#Unearthed: The Petra Burka Edition

When you dig through skating history, you never know what you will unearth. In the spirit of cataloguing fascinating tales from skating history, #Unearthed is a once a month 'special occasion' on Skate Guard where fascinating writings by others that are of interest to skating history buffs are excavated, dusted off and shared for your reading pleasure. From forgotten fiction to long lost interviews to tales that have never been shared publicly, each #Unearthed is a fascinating journey through time. This month's #Unearthed comes to you from the twenty seventh issue of "Weekend Magazine" in 1965. This content has been reproduced with the permission of the Royal Society of Canada. The original author was the late Constance Mungall and her interview subjects include Mrs. Ellen Burka and Petra Burka. Although some of the sentiments shared may seem dated, I think you'll really enjoy this glimpse of Petra's mindset in the height of her competitive career!

"PETRA BURKA, CANADA'S NEW SPORTS SWEETHEART" (CONSTANCE MUNGALL, SHARED WITH PERMISSION OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA)

Petra Burka is Canada's new sports sweetheart. She's champion woman skater of the world. She's pretty, and shows a delightful figure and smile as well as dazzling technique on the ice.

It's happened so fast that a few Canadians don't know it yet, and Petra Burka herself hasn't quite caught on. Nevertheless, the Toronto schoolgirl now has the place Barbara Ann Scott and Marilyn Bell filled before they disappeared from public life.

Petra came up fast. She won her three championships last winter, when she was 18. Within a month, from early February to March, she was declared champion in the Canadian trials at Calgary and the North American at Rochester, N.Y. Then, she won the world championship at Colorado Springs.

When she defends her Canadian title at Peterborough next February, it will be her third bid for the senior women's championship, and it should be her third win. When her world championship goes up for trial at Davos, Switzerland, a few weeks later, it will be her fifth world competition.

The people who hang around rinks because they're in the business, or because they love to see good skaters, had spotted Petra in practice before she had entered a competition.

"I saw her when she was 14," said Stafford Smythe, president of Toronto Maple Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens. "I've seen them all from Sonja Henie down, and Petra's the most talented female skater of them all. You can spot talent at that age, just the same as with a hockey player. The basics are the same."

Sheldon Galbraith, the veteran Toronto skating coach who trained Canadian champions Barbara Wagner, Bob Paul and Don Jackson as well as Barbara Ann Scott, watched Petra skate a year before she won the Canadian junior championship in 1961. She was 13 and had been skating for seven years.

"She was quite small, but a hard worker," said Galbraith. "Already I could see her tremendous strength." He has called Petra the strongest free skater in 20 years of international competition.

Petra is dark and prettier than she looks in photographs. She was born in Amsterdam in 1946, came to Canada with her parents and sister in 1950.

"School figures bore me," she says, though she spends 4 1/2 hours of her seven-hour skating day practicing the endless variations on the figure eight. Her mother is always at the rink, but coaching rather than watching. Ellen Burka, herself women's champion of Holland in 1945-46, is coach at three Toronto skating clubs. She trains other competitive skaters besides Petra. She and her husband Jan, an artist, were divorced and she has raised her daughters Petra and Astra, 16, since 1956.

It is in free skating that Petra's skill shows and her effervescent personality bubbles out. In her first world competition, in Prague in 1962, she came second in free skating, and held the place in 1964 in both world competitions and winter Olympics.

Size is a factor in the high-speed rotation at which Petra excels. She is only five-feet, 1 1/2 inches, but is big-boned. "She's not a body design that looks as if she can get away with what she does," says coach Sheldon Galbraith. "But she overcomes resistance with tremendous physical strength."

Off the ice, Petra seems shy. She has nothing to say to reporters trying to catch a quick interview. But in a longer interview, combined with leaping and spinning for Weekend Magazine photographs, she displayed some of the warmth and humour her friends know. "I'm a private person," she said. "But everyone seems to know me now. I walk into a store and the clerks say, 'Look, there's Petra Burka.' I feel uncomfortable and walk out."

Though professional exhibitions are a long way off (" I want to stay amateur until the 1968 Olympics in France"), Petra has already had a dose of the glamour and grind the touring exhibitions require. The month after she won her world title she travelled with other winning skaters, first to U.S. and Canadian cities and then to Europe. She has returned to Europe twice since for briefer appearances.

"In Europe figure skaters are treated like movie stars," she said. "They have their pictures on magazine covers. In Paris the French pairs champions sing Hit Parade songs. It doesn't matter if they can't sing; they're famous."

"I was surprised. In North America the skaters wait for the audience. In Europe the audience waits for the skaters."

"Of course I skate better for a good audience," and she added loyally, "they treat me best in Canada."

The travel, the exhibitions, the sight-seeing are the rewards. What are the drawbacks?

"The hard work," she says. "And," turning away shyly, "the social life."

She means the lack of social life. Her day has no place for school sports or dating. Seven hours of it are eaten up by serious practice, another two travelling between rinks. In training, she seldom sees anyone but her mother, sister and skating colleagues. Her first three hours of practice from 7 to 10 A.M., she shares only with the cleaning staff at Maple Leaf Gardens. In the afternoon she shares the ice at her club with six or seven other competitive skaters, some of them also coached by her mother.

This is her program from Christmas through Easter, competition time. The rest of the year she may skate only a few hours a week, but then it's time to catch up on lost schooling. In spite of four months' absence from Lawrence Park Collegiate, Petra managed a B average on the four Grade 13 papers she wrote last year. This year she will write five more.

Petra's training is the focal point for the whole Burka family. They moved a year ago to a pleasant two-storey house 10 minutes' walk from the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club in North York. Jim Burton, secretary of the club, keeps track of Petra's skating and publicity engagements.

Mrs. Burka and Petra's sister Astra travel everywhere with her. Astra won the central Ontario junior women's championship in 1964, but she has not been good enough to make the Canadian team. "She just skates for fun," explains Petra, "but I like to have her along on tour."

Mrs. Burka not only coaches Petra; she also protects her. "Petra doesn't get a fraction of the phone calls or request for dinners, TV shows, exhibitions that come to her," says Mrs. Burka.

Petra knows she is sheltered. "I don't know anything about the expense involved," she says when asked how much it costs to win a championship. "You'll have to ask my mother."

"I couldn't even guess how much it costs," says Mrs. Burka. She can set no value on the long hours she spends coaching Petra. The use of Maple Leaf Gardens for practice is another factor that can't be counted in money. "I might not have made the title without it," says Petra.

Permission to use the famous arena came after president Stafford Smythe's daughters, also figure skaters, told him about Petra. "They said she needed some help and I would I let her use the ice," said Smythe. "We never rent the Gardens. None could afford it. I shudder to think what it would cost."

The Canadian Figure Skating Association, helped by government grants, has partly paid for travel to the last two world competitions - for Petra but not for her mother and sister.

