Rags, Riches And Restitution: The Arnold Shoda Story

Photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive

"I think of myself as a glider floating through space when I am skating. My aim is to please the eye, rather than excite the mind." - Arnold Shoda, "The Reading Eagle", July 19, 1951

Born August 18, 1926, Arnold Shoda grew up in crushing poverty in the tenements of Manhattan, New York during The Great Depression. His father Ignatz was born in Minsk, Russia and kept food on the table as best he could by taking a job with a cleaning firm as a window cleaner. His mother Poli, born in Austria, contributed by working as a housekeeper. The family had arrived in Ellis Island from Steinbrück in 1911 and hadn't had an easy go of it raising Arnold and their eldest son Stephen. In a sea of Italian, Polish, Czechslovakian and Jewish immigrants, the Shoda's were 'just another' struggling family trying to make it in the Big Apple.

When Arnold was twelve in 1939, he discovered the skating at the rink at the New York World's Fair and was instantly hooked. Every day after school, he showed up at the rink, borrowed skates and taught himself how to skate by following around the experienced skaters like a puppy and mimicking what they did. His parents recognized how much he loved the ice and somehow managed to find the money somewhere to get him his own pair of skates, even though they certainly couldn't afford it. In an interview in August of 1951, he recalled, "My mother bought me my first skates. They were hockey skates, and she bought the shoes too big so that I could grow into them. I scuffed the toes dreadfully." He continued to improve and quickly graduated out of those hockey skates into a pair of figure skates.

There were no competitions; no lessons. Arnold didn't have the inclination and Ignatz and Poli just didn't have the money. What Arnold did have was ambition, sparkling aquamarine eyes and a certain flair about him.

Photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive

Arnold auditioned for an ice show in the Bowman Room at the Biltmore Hotel on Madison Avenue and Forty Third Street, got the job and soon found himself skating pairs with Joan Hyldoft. In case you're trying to do the math here, yes, Arnold was an untrained, professional skater at sixteen. He later skated and sang at the Terrace Room at the Hotel New Yorker in its "Circus Daze" show alongside Bob Ballard and Mary Jane Yeo. The May 20, 1944 issue of "Billboard" magazine raved, "Shoda, as ringmaster, darts about on the ice in flashy manner, and also warbles 'Circus On Parade' in nice fashion."

Photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive

The Biltmore and Hotel New Yorker gigs led to a fifteen month stint at the Center Theatre in Arthur M. Wirtz and Sonja Henie's shows and a fourteen month engagement skating at the Stevens Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. Once you got your foot in the door in those days, more opportunities presented themselves. More opportunities, luckily for Arnold, meant more money.

After World War II, Arnold found himself headlining a series of tank ice shows at the Roxy Theater in New York with Carol Lynne, Jean Arlen, Bruce Mapes and Martha Firschke, a.k.a. Trixie The Skating Juggler. A versatile entertainer, he skated to everything from gypsy folk music to Edvard Grieg's "Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16" and soon gained respect and a keen following among fellow skaters for his artistry and sensitivity toward music.

In a July 1951 interview with society columnist Alice Hughes, Arnold proudly proclaimed, "There are lots of ice skaters, but not many who combine skating with ballet. That's what I do." His dream was to have his own touring show just like Sonja Henie and he stayed in shape "just like any athlete. No smoking; hardly any drinking; as much sleep as I can get and of course, three hours a day training whenever I'm not doing four shows a day, as I am now. Any slight injury to a foot or even an arm is dangerous, for I have to be as supple as a ballet dancer." He kept his dressing room 'neat as a pin' apparently and loved to cook.

By 1951, Arnold was represented by the Fosters Agency, the same talent agency who represented Cecilia Colledge, Carol Lynne and Adele Inge. By 1952, they got him out of the Roxy and into the Boulevard Room at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago, where his big act combined a vocal rendition of a song called "My Heart Is In My Boots" with a 'show stopping solo' which the July 5, 1952 issue of "Billboard" magazine described thusly: "A dance routine to a tango beat, featuring some flashy stag jumps, Axels, headless and sit spins. He ended the routine with a fast spin and pulled a big hand."

Arnold Shoda and Kay Servatius. Photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive.

After reuniting with his old partner Joan Hyldoft, Arnold had finally accepted the realization that he'd never have his own touring show like Sonja Henie when he was offered a position as a principal on Holiday On Ice.

Arnold Shoda and Kay Servatius. Photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive.

Arnold soon found himself touring with two time Olympic Gold Medallist Dick Button and skating behind the Iron Curtain in Moscow as one of the European tour's male leads. That 1959 Holiday On Ice show was the first American skating production to perform in the Soviet Union. Four years prior to the trip where he met Nikolai Kruschev, Arnold partnered Sonja Henie in her 'Holiday On Ice' Christmas special. His usual partner on the tour was Kay Servatius.

Right photo courtesy "The National Ice Skating Guide"

Arnold remained with Holiday On Ice for over a decade and found himself more at home on the North American tour, doing everything from playing the tragic clown Pagliacci in a 'Continental Circus' to skating a pairs routine to the old standard "Begin The Beguine".

Photo courtesy Joseph Butchko Collection, an acquisition of the Skate Guard Archive

Arnold later coached at the All Weather Roll 'N' Ice rink in Copiague, Long Island. When he died June 25, 2003 in Palm Desert, Riverside, California at the age of seventy six, he may have taken heart in one good deed he performed that few who came to marvel at him in shows ever knew about. The very first thing that he did when he started making money as a teenage show skater was buy his impoverished parents a nice house in Long Island. They took a chance on him when they couldn't afford to, and he never forgot it.

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 1937 British Ice Skating Championships

In modern day, when someone says, "I'm going to Nationals" we safely assume they are heading to one venue for a several day figure skating competition featuring multiple disciplines. However, if the year was 1937 and you lived in Great Britain and told someone the exact same thing, you could have been talking about one of any number of events! Today on the blog, we'll take a trip back in time to pre-World War II England for a look at the many British Championships of 1937.

