The 1938 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

Robin Lee and Joan Tozzer. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had just established the March Of Dimes to combat infant polio, Thornton Wilder's famous play "Our Town" made its debut only weeks earlier and everyone was tapping their toes to Benny Goodman's steppy new tune "Sing, Sing, Sing".

Two weeks before German troops invaded and annexed Austria, a much less scary 'war on ice' took place at the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society's newly built, one hundred and fifty thousand dollar Ardmore Rink.

The Ardmore Rink

The two-day 1938 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, held on February 25 and 26, 1938, drew in capacity crowds of fifteen hundred from the early morning hours until after the clock struck midnight. With reserved seat tickets at three dollars and thirty cents a pop sold out for most events, many skating fans shelled out two dollars and twenty cents just for the privilege of standing in the arena and watching skaters trace rockers and counters. Today, we will take a trip back in time to the thirties and explore the skaters and stories from this fascinating and all but forgotten competition.

Pictorial courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Hosted by the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society, the competition marked a 'grand opening' of sorts for the newly constructed, member-owned Ardmore rink, which cost an estimated one hundred and forty four thousand dollars to build. It had only opened on January 8 of that year, so skaters could still smell the paint from the navy-blue ice when they arrived to compete.

A record-setting ninety entries arrived to compete in the novice, junior and senior events and the "Philadelphia Inquirer" noted, "Costumes ranged from top hats, tails and evening clothes to sweaters, slacks and ski pants." Both days of the event, the competitions began at nine o'clock in the morning and continued well after midnight. A capacity crowd of fifteen hundred attended the second day of competition, either paying three dollars and thirty cents for a reserved seat or two dollars and twenty cents for the 'privilege' of standing during the proceedings. Let's take a look back at all of the excitement!

THE NOVICE AND JUNIOR COMPETITIONS

To the delight of the hometown crowd, Arthur 'Buddy' Vaughn Jr. of the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society managed to hold on to an early lead in the school figures and win the novice men's crown. However, the performance of the night came from Bobby Specht, who moved up from fifth to take the silver with an outstanding free skating performance. Floyd 'Skippy' Baxter settled for the bronze ahead of William Grimditch, Jr. and achieved fame the next year by becoming the first man to perform the Axel jump on clamp-on roller skates. Twelve year old Gretchen Merrill, representing the Skating Club of Boston, emerged victorious in a field of twenty novice women. Charlotte Walther of New York bested Dorothy Snell and Mary Taylor in the junior women's event.

Gretchen Merrill

Los Angeles' Eugene Turner only expanded upon his twenty one point lead over Minneapolis' Leonard Brannan in the school figures, winning the junior men's title by a wide margin. A married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Penn-Gaskell Hall III, won the junior pairs event ahead of Chicago's Ruth English and Louis Pitts and St. Paul's Angeline Knapp and Dr. J.N. Pike. Mr. Penn-Gaskell Hall was the secretary of the host club and Mrs. Penn Gaskell Hall (Annah 'Bunty' McKaig) was the daughter of the host club's president and competition chair. As you can well imagine, there was some squawking in the stands from visiting skaters and families about the conflict of interest.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Robin Lee

Representing the St. Paul Figure Skating Club yet training in Chicago, eighteen year old Robin Lee entered the competition in Philadelphia as the three time and reigning U.S. Champion and heavy favourite. He didn't disappoint, earning five hundred and twenty six out of a possible six hundred points after performing the six required school figures. St. Paul's Erle Reiter was only seven points behind Lee after the figures, with Ollie Haupt Jr. of St. Louis trailing in third with four hundred and
seventy five points and Manhattan's William Nagle far behind with three hundred and ninety three.

Erle Reiter. Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society.