As well as coaching. ice rental, academic tutoring and travel expenses, there is the equipment: boots, blades and costumes. Mrs. Burka tries to keep these costs down too.

"Things are getting out of hand when parents give champion equipment to a beginner," she says. Petra had one pair of skates until she won her first gold medal. Now she has two - one of figures, one for free skating. Each pair cost $100.

Keeping her well dressed on the ice is another expense. The simple red wool costume she wore for the school figures at the world trials at Colorado Springs cost $40.

The championship Petra won last spring is the highest a figure skater can go. The standards she met are even higher than in Olympic competition.

"But the Olympics have more glamour," Petra says. And she plans to retain her amateur standing and top place until 1968.

Where can Petra improve? "I need more grace," she answers. "Skating shouldn't just be athletic. It should be pleasant to watch as well."

There is one reason she dropped the spectacular and tricky triple Salchow (three rotations in midair after taking off backwards on the right skate, then landing, still going backwards, on the left skate) from her routine after it caught the attention of judges and audience in 1962. "I don't think girls should jump and make noises when they land on their skates," she said before the 1965 competitions. To learn to contain her athletic exuberance she will continue ballet lessons and perhaps introduce some of the movements she learns in her solo machine.

"It starts slowly. Then I show off my big, fast jumps. before I go back to slow movements to bring out what grace I have," she says modestly.

To compete in the Olympics, Petra must also maintain her amateur status. This means she must make no money, directly or indirectly, from skating. She can accept up to $50 in gift certificates - not cash - for an exhibition. She had to reject the offer of a car after winning her world title.

Petra is not a public personality. "She doesn't know it," her mother said, "but I've been approached by an ice show. I didn't even ask what they would pay her. You can see for yourself she's not the type for a show."

"Not now, maybe later," says Petra herself.

"It'll be hard enough for her to stay amateur champion the next few years," says Mrs. Burka. "She's used to coming from behind. Now she must defend her title - a new experience."

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

Snubbed In Scandinavia: The Marcus Nikkanen Story

Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive

Born January 26, 1904 in Helsinki, Finland, Marcus Rafael Nikkanen spent his youth skating with his brother Bertel at the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb. He was well educated in his youth, learning three languages - English, Finnish and German - but had little formal training on the ice. He instead looked to older, more experienced skaters like Sakari Ilmanen and Walter Jakobsson as role models and mentors. In 1917, at the age of thirteen he claimed his first of four consecutive Finnish junior men's titles.

After skating in Ilmanen's shadow in the years after World War I, Marcus won his first of an incredible ten Finnish senior men's titles in 1927. His wins at the Finnish Championships actually spanned three decades - the twenties, thirties and forties - and were largely owing to his aptitude and consistency in the school figures. In fact, more often than not he was overshadowed in the free skating by his younger brother, who won three National titles of his own in the thirties. That's not to say he wasn't a competent free skater. In her book "Advanced Figure Skating", Maribel Vinson raved about his flying sit spin: "Marcus Nikkanen, the gentlemanly champion of Finland did the best I have ever seen; he leaped straight up very high from a low [sit] position, shifting feet like lightning in mid-air and landing with a continuous dropping motion onto a low [sit] on his other foot."

Marcus attended his first of three Winter Olympic Games in 1928 at the age of twenty four, falling ill with a very high fever between the school figures and free skate but still managing an impressive sixth. After winning the bronze medal at the European Championships in Berlin behind Karl Schäfer and Otto Gold into 1930, the Finnish Skating Union handed him an ultimatum two years later. They would only submit his entry to the 1932 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York if he paid his own way. Where there was a will, there was a way and off Marcus sailed on the S.S. Paris. He placed fourth - still the best result for a Finnish singles skater in Olympic history - and three judges actually had him in the top three! He again made history the following year at the World Championships; his bronze medal in Zürich was Finland's first medal by a men's singles skater at the World Championships in history. Four years later at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games, he ended up a respectable seventh. All in all, of the eleven European and World Championships Marcus entered, he placed in the top ten in every single one. Not too shabby for anyone, let alone a skater who was primarily self-taught.

During his skating career, Marcus studied law, then worked at the American Consulate in Helsinki. He was wounded while fighting in the Winter War during World War II and left Finland in pursuit of greener pastures in North America. After a stint coaching at the Skating Club Of New York, he moved to Toronto and began teaching at the Granite Club in the early thirties. One of his most successful students was Dr. Charles Snelling, a six time Canadian Champion, two time North American Medallist and the 1957 World Bronze Medallist. He became involved with the Professional Skating Association Of Canada/Figure Skating Coaches Of Canada movement in the late sixties, an elite group that included Canadian coaching luminaries like Sheldon Galbraith, Bruce Hyland, Osborne Colson, Hellmut May and Ron Vincent. He was also a mentor to prominent Canadian pairs coach Kerry Leitch. After stints coaching in Portland, Oregon and Stamford, Connecticut, he returned to his native Finland, where in his seventies he set some serious wheels of change in motion. He discussed the establishment of a organization similar to the failed Figure Skating Coaches Of Canada system with Arja Wuorivirta and in May 1984, the Suomen Taitoluisteluvalmentajat (Finnish Figure Skating Coaches Association) was born. Less than a year later on March 28, 1985, he passed away at the age of eighty one. Not a bad life for a skater once not even deemed worth the price of a steamship ticket!

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

The 1914 World Figure Skating Championships

Skaters from the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb on the ice in Helsinki. Photo courtesy Helsinki City Museum.

On January 24 and 25, 1914, many of the best skaters in the world competed in St. Moritz, Switzerland at the Internationale Eislauf-Vereinigung's annual international competitions for women and pairs, later recognized as World Championships. Defeating eight other women, twenty three year old Zsófia Méray-Horváth claimed her third and final World crown.

In the pairs event, German born Ludovika Eilers and her Finnish husband Walter Jakobsson reclaimed the title that had eluded them the previous two years and set the stage for Finnish glory in the men's event which was to be held a month later on Helsinki's frozen North Harbour. That men's competition would mark the very first time in history that Finland ever played host to the World Figure Skating Championships.

Gillis Grafström, Harald Rooth, Richard Johansson and Gösta Sandahl at the 1914 World Championships

It was a highly talked up event, toted in European newspapers of the era as the biggest showdown in the history of men's figure skating. Not only was it the first time more than ten men participated in the World Championships, but six of the fourteen men entered had previously medalled at either the Winter Olympics, World or European Championships. With Olympic Gold Medallist Ulrich Salchow having at that time stepped aside, it was anybody's game. Although two Swedish judges sat on the panel, if the judging of the event was stacked in favour of any nation's skaters, it was the Russians and Finns. World Champion Walter Jakobsson acted as the Finnish judge and Olympic Gold Medallist Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin as the Russian one. The referee was Russian and as the event was held in Finland, which was then an autonomous duchy under Russian control. The fifth judge represented Hungary.