Beryl Styles

In early February of 1937, the National Skating Association presented the first 'Junior Competition For Ladies', which was open to young women over the age of twelve who had not competed in the British Championships prior to October 1, 1936. In his book "Skaters' Cavalcade: Fifty Years Of Skating", author A.C. Wade explained, "This competition was frequently referred to as the British Junior Championship, and although this definition was incorrect the contest was regarded by many as for the Junior title. The first winner was Miss Beryl Styles, who, not long afterwards became a professional, and was the star in the very successful ice revue 'Marina' which ran for many months at Brighton and later at Earl's Court. While at Earl's Court the Queen saw 'Marina' and Beryl was presented to her Majesty."

Cecilia Colledge, Megan Taylor and Belita Jepson-Turner

On February 16 and 17, 1937, the British Ladies Championships were held at the Westminster Ice Rink. After the compulsory figures, Park Lane's Cecilia Colledge held a twenty three point lead over Manchester's Megan Taylor. The February 16, 1937 issue of "The Western Morning News And Daily Gazette" noted, "Miss Colledge, at sixteen, was one of the oldest of the nine competitors who for eight hours circled gracefully on the ice in six set figures and skated with each foot in turn." The youngest entry in the event was thirteen year old Daphne Walker, whom the London County Council made wait until after midnight to be 'seen by the judges' in the previous year's competition. This was owing to the Young Children and Persons Act, which forbade young people to give public exhibitions after seven in the evening, unless it was for charity. At Westminster she told reporters, "I felt tired occasionally, but it was the waiting between the figures which fatigued me."

Some in the audience believed that Megan Taylor might overtake Cecilia Colledge in the free skate. The February 17, 1937 issue of "The Aberdeen Press And Journal" reported, "Miss Colledge's skate grated ominously as she pirouetted into a simple spin, and the spectators held their breath, but [she] recovered and went on to perform an intricate series of spins and jumps - a programme which won her the title for the third year in succession." Taylor settled for silver, ahead of Streatham's Gladys Jagger, Jacques Gerschwiler's protégé Belita Jepson-Turner, Daphne Walker, Pamela Stephany, Joy Ricketts, Jean Leonard-Smith and Beryl Styles.

Violet and Leslie Cliff

Bournemouth's Violet and Leslie Cliff reigned supreme at the British Pairs Championships ahead of Daphne Wallis and Reginald Wilkie, better known as ice dancing pioneers than pairs skaters. At the first British Ice Dancing Championship for seniors at Richmond Ice Rink, Wallis and Wilkie also reigned supreme.

Graham Sharp

On March 14 and 15, 1937, the British Men's Championship was held at Harringay Arena. Fresh off a silver medal win at the World Championships in Vienna, Henry Graham Sharp skated to a commanding lead in the school figures. Though Freddie Tomlins won the free skate, Sharp's early lead was enough for him to easily retain his title. The skating correspondent for "The Times" remarked, "I find it hard to understand why the judges could make such a great difference between the holder's skating and that of his nearest rival, F. Tomlins, who skated very steadily and with true lines and in excellent style."

Sadie Cambridge and Albert Enders

The following month, the British Open Professional Championships for men, women and pairs were held at Harringay Arena. In the women's event, eighteen year old Pamela Prior was victorious in her first appearance in the event. She was actually the only entry but was still expected to obtain at least two thirds of the maximum marks for compulsory figures (yes, figures in a professional event) and seven twelfths of the maximum marks in free skating to be awarded the Championship. She earned 956.7 points out of a possible 1250. London born Hope Braine reclaimed the men's title ahead of ahead of one Herr Rolle from Germany. Four teams contested the pairs title, where Australians Sadie Cambridge and Albert Enders defeated two time Olympic Gold Medallists and four time World Champions Andrée and Pierre Brunet by one tenth of a point.

On December 12 and 13, the National Skating Association decided to finally consolidate the British Men's, Ladies and Pairs Championships into one event at one venue, the Empire Pool, Wembley. One of the reasons often cited for this decision is the fact that audiences would flock to see the women's competitions and rarely turn up in the same numbers for the men's or pairs events. A.C. Wade noted, "This meeting proved an immense success, about 10,000 people being present, and many turned away." The Cliff's repeated as pairs champions and Daphne Walker won the bronze medal behind Cecilia Colledge and Megan Taylor, but actually beat Megan in the free skate and reportedly received more applause than either of her older competitors. The men's event was far closer than the one held that March, with Sharp's margin of victory over Tomlins depleted significantly. On his "Saturday Page", Godfrey Winn offered us a rare glimpse into the men's event and the relationship between Sharp and Tomlins: "Graham Sharp sailed on to the ice to give his exhibition of free skating. But, good though he is, the enthusiasm in the crowd is twice as great for the boy who follows, and in the five minutes allotted to him, courts disaster a dozen times by the daring of his leaps and turns. There is a roar as he makes his exit. I look at the programme excitedly. Freddie Tomlins. The name is new to me. Perhaps to you, too. Remember it. He is going to be the champion one day. Afterwards I went behind the scene and met this comet in the skating world. On the final figures of the judges he was placed second to Sharp by a very small margin. You might have expected him to be disappointed. You might have expected a feeling of tenseness between the two close rivals, the assured champion and the youngster stepping on his heels. But not a bit of it. Sharp and Tomlins talked to me with their arms around each other's shoulders. 'If he could do figure skating like I can, and I could put up his show at free-skating, we'd win the World Championship between us,' Sharp explains. 'Anyway, we're off to Berlin next month, aren't we Tommy, to see what we can do!' Tommy grins. He is shy. All his articulation lies in his feet. But all the same it easy for me to see that there is not a scrap of jealousy in his nature. He has done is best, he has been beaten at the post by a better man. He acknowledges the other's superiority and thereby gains new laurels for himself. Some people would have gone home blaming the judges, picking holes in their rival's perfection. In short, they would have spoiled the thought of having held a prize at all by the vain envy of the man or woman who topped the poll."

