Into a Los Angeles courtroom last week shuffled gangling, 53-year-old William Tatem Tilden II, once the world's greatest tennis player. His fault: homosexuality (he had been caught in a parked car with a 14-year-old ball boy from the Los Angeles Tennis Club).
Abject and hoping for clemency, Tilden (technically charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor) listened to the castigation by Superior Court Judge A. A. Scott: "You have been an idol to thousands of youngsters and admired by millions of adults throughout the world." Murmured Big Bill: "I'm very sorry."
Near collapse, he was taken away to start...
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