This week's Throwback Thursday from the Wimbledon Museum looks at the incorrigble Helen Wills Moody...

Throughout the final years of the 1920s and the majority of the 1930s, The Championships were hit with a force not to be reckoned with. Hailing from California, Helen Wills – also known as Helen Wills Moody after her first marriage – reigned over The Championships. She would eventually earn the all-time record for most Wimbledon Singles titles; a title that would be taken by Martina Navratilova over 50 years later.

When she first made an appearance at Wimbledon in 1924 she was already a US Champion, having won the US Open twice. She eased through that year’s Championships to reach the Final against the British player Kitty McKane. She was eventually defeated in three sets 6-4, 4-6, 4-6 after leading 4-1 in the second set. However, this would be her only Wimbledon defeat.

With the exception of her defeat in 1924, she won every Wimbledon Singles Championship she competed in. Between 1927 and 1938 she did not lose a single set in the singles event and is the player to have won the most matches – 50 in total! Her record eighth title came in 1938 in a 2 set match against her friend and rival Helen Jacobs – the final score being 6-4, 6-0.

She had a determined and precise playing style, serving and volleying with a powerful forehand and backhand – which may have been helped by the fact that she preferred to practice with male players in order to improve her game. This playing style, along with her steely demeanour, earned her the nicknames ‘Little Miss Poker Face’ and ‘Poker Faced Helen’. She was so focussed on her matches that she was able to block out the sounds of the crowd.

Not only was she an impeccable player, but she was also a gifted artist. She held several exhibitions of her work (mainly in America) which included paintings and etchings. One of her pieces, a self-portrait, can be seen on display in the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. She was also a poet and writer, publishing a number of tennis articles for American national magazines and even illustrated them herself!

It is impossible to talk about Helen Wills without mentioning the glamorous tennis fashion of the decade. She was one of the prominent sport fashion icons of the 20s and 30s, together with the graceful French Player, Suzanne Lenglen. She typically wore a white sailor style suit comprising of a white shirt, white pleated knee length skirt, a cerise-coloured cardigan and white shoes. Her most famous fashion accessory was a white eye-shade/visor. This soon became a fashion item both on and off the court adopted by a number of female players throughout the 20s.

Want to learn more about Wimbledon's history? Why not visit the Museum...