The next time you bemoan the expense and time off work involved in attending one National Championships a year, be thankful that you didn't have to attend seven!

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.

Flemings In The Fens: How Pattens Came To England

"Winter Landscape With A Boy On Skates Pushing A Sled", 1627 painting by Flemish artist Salomon van Ruysdael

Early chronicles of how iron skates and figure skating first arrived in Great Britain tend to focus heavily on accounts from Samuel Pepys' diaries and the British royals exiled in Holland who taught the English Country Dance to Dutch women in exchange for skating lessons. However, little credit is given to another group who greatly influenced the development of skating in England during the same era... the Flemish and French protestants who fled en masse to the British Isles to escape religious persecution from the Catholics.

In the seventeenth century, refugee Protestants from Lille, Turcoing, Sainghin and the French Walloons arrived in England in droves. Many worked alongside Dutch settlers draining fens and building dykes in the East Anglia region which is now comprised of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire counties. It is believed that on the frozen fens in that part of the country, these refugees may have exposed many Brits to the joys of skating. In his 1959 book "Ice-Skating: A History", skating historian Nigel Brown noted, "When in 1625 Charles I engaged the great Dutch engineer, Cornelius Vermuyden, to drain the Isle of Axholme and various parts of the Eastern Counties he appears to have employed French and Flemish workmen, who would have known of skating although they may not have practiced it in England. That the word 'pattens', meaning a pair of skates, was used in the Fen district up until nearly the end of the nineteenth century indicates very conclusively that skating was introduced by French and Flemish refugees. The point, however, which is important is that the type of society which did bring it to the waterlogged area was that of workmen or artisans whose skating activities would be confined to its utility as a form of locomotion, and where pleasure and fun entered, to speed." Interestingly, up until the twentieth century it was in 'the fen country' that speed skating flourished while in the higher class areas of England, figure skating dominated.

Nigel Brown's assertion that the term 'pattens', a derivative of 'patiner' and 'patin' (the French verb for 'to skate' and the noun for 'skate'), was used well up until the end of the nineteenth century in 'the fen country' is certainly verifiable with primary sources. In his 1892 book "Skating", John Moyer Heathcote remarked, "Passing through Whittlesea in December of last year (1890), I observed an advertisement displayed by an enterprising but imperfectly educated mechanic of that town announcing, 'Pattons grond here!'"

What's quite interesting is the fact that at the same time skates were being referred to as 'pattens' in East Anglia by the descendants of those seventeenth century French and Flemish refugees, the rest of Victorian England was embracing a practical invention of the same name. 'Pattens' were a metal platform that were nailed to shoes that allowed the well-to-do to traverse filthy city streets without getting their feet covered in mud, horse droppings and the steady stream of human sewage from chamber pots that was often ankle deep.

In the late nineteenth century, British skating judge and historian George Herbert Fowler noted the regional nature of the term 'patten' and hypothesized further as to how it came to be used in Cornwall: "The Fenmen of to-day still use 'patten' for 'skate' all over the eastern counties; beyond their boundaries I have only heard the word once, namely, in Cornwall, where my friend, Mr. [Edgar] Syers, gleaned the delightful phrase, 'skittering on pattens.' As a skating frost is a great rarity in Cornwall, the word is not likely to be indigenous, and may have been brought by the east coast fishermen, who frequent Cornish harbours in great numbers." 

Cuthbert Bede, writing in "The Leisure Hour" in 1876, acknowledged that the term 'pattens' had more than even those two meanings and was also used to describe shoes worn in Turkish baths and the base of a wooden foot-stall or partition. He wrote, "But if, in France, a skate is called patin, it is called patten in East Anglia. The fen-men of Lincolnshire and Huntingdonshire, even at the present day, when Whittlesea Mere and many fens exist but in name, invariably speak of their skates as 'pattens'. A fen-man would seem to be born a skater, and to ask for his pattens as naturally as he would cry for his first food. If the little boys in Pekin are adepts in skating, the fen-boys of England can rival them; and although a fen-woman may not often skate to market with her poultry and butter poised on her head, a fen-man has frequently done so, just as if he had been 'to the manner born' in Rotterdam, Antwerp, Dordrecht, Haarlem, Utrecht or Moerdyk, instead of bearing reared within sight of the spires, towers, and 'stump' of Whittlesea, Ely, Crowland, Wisbeach or Boston."

Skaters in Lincolnshire

Had it not been for those Flemish and French refugees who fled the religious persecution, the many 'pattens' wouldn't have woven their way into the pattern of England's skating history... and many everyday people wouldn't likely have been exposed to a popular pastime of the well-to-do as early as they were. 

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 Aeros And Berolina Eisrevues

Created in 1956 as a branch of the Circus Aeros and originally known as the Aeros-Eisrevue, the Berolina-Eisrevue became thusly known after the name 'Aeros' sparked confusion from audiences confused whether or not they were attending the circus or an ice show. The show, which featured a cast of Czechoslovakian and East German skaters, integrated into the VEB Zentral-Zirkus Berlin in 1961 and toured Europe, setting up portable ice rinks in circus tents.

Photo courtesy German Federal Archives

The idea of a touring, circus style ice show was nothing new to German audiences at the time. In the late forties, British impresario Tom Arnold had established a similar touring company in West Germany. Not long after the show began, one of his employees, Hanns Thelen, left the company. Taking several of the show's skaters with him, Mr. Thelen established the Scala Eisrevue of 1951. Jacqueline du Bief recalled, "At a time in when more than half Germany lived in camps, caravans and reception centres, and when most of the streets were in ruins, it would have been ridiculous to look for buildings in which to perform... In one year, Mr. Thelen equipped and organized his show according to the German circus tradition. Not only was the show performed under canvas, but the artistes lived in caravans. Sets, organization, discipline, and mentality, everything in this show... can be summed up in one word: 'Circus.'"

