The Melancholy Sadness
Renée Richards changed the world -- and paid a price
By Sean Bugg
Published on October 6, 2011, 4:20am
http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/tv/?ak=6636But as Renée reminds us, not every story of change had such a fairy-tale ending.
Dr. Renée Richards became an overnight national sensation when she became the first transgender woman to attempt to play professional tennis. Formerly Richard Raskind — a prep school and Ivy League sports star on a fast-track career as an eye surgeon — Richards had left behind her East Coast life after transitioning for a new start in California. But her bid to play the U.S. Open thrust her into the harsh national spotlight.
Documentarian Eric Drath traces Richards's journey through archival footage and interviews, illustrating just how groundbreaking Richards was, and how much dignity she kept in the face of a barrage of humiliations and hatreds. A clip of Bob Hope and Johnny Carson trading quips recalls how the nation attempted to reduce Richards to a freakish punch line.
