The Legend of Billie Jean King - Battle of the Sexes Storyville

MUSIC: "How Strong Is A Woman" by Ann Peebles

# There seems to be some conflict

# As to who is the stronger sex

# Some say it's hard to tell

# When they're both bringing home a cheque... #

What's wrong with her?

She's a woman, isn't she?

Women workers do present problems, Joan.

Well, of all the nerve!

# If you wanna know how strong is a woman... #

I didn't want to be a second-class citizen

and I didn't want anybody else to be a second-class citizen either.

# ..That a woman is as strong as...

# As the man she loves... #

You don't know what the hell you want!

Men like to be the boss and they like to be the head of the family,

and women do not have the same rights.

I like to be old-fashioned. I like him to buy cigarettes for me,

letting me sit down and opening the car door.

Number one - the woman should stay in the bedroom.

Number two - they should get to the kitchen.

Number three - support the man. Support the king.

I was a journalist and the highest praise that even friendly editors

would give me was, "You write like a man."

# How strong is a woman?

# A woman is strong till love takes a hand

# A woman is strong... #

CHEERING

STARTER GUN FIRES

COMMENTATOR: Look at them...

The weaker sex.

They were everywhere, from the tennis club to the Olympic Games,

and they still wanted a seat in the bus.

But would these strenuous games

impair the natural functions of motherhood?

For future generations, to be or not to be, that was the question.

As a young child, I started to realise that girls didn't have...

the power, or people wouldn't listen to us...

in the same way they'd listen to boys.

I couldn't articulate it then.

I felt all these things bubbling up in me.

I decided I was going to spend the rest of my life dedicated

to fighting for equal rights and opportunities for boys and girls,

men and women.

I knew that tennis would be a platform

if I could become number one.

MUSIC: "The Happening" by The Supremes

# Hey, life, look at me

# I can see the reality

# Cos when you shook me Took me out of my world

# I woke up Suddenly, I just woke up

# To the happening... #

It's real when you're playing tennis.

I know it's a game, but it allows you to be resilient.

It allows you to bounce back.

You learn how to win.

And it portrays real life in action.

It just does.

DAN MASKELL: That's it, she's won it.

It's absolutely beautiful.

Last night, I was so anxious, I couldn't even...get to sleep.

I'm like a little kid again.

I love to play.

Billie Jean King was a bundle of energy, vivacious. Boy...

was she a good big-match player.

Billie Jean King had a heart of a champion, the heart of a lion.

Wimbledon champion and great player.

The game is possibly not quite so attractive today

with the emphasis on some of the girls,

like Billie Jean King, who charges around the court

very much like a man, rather than the old days, when you had girls

who looked exceptionally graceful on court.

I don't think that it was sexy to be a woman athlete, necessarily,

back in the '60s. I didn't view it that way.

I think we saw women tennis players who were a little bit more...

let's say masculine - maybe that's why they did play a sport.

You're different from other girls. You're almost like a man.

-Oh, no, I'm very much the woman.

-I don't think of you that way at all.

Here she is. She is single and fun-loving.

We were supposed to be demure,

have a little round collar and a flared skirt.

And you were supposed to be nice to men and tell them

how wonderful they were.

She's engaged.

CHURCH BELLS RING

She is newly married.

She may be exclusively a homemaker.

Opportunities for women hardly existed.

Or she may hold a part-time job.

It was difficult for a woman to get a credit card.

It wouldn't be in her own name, but in her husband's name.

PHONE RINGS

Women could not start their own businesses

without their husband's permission.

Women's roles were not to be successful and not to achieve.

So, when somebody like a Billie Jean King came around,

society didn't know what to think.

Ho-ho! There it is.

Remember, she's Mrs King. Has been for four years.

I thought you liked me to watch you.

Mr King plays an average tennis game

and a better-than-average waiting game.

He's become accustomed to walking a few steps behind his wife.

Larry's had enough of tennis, but as yet, he's not put his foot down

about his wife's future.

I don't think he'd want to ever ask me to give up tennis.

Yet, I think he wishes...

that maybe I would!

You know, that I'd want to give it up, but I don't at the moment,

so it's difficult.

Deep down, do you really feel like that?

It's not very deep.

SHE LAUGHS

Everything was about, "Is your husband OK?

"Whatever's right for him."

Get the Mrs degree

and settle down and have kids and let's go.

People think I'm terrible. "Jeez, how can you travel

"and not be home and cook three meals a day

"and have three children by now?"

-The last real meal you cooked for me was...

-What was that?!

SHE LAUGHS

It was in May.

-May?

-Of 1967.

-Yeah, right!

BOTH LAUGH

Oh!

I used to get really ticked off,

because they never asked the boys that, the men players.

They had to manage their marriages,

they're on the road 11 months a year.

Like, hello! Why don't you ask them?

# Now I sing this song in hope

# That you won't think it's a joke

# But it's time we all awoke to take a stand... #

The feminist movement was really starting to happen, you know,

there was that bubbling up, kind of underneath the surface,

obviously had to have an influence on me.

What would you do if women disrupted a man's rally?

What do you mean...? What do you mean...?

What would you do? You'd beat 'em to bits.

That's what we should do to this pig. Get out of here.

Women really do have a community of interests

because we are relegated to menial and de-humanised positions

simply because we are women.

This generation stands for... INDISTINCT

That women are worth it.

That sisterhood is powerful.

Women are organising themselves, complaining of oppression,

demanding the same rights men have and even talking of revolution.

It's the blossoming of the feminist movement.

We have been much too law-abiding and too docile for too long,

but I think that period is about over.

So, I only want to remind you, and me, tonight,

that what we are talking about is a revolution

and not a reform.

CLAMOURING

The Civil Rights Movement was a great contagion of the idea of equality.

You cannot fight racism without also fighting sexism.

These twin caste systems are very much intertwined.

We hold these truth to be self-evident.

That all men are created equal.

CHEERING

MUSIC: "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World" by John Lennon

# Woman is the nigger of the world

# Yes, she is

# Think about it

# We make her paint her face and dance

# If she won't be a slave We say that she don't love us

# If she's real We say she's trying to be a man

# While puttin' her down We pretend so hard she's above us

# Woman... #

If you define niggers as someone whose opportunities are defined

by others, whose role in society is defined by others,

then good news, you don't have to be black to be a nigger in this society.