By accounts, all three of the top men delivered fine performances in the free skating, but the standings didn't change. Lee won his fourth consecutive U.S. men's title and American Railway Company agent William Nagle claimed yet another a last place finish. Former USFSA President and ISU historian Benjamin T. Wright recalled of Nagle, "He just kept entering and entering... and he always finished last!" The only exception to 'the Nagle rule' was at the 1930 U.S. Championships, when the man somehow managed to win the junior pairs title with Helen Herbst.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

After Maribel Vinson turned professional, the U.S. women's title was up for grabs and there were five talented women chomping at the bit to stake their claim to it. Five foot five, sixteen year old Joan Tozzer, the only child of a Harvard Professor of Anthropology, took a strong lead in the senior women's school figures over nineteen year old Audrey Peppe, the niece of Olympic Medallist Beatrix Loughran, Katherine Durbrow of New York, Polly Blodgett of Boston and Jane Vaughn of Philadelphia. Vaughn had the unfortunate luck of taking a rare fall in the figures, placing her further behind than she likely would have been otherwise. However, the "Philadelphia Inquirer" noted that Vaughn's "four-minute free skating exhibition surpassed that given by the Misses Tozzer and Peppe."

Sadly, Jane Vaughn's mishap in the figures placed her so far behind she was only able to move up to fourth ahead of Durbrow, with Tozzer, Peppe and Blodgett taking the top three spots. Tozzer's victory over Peppe was actually extremely close - one tenth of a point close - and Peppe's free skate to "Hungarian Rhapsody" earned her more points than Tozzer in that phase of the event. Tozzer told a "Philadelphia Inquirer" reporter, "Winning the title was quite a shock. Of course I was surprised and am thrilled and everything." She had been skating for six years under the tutelage of Willie Frick and her victory was remarkable in that some years prior she was thrown from a horse and trampled, suffering a broken leg. The February 27, 1938 issue of "The Philadelphia Enquirer" noted that Jane Vaughn "finished fourth, but her four-minute free skating exhibition surpassed that given by the Misses Tozzer and Peppe." Complaints over Peppe's loss to Tozzer continued at the Skating Club Of New York long after the event, but (as is always the case) nothing came of it.

THE PAIRS AND ICE DANCE COMPETITIONS

Joan Tozzer and M. Bernard Fox

Later the same night that she won her first U.S. women's title, Joan Tozzer teamed up with twenty one year old Harvard senior M. Bernard Fox to win her first U.S. pairs title. Another Boston pair, Grace and Jimmie Madden took the silver, while Ardelle Kloss Sanderson and Roland Janson of New York took the bronze. Tozzer and Fox's win was a considerable upset at the time, as the Madden siblings were considered by many to be the logical successors to the crown vacated by Maribel Vinson and Geddy Hill.

A fours competition was not contested that year. A whopping fourteen teams entered the Silver Dance competition, a testament to the popularity of ice dance in the U.S. during the pre-War and War eras. After an elimination round, Nettie C. Prantel and Harold Hartshorne took top honours, ahead of Katherine Durbrow and USFSA President Joseph K. Savage, Louise Weigel and Otto Dallmyer and Marjorie Parker and George Boltres. All four of the finalists represented the Skating Club of New York.

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.

Abandoned Austrians: Champions That History Has Overlooked

Karl Schäfer, Eva Pawlik and Trixi Schuba are just a few of the many names that come to mind when we think of Austrian figure skaters who have achieved excellence in the figure skating world. However, the country that wholly embraced the graceful style of the legendary Jackson Haines and brought the waltz to the ice has had its fair share of champions that have been notoriously overlooked. Today, we'll explore the fascinating stories of eight of Austria's finest forgotten skating stars!

OTTO PREIßECKER 

Born August 3, 1898 in Vienna, Otto Preißecker first really caught the attention of the Austrian figure skating community in February 1919, when he won the national junior men's title at Eduard Engelmann's rink. Representing the Cottage Eislaufverein, he later won an impressive three Austrian senior men's titles in the years leading up to Karl Schäfer's reign as the country's top dog. Impressively, Otto earned a total of three medals at the European Championships between 1925 and 1928 as well as a bronze medal at the 1925 World Championships and a pair of silvers at the 1927 and 1928 World Championships, both times failing to defeat Willy Böckl. Reinventing himself as a pairs skater, he teamed up with Gisela Hochtalinger to win the bronze medal at the 1930 European Championships in Berlin.

