Davis Cup victory for Australia, 1939 – part 1 of 2

• This asset shows the Davis Cup - the competition for the Davis Cup is the most prestigious elite international men's teams tennis event; each of the ties and the final are played as a three-day, best-of-five series; the silver Davis Cup trophy was donated by Harvard student Dwight Filley Davis in 1900.
• It celebrates the final of the Davis Cup in 1939 - Australia was the favourite to win the Cup against the USA, but in the first match the American Bobby Riggs defeated John Bromwich in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0, 7-5; in the second match, American Frankie Parker defeated Adrian Quist 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5; in the doubles, Quist and Bromwich turned the tables, taking the match 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2, and then individually won their reverse singles matches; Australia won the Cup 3-2.
• It reveals the playing style of John Bromwich (1918-99) - a tall loping player, Bromwich played with both hands equally well; he served right-handed, played with two hands on his right side and with his left hand only on his left side; he was ranked in the top ten in 1938, 1939, 1946, 1947 and 1948.
• It depicts Adrian Quist (1913-91) - a short man, Quist played left-court when he teamed up with Bromwich to make one of the greatest doubles pairs of the period, winning Wimbledon in 1950 and eight successive Australian titles between 1939 and 1950; Quist also won the Australian Open singles title in 1936, 1940 and 1948.
• It illustrates how a newsreel production team went about creating a segment when it had no actual film footage of the event being described - the opening image was drawn from film of a previous Davis Cup final, probably the 1938 Davis Cup, which Australia lost; the match footage came from a singles match between Bromwich and Quist and had nothing to do with the Davis Cup (in which team members do not play against each other); the commentary was carefully crafted to describe the Davis Cup victory without actually saying what was being shown on the screen.

Copyright holder

• Role: Stock Footage supplied courtesy of Film World Pty Ltd and Cinesound Movietone Productions

Copyright holder

• Entity: National Film and Sound Archive
• Role: Reproduced courtesy of National Film and Sound Archive

Content provider

• Entity: National Film and Sound Archive
• URL: http://www.nfsa.afc.gov.au

Author

• Entity: Cinesound Productions
• Role: production company

Author

• Contributor: Charles Lawrence
• Role: speaker

Publisher

• Entity: Curriculum Corporation; The Le@rning Federation
• Address: Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia
• URL: http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au