Most of the people in America are niggers.

There, all of a sudden, women were burning their bras

and having demonstrations on the streets.

It was like the lights going on, because you suddenly realised

that you were not alone in having these experiences,

and if we banded together, we could change them.

I was reading, you know, and thinking about things.

And, also, I think I was starting to become much more aware

of what was going on around me, particularly in our sport.

Women's tennis is, in a way, the ultimate in women's liberation.

It puts the lie to the activist claim about exploitation.

Men watch Billie Jean not to ogle her sexy legs

but to witness or even learn from her game.

We expressed exactly what the women's movement is about.

We sweat, it's real, it's about just being the best we could be

and whatever we want to be, it's about choice.

GRUNTS

CROWD GASPS

GRUNTS

CROWD GASPS

There is little more revolutionary than for women to

become physically strong.

Sports make it possible for women with muscles and strength

to be admirable.

-UMPIRE:

-Would spectators please try to contain themselves during play.

-Oh, I love it!

-All right!

Fine!

Every now and then, someone comes along

with the ability to make it big,

not so much on their talent, as on their ability

to generate publicity.

Meet Bobby Riggs, ageing ex-tennis star

who's discovered there's money in putting down women.

I feel that the women have had things going too good for them

for a long time.

American women are the most privileged group

of all time in history and are still not satisfied, they want more.

First thing you know, guys are getting married,

pretty soon won't be able to get out once a week for a poker game,

they won't be able to go away for weekend duck-hunting trips

or for camping vacations, and they will have to be playing bridge

and going to a concert with their wives and they'll be enslaved,

so I don't care about myself, but I'm fighting for the guys

who are all going to get married in the next...

when they get 20, 21 or 22, and we got to stop those women right now.

The women's movement started and my dad, he said,

"Oh, you're not the same in tennis,"

so he came up with an idea to challenge a woman to play tennis.

Admittedly, Riggs was once a great champion.

Today, he says he just wants to protect mankind from pushy women.

He knew how to promote

and he knew what it was like to create a big crowd

and he saw this opening and he picked up on it that there was

a women's cause and he threw it out.

There were many people who believed that any man could beat any woman

in a particular sport

and he was playing on that in a very public way.

Veteran tennis pro Bobby Riggs thinks men players are superior

to women players.

Women don't play half as good as men. As a matter of fact,

I don't even think they can beat me, and I'm a 55-year-old guy

who can hardly walk or run or jump or hold a racket any more.

I think I might beat the best girl in the world.

To prove it, Riggs challenged the world's best women pros.

He said, "I offer 5,000 to any woman who can beat me.

"I challenge Billie Jean King to a match for 5,000."

Billie Jean King was the top player of the time and she was a big draw.

She's a Wimbledon champion and great player

and she voiced her opinions on women's tennis

and Bobby was reading that, he'd follow it

and he just came up with the idea.

"If you're so good, Billie Jean King, come and play me."

Bobby kept coming up to me.

He'd appear at a tournament out of nowhere.

I'd be totally focused on what we had to do and Bobby would come over.

Ah...

He'd go, "Hi, Billie. We got to play this match.

"Oh, it'd be so good, we'll get lots of money, we'll get TV."

You know, he talks real fast like this, and I go,

"Bobby! Slow down. I'm not going to do this."

A-ha...

My gut reaction was no, because what do I have to gain by it personally?

If I win, I've beaten a 55-year-old athlete,

so that's not a big athletic feat.

What happens if I lose?

Margaret Court is one, two, three greatest players of all time.

She won 62 Grand Slam championships.

She's got a tremendous record, so she was a great player.

There was great rivalry between she and Billie Jean.

You couldn't really get two more different people.

Night and day. Very different in their personalities.

But champions.

We had some battles and it was always sort of

a bit electrifying when we played.

Margaret Court was shy and quiet and

very conservative and, you know,

got married, had a couple of kids.

Just did everything by the book.

She was quite religious and she felt she had to use the God-given talent

that she had to its maximum.

I wasn't a women's libber, I didn't want to come across like that.

Billie Jean King was always a political figure.

I guess I never looked for that.

We were in Detroit, playing a tournament.

And Margaret and I get in the elevator

and she's, "Oh, by the way, I'm playing Bobby Riggs."

He kept at Billie Jean and myself,

and I thought I could really beat him.

So, he wasn't all that good.

I thought, "Well, I'll give it a go."

I about fainted. I went, "What?! Why?"

She said, "Well, I'm getting 3,500."

I said, "That's great,

"but, Margaret, this is not a tennis match.

"I mean, it's a tennis match, but that's not what it represents."

And so as we get out of the elevator, I go,

"Margaret, please promise me you're going to win this match.

"You HAVE to win this match."

Do you have a special game plan for Bobby Riggs?

It's not as though I'm playing somebody that probably

will wipe me right off the court.

I don't feel that Bobby Riggs hits the ball hard enough

to do this sort of thing,

and I feel that there's a few of the top girls in the game

that probably hit the ball harder than he does.

Bobby, is this match just to prove the physical dominance

of men over women?

Everybody knows that she's a power player.

She probably likes speed, she's aggressive, she plays like a man

and hits the ball very hard, especially for a woman.

And if I were going to meet her in a ring as a boxer,

I would box with her, and that's what I'll do on the tennis court.

I haven't really taken this match on as a women's lib sort of thing.

But if I'm going to make a lot of women happy, I'll enjoy beating him!

It is a 30-year-old mother against a 55-year-old hustler

on Mother's Day, and all morning long, the Rolls-Royces

and the chauffeured limousines have been bringing the celebrities

to see this most talked about match in the history of tennis.

I think that it's very exciting and I believe that

Margaret Court will beat Bobby Riggs.

I think Bobby Riggs is living on his past, he's 55 years old

and, you know, wears glasses, and I'd be surprised

if he wouldn't have a coronary right there.

I kind of think that if you're competing seriously all the time,

Margaret Court will have an edge.

She is strong, she hits the ball hard, she runs very well,

and I think Bobby's in real trouble.

Listen to that, saying nice things about Margaret!

