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Los Angeles Tennis Club


The Los Angeles Tennis Club (LATC) is a private tennis club opened in 1920 at 5851 Clinton Street, between Wilcox and Rossmore, one block south of Melrose Avenue. It is the home of the Southern California Championships.

Perry T. Jones (b. 1890 and d. 1970) was a major fundraiser and took control of Southern California tennis in 1930. He set up his office at the Club with his loyal Secretary, Doris Cooke, and made it famous through his junior development patrons network. It reached from Santa Barbara to San Diego and came together at the LATC to produce a steady stream of world-class tennis players. dubbed "the cradle of tennis." Jones believed in schooling, cleanliness, proper attire, and sportsmanship when helping players develop into champions. He became Davis Cup Captain in 1958, recruited, mentored and named Alex Olmedo to the team, that included Barry MacKay and Ham Richardson, and won the Davis Cup from Australia, that year. Jack Kramer and Pancho Gonzales acted as advisors to Jones. Mr. Jones was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1970. He established the Southern California Tennis Association (SCTA) Hall of Fame in 1968, and was known as "Mr. Tennis of the West Coast".

From the 1930s through the early 1970s, the LATC was the center of development for world-class players in the United States. In 1930, Perry T. Jones, became President of the Southern California Tennis Association and the Director of the Southern California Championships and Pacific Southwest Tennis Championships. Bill Tilden was the first winner of the Pacific Southwest tournament in 1927. Jones designed what he termed "The Factory System" that utilized Tennis Patrons in San Diego, Long Beach, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica, such as: Harper Ink, Charles Lane, Dr. Ben Parks, Jack Lynch, Bob Martin, and Helen Roark; and Tennis Teachers: Mercer Beasley, Esther Bartosh, Ben Press, Clyde Walker, Wilbur Folsom, Dick Skeen, Pancho Segura, Carl Earn, Eleanor Tennant, Linda Crosby, Vic Braden, Myron Mc Namara, and Robert Lansdorp to identify and funnel top-flight junior players to his attention, so he could make them champions with funding, top competition, and tournaments, such as: Ellsworth Vines, Gene Mako, Jack Tidball, Jack Kramer, Joe Hunt, Pauline Betz, Bobby Riggs, Bob Falkenburg, Pancho Gonzales, Ted Schroeder, Joe Hunt, Dave Freeman, Budge Patty, Dodo Cheney, Herb Flam, Hugh Stewart, Pat Yeomans, Gussie Moran, Louise Brough, Maureen Connolly, Beverly Baker, Alex Olmedo, Darlene Hard, Billie Jean King, Sally Moore, Karen Hantze, Mike Franks, Bill Bond, Rafael Osuna, Dennis Ralston, Jon Douglas, Allen Fox, Stan Smith, Charlie Pasarell, Bob Lutz, George Toley, and many others. Jack Kramer writes in his autobiography in 1979, that "if you wanted top competition, you had to play at the LATC — especially since there were many fewer tournaments then and practice was the vogue." Jones was a strong-willed autocrat who excluded the young Pancho Gonzales from the Club because of his school truancy. He sometimes would not sponsor Bobby Riggs for Eastern Tournaments. He also achieved notoriety for excluding a 12-year-old Billie Jean King from a group photo at the Club, because she was wearing shorts instead of a tennis dress.


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