One of the best television movies ever made is about the life and career of Maureen Connolly the first woman to win tennis's fabled grand slam in one year. Both her career and her life were way too short.
Before Billie Jean King, before Chris Evert, before Tracy Austin there was a champion from the Fifties, Maureen Connolly. At the age of 19 Ms. Connolly won the US Open, Wimbledon, the French Open and the Australian Open in 1953. The Grand Slam, the biggest achievement in tennis, and for the first time won by a woman.
Glynnis O'Connor as far as I'm concerned got her career role as Maureen Connolly. She was at the right age at the time and later on at the end of the film she was made up well to look the age of 34 when she died. Connolly came from a pretty hard background and tennis was her way out, a sports story told many times with male athletes.
Michael Learned does an equally fine job as Eleanor Tennant, Connolly's very strict mentor. The tennis scene of the early Fifties is graphically depicted.
Within two years of winning the grand slam, Connolly was injured pursuing her second love horseback riding, a broken leg ended her career permanently. Who knows how many titles and how much money she could have accumulated.
In fact I'd read about Connolly when I was a kid and she pretty much dropped out of sight after her career ended. For a lot of people the news of her death from cancer in 1969 was the first thing most had heard about her since she stopped appearing on the sports pages.
O'Connor's finale scene as the 34 year old Connolly knowing she was terminally ill and reconciling with Learned is some of the best acting ever done in a TV film. Little Mo is a great tribute to one of the best female athletes of the last century and a role model in sports and in life for us all.
Before Billie Jean King, before Chris Evert, before Tracy Austin there was a champion from the Fifties, Maureen Connolly. At the age of 19 Ms. Connolly won the US Open, Wimbledon, the French Open and the Australian Open in 1953. The Grand Slam, the biggest achievement in tennis, and for the first time won by a woman.
Glynnis O'Connor as far as I'm concerned got her career role as Maureen Connolly. She was at the right age at the time and later on at the end of the film she was made up well to look the age of 34 when she died. Connolly came from a pretty hard background and tennis was her way out, a sports story told many times with male athletes.
Michael Learned does an equally fine job as Eleanor Tennant, Connolly's very strict mentor. The tennis scene of the early Fifties is graphically depicted.
Within two years of winning the grand slam, Connolly was injured pursuing her second love horseback riding, a broken leg ended her career permanently. Who knows how many titles and how much money she could have accumulated.
In fact I'd read about Connolly when I was a kid and she pretty much dropped out of sight after her career ended. For a lot of people the news of her death from cancer in 1969 was the first thing most had heard about her since she stopped appearing on the sports pages.
O'Connor's finale scene as the 34 year old Connolly knowing she was terminally ill and reconciling with Learned is some of the best acting ever done in a TV film. Little Mo is a great tribute to one of the best female athletes of the last century and a role model in sports and in life for us all.