Outdoors in Helsinki weather that dipped below minus twenty degrees Celsius, fourteen men started the men's event despite protests from Finnish physicians, who claimed it was simply unsafe to compete in such dangerously low temperatures. However, the sun was shining and at least a thousand spectators braved the bitter cold to come watch the best skaters in the world compete.

Fritz Kachler

Defending two time World Champion and reigning European Champion Fritz Kachler of Vienna unanimously won the school figures by sixty points over Andor Szende of Budapest. Close behind in third - but with three second place ordinals - was a youthful Swede named Gösta Sandahl. Willy Böckl was fourth, Ivan Malinin fifth and an injured Gillis Grafström (making his world debut) was sixth. Hometown favourite Sakari Ilmanen withdrew from the competition following the figures after receiving ordinals that ranged from tenth through thirteenth.

Gösta Sandahl

Gösta Sandahl won the free skate by eight points over Austria's Ernst Oppacher, who had been seventh in figures. Böckl was third in free skate, followed by Harald Rooth of Sweden, Malinin and Richard Johansson, Szende and Grafström. Kachler placed a disastrous ninth and Swedish judge Dr. Bardy had him in a tie for tenth with Szende.

Gillis Grafström

Although ranked sixth overall by Panin-Kolomenkin, Gösta Sandahl won his first and only World title with first place ordinals from both Swedish judges and Jakobsson. Kachler, still ranked first by the judge from Austria-Hungary, settled for silver ahead of Böckl, Oppacher, Szende, Malinin, Grafström, Rooth and Johansson. Interestingly, 1912 European Bronze Medallist Martin Stixrud of Norway was the only skater who participated who didn't have a judge from his country on the panel. How did that work out for him? He placed eleventh.

So impressive was Sandahl's free skating performance that in the "Neues Wiener Tageblatt" in Vienna, Otto Bohatsch praised him thusly: "The young Swede Sandahl conquered... He's a smart kid of twenty years... a majestic skater with flight and speed in his program not unlike Salchow in younger days... He is considered among the best Nordic skaters today." The only Finnish entry who finished the competition, Björnsson Schauman, finished a disastrous twelfth. His result coupled with Sakari Ilmanen's in the figures proved that even in 1914 with a stacked panel, the judging in Helsinki wasn't overtly biased in favour of the hometown crowd.

Sergei Wanderfliet, Martin Stixrud, Björnsson Schauman, Gillis Grafström, Harald Rooth, Gösta Sandahl, Richard Johansson, Fritz Kachler, Andor Szende and Dr. Ernst Oppacher

 The "Fremdenblatt Sports Journal" saw things differently, claiming that Sandahl was marked generously in the school figures despite his ability being "nowhere near Kachler" and that Scandinavian judges had ganged up against Kachler in the free skate when he had an off day. Swedish skating historian Gunnar Bang, recalling the competition in his 1966 book "Konståkningens 100-åriga historia" noted Kachler's graciousness in defeat, saying that after the event, he "spoke not about the outcome, knowing the best man for the day won." Sandahl and Kachler didn't get a chance to settle their score for nine years.

The 1914 World Championships in men's figure skating were the final major international competition held before World War I, which put the amateur figure skating scene in Europe at a standstill. At the 1923 World Championships in Vienna - Kachler's hometown - Scandinavia's Sandahl finished third to Kachler's first, proving that like figure eights, all things come full circle.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

Finland's Forgotten Skating King: The John Catani Story

On Christmas Day, 1864 in Helsinki, Florio and Charlotte (Riecke) Catani welcomed to the world their third child, John Giovanni Battista Catani. The birth of John on Christmas Day was a particularly special gift for the Catani's, who had been working around the clock at the family confectionary business in the Pohjoisesplanadi preparing holiday sweets for the good people of Helsinki.

Photo courtesy Museo Virasto

From icing sugar to ice, young John developed a passion for skating in his teenage years. When he was nineteen, he entered a local speed skating race and finished a second to a local fisherman by the name of Liljeberg. After joining the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb, John began studying the art of figure skating and soon abandoned speed skating in favour of the practice of carving out elaborate special figures on the ice. Within no time, he was teaching fellow skaters the skills he'd just learned himself.

In 1886, John travelled to Stockholm and participated in an ice show where he was billed as "the cleverest skater the Nordic countries have to exhibit." According to the 1894 book "Tio vintrar på Nybroviken" penned by Ivar Boktryckeri, he "received the lion's share of applause" in this particular show.

Boktryckeri compared John directly to the great Jackson Haines, noting that he "loved to move in large figures and developed an elegance and agility which was admirable. He developed however an almost feminine grace which turned many against him who preferred a strong male skater. He had a boldness, tremendous strength combined with flexibility and a natural posture." John soon became renowned throughout Scandinavia for the polkas and mazurkas he translated to the ice, forward inside and outside spirals and aesthetically pleasing figure patterns.

Special figures designed by John Catani

In February 1889, John participated in an international figure skating competition in Gothenburg that featured skaters from Finland, Norway, Sweden and Great Britain. Though he placed third behind Rudolf Sundgren and Ivar Hult, British skater Douglas Adams recalled that both Sundgren and Catani "surprised us by the great power they possessed over their skates, in the most difficult movements." The following February John competed in the same 'unofficial' World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia where Canada's Louis Rubenstein made his mark. Russia's skating elite looked very favourably upon his special figures and the February 19, 1890 issue of "Finnish Wirallinen Journal" raved, "Mr. Catani is not inferior to the best ice ballet dancers". He tied for first place in the free skating competition at that event and returned to Helsinki with a silver drinking cup to show for his efforts.

Later that year, John opened a café in the same area as the family confectionary business in a huge stone house he built himself. That café, run by John and his brother, became an important social hub for the cultural elite of Helsinki for almost three decades. A famous Finnish poet named Eino Leino often frequented John's business. The first meeting of the Finnish Football Association - an organization which John himself later served as treasurer and President - was held there. In between serving Rönttönen pastry with lingonberry filling, Salmiakki, piimä and buckets of coffee to Helsinki high society, John was a devoted husband to his wife Anna Matilda Lindqvist and father to his three sons Sten, Lars and Bror and daughter Giulia Anita.

John Catani (fourth from left) with a group of Finnish conservationists. Photo courtesy Museo Virasto.

Sadly, John's café closed in 1917 due to Great War rationing and remained closed throughout the Finnish Civil War the following year. Passing away at the age of sixty six on May 13, 1931 in Helsinki, John Catani - "the cleverest skater the Nordic countries have to exhibit" - has been all but forgotten except by the most ardent followers of figure skating in Finland.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

A(nother) Spring Skating History Roundup

When I'm digging around for ideas for blogs, I sometimes come across the most unexpected and random stories. Last spring, I pulled together several fascinating tales that didn't quite have enough meat on their bones for a blog of their own and combined them into one post. The spring cleaning continues in 2017 with another spring mix of interesting stories from skating's colourful history. Grab yourself a nice cup of tea, open the windows and let the fresh air in and enjoy a(nother) little spring skating history roundup!