In its early years, the Aeros-Eisrevue featured a more diverse cast of European skaters, but by the early sixties under the Berolina-Eisrevue name, only Czechoslovakian and East German skaters participated. This would have been due to the fact the VEB Zentral-Zirkus was state sponsored and the show's choreographer, Boris (Bohumil) Milec, was Czechoslovakian. Unlike the large scale touring North American shows and British pantomimes of the era, the Aeros and Berolina Eisrevues didn't boast any big headliners whatsoever. Much of the shows consisted of ensemble work, focused more so on showy costumes and sets than excellent skating. In one show, Eastern bloc skaters took audiences in Communist countries 'around the world', offering their interpretations of the cultures of New York, Havana, Cairo and Peking. These skating acts likely gave spectators living behind the Iron Curtain some wild ideas about what life was like in 'exotic' distant lands.

The show disbanded at the end of the 1962 season due to both a lack of suitable professional skaters and the fact the equipment the tour used for mobile ice production was wearing down after almost ten years of constant use. Although we don't often consider the Aeros and Berolina Eisrevues when reflecting upon the touring ice shows of the fifties and sixties, these shows are certainly an interesting footnote to the skating history of that period.

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.

#Unearthed: A Skating Romance

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 is a story called "A Skating Romance", which appeared in the Chicago daily newspaper "The Day Book" on December 11, 1912. Its author, Augustus Goodrich Sherwin, was a cloth salesman who moonlighted as a writer for extra money. F. Scott Fitzgerald he was not, but he certainly penned a charming tale I think you'll enjoy reading!

A SKATING ROMANCE (AUGUSTUS GOODRICH SHERWIN)

The ice on the river was burnished by the bright sunlight till it shone like a sheet of gold. Half a hundred happy persons hovered about, and Nelly Blair was the center of her own little group of select friends.

There was a pout upon her lips and a discontented, almost angry expression in her eyes. She stamped her little foot until the skate blade rang.

"I will never speak to Lisle Jordan again!" she declared. "I have a good mind to send him back the engagement ring."

"Don't be foolish, Nelly," advised her sister. "You are making a great big mountain out of a very small mole hill."

"Big? Little?" gasped Nelly, her eyes full of tears. "I saw him skating away from everybody with one of the new academy girls. His arm was around her, and I am sure I saw him kiss her.

"Did he see you, Nellie?" enquired her sister.

"He acted as if he didn't want to see me," cried the vexed girl. "He was to be here to skate with me two hours ago and-"

"Why, there he is now, Nelly; there is some mistake. He must have just come from home."

But Nelly was not in hearing now and soon she was out of sight. She had glanced just once at an approaching figure. It was her lover, with his skates over his shoulder.

Nelly was soon far from the general throng. Every moment she felt more absurd and perverse. When she came to where the river divided, she took the far western branch.

Here the ice was a clear, brilliant sheet, scarcely marked. Nelly rested for a moment. Then she casually noticed a man coming her way. He wore a very fancy skating costume and his progress was the rarest poetry of motion.

Nelly drew back timidly. The stranger was a foreigner, with jet black eyes and a waxed moustache. He lightly kissed the tips of his fingers, he smiled and bowed with an excess of courtesy.

"Beautiful, very beautiful," he said, and Nelly was more astonished than ever. He described a wonderful circle on one foot, and then with a flourish, made a series of quick whirls.

Nelly gasped and flushed at the audacity of the man. Plainly he had written on the ice with wonderful skill a name.

It was: "Nelly."

"How dare you?" flashed forth the little lady, but, with a delighted laugh, the expert skater was off on a long glide, and farther away Nelly him once more write that name on the glassy surface of the ice.

"Oh, dear! I am the most friendless and forlorn bing the world!" burst forth Nelly. "Everybody is cruel to me."

The expert skater was manoeuvring between the spot where Nelly was and the junction of the rivers. Nelly was really frightened at the impertinent, airy fellow, as she judged him. She got out of his way by skating on. Finally she espied a cut-off leading to the other river branch. It had steep clay sides, and Nelly started along it.

Crack-swish-crack, crack! Nelly uttered a sharp, sudden cry of dismay. The frail rubber ice was bending under her weight. Then one foot went through it to the ankle. She darted for shore, but though at every step her feet broke through, she gained the bank.

A driftwood log was there, and Nelly sat down on it, breathless and with wet feet. All her sudden temper was subdued. How lonesome it was! How foolish she had been! In regaining the main river she might incur no actual danger, but her feet might sink in deeper.

"There is no Lisle to find me," mourned the dejected maid. "I suppose all men flirt. I wish - I wish I hadn't run away. Oh, dear!" and Nelly burst out crying.

She looked up at the sound of clanging skate blades and crackling ice. Her lover was coming towards her. She could read the anxiety and solicitude in his pale, earnest face. In his expertness he evaded breaking through the ice.

"Why, Nelly," he cried in a glad, relieved tone. "I feared I should not find you. If it were not for a skater I met who had seen you come this way, I might have searched for hours. And in trouble, too, poor little girl!"

"Yes, I am in dreadful trouble," sobbed Nelly. "Was it a man in a fancy costume you met?"

"Yes - a stranger - looked like a foreigner."

"He is a bold, bad man," blazed out Nelly. "He smiled at me - and deliberately wrote my name on the ice. I was never so affronted in my life."

"He did, eh?" flared up Lisle, in his turn. "Well, we'll see about that. Now, little girl, I'll carry you over the rubber ice here, and we'll just go and bring that impertinent fellow to time."

Nelly nestled in his arms so gladly that he forgot all her pet grievances.

