The Tennis Girl is an English poster that has become a pop icon. It shows a young woman from behind walking towards the net from a tennis court with a tennis racket in her right hand and her left hand reach behind her short dressing gown, showing her not wearing underwear.
Video Tennis Girl
Creation
The photo was taken by Martin Elliott in September 1976 and featured 18-year-old Fiona Butler (now Walker), his girlfriend at the time. The photo was taken at the Birmingham University tennis court in Edgbaston, England. The dress was handmade by Butler's friend, Carol Knotts, of the Simplicity Pattern with extra lace. Knotts also provided a tennis racket, with all items borrowed then returned by Butler to Knotts after filming with a box of chocolates. Butler borrowed plimsoll from his father, while a tennis ball was used as his family's pet dog toy.
Maps Tennis Girl
History
The picture was first published as part of a calendar by Athena for the 1977 Silver Jubilee, the same year Virginia Wade won the Wimbledon women's singles title. Athena later negotiated a license to distribute the image as a poster, where from 1978 it achieved widespread distribution, selling over 2 million copies at Ã, Â £ 2 per poster. Although Athens went into administration in 1995, the image remains a popular print to buy and can be found at other retailers such as Amazon, AllPosters & amp; King and McGaw.
Butler, who broke up with Elliot three years later, said in retrospect that he was not ashamed to pose, nor bitter that he did not receive any royalties from the photograph. Butler (now Walker) is the mother of three, who works as a freelance illustrator at Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire. Elliott died on March 24, 2010. Knotts, now a lawyer living in Gloucestershire, puts dresses and rackets for sale at auction on July 5, 2014, the 2014 Wimbledon Championship day - Single Princess Final. The dress sold for £ 15,000, while the racket was sold between £ 1,000 to £ 2000. The posters of Athens Tennis Girl dresses are now part of the Wimbledon Museum collection.
Subjects are doubtful
In February 2015, Peter Atkinson of Marsh Gate, Cornwall, came forward to assert that the photo was actually from his ex-wife, producing two items of evidence, one showing the same picture and the other a close variant (apparently taken on the same occasion ). ), both dated 1974, two years before the photoshoot of Fiona Butler.
Parody
Over the years, the picture has been parodied by diverse people like former tennis star Pat Cash, comedian Alan Carr and singer Kylie Minogue, with actor Keith Lemon showing a parody in his 2012 calendar.
It was also replicated in an ad for a tennis video game called the Davis Cup World Tour for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.
As an election promise for Belgium 2012 election, a 22-year-old Belgian woman from Sint-Truiden promised to publish a nude photo shoot when receiving 1,000 votes. She released a picture of herself in a Tennis Girl pose before the election.
In 2009 it was also parodied in the scene out of episode 12 of the sixth Shameless series when Lillian Tyler, a character played by Alice Barry, got up and walked towards the door after winning a console version of a tennis game.
On May 9, 2016 it was featured by Mark Hamill on Twitter from his @HamillHimself account when Princess Leia walked towards the Tatooine building with a blaster in her hand instead of a tennis racket.
See also
- Sports photography
- Stay there, Baby
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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