CLARA BARTON'S ACCIDENT

Without question, Clarissa Harlowe Barton earned her revered place in history. From her work tending to the sick and injured on the battlefields during the U.S. Civil War to her role in establishing the American Red Cross, she not only saved lives - she changed the world. If you'd like to dig deeper into her story, I'm definitely going to recommend listening to The History Chicks' 2011 podcast on this fascinating woman, but before you skate off there, I want to share with you a neat anecdote from her youth.

In her 1907 memoir "The Story Of My Childhood", Barton reflected on an injury she sustained once she mustered up the gall to try to skate... against her father's wishes. This tale, now in the public domain, serves as not only a footnote in the life of an extraordinary humanitarian, but a first hand glimpse into how young women at the turn of the century who showed a proclivity towards skating would have been treated growing up in rural America at the time:

"That little pond was my early love; the home of my beautiful flock of graceful ducks. The boys were all fine skaters; I wanted to skate too, but skating had not then become customary, in fact, not even allowable for girls; and when, one day, my father saw me sitting on the ice attempting to put on a pair of skates, he seemed shocked, recommended me to the house, and said something about 'tom-boys'. But this did not cure my desire, nor could I understand why it was not as well for me to skate as for the boys; I was as strong, could run as fast and ride better, indeed they would not have presumed to approach me with a horse. Neither could the boys understand it, and this misconception led them into an error and me into trouble. One clear, cold, starlight Sunday morning, I heard a low whistle under my open chamber window. I realized that the boys were out for a skate and wanted to communicate with me. On going to the window, they informed me that they had an extra pair of skates and if I could come out they would put them on me and 'learn' me how to skate. It was Sunday morning; no one would be up till late, and the ice was so smooth and 'glare.' The stars were bright, the temptation was too great. I was in my dress in a moment and out. The skates were fastened on firmly, one of the boy's wool neck 'comforters' tied about my waist, to be held by the boy in front. The other two were to stand on either side, and at a signal the cavalcade started. Swifter and swifter we went, until at length we reached a spot where the ice had been cracked and was full of sharp edges. These threw me, and the speed with which we were progressing, and the distance before we could quite come to a stop, gave terrific opportunity for cuts and wounded knees. The opportunity was not lost. There was more blood flowing than any of us had ever seen. Something must be done. Now all of the wool neck comforters came into requisition; my wounds were bound up, and I was helped into the house, with one knee of ordinary respectable cuts and bruises ; the other frightful. Then the enormity of the transaction and its attendant difficulties began to present themselves, and how to surround (for there was no possibility of overcoming them), was the question. The most feasible way seemed to be to say nothing about it, and we decided to all keep silent; but how to conceal the limp? I must have no limp, but walk well. I managed breakfast without notice. Dinner not quite so well, and I had to acknowledge that I had slipped down and hurt my knee a little. This gave my limp more latitude, but the next day it was so decided, that I was held up and searched. It happened that the best knee was inspected; the stiff wool comforter soaked off, and a suitable dressing given it. This was a great relief, as it afforded pretext for my limp, no one observing that I limped with the wrong knee. But the other knee was not a wound to heal by first intention, especially under its peculiar dressing, and finally had to be revealed. The result was a surgical dressing and my foot held up in a chair for three weeks, during which time I read the 'Arabian Nights' from end to end. As the first dressing was finished, I heard the surgeon say to my father: "that was a hard case, Captain, but she stood it like a soldier." But when I saw how genuinely they all pitied, and how tenderly they nursed me, even walking lightly about the house not to jar my swollen and fevered limbs, in spite of my disobedience and detestable deception (and persevered in at that), my Sabbath breaking and unbecoming conduct, and all the trouble I had caused, conscience revived, and my mental suffering far exceeded my physical. The Arabian Nights were none too powerful a soporific to hold me in reasonable bounds. I despised myself and failed to sleep or eat. My mother, perceiving my remorseful condition, came to the rescue, telling me soothingly, that she did not think it the worst thing that could have been done, that other little girls had probably done as badly, and strengthened her conclusions by telling me how she once persisted in riding a high mettled unbroken horse in opposition to her father's commands, and was thrown. My supposition is that she had been a worthy mother of her equestrian son. The lesson was not lost on any of the group. It is very certain that none of us, boys or girls, 'indulged in further smart tricks. Twenty-five years later, when on a visit to the old home, long left, I saw my father, then a grey-haired grandsire, out on the same little pond, fitting the skates carefully to the feet of his little twin granddaughters, holding them up to make their first start in safety, I remembered my wounded knees, and blessed the great Father that progress and change were among the possibilities of His people. I never learned to skate. When it became fashionable I had neither time nor opportunity."

Barton's skating story reads almost like one of Aesop's fables in its moralistic tone, but you know what? The lesson still holds true. Sometimes when you get you on the ice, you fall, you hurt yourself, you get back up, you move on... but that draw to the ice never goes away at any age. 

LENIN ON ICE

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) is widely regarded as one of the most controversial figures in history. He was the father of Leninism, which - joined with the works of Karl Marx - formed Marxism-Leninism and shaped the world view on Communism. He acted as leader of the Russian Communist Party and was of course the first leader of the Soviet Union. He also led the Bolshevik Revolution and we all know how that turned out. Like him or lump him, this guy certainly made a massive impact on world history. What you probably didn't know about him was that he was a - wait for it - figure skater.

Lenin grew up in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk), a small city on the Volga River, in a wealthy middle class family. His family's affluence afforded him the opportunities to pursue a wide variety of sporting activities, including skiing, swimming, rowing and ice skating. He devoted more time to his interest in skating during his time in exile in Siberia for sedition in the late nineteenth century. In a November 15, 1898 letter to his mother, Lenin wrote that "the only change is in the form relaxation - now that winter has come I go skating instead of hunting. I recall the old days and find that I have not forgotten how, although it is ten years since I skated last." This asserts that he would have been skating in his late teens.

Carter Elwood's paper "The Sporting Life Of V.I. Lenin" elaborated on Lenin's skating connection in much further detail: "According to Olga Lepeshinskaia, ice-skating was Vladimir Il'ich's favourite sport and one where his skill was far more evident than in hunting. Once the Ienisei froze and before too much snow had fallen, it was possible to skate for miles on the river. Ever competitive, Lenin challenged his fellow skaters to a race. 'Our skates would cut into the ice. In front of everybody (was) Ilyich, straining all his willpower and his muscles in order to win at any price, no matter how big the effort.' After the snow came, the exiled socialists of Shushenskoe cleared the ice on the Shush River in front of their village to make a skating rink. Krupskaia provided an admiring audience. 'Volodia is an excellent skater,' she informed his sister Anna; he 'even keeps his hands in his pockets of his grey jacket like a true sportsman.' After a Christmas trip to the near-by town of Minusinsk, where Lenin was given a new pair of Mercury skates and some lessons in figure skating, they returned home where he 'amazed the people of Shushenskoe with his 'giant steps' and 'Spanish leaps'." The self-effacing Krupskaia admitted that she in contrast 'strutted around like a chicken on skates.'"