Have you got anything nice to say about Bobby Riggs

-at this point?

-No, not really!

There's the Duke himself, John Wayne.

It's my privilege to introduce to you the players in today's match.

Three-time Wimbledon champion, four times women's singles champion

in the United States, from Australia, meet Margaret Court.

I didn't know when I went in there what I was in for.

I had no idea what he had all planned behind the scenes.

She looks around and there's 5,000 people there instead of 50

and, all of a sudden, it's on TV

and it's a really big deal.

Thank you very much. Her opponent,

twice a United States singles champion, also a winner at Wimbledon.

Colourful and controversial Bobby Riggs.

CHEERING

He had his fan squad there, yelling and screaming.

In America, they love all that sort of thing.

He presented her with the roses on Mother's Day

and she curtsied to him, which upset a lot of women.

See? He's not such a bad guy after all.

SHE CHUCKLES

Margaret Court had long arms and long legs

and she seemed to cover the court so much better than everybody else.

She was such a good player.

Play.

15...Mr Riggs.

He hated to lose.

He would try to arrange a game where you would think

that you could beat him,

but he was very accurate, hard to beat.

CHEERING

30...Mr Riggs.

This is exactly what we expected to see, some of those drop shots.

No power and a lot of finesse.

CHEERING

30-15.

Tennis is very much a test of character.

Not only talent and strength, but it's also who has

the mental endurance to come through.

-UMPIRE:

-40-15.

COMMENTATOR: Margaret seems to be off her game here.

-SUMMARISER:

-Well, one of her big faults,

really the only fault she has, is really her nervous system.

-She can get very tense.

-CROWD GASPS

Game to Mr Riggs.

He grew up in a time where his parents didn't have any money

and his only thing he had was sports and his hands and his feet.

So his whole life was about playing marbles for money,

playing tennis for money, playing golf for money.

He always thought he was going to win or he wouldn't get involved.

CHEERING

CHEERING

GASPS

The first set, by a score of 6-2, Mr Riggs.

He's playing the game great,

he's soft-balling Margaret to death.

But at the moment, it looks like Bobby is just toying with her

and I know that's going to have a demoralising effect

on Margaret if she thinks he's just horsing around with her.

What does Margaret Court have to do to get it together here in the second set?

She's got to get the net and really try to play an offensive game.

GASPS

15...Mr Riggs.

Bobby first played Wimbledon in 1939.

And he goes into the bookie's.

He said, "What are the odds on Bobby Riggs winning the singles?"

"3-1."

So he bets on himself to win it.

The guy says, "You know, we got doubles and the mixed doubles too,

"if you want to go for all three."

He got 12-1 odds. The guy says, "Pretty hard thing to do."

He says, "I'm positive I'm going to win, chuck it in."

So he bets singles, doubles and mixed.

Then, lo and behold, he won all three of them.

APPLAUSE

Triple crown at Wimbledon, he deserved respect.

He was a hustler, wasn't he? The guy was brilliant.

CHEERING

She should never have accepted that challenge.

She wasn't the sort of person who

could withstand Bobby's personality.

When her nerves got to her, she couldn't even hit

the ball near the court. I mean, it was just flying...

Match point.

I felt sorry for her, it was that bad.

And from there, it's history.

There it is.

CHEERING

He absolutely trounced her.

I think it was the tension, the pressure of the biggest match

ever played, the 60 million audience on television,

all the press, the way this thing has been built up

over the last two or three months.

She arrived here

with the whole pressure of the women's world on her.

Casals and that whole group had 30,000 to bet on her.

I only hope they got accommodated, that's all I can tell you.

Psychologically representing the women of the world, was that a factor in the match?

No, not really. I mean, I would have liked to have won it.

I even feel, you know,

if it had've been close and I lost, I would have been a lot happier

if I had've played well, but I don't feel I played at all well

and...you know, I've very disappointed with that.

I'm going to specialise in women's tennis from now on.

I think I've discovered my new thing in life,

-play women all over the world.

-LAUGHTER

The logical match now would be a Bobby Riggs, Billie Jean King match.

She turned down the offer at the start,

and I'm not sure if she'd play now,

but certainly he's hot copy right now with his strong win today.

It's probably one of my mistakes in life.

Perhaps I was naive in some areas.

I don't know if Margaret realised

the deal or not.

It was disastrous for women's tennis.

Before 1968, tennis was an amateur sport, you played for love.

But then the game went professional.

Finally, people could make a living in the sport.

I just remember being so happy.

Memories of the world's first open tennis tournament,

where pro and amateur faced each other across the net

on equal terms, will linger for a long time.

Reigning Wimbledon queen Billie Jean King met irrepressible

Judy Tegart in the women's singles final.

Billie Jean King's amazing skill

has taken her to the singles title for the third time.

A grand hat-trick.

The two greatest champions Wimbledon has ever known,

Billie Jean King and Rod Laver,

open the dancing at the Grosvenor House Wimbledon Ball.

Laver was playing, not only for the coveted trophy,

but also for the £2,000-plus prize money.

I didn't have any idea we were going to get different prize money.

I go, "What?!

"He got 2,000. I got 750?"

I thought it was totally unfair.

Holy breaking and entering, it's Batgirl!

Untie us before it's too late.

I've worked for you a long time and I'm paid less than Robin!

-Holy discontent!

-Same job, same employer, means equal pay

for men and women.

-TIMER TICKS, BELL RINGS

-Holy Act of Congress!

When the prize money started appearing, it was obvious

that the men were up here and the women were down here.

And we started feeling very strongly that we deserved to get paid equally.

Equal prize money for what?

Women play two to three sets.

Guys play three to five.

Is it equal work, is it equal time?

There's no way that the women should have equal prize money, no way.

I never saw the argument of men playing three out of five sets

versus women playing two out of three sets

as being the issue. The issue to me

was, can we draw as big a crowd as the men?

And if the answer's yes

then we deserve the same amount of prize money.

Equal pay!

There was legislation in 1963, but equal pay is

most neatly applicable to exactly the same job.

Women who are childcare workers get paid less than men

who are parking attendants.

It isn't that people value their cars more than their children,

it's that one is a pink-colour ghetto and the other is a male job.