"Now you must skate to keep from freezing," advised the thoughtful lover. "I must get you home just as quickly as possible."

"Oh - I am not the least bit cold, and I don't mind the wet one bit," declared Nelly, with a joyous thrill at being under such lovable protection again.

"Ah, there is that insolent fellow!" exclaimed Lisle, as they came to a bend in the river and the man who had so frightened Nelly was in view. "You wait here while I attend to the gentleman."

"How strong, how brave is Lisle," enthused Nelly, as she watched her lover approach the object of her complaint. Then, to her astonishment, instead of a stormy collision there was a perfectly friendly meeting. The stranger bowed and showed the most extravagant courtesy. Lisle skated back to Nelly, his face in a broad smile.

"Why," he observed, "there is, of course, only one Nelly in the world for me, but there are two Nelly's mixed up in this skating experience."

"What do you mean, Lisle?" asked Nelly bewilderingly.

"That gentleman yonder and his wife are a roller skating team who are here with a vaudeville company. He was simply practicing on ice skates. His wife's name is the same as yours, and he was delighted to find he was able to write it on the ice."

"Oh, dear! What a foolish girl I have been," said Nelly.

"Your sister told me of your mistake about myself," pursued Lisle.

"Mistake?" repeated Nelly.

"Yes, dear. The person you mistook for me was a college friend, Jack Delmar. I loaned him my outfit this morning."

"Oh, Lisle! Can you ever forgive me for doubting you?" almost sobbed Nelly. "That Jack Delmar, though, is a bold fellow - I saw him kiss the girl with him."

"Why not? She is one of the seminary girls, and Jack is engaged to her. I tell you, Nelly, Jack is a fine fellow."

Nelly nestled closer to her lover, subdued, contrite, but immensely happy. Then she glanced up archly, and said: "And you are a fine fellow, too, Lisle!"

He was not adverse to the delicate hint, and their kiss of reconciliation was as well the kiss of peace and perfect understanding."

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.

Bravery In Budapest: The Dénes Pataky Story

Photo courtesy Sean Pataky

The son of Dénes and Margit (Vigh) Pataky, Dénes Dezso 'Dinko' Pataky was born on June 30, 1916 in Budapest, Hungary. His parents were Roman Catholics and his father had a doctorate and worked for the government. The month he was born, the Brusilov Offensive of Soviet forces against Central Powers on the Eastern Front started. When it ended later that year, over two hundred thousand of Austria-Hungary's soldiers had perished. The aftermath of the Great War led to a Communist revolution, counterrevolution, monarchy and depression in Hungary. In this less than idyllic backdrop, he began his own fight on the ice of the Városligeti Műjégpálya when he was around four years old.

Largely self-taught as a figure skater, Dénes first gained recognition in 1931, when he won the junior men's title at the Hungarian Championships at the age of fourteen. The following year, he won the free skating competition in the senior class, but finished only third overall because of a poor showing in the school figures. He was particularly known for his excellent spread eagle and sit spin and the skaters at the Városligeti Műjégpálya often had informal contests to see if they could go lower in the sit spin than him.

In 1933, Dénes figures improved significantly enough that he was able to claim his first of four senior national titles. His friendly rivalry with Elemér Terták, who would go on to become an ISU official in later years, was of great interest to Hungarian skating fans in the early thirties.

At five foot six with brown hair and blue eyes, Dénes was a compact skater with strong mastery of his edges. In 1934, he claimed the silver medal behind Karl Schäfer at the European Championships in Seefeld, Austria. At the World Championships that followed, he placed a creditable fifth. The Hungarian judge placed him first in the free skating; the Austrian judge seventh. The following year, he won the bronze medal at the World Championships, tying in ordinals with the runner-up Jackie Dunn, but losing the silver on points. In his only Olympic appearance in Nazi Germany in 1936, nineteen year old Dénes tumbled and finished a disastrous ninth. Despite this, he was called to Adolf Hitler's box. When his name had been announced, it was mentioned that he was in the military and the Führer, impressed by this, gave him a dagger engraved with a swastika as a gift. In Paris in his final appearance at the World Championships, he moved up to sixth.

In the height of Dénes' competitive career, he attended the Royal Hungarian Ludovica Defense Academy and served as a member of the Royal Hungarian Defense Forces. It was his military service that undoubtedly effected his results in his final season as a competitor. In a December 2019 interview, his daughter Anna Pataky recalled, "He was bitterly disappointed and in fact embarrassed by his result in the Olympics. By that time he was in the Army. He was apparently told he was going to go represent the country in the Olympics. He had virtually no time to practice and hadn't had his skates on a long time. He told me he fell and he was very embarrassed. He had never done that in competition before."

When World War II broke out, he joined the Royal Hungarian Army. Rising from the ranks from officer to Captain of an armoured car unit, he earned an iron cross and the prestigious Order of Vitéz for his "bravery during the Resistance" in the Siege of Budapest. His combat unit also saw action in what is now Slovakia and Russia, where he was captured, escaped and was seriously wounded in the leg. Anna Pataky recalled, "Being a skater, it was really a tragic idea that he might lose his leg. They wanted to amputate but he was able to be returned to Budapest from Russia to be operated on. He had shrapnel in his leg. Some of it came out when I was a girl of about eight or nine and he showed it to us."

In the chaos near the end of World War II, Dénes married Anna Maria Terezia Csepreghy. The newlyweds, along with their two young young children and Anna Maria's parents and sister, became refugees in 1945. Anna Pataky remembered, "The Russians were coming into Budapest and if they found officers, they shot them immediately. They did that to someone who was a neighbour, just down the street from where my father's house was, so had he stayed there he would have been shot. They also burnt his house to the ground when they found he had been an officer, so we had to depart very hastily with almost nothing. He did wrap up a few of his skating trophies and took them with him."

