Anna Deavere Smith has written a play about professional tennis star Billie Jean King. King was born Billie Jean Moffit on November 22, 1943, in Long Beach, Calif. King’s father was a firefighter while her mother sold Tupperware and Avon products. King has a younger brother Randy Moffitt, who was a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.
In 1965, Billie Jean King met Larry Williams King in college. After a two-year courtship, the couple married in 1965. The childless couple divorced in 1987, but they remain close friends.
The play is called LOVE ALL. The play is about Billie Jean King’s experience as a tennis pro since 1959 and includes her famous 1973 victory over Bobby Riggs. King is seen as a women’s lib icon representing trailblazing towards equity in the sports world.
Billie Jean King went to high school before they had a tennis team for girls. King had to learn to play tennis in the local park.
The play LOVE ALL is based on Billie Jean King’s is based on an autobiography book that King released last year called All In . All In reflects King’s rise to the level of professional tennis play against the backdrop of being part of the gay community that was not known until 1981. As a gay tennis star in the 1960s and 1970s, she realized that the world she wanted to live in did not exist yet and would not until the next century.
About a year after the release of the ALL IN, there will be a first reading planned for the play LOVE ALL. The play asks the questions, what does it take to be a champion ? What does it take to change the course of history in an LGBTQ world that looks like the LGBTQ people are not accepted because they are different from the way society thinks is acceptable? Playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith wants her play ALL In to speak to people from all walks of life. Life magazine voted Billie Jean King among the 100 Most Important Americans in the 20th Century. King is honored in this century for being one of the most inspirational women in sports.