Now tennis is taking on still newer look

and it appears that the game will never be the same.

With tennis, it was difficult to use legislation when

they kept maintaining that people didn't want to see women

playing tennis.

The net result of all this is to make the girl so glamorous

that no-one cares whether they can play tennis or not.

The ratio of prize money started to be horrendous,

like, 10, 11, 12 to 1.

And more and more tournaments did not have women's events

so we, as women, had fewer and fewer places to play.

It was the men who were running things

and there was very clearly

not a place for women

on their horizon.

We're in big trouble if we want to keep playing tennis.

Forget the money, just play.

There was only one woman we knew who we thought was powerful enough

to help us.

My mother was the perfect storm.

She ran the world's largest and most important tennis magazine.

Billie and Rosie and I went to talk with Gladys Heldman

and see if she could help us in any way.

They told her there are no tournaments for women,

or very few, and the prize-money differential from men to women

is getting bigger and bigger, and that's not right.

And Gladys said, "Let's try to get a tour started, we can do this."

I don't think you're going to find too many Gladys Heldmans.

Who knew tennis better than she did?

Gladys made it happen. She knew how to get a sponsor,

she had great connections.

Within three weeks, we had a tournament

scheduled in Houston.

And then the United States Tennis Association

started calling all the women, saying...

"If you're going to play this tournament,

"we are going to suspend you."

They were the establishment and they controlled the sport.

The guy was making very clear and strong threats.

"You won't be able to play other USLTA women's tournaments,

"you won't be able to play... Wimbledon."

Well, of all the nerve!

Can you imagine never being able to play Wimbledon again?

Or playing the US Open again?

Everybody was rattled and nobody was really sure what was going to happen,

but I said, "I'm in, and we will stand in solidarity."

I was not that politically active then.

I mean, I didn't think it was quite right

but I wasn't going to rock the boat.

I was very much of keeping the men's and the women's together -

always was.

I really didn't get involved back then at all.

Did it bother me that Margaret Court, Virginia Wade wouldn't come on board?

Yeah. Yeah.

I thought that was chicken.

I probably was never going to be a frontrunner in the suffragettes.

Nine of us were willing to cross the line.

Seven Americans and two Aussie girls.

We signed for one dollar, you know.

I didn't have any doubts. I thought it was the right thing to do.

We stood there and held our little dollar bill up

but we had no idea if that tournament would be a success.

Sometimes you just got to take some type of stand

and take a risk.

We weren't sure about our destiny, but I'll tell you one thing.

We knew it was now in our hands for the first time - in our hands,

not somebody else's.

MUSIC: "One Way Ticket" by Mama Cass Elliot

# Call the village band out

# Bid me goodbye... #

In those early days, it was wild and woolly.

It was making things up as we went along.

# Never thought so many Thought me so dear... #

We were playing anywhere

where somebody could get a big enough crowd

to be able to pay the prize money.

# One-way ticket Take me anywhere... #

Some of the places that we played were really not equipped for tennis.

Sometimes we would go into an arena and maybe we didn't have any

tennis balls, or maybe the court wasn't down yet.

We all had to work really hard,

but there was a sense we were in this together.

It was fun, great times.

Nobody knew what to make of us.

It wasn't uncommon to send out the society reporter.

What's it like to be, if you'll forgive the expression, a spinster on the tennis court?

How much longer are you going to keep all this up?

To be honest with you, I thought I would have quit by now.

Tennis really comes, not first, but equal to, say, my marriage.

How long will that last?

The tennis, I mean. Not the marriage.

-SHE CHUCKLES

-I don't know on either one!

We had to educate them about women's tennis, what it was all about,

and why we deserved the money that we got when we won.

There is nothing better for a human being to be able to get paid

for playing the sport well.

A lot of the girls have changed for the better and they have a lot more

personal pride in their personality. They feel,

"I've done it. I didn't have to ask Mom and Dad for the money,

"I earned that money because I played well."

And then Virginia Slims, who were a big sponsor, came along

and what they did was phenomenal.

They had the know-how, they had the money, they knew

how to advertise, they knew how to market

and they did all of that for us.

We'd do a radio show at six in the morning

or at two o'clock in the morning...

magazine article, whoever would listen to us.

You know, you learned how to sell.

The media interest was that there was a rebellion by the women

and there was something new that was happening.

# No matter where I am

# I'm passing through... #

It's been a year since we first had our first

Virginia Slims Invitational in Houston.

We were bad little girls, but that's where it all started,

and I think we have come a long way since then.

Billie Jean King, leader of a special brand of female revolutionaries.

Proving in a male-dominated sport

that even in a frilly tennis dress, ladies can be liberated.

It's proving to the world that women's tennis

is an interesting and a profitable proposition.

We would like to have played along with the men,

but the men got the idea that they were the only ones who mattered.

When we first started the tour, we were in it to support ourselves

by doing what we did best,

but as the days, months,

years went on, we began to see the bigger picture.

The women's movement was going to change things,

and we would be a part of that.

INDISTINCT

No, thank you.

Women liberationists are on the march again.

For more than four years,

members of the National Organisation For Women have been campaigning

throughout the nation for more equality and better civil rights.

Women were often divided on crucial issues affecting their lives.

THEY CHANT

Some saw abortion on demand as part of their right to exercise control

over their own bodies.

We do not seek to impose abortion on any woman who doesn't seek one.

But by the same token,

the women, or a man, who oppose abortion have no right

to deprive anybody of a fundamental right.

But many disagreed on ethical and religious grounds.

We want people to know how anxious we are

about aggression on an unborn child and the bewildered mother.

CHEERING

Lots of women say, "I'm happy."

What they really mean is, "I'm content

"and I'm not going to complain."

It's a lot of nonsense.

-Why?

-Because you are liberated inside or you're not, you know.

If you're a liberated human being, you're a liberated human being, and taking off...

-What if you don't have equal...?

-Oh, we have equality. It's the inferior people that are crying.

I want to be old-fashioned. I like him buying cigarettes for me,

letting me sit down and opening the car door.

The women's movement often called it the "Queen Bee Syndrome".

You know, the desire to be the only member of your group

inside the superior group.

The opposition will go out and find people who look like you

but behave like them.