Photo courtesy Sean Pataky

Dénes and his family ended up back in Garmisch-Partenkirchen - the site of his Olympic disappointment - where he found work entertaining American troops in the ice shows at the Casa Carioca nightclub. Having never skated a comedic number before, he teamed up with another man to skate a clown act on ice full of balance and seesaw moves that had audiences in stitches. He was literally skating for his supper. Had it not been for the Casa Carioca shows, his family would have starved.

Eventually, Dénes and his family ventured through war-torn Germany to Southampton and boarded the Cunard liner Scythia which transported refugees to Canada. Like so many other European families displaced after World War II, their decision to emigrate was both brave and difficult. Anna Pataky recalled, "My mother and her parents and her sister had been to Canada following the first World War because times were so difficult for them in Hungary at the time. They set out for the new world and headed west to Saskatchewan and they were on a farm there. The Depression was on and there was a drought and the crops failed. Because the crops failed, they couldn't pay their mortgage and they were deported to Hungary. When the time came for them to leave Hungary and Germany eventually, I guess Canada was the only place any of them knew anything about, so I think my mother and her parents decided 'Why don't we all go to Canada?' and that's what happened. They applied to go." Upon Dénes' arrival in Canada in October of 1949, he told a reporter from the "Winnipeg Free Press" that it "felt good to laugh again."

Photo courtesy Sean Pataky

Initially, Dénes taught at the Winnipeg Winter Club and performed his comedy skating act in several carnivals in the Prairies. He moved to Toronto in 1951 but quickly learned that in Ontario in the fifties, performing as a professional skater wasn't going to pay the bills. Anna Pataky remembered, "He did various jobs. He was a cab driver, a waiter in a restaurant, a night watchman at the Plaza Hotel and eventually he taught skating at the Weston Figure Skating Club. He later taught at the Lambton, Forest Hill and Cedarvale Clubs and Lakeshore Figure Skating Club in the summertime. His friend Mrs. [Ellen] Burka was teaching the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club and she also taught with him at Lakeshore. I skated with her daughter Petra, who became World Champion, several summers at the Lakeshore Club so got to know her a little bit."

Sadly, Dénes passed away on April 7, 1987 of lymphoma, just two months shy of his seventy first birthday. In the entrance way to the Városligeti Műjégpálya from the dressing rooms, there's a concrete archway facade that lists his name among Hungary's top figure skaters. Anna Pataky lovingly remembered her father thusly: "He was a very disciplined person because of his skating and the fact he was an officer in the Hungarian army. Having lost everything including his homeland in the War, you'd think he'd be totally defeated. Having a young family to look after and not speaking the language... He never let that discourage him. His goal always was, because he lost everything at one time, to leave something for his children. He was determined he was at least going to have a house that was paid for. He was a hero in his skating, military career and for his family."

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 1957 European Figure Skating Championships

Postcard of the Votivkirche on the Ringstraße in Vienna, Austria, 1957

The Toddlers' Truce, a controversial British television scheduling policy that stopped transmissions between six and seven at night so that children could be put to bed finally met its demise. The Soviet Union announced that Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who helped save the lives of tens of thousands of Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Hungary - and then gone missing himself - had died some ten years earlier in a Soviet prison of 'an apparent heart attack'. Decades later it would be revealed he had been executed in Lubyanka. Figure skater Tab Hunter's hit single "Young Love" topped the British music charts on Valentine's Day, 1957, when the three-day European Figure Skating Championships of 1957 kicked off at the Wiener Eislaufverein's rink in Vienna, Austria.

The event, televised on Eurovision, marked only the second year that skaters from the German Democratic Republic and the Soviet Union participated, although the East German federation sent only sent one pair, as they had the year prior at the Europeans in Paris. As a trial, the results in Vienna were calculated using the 'Finnish system', except ice dance which used the ISU's normal system of calculating results based on ordinals and point totals.

The 'Finnish system' - the brainchild of Olympic Gold Medallist Walter Jakobsson - didn't factor in ordinal placings at all. Instead, the marks which deviated the most from the average score given to the first skater were thrown out and the remaining marks added up to give a point total that would determine their ranking in that phase of the competition. The system had first been tested at an international competition for junior skaters in Switzerland in 1955. At the 1957 ISU Congress in Salzburg, it was decided that this system didn't improve matters and that it would go the way of the dodo in amateur competition. Ironically, a simplified version of the system ultimately became the 'norm' in professional figure skating competitions. Who were the big winners in Vienna in 1957? The 'biggest losers'? Let's take a look back and find out!

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

June Markham and Courtney Jones

Defending European Champions Pamela Weight and Paul Thomas had retired from competition but based on the fact that British couples from Gladys Hogg's seemingly endless stable of champions had swept the European podium for the last three years, it was very much expected that another British couple would rise to the top in 1957. After thirteen couples weaved their way through the patterns of the Rocker Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Kilian and Argentine Tango, June Markham and Courtney Jones had amassed an impressive, unanimous lead. Jones was a twenty three year old dress designer on leave from the R.A.F. to compete. Markham was five years Jones' junior and came from a multi-generational 'show biz' family. She sometimes assisted her father, a magician, with his acts.

Markham and Jones, whom British and French announcers compared to actors Kim Novak and Roman Novarro, were placed first by all but one judge in the free dance and became the third British couple in history to win the World ice dance title. Barbara Thompson and Gerard Rigby and Catherine Morris and Michael Robinson made it another British sweep. Bona Giammona and Giancarlo Sioli, the Italian team who finished fourth, were placed first in the free dance by Hungarian judge László Szollás. West Germans Sigrid Knake and Günther Koch placed fifth, one spot ahead of France's Christiane Elien and Claude Lambert. Elien and Lambert's ordinals in the free dance ranged from fourth through dead last!