Further evidence exists of Lenin turning to skating over a decade later when living and researching in Krakow before the first World War. He bought another pair of skates and again wrote to his mother saying "skating brought back memories of Simbirsk and Siberia". According to the text "V. I. Lenin v Krakove i Poronine", he again impressed an audience of local residents, this time by "executing elaborate figures on the ice".

Well after his death in 1924 of what is now believed to have been syphilis, it only seems appropriate that the Lenin Stadium complex constructed in 1955 which houses twenty rinks, many of which used for the instruction of figure skating, bears this controversial revolutionary's name.

BEING AN AMATEUR SKATER IN THE EIGHTIES

I once owned a mammoth red binder. One of the three rings had started to warp and you had to pull the pages through each time to read them. It was a copy of the CFSA rulebook. There's a whole world of skating history that can be gleaned from rulebooks have changed over the years and it was in a borrowed (earlier) copy of that very same CFSA rulebook that I happened upon several sections that I found particularly fascinating. They related to the stringent rules of amateurism.

We've all heard the stories: Papa Henie accepting lavish gifts as compensation for Sonja Henie's services; Barbara Ann Scott having to return a gifted yellow Buick convertible to keep her amateur status. Although much has without question changed over the years, back in the day federations took amateurism extremely seriously. The 1984 CFSA rulebook defined an amateur as "a person who participates in the sport as an avocation, for pleasure and not as a means of livelihood, and who is not disqualified as an amateur by any regulation of the ISU". Ways you could lose your amateur status including teaching skating for gain, participating "in any capacity, in a skating competition or exhibition not sanctioned by the CFSA, or other member of the ISU", performing with professionals in skating exhibitions without express permission, displaying advertising for commercial products or services during any CFSA or ISU sponsored event without permission and being in excess of allowed expenses. Signing contracts, accepting money in exchange for signing contracts at a later date and performing or teaching with the agreement of being paid sometime down the road were also all big no-no's. Skaters also had to be incredibly careful as to whether or not the events they appeared in were sanctioned by the CFSA. If, for instance, they even skated an exhibition during the intermission at a hockey game "where the professional element [dominated]," they were totally in troubs.

Let's talk a bit about expenses. Skaters under the age of eighteen were allowed to have a chaperone (one for every five skaters) whose expenses were paid, but the rules defining allowable expenses were very persnickety. Skaters and chaperones competing internationally had to educate themselves as to what was and wasn't allowed.

Skaters were allowed to receive financial assistance for their expenses in attending a competition from any source, but the CFSA reserved the right to request skaters submit a detailed list of all receipts and expenditures for scrutiny upon request. When they performed in shows, each skater was allowed to receive gifts of a value that did "not exceed $200.00 or the amount allowable under ISU rules (400 Swiss Francs), whichever is less". Gifts were allowed to be given in the form of gift certificates or purchase vouchers so long as the skaters weren't able to in any way sell or exchange them for cash value.

What happened if a skater's eligibility was questioned? Why, a  good old fashioned witch hunt of course! Well, not really, but it's easy to see how the rules could be manipulated to cause skaters considerable headache if you wanted to be an ass about such things. If someone made an objection to a skater's amateur status, they had two days to submit a notice in writing and a deposit of ten dollars to the Executive Director of the CFSA. At least seven days before the Board of Directors met to discuss the matter in a hearing, the skater was sent a copy of the complaint and notice of the time and place of the hearing. Skaters were called upon to defend their amateur status but "the burden of proof shall be on the objector". Depending on how the hearing went, the Rules Committee could either recommend a temporary suspension of a skater's amateur status or a full one. If a skater didn't agree with the decision, they had two recourses: an appeal (again paying a ten dollar deposit "which may be returned at the discretion of the meeting") and applying for reinstatement. Reinstatement appeals at the time could only be made at the CFSA's Annual General Meeting and if a skater reinstated, they could certainly test, skate in carnivals, judge, referee and compete in national competitions. They were not, at the time, ever eligible to compete in ISU or international competitions again. So this was some serious business! 

The changes that have occurred since these texts were written are innumerable. We saw the reinstatement of amateurs in the nineties in time for the Lillehammer Olympics, the great heyday of great professional figure skating competitions killed by the introduction of pro-am competitions and today, more skaters than ever choosing to retain their 'amateur' status simply because there aren't sufficient competitive opportunities professionally to offer a sense of fulfilment or challenge, let alone make a living outside of the show world. I don't want to get into a discussion about the importance of professional skating (been there, done that about ten times already on the blog) but I do hope these points serve as a gentle reminder to skaters today that 'they have it good'.

THE PHILADELPHIA TWIST

"Though Philadelphians have never reduced skating to rules like Londoners, nor connected it with business like Dutchmen, I will yet hazard the opinion that they are the best and most elegant skaters in the world." - Alexander Graydon

As the art of free skating developed in North America in the nineteenth century, dance steps and 'free figures' were an integral part of the composition of skater's programs. Perhaps the most popular of these dance steps were grapevines, which Irving Brokaw described in his 1913 book "The Art Of Skating" as "movements in which both feet are continuously employed on the ice, and where one foot is made to go in front or behind the other in combination with threes, loops, anvils, counters and toe-circling movements."

According to Brokaw, a member of the Philadelphia Skating Club named Amos Pinchon first brought the grapevine to New York in the winter of 1858-1959 and fittingly perhaps the most popular of the grapevines, the Philadelphia Twist, originated in that Pennsylvanian city around the same time.

The Philadelphia Twist was invented by an important man in early American skating history: the first chairperson of the first skating club. Colonel James Page was appointed as chair at the December 21, 1849 meeting at Stigman's Hotel on George and Sixth Street's in the city where the Skaters' Club Of Philadelphia, the precursor to the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society, was formed. Page wasn't your typical skater. He fought in the War Of 1812, The Buckshot War in 1838 and the riots of 1844 in Kensington and Southwark and as a high ranking military man, was extremely well respected and revered both on and off the ice.