-To the Queen of Tennis.

-Obviously my head is too big.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

-'Hello.'

-Hello, Mr President.

'I just wanted to congratulate you on your great successes this year

'and this has got to be your best year, don't you think?'

'All these things started to fall into place.

'We were finally starting to grow and be truly successful.'

The other girls have got to be... given a lot of credit.

They've done a lot of promotional work this year,

except they tried very hard when I played against them, unfortunately.

'But then the USTA saw the success we were having with Virginia Slims

'and set up their own rival women's tour in competition with us.'

They had Virginia and they had Evonne Goolagong

and then they had Chris Evert,

and I thought, "How ridiculous that you're going to set up a tour

"to rival us, instead of having those players be a part of us."

That hurt me and all of us a lot.

Because they didn't have to. All they had to do was join us.

Equality? You don't know what the hell you want!

My dad did not care about the women's movement at all.

Had no idea what it was, or what it was about, or where it came from.

He was just Bobby Riggs, ex-tennis champion.

Met a very nice lady and they got married

and then they had three or four kids.

He had a house in the suburbs.

He had a regular job, wore a suit, coat and tie,

came to work every day, downtown New York.

He was just a regular guy.

For about 20 years, it seems Bobby Riggs disappeared. Where did you go?

Being a good 9-5 father and provider and...?

Yes, I thought so. However, a lot of people tell you,

"The only reason you got to be executive vice-president

"is you married the boss's daughter."

I'll tell you one thing. If you want to get to the top, that's the fastest way to go.

Holy God, wait a minute.

What makes Bobby Riggs come alive is playing a game in a contest.

Tennis, golf, backgammon, gin - whatever it is, I like to compete.

I never see you playing slot machines, the crap tables.

-How come?

-That's the sucker's play, you know that.

You don't expect Bobby Riggs to be a sucker.

Are you ready? I'm going to shoot first and put the pressure on you.

-Put it on.

-OK, ready, set, go.

His wife kept telling him, "Bobby, you've got a gambling problem.

"If you don't go to a psychiatrist,

"I'm going to file for divorce."

And Bobby said,

"OK, dear, I'll cooperate.

"You set up the appointment, I'll go to a psychiatrist."

So, now he starts going to a psychiatrist twice a week

for an hour and a half.

By the second time, he's playing gin rummy with his psychiatrist

for the whole session, and he carried on like that for a year.

HE CHUCKLES

-Do you do it for money, Bobby?

-No, I do it for fun, the sport.

It's the thing to do. When I can't play for big money, I'll play for little money.

If I can't play for little money, I'll stay in bed that day.

He was in La Jolla, California, and his wife called him

and she informed him that she was filing for a divorce.

She said, "Bobby, you've been gambling.

"I can't handle it any more, I'm sorry, but we're divorced."

He was absolutely dumbfounded, he couldn't believe it.

I loused the marriage up, there's no question about that.

Because I did like to play my golf, I did like the gin rummy,

I did like to "be with the boys", as she used to call it, you know.

CHEERING

OK.

So, now he's divorced, he's going to do something.

What's he going to do?

And all of a sudden, he starts hearing these women talking about,

"We're as good as guys

"and the women's tennis game is as good as the guys'."

I feel we work just as hard for the money as they do

and feel that there should be some compensation for it.

He got the germ of the idea, "Hey, the girls have got that good.

"You know what? I think I can still beat them."

What woman could beat Bobby Riggs?

Hey, send telegrams out to all the top girls.

Chrissie Evert, Margaret Court, Billie Jean King,

Nancy Richey, and the one who answered was Margaret Court.

We were all in Japan, playing a tournament at the time.

She apparently let it just really get to her and played terrible.

And it didn't help our cause.

We stopped in Hawaii, before coming back to California,

and you know those little TV sets that you put a quarter in?

And we were watching this, "God, she's on, she's on!"

Her first mistake was curtsying to him.

That was really a psychological mistake.

'Match point.'

'There it is. Bobby Riggs wins...'

I looked at the old lady and she looked at me,

and she says...

"Now I've got to play him."

This is going to be the real match, this is what it's really all about,

because Bobby challenged me in the first place.

I didn't want to start an issue, but now that Margaret went ahead

and opened the door and did such a miserable job...

you know, I think that I can beat Bobby.

What makes you think that I won't be able to psych you out?

I'm not Margaret Court, I love pressure.

You can try psyching me all you want.

I had promoted the first Ali-Frazier fight in Madison Square Garden.

If it had just been a tennis match,

I wouldn't have had any interest in it at all.

Do you think a lot is at stake for women's lib?

I like the idea that I am playing for someone else besides myself.

The feminist movement was just coming out

and this just tied into it beautifully.

I get 120,000 letters from Bobby's mob.

This is the mob of guys all over the world

who wrote and told me they were rooting for me.

I wouldn't let these guys down for the world.

This has the atmosphere of a prize-fight.

Yes. That's exactly what it is.

Never bet against Bobby Riggs, especially when there's big money involved.

He hustles off the court and I hustle on the court. That's where it matters.

She's carrying a banner for the women's lib.

I'm carrying the male is supreme, the male is king, no matter what the difference in age.

That's a bunch of baloney. First of all, people are people.

Some are more supreme than others in different things.

-Can you beat her?

-I can kill her.

Billie Jean took this thing very seriously.

She knew it was tongue-in-cheek, but on the other hand she knew she had to beat him.

You can always find Bobby Riggs in the world of the beautiful people.

The guest at somebody's gracious mansion.

Bobby's career was over for all intents and purposes

and now this is his day in the sun.

I wouldn't call myself a do-gooder.

I have an exciting life, basically for myself.

He was a big-time celebrity all of a sudden. It's amazing.

I'm a singles player. Better singles than doubles.

What's the difference?

In doubles you have to communicate with your partner

and it's a team game.

Just like marriage. It takes two.

I blew two marriages already,

so that proves I'm a better singles player than a doubles player.

Bobby amuses me.

I don't think he's hurting women's liberation at all.

Do you go as far as Bobby Riggs does?

They should be home in the kitchen and in bed and having babies?

In bed, but not the rest!

All of a sudden, women of all ages are chasing him.

