Brian Schuler Granzow (Brian Grant)
March 9, 1946-January 26, 1986
Moira North and Brian Grant. Photo courtesy Ice Theatre of New York.
A talented all-around entertainer, Brian Granzow (Brian Grant) danced alongside Twiggy in the 1971 film "The Boy Friend" and modelled with the McDonald/Richards agency. He took up skating as an adult in the late sixties, appearing in "Winter Romance On Ice" with Peggy Fleming and and plastic ice shows at Studio 54 and the Nanuet Star Theatre. With partner Darlene (Gilbert) Parent, he skated in numerous plastic ice shows around the country, including "Fashion On Ice", a fundraiser for the Viennese Opera Ball and series of productions at the Rainbow Grill. He also appeared in skating scenes in the film "Splash", television series "Kate & Allie" and in John Curry's show "Ice Dancing" at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway. He was a pioneering member of the Ice Theatre Of New York and taught skating for several years at the Sky Rink. He also appeared in skating scenes in the 1984 film "Splash", which starred Tom Hanks, John Candy and Eugene Levy. He passed away on January 26, 1986 at the age of thirty-nine.
Memories of Brian from Darlene Parent: "We met in 1969 or early 1970. I was pregnant and Brian came to a public session I just happened to be at one night. I saw that he had beautiful natural lines and was about six feet tall - a perfect size for me. I thought, 'Oh my God... a balletic type skater!' I went over to him and told him, 'After I have my child, I have several skating shows lined up. I need a new skating partner.'. My previous partner had retired. He took one look at me and thought I was a crazy lady and brushed me off. In 1973, he came back to the rink and we ended up skating some sessions together. He hadn't done anything much in the way of pairs, so I actually trained him at first before asking a coach to help us. A lot of the pairs stuff we did was adagio that we practiced off the ice first. Our first show was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on real ice. They liked us, so we were asked to do tons of shows on plastic all over the place with a company called 'Fantasy On Ice'... Brian was like a second father to my son Dale. All three of us travelled together from when Dale was four and a half until he was seven, touring the country doing these plastic ice shows. Brian and I got the front page of the newspaper 'The Hurricane Breeze' in Hurricane, West Virginia. We had a tour that went to Appalachia and of course, Brian was so good-looking the teenage girls screamed when he came out on the ice. We did shows all over the place... one with Shari Lewis and Rodney Dangerfield and another at Studio 54.. This guy had a plastic show at a pre-game show for the Philadelphia Phillies and we were skating on the pitcher's mound. It was awful, because the plastic was popping all over the place. It was a mess. Brian had me over his head, and he was walking around. It was terrible, but afterwards we got to sit in the dugout and watch the game. We also skated for several years in a show at Christmas time in New York City at a bank called the Manhattan Savings Bank. It's the Republic Bank now. They had, on real ice, a small surface in the bank on 47th and Madison. They would give shows three times a day between twelve and quarter to three, over a three week period. They had a mini-show with four skaters, carol singers and a little story around the whole thing. It was adorable. The whole show was about twenty minutes long... Brian met John Curry before the 1976 Olympics, when John was in New York training at Sky Rink. Brian lived on 6th Avenue and West 12th St. and my son Dale went to school diagonally across on 11th Street. I was over picking Dale up or something and I ran into John and Brian on the street. I said, 'John, what are you doing over here?' He said, 'I'm in love with a boy called Bob' (who was Brian's significant other) and he said this right in front of Brian. This is what was happening in the Village - this, that and the other... In April of 1979, Brian and I auditioned for the re-opening of Radio City Music Hall on plastic. We got the job and it lasted from April until September and it was called 'A New York Summer'. Brian didn't want to do it because it tied up the entire summer and John Curry had rented a house on Fire Island. Brian wanted to be out there with him. It was a wonderful show but I had to end up with a lesser partner, which was very disappointing. I wish Brian would have done it... The last thing we did he was very sick and he could hardly pick me up to his chest. It was at the Rockefeller Center and we skated in the TV show 'Kate & Allie'. Two months later, he was dead. It was awful... just horrible."
Memories of Brian from Mary Gaillard: "Brian was very ambitious and loved to skate, but he was a skater who learned as an adult. He didn't grow up as a skater. It was really wonderful that John [Curry] took him under his wing and he was able to skate in his show. He was my group class teacher at Sky Rink and then I started taking private lessons from him. We'd walk to subway together and talk after lessons and he became a good friend. He was diagnosed with pneumonia on April 26, 1985 and was sick for nine months before he passed away. During that time, I ended up living with him and taking care of him. This was in the days when AIDS was just popping up a little bit and nobody knew much about it. He was going to lick this thing. He went into this with vitamins and was taking good care of himself. He was going to be the first one to not die from it. His outlook was strong. He kept it very much to him and didn't tell anyone what he had. People might have guessed but he was adamant that he didn't want everybody's negativity impacting his trying to get better. Another reason he didn't tell anyone was that his family didn't know he was gay. Certainly, after he died everybody knew. He had a memorial service here in New York and his funeral was in Syracuse... He was really good looking. You'd go into a restaurant and you could see people looking at him because he was very attractive. That, of course, got him very far in life. His biggest money-making was certainly modelling and entertaining. He was outgoing, very friendly and definitely had a sense of humour."
*Source for inclusion: National AIDS Memorial, The Names Project Memorial Quilt