But what exactly WAS this Philadelphia Twist that Page devised? Our old friend Henry Eugene Vandervell explained the entrance to the turn thusly: "The skater makes a whole circle on the outside back, with say, the right foot, when he places the left behind, outside of and parallel to the right, and with the feet thus locked makes half a revolution to the right, and taking up the right, skates the other circle of the eight with the left, and so on. The movement is, in fact, a back eight, with the circles tied together with the Philadelphia Twist." The Twist itself was a simple two foot half revolution turn with both feet locked together and could be skated in single or double form and was often accompanied with the variations of pivot circling on the toe-point or heel or incorporating a spread eagle in the steps. The most interesting part? Many men skated the twist together as a sort of primitive ice dance 'greeting' called a Salutation and for decades, it was extremely fashionable to do so. There you have it folks... in the end, it all comes back to same sex ice dancing. Who would have thought?

STASH SERAFIN AND THE VICKIE

"It all comes to this: the simplest way to be happy is to do good." - Helen Keller

On Friday, April 3, 1981, some of Canada's best figure skaters descended on Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens for a skating benefit like no other called The Vickie. The name of the show was a loose for acronym for 'Visually Impaired Children's (Kids) Ice Extravaganza' and the show was a fundraiser for the Ontario Foundation for Visually Impaired Children, who at the time ran High Park Forest School, the only school in all of Ontario that provided services for young students with visual impairment. The Vickie had actually been held three times previously, but this was the first time it was brought to a major arena with major sponsorship and advertising.

The Gardens were donated by Bill Ballard and the show itself in 1981 featured a massive cast of five hundred skaters from the Granite Club and Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club, a precision team from California called the San Diego Ice-Ettes and a performance by the Metro Toronto Police Pipe and Drum Band. The big name skating stars were Olympic Bronze Medallist Toller Cranston, World Champion and Olympic Bronze Medallist Donald Jackson and that year's Canadian Champions Brian Orser and Tracey Wainman. As part of the benefit, Toller Cranston was actually given The Vickie Award for his dedication to the cause. Toller actually donated his time and performed for this particular cause since day one.

Despite the big name stars, the skater many really came to was Stash Serafin of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, who himself was visually impaired. Serafin was actually the very first student of Uschi Keszler when she started coaching in 1971. According to an April 4, 1988 article from the "Philadelphia Inquirer", Keszler's work with Serafin greatly influenced her work with Brian Orser: "Because of Stash, I think Brian's blade is a lot more sensitive. I had to learn to teach through sound and learned that each mistake has a different sound."

The producer of the show was Andra McLaughlin Kelly, who represented the U.S. at the 1951 World Championships and later starred in the Ice Follies. McLaughlin Kelly's work with Canadian visually impaired skaters (many of whom also performed in the show) was an incredibly important part of the show's success.  Kathleen Rex's March 21, 1981 article in "The Globe And Mail" explained, "A high point of the evening will be the performance of youngsters such as Steven, who, dressed in Teddy bear suits, will demonstrate how well they can skate. They are among the 18 children enrolled in the High Park school, all of whom spend an hour a day, five days a week, on the ice in the St. Michael's arena with students from St. Michael's school. Norma Kelly, executive director of the foundation, said some of the proceeds from the show will go to find other blind pre-schoolers so they can be taught how to cope in a sighted world." Based on the resounding success of the 1981 show, The Vickie continued to be held at Maple Leaf Gardens through to at least March 1983.

The story of this particular skating event jumped out at me because visual impairment is something that has touched my own life. My grandmother Joyce, who I loved to death and pieces, lost her sight later in life and was an absolute inspiration to anyone she met. She was born in England and moved here to Canada with my grandfather while my father was only a young boy. After my grandfather passed away, she didn't have an easy go of it but she was the most feisty, full of life person you could ever meet. After suffering a stroke and Bell's Palsy, her sight declined. Instead of giving up, she wore the sunglasses, got the cane and with help from Nova Scotia's chapter of the Canadian National Institute Of The Blind learned the skills she needed to get around safely and live her life to the fullest while maintaining her independence. Even though she couldn't see, she'd be out shopping or doing this or that almost every day and had a fuller social calendar than most. She had such a beautiful spirit and I know she would have loved learning about The Vickie - almost like a real life version of the film "Ice Castles" - as much as I did.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

The Joseph Chapman Story, Part Two

Ruth and Joseph Chapman

"The sport and art of skating rises ever superior to the enthusiasts who practice it. Yet no one, however small, can fail to add something to it if he so desires." - Joseph Chapman, "Fifty Years Of Skating"

In the first part of this two-parter, we explored the early skating days of Philadelphia's Joseph Chapman. Today, we're going to dive right into the meat and potatoes. In 1921, the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society hired its first professional skating instructor, Kunzie de Bergen, and Chapman skated the Lancers (an early form of fours/combined figure skating) in the club's first true carnival. He explained, "At this time also, Mrs. Chapman and I began to skate a pair together, and it was at this carnival we first exhibited ourselves. The arena was crowded to the door-knobs with spectators, and I will never forget our feelings of grateful relief at the very generous (and probably over-sympathetic) applause which burst out at the end of our performance." Praise from professional pairs skaters George Muller and his sister Elsbeth, who had joined the club's coaching staff after de Bergen, bolstered Chapman's confidence and he became the club's first secretary under its role as a USFSA recognized club.

In 1921, he competed in the senior men's event at the U.S. Championships in Philadelphia. He finished an unfortunate last behind Sherwin Badger, his brother-in-law Nathaniel Niles, Eddie Howland and Chris Christensen. He recalled that when his friend, Stanley Rogers, withdrew to judge "he thereby practically precluded any chance I had of winning anything, except last place - even though I think he did his secret best for me in his capacity as a judge." It was also during this period that he was part of the first 'Philadelphia Four' (fours team) with his wife, Charley Myers and Margaretta Dixon. They gave exhibitions for three years in Philadelphia carnivals and once in Boston, although Margaretta was replaced twice. He also gave exhibitions with his wife in pairs skating at the old Iceland Rink in Broadway in New York.

In 1923, he won the U.S. junior pairs title with his wife in New Haven, Connecticut. It would be his first and last competition in pairs skating. That year's event was actually the first U.S. junior pairs event and was only added after Martha Niles, his sister-in-law, petitioned the USFSA for its inclusion. He stated that "Ruth and I... were distinctly a dignified 'lady and gentleman pair,' - having no jumps or spins lifts - or anything, in fact, but several fair-enough spirals and a few dance steps. Although we had not skated very much together in our pair for some time immediately preceding the Championships in New Haven, I crowded her into entering the Junior Pair event. It was slightly chilly that day in the New Haven rink, exactly thirty-two degrees below zero, Centigrade, I mean - and her favorite cousins were interested and anxiously sympathetic spectators. We went through our program without a fall, which is saying a good deal, and succeeded in defeating the only other couple entered, composed of Heaton Robertson and (I think) Dorothy Dieffendorfer. Our victory was due not so much to our ability as to the fact that Heaton and Dorothy had only been skating together about a week." The rules at the time indicated that if you won junior pairs, you couldn't enter again. The couple refrained from moving up to the senior ranks and remained undefeated, but inspired seven teams to enter the junior pairs competition at the U.S. Championships the next year.