And this has never happened to him before in his life.

There were some starlets and some good-looking babes.

It was unbelievable.

He was like Tom Cruise. He was the guy.

He's like a Confucius He's got a lot of pearls of wisdom.

I would go over and there he'd be talking to two or three girls or whatever.

I'd have my tennis clothes on, my racket or whatever, and I'd say, "Dad let's hit some balls."

"No, don't feel like it today."

So I said to him, "Dad, Billie Jean King is pretty good, you know. We need to start training."

And he said to me, "I beat Margaret Court really easily.

"She's better than Billie Jean King. There is no problem here. I will defeat her easily."

And I said, "Come on."

And he said, "I won Wimbledon, not you. Don't try to second-guess me."

Would you please welcome tennis champion, Billie Jean King.

APPLAUSE

And you gals were a little bit steamed because the men, of course,

their purses are much higher than what they are for women?

What's irritating is when we play with the fellas,

say at the US Open, and the promoter tells us

we're out-drawing the men but we're getting paid less.

Like a two to one ratio.

I did not have time to even think

about playing Bobby Riggs in a match

because what we were doing off the court was so demanding.

They say this is the year of women's emancipation in tennis.

How much of a fight has it been?

Oh, I think it's been a really hard struggle for us to be appreciated.

I always felt that if we got big prize money,

then the appreciation would follow.

I think this is exactly what's happened.

But the financial differential remains.

The man who wins at Wimbledon will get more than twice as much money as the women's champ.

There were two separate women's tours.

One run by us and one run by the USTA.

I knew that we all had to be together if we were going to get equal prize money.

We played separate tours for two years, I believe.

When we did play each other at a Grand Slam,

the USTA girls always felt they were looking at us like,

"Why didn't you come over to our side and stand with the pack?"

Top talent is divided.

We had to unify and have a union of players together to have one voice.

Billie Jean and a group of players went into a meeting

at the Gloucester Hotel in London during Wimbledon.

We went in and started this meeting, which was very clandestine,

because if it got out that we were forming an association,

all hell would have broken loose.

I said, "Lock the doors. Do not let anybody out of this place."

So I stood in front of the door with broad shoulders.

Several players wanted to leave and I told them, no, they couldn't.

I didn't hit them, but I stood there. I didn't let them out.

I said, "We have to do this.

"We have an association by the end of this meeting or we don't.

"And if we don't, fine, but I'm out of here."

'73 was the year we had to do it and if we wouldn't do it then,

it would never happen again.

The players weren't sure.

They were a bit afraid, I think, to step forward.

There are always people who say why instead of why not.

Why should we change? We've got something that's very nice.

We had a lot of resistance.

I didn't really want to be there, I don't think,

in the meeting during the middle of Wimbledon.

I just remember her standing up saying,

this is it, this is our moment.

This is our opportunity to change the future.

I remember thinking the formation of the WTA,

Women's Tennis Association, was crucial.

If we joined forces with them, we would be stronger.

Eventually, everybody voted.

Yes, there would be an association.

Everybody was, wow, very proud to be a woman then.

# No-one's ever going to keep you down again

# Oh, yes, I am wise. #

This is unbelievable. We've got one voice now. We can rock.

We can start making a difference, not only for us,

but for the future generations.

# If I have to, I can do anything

-# I am strong

-Strong

-# I am invincible

-Invincible

# I am woman. #

In an all-American women's final,

Mrs Billie Jean King, the reigning champion,

and Miss Christine Evert, still only 18-years-old.

The Congress of the United States passed a law

that has come to be known as Title IX.

Schools must provide facilities and opportunity for women

equal to those they provide for men.

Ms has been added to the US government list

of acceptable prefixes.

Ms, says the government,

is an optional female title without marital designation.

The Supreme Court today legalised abortions.

The majority in cases from Texas and Georgia

said the decision to end the pregnancy during the first

three months belongs to the woman and her doctor, not the government.

# I can do anything

-# I am strong

-Strong

-# I am invincible

-Invincible

# I am woman. #

And Billie Jean King is champion again.

She went on to win the women's doubles and the mixed doubles,

winning the triple crown for the second time.

ALL: Bobby Riggs! Rah, Rah, Rah!

Bobby Riggs tends to go a bit overboard

where vitamins are concerned.

Riggs, who takes 415 pills a day, says they will give him the edge

in the match with Billie Jean King.

Ah, great!

Do you like women?

I like them real good in the bedroom, in the kitchen and...

You're a male chauvinist pig!

CHEERING

If a woman is put in a male arena, then people will be interested

because 90% of the media is controlled by men.

So if I'm going to play Bobby, now it's about the men.

The male is king, the male is supreme and the women should know that.

AUDIENCE BARRACK

I plan to bomb Billie Jean King in this match

and set back the women's lib movement about another 20 years.

He kept on going all these shows and acted like a crazy man,

so the women got pissed off about it and they all rallied around Billie Jean King

to beat this idiot and shut this guy up.

The guy is a complete buffoon. Shut him up.

As part of the hoopla,

Bobby Riggs signed copies of his favourite book - his autobiography.

It became one of the biggest things that was going on in America.

Everybody was talking about this thing.

He said women should stay pregnant, he said they should be kept home and kept pregnant. I mean, you know.

I thought he was a jerk.

He was very much a loudmouth back in those times.

I was hoping he would get beaten.

After I demolished the beautiful Margaret Court,

all the girls all the world got up in arms

and said we have to find a gladiator that will put down that Bobby Riggs.

I'm glad he's enjoying himself and he's helping promote the match.

But I tell you, when we get on the court,

all the talking in the world isn't going to help.

Bobby Riggs today would be a laughing stock.

But unfortunately, he wasn't back then.

You really think this match should be the symbol of the women's struggle against the men?

Absolutely. We've chosen the gladiators.

Billie Jean King for the women and Bobby Riggs for all the male guys all over the world.

No way he's going to take me out. I have been around long enough.

All that hot air isn't going to make one bit of difference.

She's psyched out already. She's coming apart at the seams.

Wait until I use my secret weapon. I'll wear Hai Karate aftershave.

That way, she won't be able to concentrate.

Hi, I'm Bobby Riggs, here with the male chauvinists all over the world.

