pioneer woman pilot, golfer, animator
“Girl Will Give Sports Report” ran the headline of the Minneapolis Star Tribune in September 1938. That “girl” was 23-year-old Helen Dettweiler, the “first and so far only female baseball radio reporter to make the play- by”. -play shows.
The report describes the highly accomplished athlete as a “blonde, Washington, DC native” who “has taken over baseball broadcasts on 50 stations as part of a traveling mission that will eventually take her to 69 stations. … Miss Dettweiler is an exceptional sports champion. She has shown champion class in almost every form of women’s sports.
Dettweiler’s common sense was demonstrated by the way she got the job: “Having played baseball since the age of 5, not only on the backcourt but also on the school and college teams , Miss Dettweiler came up with the idea during a golf game with Clark Griffith, president of the Washington Senators. She expressed her wish to become a baseball announcer. He thought the idea had merit and l put in contact with the interests of the radio.
The country was fascinated by the presenter, her clothes and her hairstyle. “A simple woman has invaded the last outpost of man on the radio. And the woman in this case is Helen Dettweiler, blond and young. She is the first “big” female sports host on radio. … Miss Dettweiler wears her hair neatly wavy and she could easily serve as a model for what the particular girl wears for sport.
But Dettweiler could more than keep up with men, even while wearing a skirt. She would become famous, not for baseball or broadcasting, but for golf.
It all started with a challenge from his brother Bill, an expert golfer. As the Philadelphia Inquirer explained: “As a youngster, blonde Helen was more interested in baseball. She played it too – hardball, not softball. One day Bill bet her a chocolate soda that she couldn’t hit a golf ball four times in a row. She confidently stepped forward and hit the first – then hit three in a row. This first frustration in the “humble game” pissed Helen off so much that ‘she rushed to Al Treder, a local pro, and pleaded, ‘Get me hit the ball every time I aim for it.’She won the 1939 Women’s Western Open and is turned professional.
But World War II was on. She joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots, WASP, administered by Jacqueline Cochran, and was one of 17 women selected to pilot the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, logging an impressive 750 flight hours. Attitudes towards women had been changed by the war. Initially welcomed into the job market as men were called up from abroad, they soon began to compete in ways that society found unattractive.
Rhonda Glenn, writing for the United States Golf Association, noted, “Female pilots were somewhat belittled, but that was in the context of the times and they quickly earned grudging respect.”
Glenn quotes Major Harry Shilling, director of maintenance for the Air Corps, who said of Dettweiler and Cochran: “A lot of work for two delicate dishes of womanhood. Maybe they should take some of our supermen for a spin and show them how to take off.
Male pilots who returned from the war supplanted women for flying jobs in private industry. According to Glenn, the women were expelled “thanks to a public relations campaign in Congress and in the press.” Glenn quoted a WASP: “Six months earlier he had been heroic doing a man’s job, but by mid-1944 he was considered unpatriotic.”
When Cochran wanted to write a history of the disbanded WASP, she invited Dettweiler to the desert to help her. Cochran and her husband, Floyd Odlum, owned a large ranch in Indio. Tired of driving to Palm Springs to play golf, Cochran and Odlum decided to build a few holes in the backyard. Dettweiler suggested an entire course instead.
Dettweiler wanted an 18-hole course, with the innovative idea of residential sites around it, overlooking the thousands of acres of citrus and palm trees. Odlum was skeptical of the popularity of golf in the desert. The pair asked Dettweiler to design just nine holes, missing a major opportunity. Its design was yet another first for women.
The changing attitude towards women in sports has been reflected in Hollywood. “Pat and Mike” with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy reflected this change. Interestingly, Dettweiler appeared as herself in the film along with Betty Hicks, Beverly Hanson, Alice Marble, Gussie Moran, and female sports phenom Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
The pioneering image presented these athletes as competent and comparable to men. It also managed to charmingly educate the audience about women’s equality despite an opening scene that touched on the important question of whether women can wear pants in good company.
Glenn wrote that Dettweiler was “vivacious but possessed of a gentle charm, was a popular player, and Wilson Sporting Goods sought her out for their female staff to hold exhibitions and promote the sale of clubs”. Dettweiler co-founded the Women’s Professional Golf Association, and after that she was one of 13 founders of the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1950.
A well-established pundit, she became a professional teacher at Thunderbird Country Club in 1952, later also teaching at Eldorado Country Club. When Tamarisk Country Club first opened, they wanted to eclipse other clubs. Naturally, Tamarisk hired Ben Hogan, the best golfer in the world, as a pro.
Tamarisk hosted an exhibition match to inaugurate the course, inviting Jimmy Hines and Johnny Dawson from Thunderbird, George Howard from O’Donnell Golf Club, and filling out the foursome with a woman, Dettweiler. Dettweiler recalled that there were a lot of bets on the game, for a lot of money. On the 18th hole, Dettweiler and Hogan led by one point. To tie the game, Hogan purposely missed his final putt so that no money was exchanged.
Dettweiler’s career focused on instruction; she was the first recipient of the LPGA Teacher of the Year award in 1958.
Dettweiler was active in touring well into the 1960s, and Glenn paid tribute to his remarkable career: “Few people know of Dettweiler’s very real and essential role as a member of this greatest generation. Like most genuine heroes, she didn’t talk about her wartime exploits and barely touched on them when prompted. Helen Dettweiler in her quiet way, a key figure in women’s golf, is largely forgotten. Her role in the war and the role of other women who flew planes for their country is hardly recognized. These tributes are long overdue.
After retiring from professional golf, Dettweiler opened an eponymous clothing store in Palm Desert selling not only stylish golf attire, but also refined fashion. The smart shop was indicated by a gorgeous sign wrapped around a decidedly modern building designed by William Cody.
The 23-year-old “girl” who had started broadcasting baseball humorously explained her pioneering spirit and her desire to compete in skirts or pants: “I started knitting when I was 9 years old. While I had scarlet fever I made a washcloth and then my mom had to burn it which ended my knitting.
Tracy Conrad is president of the Palm Springs Historical Society. The Memories Thanks column appears on Sundays in The Desert Sun. Email him at [email protected]
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