While in Lake Placid that same winter, Chapman was invited to Ottawa to judge the first North American Championships in Ottawa. Fiercely patriotic, let it suffice to say that he didn't have very complimentary things to say about the Canadian skaters competing that year. He returned to the U.S. Championships as a senior men's competitor in 1924, but again finished off the podium behind Badger, Niles and Christensen. It would be his final competition. You'll remember in the cliffhanger of part one of the blog that Chapman suffered heart problems regularly during his career. Although this didn't keep him off the ice, they did play a role in his decision to slow down on the free skating to some degree so it was perhaps his health and not his disappointing results that kept him from continuing to pursue a national medal in the men's senior ranks at that time.

He focused his attention on furthering the development of skating in Philadelphia, spearheading a committee that organized a joint USFSA/Philadelphia club carnival called "Allies Of The Ice" in 1925. Unfortunately, his heart problems kept him from taking on the active role in the organization of this event. As his health improved, he remained extremely active in organizing skating carnivals in Philadelphia and as he called an 'ice-contact man', using his connections in the skating world to book skaters for shows, drive them around and arrange for their music when they arrived from abroad. He was in many ways a booking agent before such a thing really existed in modern terms. He also was instrumental in pioneering skating carnivals in Hershey, Pennsylvania and in fact, choreographed the first two. He also did a little skating briefly in the thirties, forming the short lived Philadelphia Trio, a "three member fours act", with Christine Hamilton and Rosemond Robert and skating in carnivals.

It was however in his capacity as an 'ice-contact man' that he first became acquainted with Sonja Henie during her amateur days when she was in America giving an exhibition in Atlantic City. After lunch with Sonja, Mama and Papa Henie, he offered Sonja and Hedy Stenuf a drive in his Buick Coupe. Henie, in awe of a car with a radio, hopped in. Their conversation went like this:

"You know, Sonja, sometimes I feel really sorry for you. You have to devote yourself exclusively to skating. You must have been thrown constantly with older people. At the dances after the carnivals you are always dancing with us old fellows because there are so few charming young men as yet engaged in our sport. That is one reason why I never ask you to dance - even though on taking the famous Binet Test recently, my own mental age was pronounced to be of fourteen years. Have you had any boyfriends?"

"But yes! Of course I have! Many boys come to see me in my home at Oslo. You should see my room. It is full of gifts and presents. Not only from boys, but it is full of beautiful gold-mesh bags, cups and gifts of all kinds I have received from all over Europe when I have skated. These Americans do not seem so generous in their presents as the Europeans. They do not give me as nice presents as I get abroad when I skate. When Maribel Vinson came into my room in my home in Oslo, she could not believe her eyes when she saw my presents from Europe."

"I am amazed. Perhaps the Americans think more of a dollar than they do of your skating. I will tell you what I am going to do, Sonja. We will be in Atlantic City for the carnival on Saturday, three days from now. I am directing that carnival and skating in it also. You are going to be one of our star exhibitors there. [Her eyes narrowed slightly] I mean, you are going to be our STAR exhibitor. I intend to spring into the breach as the defender of American generosity. I am going to give you a present when you skate at Atlantic City."

"Oh no - I did not mean that. You must not do that. You must think me terrible!"

Although he could have certainly afforded a more luxurious gift - if you take his income from 1930 U.S. Census, by today's standards, he would have been a millionaire - Chapman gave Sonja Henie a thirty five cent box of salt water taffy. He said, "I wrote a hurried little note and sent it with the gift via bell-boy to Sonja's room. I saw Sonja only at a distance from a corner of the rink other than the one where I stood in front of the orchestra. But at the dance afterwards I passed close to Sonja as she gracefully drifted by to the strains of a waltz, clasped in the arms of [Willy Böckl]. Leaning close she murmured to me in dulcet tones, 'Thank you for the candy.' For you see, Sonja really is a good kid." Now if that isn't a good Sonja Henie story, I don't know what is!

Despite this, he ushered the Henie's and Karl Schäfer to Washington, D.C. to meet President Franklin Delano Roosevelt after the 1930 World Figure Skating Championships. When they arrived, they found out that the President was engaged speaking to coal miners, and were met by Eleanor Roosevelt instead. She was, according to Chapman, more interested in his jokes than the skating royalty he accompanied.

Invoice from Roman Bronze Works Foundry describing skating statues and trophies designed by Joseph Chapman. Courtesy The Portal To Texas History.

In 1936, Philadelphia established its own pairs championship and Ruth, who had by this time taken up a keen interest in sculpting skating figurines, designed The Chapman Trophy for the winners. Although Chapman remained active in the organization of the club carnivals in Philadelphia during this period, the couple started wintering in Florida so took on less of a 'hands on' role. In 1939, both Joseph and Ruth were made members of the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society for life with full skating privileges. However, the following year the couple opted to retire to a warmer clime, becoming legal residents of Coconut Grove, Florida. Although Ruth had stopped skating by this point, Chapman remained active in the skating community as the USFSA's Southern representative and skated recreationally at an indoor rink in Florida until it was taken over by the military and used to train army airforce personnel during World War II.

You'd think retirement and the lack of a skating rink would stop most people, but not the Chapman's. Their last major contribution to skating came in 1942 and was Ruth's brainchild. They organized a committee at the Venetian Roller Skating Rink in Coconut Grove with the idea of bringing military members to the ice for skating parties. These affairs, catered with food and drink, brought at least fifty uniformed sailors to the ice every week. "The Miami News", on March 3, 1942 reported, "Last year we kept hearing of Joseph Chapman as an ice skater, for he was one of the 'constants' at the Coliseum Ice Palace and his figure skating was something to brag about. With no facilities for ice skating available in Miami this year, Mr. Chapman has turned his attention to roller skating, and because skating is his hobby, he knows there must be boys in military service in Miami who also love to skate. That's why he and Mrs. Chapman decided to arrange a skating party and invite some of our military visitors." He composed the lyrics and music for "Rolling To Victory", a patriotic war tune about roller skating, especially for these parties.