When I finish my chores, I can still splash on Hai Karate

and go out and swing a little.

After all, which would you rather be?

A great woman tennis player or a 55-year-old sex symbol?

I went for, I think, ten days.

I got away from everybody

and absolutely started to slowly but surely focus in.

She prepared. She practised. She worked out.

And she had that mental attitude.

I decided I was going to be very quiet.

I wasn't going to get involved with the audience at all.

I was totally going to stay focused.

I visualised completely how I wanted to be before I got there.

I thought about it every day.

I hit hundreds of overhead serves a day.

When she decides she's going to do something, she's going to do it.

There was a tremendous amount of interest.

Madison Square Garden was bidding for it.

New Orleans was bidding for it.

We got 250,000 guaranteed from the Astrodome in Houston.

And we got 750,000 from ABC from a television standpoint.

In those days, that was the top price.

Hollywood celebrities, sports figures have converged on Houston

to see Riggs battle Billie Jean King,

the so-called defender of women's rights.

Mrs King, or Ms King,

has threatened to scrape Riggs off the floor of the Astrodome.

Playing against Riggs, I knew there would be so much media attention.

That was a scary time.

Very scary because I was leading this dual life.

I was not happy.

And I wasn't sure I wanted to stay married with Larry

because by then I had realised I was gay.

I was uncomfortable in my own skin because of my sexuality.

I was uncomfortable...

..just knowing who I truly am.

I just didn't know who I was yet.

I was seeing Marilyn at the time.

This is going to be rough.

Because of all the exposure, they might pick up on some more things.

I was worried it would hurt the tour, women's sports.

Going through a lot of different things all at once was really rough.

Some people in professional tennis

are mortified at the circus atmosphere.

but all the hoopla has gotten a lot of people watching tennis.

I think if I had to bet money I would bet on Bobby Riggs.

I would have to give him the edge over Billie Jean.

Hey, Sydney, how are the ticket sales going today?

Billie Jean King.

65, take your pick. That makes it official out of Las Vegas.

The match is for 100,000, winner takes all.

But Riggs and King stand to make much more than that

in commercial plugs and television rights.

The last time I played in front of a TV audience

I was offered 5,000 for prize-money and 7,500 for TV money.

So when somebody offered me 100,000, winner-take-all,

that seemed like a lot of money to me at the time.

I said, "Bobby, this is about history to me."

And he just looked at me like, "Who cares? It's the money, honey."

Without women's tennis really making a name for itself,

there was no way in the world we could have had

a 100,000 winner-take-all match, such as we are having now.

And without women's tennis I don't think Bobby would have had such a great time either.

But we are also making money from him, so it's kind of like a marriage!

-# Think

-(Think)

-Think

-(Think)

-# Think

-(Think)

-Think

-(Think)

-# Think

-(Think)

-Think

-(Think)

-# You think

-(Think)

-Think

-(Think)

-# Think about

-(Think)

-# You better

-(Think)

# Think about what you're trying to do to me

-# Think

-(Think)

# Let your mind go, let yourself be free

# Let's go back, let's go back, let's go on way back when

# I didn't even know you

# You couldn't have been too much more than ten

-# Oh, freedom

-(Freedom)

-# Freedom

-(Freedom)

# Freedom

# Freedom. #

I am so excited. I had my T-shirt printed.

There we are. "I am a Billie Jean fan."

I'm looking at Billie Jean King. I think she's going to win this.

It's the best thing that's happened tennis in a long, long time.

People were making bets. They were planning parties.

I'm telling you, people were crazy about it.

This was a huge sporting event.

They had 31,000 people to the largest tennis match ever attended.

It was watched by over 100 million people worldwide.

The following is an exclusive presentation of ABC Sport.

Before I played Bobby, I was in the bathroom

and I heard the women voting against me.

They thought he would win.

I came out of the stall and they about fainted and I said,

"Thanks a lot for being so loyal, you guys. Come on."

It's like Monday night football.

It's not the usual tennis atmosphere. It's a happening.

And here comes Billie Jean King, a very attractive young lady.

If she ever let her hair grow down to her shoulders and took her glasses off,

you would have somebody vying for a Hollywood screen test.

There she is.

Girls play a nice game of tennis for girls.

When they get out there on the court with a man,

even a tired old man of 55, they are going to be in big trouble.

Look at that male chauvinist pig!

And that is the present that Billie Jean gave him.

That is too cute for him. He doesn't resemble that kind of a pig!

It's the most common conflict in the world. Man versus woman.

It happens every day in every household

and here it was for the whole world.

One side against the other.

It was the match of the century, what can I tell you?

I knew I'd be remembered the rest of my life if I won or lost this match.

CHEERING

Love-15.

15 all.

CHEERING

30-15.

30 all.

40-30.

CHEERING

Bobby was wearing his Sugar Daddy jacket and he was really perspiring.

He sweat up a storm in there, I'm telling you!

It was very hot in there, but they gave me 50,000 to wear that jacket.

I said, "Take the jacket off."

So he took the jacket off and started to perform.

CHEERING

So Bobby held service and the games are 2-2.

COMMENTATOR: Bobby Riggs breaks through, leading 3 to 2.

Could that be a turning point in this match?

I was making some pretty big mistakes.

Exactly what I didn't want to do.

Your heart just stopped. You couldn't believe this was happening.

We were all worried that Billie Jean King might lose.

There were so many young girls who loved sports counting on her.

CHEERING

Game, Ms King.

She did what she had to do and she did it her way.

Whoever won the first set, it was critical.

I had to win this first set.

Game, Ms King.

CHEERING

Bobby, looking to get his first serve in to Billie Jean's backhand

and probably follow his service in.

First serve called.

CHEERING

That is the first set and the women in this arena are standing

and cheering for Billie Jean King.

Bobby doesn't look very happy.

I suppose we all expected to have some high humour involved,

but instead his comedy has gone out of Bobby Riggs.

Bobby had bet a man named Dick Butera 15,000 that he would win.

That's a big bet.

I knew Bobby Riggs.

He would go out there and lose the first set on purpose to make the odds higher and higher.

That's how good he was, that he would lose the first set

and sometimes two and then come back winning.

