It didn't hurt Susan Clark that she looked a whole lot like Mildred Didrikson Zaharias in her portrayal in the film Babe. Like Jim Thorpe for the men, Zaharias was voted as the greatest female athlete in the first half of the last century.
Like Thorpe she got the honor because she excelled at so many sports. A lot fewer sports because women were not allowed to compete in them. Nevertheless she made her mark in basketball and even in baseball where briefly in Babe she's seen with the famous traveling bearded House of David team. No less than Grover Cleveland Alexander toured with them after his career was over.
But like Thorpe she excelled at women's track and earned herself two Olympic gold medals in front of the home crowd in Los Angeles in 1932. Later on when she learned and mastered golf she was the dominant attraction for the women's Professional Golf Association. She was the face of women's golf until her death in 1956.
Susan Clark and her future husband Alex Karras are nothing short of superb as Didrikson and her husband, wrestler George Zaharias. Their marriage was not always as serene as pictured here once Zaharias got over his alpha male issues. In fact Babe Didrikson had a few lesbian flings and one long term relationship. In 1976 that was not going to be shown on prime time TV.
Still Zaharias was supportive of his wife in every way and Babe earned prime time Emmys for Clark as Best Actress and for the musical score.
And Babe Didrikson is a role model still for women athletes.