Whatever impression you may glean of him from this biography, you have to admire Chapman's dedication to skating and sense of humour. In an epilogue in his 1944 memoir, he wrote, "I never expected this skating history would see the light. That it now appears in modest form is due to a temptation, for which I fell... Some skaters may feel slighted because they are not mentioned; some because they may think themselves too lightly mentioned. All I can say is: 'I apologize'. That ought to fix 'em!" Another quote which stood out poignantly were his words, "While I respect death, I do not much 'fear' it." After years of battling with heart problems, he finally succumbed in January 1952 in Coconut Grove. He is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Few have worn so many hats: competitor, coach, judge, agent, choreographer, event organizer, writer, historian... If anyone loved figure skating, it was this man that time has forgotten.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

The Joseph Chapman Story, Part One

"The sport and art of skating rises ever superior to the enthusiasts who practice it. Yet no one, however small, can fail to add something to it if he so desires." - Joseph Chapman, "Fifty Years Of Skating"

Like The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, Joseph Chapman Jr., the son of Joseph and Mary Chapman, was born April 12, 1881 in west Philadelphia. In the summer of 1886, he moved with his family to Lower Merion, a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It was there, as a boy of five, that he first skated on a pond during the winter of 1886/1887 with his father on the family's private little cement pond. In his autobiographical 1944 memoir "Fifty Years Of Skating", a primary source that I consulted for much of the research in this blog (and will coincidentally quote from heavily), he explained, "My first skates were of the all-steel variety with clamps that bit onto the soles and heels of my shoes, usually pulling the latter off after a time, and were operated by an adjustable lever underneath the foot plate." Although his early skating days consisted mostly of shinny games (a forerunner of hockey) and a game called 'tickly-bender', it wasn't until his father passed away in September 1899 that Chapman got his first taste of 'fancy skating'.

Going against his mother's wishes, he wandered off with his "colored coachman William" to skate on a pond two miles from the family home. Although he fell through the ice in an early visit (which he referred to as his 'baptism' into skating), it was on this pond at the Old Waterworks he became proficient. Inspired by a young man fancy skating there, he taught himself basic figures and the Dutch Roll. In those early days, Chapman also skated on Wissahickon Creek. He recalled, "I can remember how I stood amazed at some of the high speed circling jumps and spins executed by a gentleman of color from Roxborough, who as I was told - was accustomed to entertain, with an attractive conceit, his large crowd of admirers on the Wissahickon Creek down the last stretch where skating was possible before it emptied into the Schuylkill River." His mother, now realizing there was no stopping him, gave him approved club skates for Christmas one year and he learned grapevines and the Philadelphia Twist on these ponds. Among those he skated with was Chris I. Christensen of St. Paul, who would go on to later win the U.S. senior men's title in 1926 at the age of fifty one.

Skaters on the Schuylkill River. Photo courtesy Historical Society Of Pennsylvania.

In 1900, Chapman enrolled in Princeton University and stopped skating for some time. After graduating, he practiced law independently, though associated with five other attorneys from the firm of Tustin and Wesley. He became treasurer of his late father's business, Chapman Decoration Co. on Walnut St. in Philadelphia, golfed regularly and even had "sketches and stories" published in Golfers' Magazine, Saturday Evening Post and Philadelphia Sunday Ledger. In Princeton Alumni Weekly, Volume 20, he described "having created a colored character named 'Uncle Jed, Caddie Master". Realizing now that this is not the first, the second, but the third time in three paragraphs that the phrase 'colored' has come up, I want to assure you that I'm shaking my head as much as you probably are reading.

It was while he was still at Princeton that Chapman met his wife Ruth at a house party. They married in June 1908. Ruth was brought up in Boston and was probably the biggest fan of skating going, in particular the International Style being popularized at the time by George Henry Browne and Irving Brokaw, based on the style of Jackson Haines. By the winter of 1908/1909, Ruth had Joseph Chapman back on skates. She can also be credited with getting her brother on the ice in his first small competition on the pond of the Braeburn Country Club in Massachusetts. You may have heard of him... Nathaniel Niles, U.S. men's, pairs and ice dancing champion. 

It was around this time that a small and dedicated group of skaters began skating on the ponds at Haverford College and the Merion Cricket Club. They were there for next seven or eight seasons without fail. A man named Harry Thayer converted a small creek which ran past the quarry of the Merion East Golf Course into a skating pond. By the second year, Thayer had suggested Chapman become involved in the organization of the skating at this pond and in 1912, he became chairman, a position he'd hold for approximately the next fifteen years. He recalled, "During the eleven or more years of our outdoor figure skating activities, we struggled with the cold, the wind, the cracks and twigs on the ice, and to some extent with the late Walter Thayer's particular hete noir, i.e. the presence of one or more dogs upon the pond - a thing strictly against the rules. During this time also, my wife and I frequently went to Boston in the winter where they already had an indoor ice rink and several first-class figure skating professionals from Europe, George Muller and his sister, Elsbeth, were among the latter. I also remember Jaycock, who once gave me a half hour lesson in figure skating for one dollar and fifty cents. In this lesson he did all the skating, as I required him to show me a number of 'school figures' that I had read about in the books, but had never as yet seen performed. This is the only lesson I ever took, and I make this statement not as a boast but rather as a contrite confession."

Chapman, like many North American skaters of his day, developed his craft by studying Irving Brokaw's book "The Art Of Skating" and learning of the methods of Brokaw, Nikolai Panin, Ulrich Salchow, Bror Meyer and others. He even self-taught himself the spread eagle based on Henning
Grenander's picture in the book. In turn, he rekindled his own passion for writing, penning pieces regularly in "Skating" magazine and publishing poems about figure skating in the "Philadelphia Evening Bulletin" such as the one below:

UNDER THE OLD ROCK LEDGE (Saturday, February 3, 1917)

Hoar-frost over the meadow;
Tingle and nip in the air;
And down below where the willows grow,
Look for some skating there.

Run for your rusty rocker,
Skates with the sharpest edge;
The ice is black, with never a crack,
Under the old rock ledge.

Pulsing and glowing body;
Glorious healthy "feel;"
The flashing blade, and the crisp sound made
By the cold, keen, cutting steel.

Daring the dangerous "counter,"
Tracing a dizzy edge;
Risking your neck for "her" dear skate,
Under the old rock ledge.

Fast, and faster and faster,
Ankles and arms we'll pledge
To the matchless sport, as the days grow short,
Under the old rock ledge.

In 1916, Joseph and Ruth became members of the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society. He described how an indoor rink was later built on a vacant lot on Market St. between 45th and 46th Streets: "This rink was opened on February 1, 1920, in a rather unfinished condition, and I can see myself the second or third time that I skated upon it - in the rain. No, this is no misstatement because the roof leaked like a sieve and the rain was pouring down upon us as we skated." Although he'd only ever had that one lesson, he started teaching others in a program called The Philadelphia Skating Class. To further his education, Chapman made frequent trips to New York, Brooklyn, Boston and the Cambridge Skating Club, where he hobnobbed with a who's who of skating at the time including his brother-in-law Nathaniel Niles and partner Theresa Weld Blanchard, Maribel Vinson, Sherwin Badger, Roger Turner, Willie Frick, Ulrich Salchow, Ellen Dallerup and Bror Meyer. However, during this same period, he began regularly having heart troubles, suffering from what his doctor called "a strained muscle."

And with that cliffhanger, I think that's where I'll end part one of this story. In part two, we'll explore the meat and potatoes of Joseph Chapman's skating career - competing at the U.S. Championships, his contributions to skating in Philadelphia and (for that matter) North America and for good measure, recall a fabulous Sonja Henie story. Stay tuned!

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.