Movie legend has it that before he got famous as a tough guy, Humphrey Bogart used to play juvenile roles on Broadway.
One scene had him bouncing into a drawing room with a tennis racket under his arm and the line: “Tennis anyone?” Bogie denied he ever said it, but who knows?
Anyway, with Wimbledon around the corner, in our neck of the woods we can puff out our chests and say there would be no Centre Court action if it wasn’t for one modest little factory at Box.
Price of Bath is where tennis balls are made in the UK, and they’ve helped sponsor the summer exhibition at the Museum of Bath at Work.
It’s all about tennis and how the game went from the street to the indoor courts of the gentry and then back out onto well-mown lawns.
The very building the museum is housed in has a connection with the game, too, but let’s allow Stuart Burroughs, the museum’s director, to explain.
The exhibition, On Court: Bath and Tennis from Indoor to Outdoor, is on until October 31st. More info via www.museumofbath.org