After the first set, Bobby sent me over from the bench

into the audience to find Dick Butera

and tried to increase the bet another 5,000.

Dick turned it down. He thought it was a trap.

CHEERING

It was Bobby Riggs' idea to have five sets in this match.

He thought he could wear her down

and that she wasn't going to beat him, as good a shape as he was in.

BOBBY: I haven't even put in my A game yet.

I'll be here every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

If I have to go five sets, I don't know what will happen.

COMMENTATOR: Game, Mr Riggs.

PUNDIT: A very important breakthrough for Bobby, I felt.

I had to find a way to beat him.

I was trying to make him run

and I was also trying to hit the ball very softly.

I always wanted to keep him stretching and bending.

MAN: Billie Jean King is just out of there playing

and she's coming to the net like she always does and she's making volleys.

He's hitting weak, pathetic passing shots and she's putting the ball away.

A brilliant display!

A break for Billie Jean King.

She matches Bobby Riggs with her own break of service in the second set.

Bobby wins a game he had to win.

Two games all, second set.

Bobby obviously thrives when an opponent is not patient

and she paid the price.

I don't think I would have wanted to walk in Billie's shoes

that night with the pressure that was on her.

WOMAN: I can't imagine how she withstood it.

ANOTHER WOMAN: It transcended tennis. I was just in awe of her.

I was totally motivated.

This is my heavyweight crown.

Ms King leads five games to three, second set.

CHEERING

Billie Jean King has won the second set.

She leads two sets to love

and it is so far a very great night for the ladies.

When I'm not playing in one tennis tournament,

I'm travelling to another.

So I don't have time to fuss with my hair.

But with Sunbeam's Mist-Stick Curler Styler,

I can curl my hair anywhere without curlers.

Now this is enough to curl your hair!

Once again, we are back live at the Houston Astrodome.

She can sense the kill.

MAN: It was vital that he win the match

if there was going to be any chance for him to have a career.

PUNDIT: Listen to that crowd now cheering for Riggs.

I said, if you don't beat her, the ball game is over.

Win. Win. Burning desire. Win.

Bobby Riggs fights back with a great stroke.

Stay up there and fight. Fight.

Then the guys started to scream at Bobby, "Come on Bobby!"

Bobby Riggs fighting for everything he's created for himself in playing women.

I wasn't just playing for myself. This was for everybody.

-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-Look at that!

She's got him right where she wants him now.

You can't move at 55 like you can at 25 or 35.

You get older, you lose strength

and you can't hit the ball as hard as you can when you are younger.

-Great shot. Great shot!

-Marvellous!

Game - Miss King.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

MAN: 'Billie Jean King charges around the court very much like a man.

'The weaker sex and they still wanted a seat in the bus.'

You don't know what the hell you want, do you?

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Oh, that's beautiful stuff. Again, off that backhand.

She's been perfectly brilliant all night.

All I have to do is get this ball over the net.

GROANING Back to deuce. Too eager.

'What makes you think that I won't be able to psych you out of the match?'

-I heard that sigh of relief from Bobby from here.

-Yeah.

Advantage Riggs.

And there, that's the kind of tennis

we've had from Billie Jean all night.

Fault. Oh, that first service has been a disaster for her all night.

There is no good time for a double fault,

-but there can be a disastrous time.

-Match point for Billie Jean King.

You have to finish. It's so hard to finish in anything in life.

CHEERING ERUPTS

When he jumped over the net, the first thing he said to me was, "I underestimated you."

I did feel proud. It was a great leap forward for women's tennis.

Because this match was presented as the battle of the sexes,

when she won, it was a great symbolic victory for all women.

I also think it was great for Billie Jean because it took her

to an entirely different level and showed strength of this woman's character.

He was pretty embarrassed that he performed so poorly

and that he let a lot of people down.

I'll never live it down.

'They don't remember Bobby Riggs cos he won Wimbledon.

'Hey, he's the guy that got killed by the woman.'

20 years later, he had a different perspective on it.

He said, "You know what,

"maybe I actually help the women instead of hurting them."

Women really felt that they had won, that they were equal.

It really made a big difference across the board,

not just in women's sports, but in the business world, in the home.

They had the confidence to go and ask for what they felt they should have.

THUNDEROUS CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I wanted people to respect women a lot more.

I think a lot of men started to think about things differently.

The men who've raised daughters since they were young and watched that match,

I think it changed their life.

If this match did that, then I'm happy.

I recall once I got a book called, You've Come A Long Way Baby,

and I just remember staying up one night, just reading the whole

book from cover to cover and just being so amazed at the whole story.

We owe the tour to Billie Jean King and the original nine and everyone

that made all those sacrifices

to make this tour that we play on.

I mean, it wouldn't exist if it weren't for those amazing people.

I have so much respect for Billie Jean King

and that generation who risked their careers,

who played for one dollar.

Because of the way they fought, my generation now is living the dream.

Billie Jean King has done so much for sport.

And it's one of the things that she always talks about, the importance

of doing good for the next generation that comes up, and that was her goal.

I personally think that it wouldn't be so international,

it wouldn't be so globally recognised.

It certainly wouldn't be where it is today.

I don't know what it was like for Billie Jean King to play

Bobby Riggs in that huge stadium in Houston.

She must've been nervous, it must have been a lot of pressure

because Bobby Riggs was talking a lot of smack.

But being the hero that she is, you know, she stood up for us,

she stood up for women's sports, not just tennis,

but women's sports and just women in general.

I have a job because of Billie Jean King,

and a job that I love and it's the truth.

OBAMA: These are the 2009 recipients of the Medal of Freedom.

They remind us that we each have it within our powers

to fulfil dreams, to advance the dreams of others

and to remake the world for our children.

WOMAN: Billie Jean Moffitt King has advanced the struggle

for a greater gender equality around the world.

In an age of male dominated sports...

OBAMA: 'I still remember that game with Bobby Riggs and I was rooting for Billie Jean.

'And that was really a big cultural moment for the country.'

..Her athletic acumen is matched only by her unwavering

defence of equal rights.

With Billie Jean King pushing us,

the road ahead will be smoother for women,

the future will be brighter for LGBT Americans

and our nation's commitment to equality will be stronger for all.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING