

    Birth place: Long Beach, California

    Birth name: Billie Jean Moffitt

    Father: Willard J. Moffitt, engineer for a fire department

    Mother: Betty Moffitt, Avon sales representative

    Marriage: Ilana Kloss (October 18, 2018-present); Larry King (September 17, 1965-1987, divorced)

    Education: Attended Los Angeles State College (now California State University, Los Angeles), 1961-1964

    Has won 39 Grand Slam championships overall in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, including 12 Grand Slam singles titles.

    Is the founder and first president of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

    Threatened to boycott the 1973 US Open if equal prize money was not awarded. The fight she started for equal pay in the Grand Slams took 34 years to reach fruition when Wimbledon became the last of the four to fall into line in 2007.

    She remained friends with “Battle of the Sexes” opponent Bobby Riggs off the court until his death from prostate cancer in 1995.

    READ MORE: What you should know about tennis champ Billie Jean King

    1959 – Makes her tennis debut.

    1961 – Wins her first Wimbledon title, in doubles with Karen Hautze.

    1966 – Wins her first Wimbledon singles title.

    1966-1968, 1972, 1973, 1975 – Wimbledon singles champion.

    1967, 1971-1972, 1974 – US Open singles champion.

    1968 – Australian Open singles champion.

    1971 – Becomes the first female athlete to win $100,000 in a single year.

    1972 – French Open singles champion.

    1972 – Wins the US Open and threatens to bow out the following year if the prize money for the men and women is not equal.

    1973 – The US Open becomes the first major tournament to award equal prize money to men and women.

    June 30, 1973 – Establishes the WTA.

    September 20, 1973 – At 29, wins the “Battle of the Sexes” match in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, at the Houston Astrodome against 55-year-old Riggs. King earns the $100,000 winner-take-all prize.

    1973-1975, 1980-1981 – President of WTA.

    1974 – Is a founding partner, along with her husband Larry, of World Team Tennis, a competitive co-ed circuit league. She also helps establish the Women’s Sports Foundation.

    May 2, 1981 – Acknowledges that she is a lesbian after Marilyn Barnett files a palimony lawsuit against her. She becomes one of the first professional athletes to publicly disclose her homosexuality.

    1984 – Retires from professional tennis.

    2006 – The United States Tennis Association (USTA) National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York, is rededicated as the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The Center is the home of the US Open.

    August 12, 2009 – Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    December 17, 2013 – Is named to the US delegation for the opening ceremony at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia by President Barack Obama. She later withdraws due to her mother’s illness.

    2014 – Establishes the non-profit, Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative.

    February 15, 2014 – King is named as part of the presidential delegation to the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Russia, after having to withdraw from the opening ceremonies.

    September 22, 2017 – The film “Battle of the Sexes,” opens. The film is about King’s 1973 tennis match victory over Riggs.

    January 12, 2018 – Calls for the Australian Open’s Margaret Court Arena to be renamed because of the Melbourne Park champion’s views on homosexuality. During a media conference King states, “I was fine until she said lately so many derogatory things about my community. I’m a gay woman … that really went deep in my heart and soul.”

    September 21, 2019 – The city of Long Beach, California, opens the Billie Jean King Main Library. The building is located in the new $533 million Civic Center. The City Council voted unanimously to name the building after the famous native.

    September 17, 2020 – The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announces that the Fed Cup, an international women’s tennis team competition, has been renamed the Billie Jean King Cup.

    August 17, 2021 – King’s memoir, “All In: An Autobiography,” is published.

    February 13, 2022 – King serves as the Honorary Coin Toss Captain for Super Bowl LVI and flips the ceremonial coin ahead of kickoff, helping the NFL mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

    June 3, 2022 – French President Emmanuel Macron presents King with the Legion of Honor, France’s highest civilian award.

    November 7, 2022 – In an interview with CNN, King reveals her “pet peeve” is Wimbledon’s “horrible” all white uniform policy. The next day in a statement to CNN, the All-England Tennis Club (AELTC) says: “Prioritising women’s health and supporting players based on their individual needs is very important to us, and we are in discussions with the WTA, with manufacturers and with the medical teams about the ways in which we can do that.”

    October 18, 2023 – King is revealed to be a contestant on season 10 of the show “The Masked Singer.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Borscht Belt comedian Freddie Roman dies at age 85

    Borscht Belt comedian Freddie Roman dies at age 85

    [ad_1]

    Comedian Freddie Roman, the former dean of The Friars Club and a staple of the Catskills comedy scene, has died. He was 85.

    Roman died Saturday afternoon at Bethesda Hospital in Boynton Beach, Florida, his booking agent and friend Alison Chaplin said Sunday. His daughter told the entertainment trade Deadline that he suffered a heart attack that morning.

    Roman made his name performing at hotels and resorts in the Catskill Mountains, also referred to as the Borscht Belt for the largely Jewish crowd that vacationed there and the comics such as Mel Brooks and Don Rickles who entertained them. He later performed at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and Bally’s Grand in Atlantic City, and he roasted the likes of Rob Reiner, Chevy Chase, Jerry Stiller and Hugh Hefner. He also conceived of “Catskills on Broadway,” where he and his friends Dick Capri, Marilyn Michaels and Mal Z. Lawrence brought their nostalgia-tinged, Catskills-flavored standup to New York. He also appeared in various television shows and films over the years, including “Red Oaks” on Amazon.

    “A great loss to the world of comedy,” Paul Reiser wrote on Twitter. “He was such a huge supporter & mentor when I was starting out. A GREAT comic, the ultimate pro with the biggest heart. I will miss our phone calls and his big, beauty laugh.”

    Born Fred Kirschenbaum on May 28, 1937 in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in Jamaica, Queens, Roman got a taste for stand-up comedy early thanks to his family. His uncle and grandfather owned the Crystal Spring Hotel in the Catskills, where Roman started emceeing at age 15.

    In “Catskills on Broadway,” Roman commented about everything from his childhood in Queens to his “retirement life” in Florida.

    “I took a cholesterol test,” Roman quipped. “My number came back 911.”

    The New York Times, in its review of the show in 1991, wrote, “Catskill resorts may be fighting the recession, but Catskill comedy has not lost its flair.”

    The show, he’d later say, changed his life. It went to Broadway and then toured around the country, and Roman would continue performing for years to come. He was also made Dean of the New York City Friars Club, where he mentored many aspiring comedians and infused the private club with young talent.

    One of those young comedians was Jeffrey Ross, who said of Roman in 2003 that, “When I was becoming a member, there weren’t many of us who were younger. … But Freddie would always come over and spend time with me and my friends and be real lovable.”

    Capri, in the same interview, said Roman was the perfect comedy ambassador.

    “He’s the social director of the world,” Capri said. “And he loves every second of it.”

    The stint lasted a bit longer than he expected. Roman joked of his tenure that, “Eleven years ago I became president for two years. I’m like the Fidel Castro of comedians. I’m president for life.” In 2014, he was succeeded by Larry King.

    But, he told Atlantic City Weekly in 2011, the greatest job he ever had was opening for Frank Sinatra, when his regular opening comedian Tom Dreesen wasn’t available. Roman learned about the opportunity on a layover in Chicago, left the plane and boarded another for Philadelphia to make the show in Atlantic City with just a few hours to spare.

    He left the stage to see Sinatra laughing. The singer even called him back for another bow.

    “Frank hugged me, and I saw my wife and daughter and they were crying,” Roman said. “It was unbelievable. … Nothing ever topped working with Sinatra.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link