Gisela Hochtalinger and Otto Preißecker at the 1929 World Championships in Budapest. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria.

Although his figure skating résumé was more than impressive, Otto's off-ice accomplishments were nothing short of remarkable. He served in the military during the Great War, studied medicine and graduated with a degree in dentistry. After working as an auxiliary doctor and an assistant professor at a dental institute, he became the executive director of the Department of Dental and Maxillofacial Surgery in Vienna and spearheaded several thorough veterinary dentistry studies. Turning down a teaching position at the German University in Prague, he became a university professor and board member at the University Of Innsbruck. He passed away on May 30, 1963, just months after he retired at the age of sixty four.

LEOPOLD LINHART

Photo courtesy Národní muzeum

Born July 29, 1914 in Vienna, Leopold Linhart grew up skating at Eduard Engelmann's rink and had his first taste of success in 1930 at the age of sixteen, when he won a junior men's competition in Hernals. At his first major international competition in 1934, the European Championships in Seefeld, he lost the bronze medal by only one ordinal placing. Ever trying to emulate his training mate Karl Schäfer, he rose through the ranks to win the silver medal at the Austrian Championships behind him in 1936 and earned a trip to the Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Twenty one year old Leopold had a disastrous sixteenth place showing in the figures at those Games, but rebounded with an outstanding free skate, defeating even the athletic Freddie Tomlins in that phase of the competition to move up to eleventh overall. Turning professional after a sixth place finish at the 1937 World Championships in London, Leopold coached in Prague and skated exhibitions in France during World War II. After returning to Austria, he went on to coach a who's who of Austrian figure skating in the fifties, sixties and seventies, including Olympic Gold Medallist Trixi Schuba.

PAULA ZALAUDEK

Although many figure skating competitions for men were cancelled during the Great War owing to the country's heavy military involvement, women's figure skating in Austria flourished from 1914 to 1918. If you went to a figure skating event during that period, you definitely knew the name Paula Zalaudek. In 1914, she became only the second women in Austria to have passed the First Class skating test. The undisputed leading lady of the Training Eisklub Wien at the time, Paula enjoyed an enduring rivalry with Gisela Reichmann. The March 4, 1914 issue of the "Illustriertes (Österreichisches) Sportblatt" described her as a "fresh, amiable and above all, Viennese talent" who transplanted "the grace of the Viennese ball" to the ice.

Left: Gisela Reichmann and Paula Zalaudek; Right: Paula Zalaudek

Reigning as the Austrian women's champion from 1914 to 1916, Paula lost her title to Gisela Reichmann in 1917, left Vienna and travelled with Egon Kment to demonstrate skating in Budapest, Hungary. Her complete disappearance from historical records after that time leads one to speculate as to whether or not she may have been one of the over thirty eight million civilian casualties of the Great War or a victim of the 1918 flu pandemic.

GEORG ZACHARIADES

Born in 1868, Georg Zachariades was an 'all-around' sportsman whose achievements as a skier and mountain bicyclist were every bit as impressive as those on ice. In 1891, 1893 and 1894, he won ski races at Semmering and representing the Linzer Bicycle Club, he won one hundred kilometer races in Bohemia and Moravia. In 1893, he even set a bicycle racing record on the Laurin and Klement Halbrennmaschine.

As a skater, there was no denying that Georg was extremely impressive. Inspired by Jackson Haines, he was imaginative in his special figure designs and was by accounts an inspired free skater. Swedish skating historian Gunnar Bang recalled, "He danced in time to Viennese music... no one was better in this respect."

Special figure of Georg's design

Claiming the German-Austrian men's title in 1892, Georg placed an impressive third of ten skaters at that year's European Championships in Vienna. The following winter at the Verbands-Preis-Wett-Eislaufens at the Wiener Eislaufverein, he finished second behind his training mate Karl Sage. Later that month, he claimed the bronze medal once again at the European Championships, this time behind Eduard Engelmann Jr. and Henning Grenander.

After dropping to second and fourth at the 1894 German-Austrian Championships and European Championships, Georg finished second at the first international figure skating competition in Davos and promptly retired from competitive skating. He was honoured for his sporting achievements at a reception at the Volksgarten in January 1895 hosted by the Linzer Bicycle Club.

Though he devoted much of the rest of his life to bicycling and not skating, Georg found himself in legal hot water after a serious accident in June 1901. Though injured when his automobile went careening off a Viennese bridge, he was charged with speeding "at a furious pace" and endangering the lives of tramway workers in a nearby pit. The judge fined him for the offence.

ERICH ERDÖS

The son of Gabriele (Löwy) and Rudolf Erdös, Erich Karl Erdös was born March 27, 1914 in Vienna, Austria. His father was of Slovakian descent and his mother Austrian by birth. Living in a city with a long-standing love affair with figure skating, it's no surprise that young Erich, his brother Alois and sister Charlotte found their way to the ice at young ages.

By the time he was a teenager, Erich was busy carving out loops and brackets at the Engelmann rink. At the age of eighteen in 1932, he won his first medal at the Austrian Championships and made his international debut at the European Championships in Paris. Struck by his elegant free skating, the Belgian judge at that event actually placed him ahead of the reigning European and World Champion in the free skate Karl Schäfer. As it turned out, that Belgian judge wasn't the only one who would dare to place young Erich ahead of Karl in the years that followed.

Standing at five foot ten, with brown hair and gray eyes, handsome Erich was often a crowd favourite, noted skating historian Gunnar Bang. Yet, after claiming the bronze medals at the 1933 European Championships in London and the 1934 World Championships in Stockholm, he disappeared from the competitive scene as quickly as he'd risen to prominence, turning professional after a disappointing seventh place finish at the 1935 World Championships. The September 21, 1935 issue of the "Wiener Sporttagblatt" lamented his decision, noting it was a "heavy loss" for Austrian skating and that he was "one of one most talented skaters [who] has honoured Austria."

Following in the footsteps of Melitta Brunner, Edi Scholdan, Karl Mejstrik and the many other gifted Austrian skaters who made the decision to go abroad to perform and teach during this era, Erich took up residence at Kensington Gardens and began teaching at Queen's Ice Club in London. While in London, he appeared in the "St. Moritz" ice show at the London Coliseum alongside Pamela Prior, Hazel Franklin and Otto Gold and gave lessons to fellow professionals at Earl's Court.

Photo courtesy "Skate" magazine

In 1939, Erich's sister Charlotte - who was teaching skating in Paris - passed away under mysterious circumstances. She was staying in a hotel at the time with a lover, got up and went to an adjoining room and didn't return. Her lover went to go check on her and found her naked and dead on the floor with a empty bottle of hair dye lying next to her. Though murder and suicide were originally hinted at by Erich, an autopsy revealed Charlotte had meningitis of the brain.

Like so many German and Austrian refugees that flocked to England in the thirties, Erich was interned during World War II and sent to a camp in Australia. He was released in 1943 and married his wife Iris Coe the following year. Not long after, he moved to the United States and joined the cast of Holiday On Ice for a time before returning to England to coach at the S.S. Brighton. As a professional, he also performed in shows in Blackpool, Bournemouth, at the Casa Carioca nightclub in Germany and Tom Arnold's tours of Belgium and Sweden. He passed away in Somerset, England on May 6, 2000.