Photo courtesy "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice" by Lynn Copley-Graves

Reginald Wilkie, reviewing the event for "Skating World" magazine, was less than complimentary to the dancers, noting that Foxtrot and Blues rhythms were played to death in the free dance and that many of the Continental teams skated at the same level of the NSA Second Class Dance Tests.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Věra Suchánková and Zdeněk Doležal

Sissy Schwarz and Kurt Oppelt, the defending European Champions in pairs skating, had turned professional. It was generally expected that Hungarian siblings Marianna and László Nagy would again win the title they'd claimed in 1950 and 1955. The top three teams were extremely close but the surprise winners were Věra Suchánková and Zdeněk Doležal of Czechoslovakia. Though they had finished second at the 1955 Europeans, Suchánková and Doležal had only placed eighth at the 1956 Winter Olympic Games.

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

For the third straight year, West Germans Marika Kilius and Franz Ningel took the bronze medal. Kilius was quite weak at the time, suffering from side effects of a smallpox vaccination. British Champions Joyce Coates and Anthony Holles placed fifth, one spot ahead of Nina (Bakusheva) and Stanislav Zhuk.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

After the first two figures, Alain Giletti held a tenuous lead over Karol Divín. By the conclusion of the school figures, Giletti expanded his lead to ten points and Divín dropped to third, just three tenths of a point behind Great Britain's Michael Booker. Giletti was only fourth in the free skate but held on to the overall lead. Divín, who won the free skate, was second overall. Dennis Bird recalled, "Divín's free skating was outstanding in its elegance, and he included a fine double Axel - still not a very common jump in Europe." Michael Booker claimed the bronze, ahead of Alain Calmat. Newly crowned West German Champion Manfred Schnelldorfers placed seventh but impressed the judges with his brand new free skate to Mendelsohhn's "Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt". The retirements of several elite level skaters in Munich had afforded him more ice time to practice his jumps.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Ingrid Wendl, Hanna Walter and Hanna Eigel. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria.

The 'main event' for the Viennese spectators was the women's event, framed by the Austrian press as a showdown between 1955 European Champion Hanna Eigel and 1956 European Champion Ingrid Wendl. The last two times the two young women had competed, Wendl had come out on top. When she took a narrow lead over Eigel in the figures, some thought the title was as good as hers.

Nina Zhuk, Erica Batchelor and Stanislav Zhuk

Strangely enough, Eigel and Wendl and British contenders Erica Batchelor and Dianne Peach all floundered in the free skate. They didn't just flounder in a weak field - the quartet all placed in the fifth through tenth range in that phase of the competition! The top four in the free skate consisted of West Germany's Ina Bauer, followed by Austria's Hanna Walter and Czechoslovakia's Jindřiška Kramperová and Jana Dočekalová. When the high and low marks were thrown out and the marks tallied, it was Hanna Eigel who came out on top and Ingrid Wendl who came in second, based on Eigel's fifth to Wendl's sixth in the free skate. Hanna Walter took the bronze ahead of Peach and Batchelor. Ina Bauer, fifteenth in figures, was only able to move up to tenth. Kramperová was eighth and Dočekalová thirteenth.

Women's medallists. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria.

Interestingly, the women's event in Vienna marked the first and only time to date that a trio of Austrian women swept the podium at the European Championships. Three Austrian men had swept the European podium back in 1922. The only other previous medal sweep by one country in the women's event at Europeans was back in 1939, when the British women took the honours. In the years that followed, Bauer's result in Vienna - which confused spectators and Eurovision viewers - was used as a "prime example why the judging system had to be changed" to devalue figures.

An interesting footnote regarding these Championship was the ISU's decision to transport a large group of European skaters, judges and the ISU president on the same flight after a post-Championship exhibition in Switzerland to the World Championships in Colorado Springs. In light of the Sabena Crash just four years later, seeing the passenger manifest is just plain spooky!

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 1942 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, endorsing the internment of Japanese Americans. Only five days prior, the British Air Industry issued a directive ordering RAF bombers to bomb German cities and their civilian inhabitants. 

Al Richards and Edith Whetstone, Walter Noffke and Doris Schubach, Jane Vaughn Sullivan, Walter Sahlin, Bobby Specht, Dorothy Goos, Dick More and Mabel MacPherson at the 1942 U.S. Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

It had only been just over two months since the attack on Pearl Harbor, which forced the United States to enter World War II and though the effects of the War impacted every skater who participated, on the opening day of the 1942 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Chicago, Illinois, everyone chose to put their fears on the back burner for three days and worry only about skating.

Racist clipping promoting the event from the February 20, 1942 issue of "The Decaturian"

Considering the safety of skaters and officials, the USFSA had decided to move the event, initially slated for the St. Moritz Ice Skating Club in California, inland to Chicago. Despite this, many parents refused to allow their children to travel west due to wartime conditions. Large gatherings such as sporting events were seen as potential targets for bombing, and the organizers weren't taking any risks. To contribute to the War effort, clubs were organizing blood drives and sending in old medals and trophies to be melted down.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

Event chairman Harry E. Radix and members of The Chicago Figure Skating Club, which had hosted the Midwestern Championships only five weeks prior, worked around the clock to ensure the competition ran smoothly. Committees organized everything from decorations and schedules to serving the judges hot coffee.

The event's program, recalled Lynn Copley-Graves in her book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice", featured "a message from the Division of Physical Fitness of the Office of Civilian Defense reminding spectators that skating furnishes the opportunity for physical conditioning and recreation at their best, 'so Skate and Get Fit to Win' for the tremendous war task which lies before us.'"

The competition was judged using a new Modified Open System, with marks on a scale from zero to 10.0. As a band was unable to be arranged, skaters were accompanied by records or Al Melgard's massive unit organ. Entries dropped from one hundred in 1941 to eighty six. This was due to several reasons - the fact Californians opted not to travel east, women engaging in War work and men starting to enlist. In contrast, ticket sales skyrocketed. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales was donated to the Margaret Etter Crèche Day Nursery and the crowd of three thousand, seven hundred was a new record at the U.S. Championships. Many spectators likely just wanted something to cheer about those gloomy times. What happened on the ice that February in Chicago, you ask? Let's find out!

THE NOVICE AND JUNIOR EVENTS

In a four-one split, the judges award first place in the novice men's event to Dick More of Buffalo. Oakland, California's Marcus Nelson took the silver; St. Paul, Minnesota's Jimmy Lawrence the bronze. More was a seventeen year old who had just been accepted to Harvard. The previous year, he had won the Eastern junior men's title on his first try. He had only been skating for four years. Like More, eighteen year old Mabel MacPherson took up skating 'late', at the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society. On the strength of her fine school figures, she unanimously won the novice women's title, besting thirteen other young women. Margaret Field, who would go on to star in the Ice Cycles with Jimmy Lawrence, was fourth.

Nineteen year old Wally Sahlin of Minneapolis had won the U.S. novice men's title the year prior in Cleveland. In Chicago, he dazzled with an athletic free skate that included a double loop and double Salchow. He was the only junior or novice man to succeed in landing both jumps. His technical prowess allowed him to move up from his dismal showing in figures and claim the junior men's title and Irving Brokaw Trophy. Three judges had him first, while silver and bronze medallists Eddie LeMaire and Robert Premer both received support from one judge each. Arthur Preusch Jr., the winner of the figures, placed fourth.

Arthur Preusch Jr. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Two nine-year olds - the youngest competitors of the U.S. Championships - succeeded in winning medals in Chicago. Donna Jeanne Pospisil and Karol Kennedy took the silver and bronze in junior pairs. Pospisil skated with Andrée and Pierre Brunet's eleven year old son Jean-Pierre, while Karol skated with her fourteen year old brother Peter.

Dorothy Goos made quite the impression on the Chicago crowd, perhaps even moreso than any of the senior champions. The thirteen year old was the daughter of an apartment building superintendent from the Bronx and was coached by Willy Böckl in New York City in the winters and Gustave Lussi in Lake Placid in the summers. She had been competing for several years already and had just completed her sweep of the Eastern novice, junior and senior titles in successive years. Goos won both the junior women's and pairs events, skating in the latter with Eddie LeMaire, the son of two famous show skaters. Her winning free skate in the junior women's event earned her the highest marks in any class in Chicago - a pair of 9.8's. She tackled risky elements few of the senior women dared to attempt - a double flip, double loop, double Salchow and flying sit spin.

THE PAIRS, FOURS AND ICE DANCE COMPETITIONS

None of the medal-winning pairs from the 1941 U.S. Championships returned. Donna Atwood and Eugene Turner had turned professional, Jack Might had formed a new partnership with Margaret Field and Bobby Specht was focusing on singles. A situation like this had never happened previously in senior pairs at Nationals, making the emergence of a delightful pair like Doris Schubach and Walter Noffke of Holyoke, Massachusetts an even more pleasant surprise. They were unanimous winners over Janette Ahrens and Robert Uppgren and Margaret Field and Jack Might. Off the ice, Walter worked at the Holyoke Savings Bank and enjoyed swimming and tennis. Doris was fond of golf.

Skating unopposed, the St. Paul Four of Lyman Wakefield Jr., Robert Uppgren, Mary Louise Premer and Janette Ahrens reclaimed the title they first won in 1940. Wakefield, the 'leader' of the four, was shortly after called to active duty in the Navy. Uppgren was a freshman at Macalaster College in St. Paul. Ahrens, who was Uppgren's partner, was a sophomore in High School. Premer, who of course went on to a decorated international judging career, was then studying medical technology at the University Of Minnesota.

Edith Whetstone and Al Richards of the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society were victorious in the dance event, pulling off the only upset of the entire competition. Coached by Nancy Follett, they defeated Sandy Macdonald and Harold Hartshorne, who had won the title the previous three years. Hartshorne had actually won five in a row. His partner in 1937 and 1938 was Nettie Prantell. Whetstone and Richards had only been skating together for two years and shortly after their victory, Richards was ordered to active duty in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Much had changed in the life of the defending U.S. Champion in women's figure skating in the year since Jane Vaugn won her first title in 1941. She was now Jane Vaughn Sullivan, the wife of a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps, living at West Point where her husband was an instructor. Her training time had been so reduced since she'd got married that Benjamin T. Wright remarked that she was "living proof that one can be a champion with what might be called 'week-end skating'." She told an Associated Press reporter, "West Point cadets have an excellent ice hockey rink. I was able to use it regularly and because I could continue my practice, I decided to defend my title in Chicago rather than give up the sport." She received some last minute instruction from coach Gustave Lussi while visiting her parents prior to the competition.

In the school figures, New York's Phebe Tucker bested Gretchen Van Zandt Merrill, Ramona Allen and Jane Vaughn Sullivan, but the results were so incredibly close that any one of the four could have easily won the title had they won the free skate. First to skate in the free, Vaughn Sullivan skated elegantly to earn the highest marks in free skating and first place ordinals overall from four of the five judges. Merrill took the silver; Tucker the bronze.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION 

Eugene Turner was beginning his professional career and Robin Lee and Ollie Haupt Jr. - familiar faces from the not-so-distant past of U.S. men's skating - had already joined the military. Twenty year old Bobby Specht, who hailed from Wisconsin but trained in Chicago, surprised many by taking the lead, winning eight of the eleven senior men's figures. He received a remarkably high score of 9.2 from one judge for the bracket-change-bracket.

Specht's strength was free skating, so his win in the first phase of the competition made his bid to be U.S. Champion a tad easier. Though his free skating program wasn't as difficult as his competitors - William Grimditch and Arthur Vaughn Jr. - the judges preferred his style and gave him a unanimous and well-deserved victory. Less than a year later, while appearing with the Ice Capades, Specht was drafted to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

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.