THE FELLNER BROTHERS

Rising to prominence concurrently in the last decade of the nineteenth century, brothers Josef and Ernst Fellner were both members of the Wiener Eislaufverein, They both made their competitive debut at the Verbands-Preis-Wett-Eislaufens at their home club on January 8, 1893. Josef placed second in the junior men's class; Ernst sixth. That same winter, the brothers appeared in the Viennese Eisballet "Im Reiches des Eisgottes". In 1897, Josef won the junior men's gold and Ernst the senior men's silver at the annual competition at the Wiener Eislaufverein that preceded the Austrian Championships. The following year at the same event, the brothers squared off in the senior men's class. Ernst won the figures; Josef won the free skating. After the marks were tallied, Ernst defeated his brother by a mere one sixth of a point.

In 1898, Josef turned the tables, defeating his brother and making history as the first winner of the men's competition at the Austrian Championships. The following year at the European Championships in Davos, Ernst won the bronze medal behind Ulrich Salchow and Gustav Hügel, receiving a first place ordinal from the Swiss judge.

Both brothers retired from competitive skating around the turn of the century. Josef went on to serve on the side of the Central Powers during the Great War and become a respected international judge, serving on panels at the European and World Championships. Champions who were the benefits of his scoring included Lili Kronberger, the Jakobsson's, Fritz Kachler, Herma Szabo, Willy Böckl and Karl Schäfer. He also served as the chair of the ISU Judges Committee from 1923 to 1925 and as the Austrian Federation's President from 1945 to 1950.

MARTHA MUSILEK

Born June 8, 1924, Martha Musilek got her start on the ice at the Wiener Eislaufverein in the thirties and surprised many by placing seventh in her first major international competition at the age of fifteen, where three of five judges had her in the top three in the free skate. That event was the 1939 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia, which proved to be the final World Championships before their cancellation due to World War II.

Coached by Karl Schäfer at the Engelmann rink early in the War, Martha won gold in 1942 and 1943 at the 'Ostmark' Championships during the period Austria was annexed into Germany by the Nazis. The January 8, 1942 "Das kleine Volksblatt" raved, "This title is really most worthy. Those in the Engelmann Arena cheered everything Martha did [from] the beginning. She performed her three Axel-Paulsens, then a pirouette with a three foot change and steps at an uncanny pace." Two months later, Martha defeated German Inge Jell, Briton Susi Demoll and five others at an international meet at the Wiener Eislaufverein. The March 2, 1942 "Kleine Volks Zeitung" summed it up by saying, "Martha Musilek came, saw and conquered."

In 1945, twenty one year old Martha married Robert Bachem of the renowned J.P. Bachem publishing house and settled in Cologne, Germany. The couple quickly welcomed two children while the German press lamented that she wasn't on the ice winning titles. Determined to make up for lost opportunities, Martha got back on the ice as soon as she had her second child and started training for the 1948 Winter Olympics, hoping to represent Germany.

When the decision was made that Germans would be forbidden to participate in any event that the ISU was affiliated with, she realized that her only chance to compete in St. Moritz was to represent Austria. However, she was informed that the only way she would get her Austrian citizenship back was to get a divorce from her husband. Under the guise that a divorce was in the works, she departed from Munich to Vienna, her move facilitated by the Austrian Repatriation Commission. However, when she arrived in Vienna she received the bad news that any woman who was born in Austria but wanted to return home from Germany without their husband wasn't allowed to do so unless the divorce had already been finalized. With her daughter in tow, she stalled for time in Switzerland and finagled berths on the 1948 Austrian European, Olympic and World teams.

Martha Musilek and Erich Zeller. Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland.

However, things didn't go quite as planned for Martha. At the European Championships in Prague, she placed a disappointing eleventh. At the Olympic Games in St. Moritz, she moved up two spots to ninth and at the World Championships in Davos, she delivered an outstanding free skate but placed only seventh, hampered by characteristically weak figures. Her Olympic dream fulfilled, she announced her retirement and revealed that she never had any intentions of divorcing her husband in the first place. The December 18, 1948 issue of "Der Spiegel" reported that after representing Austria in those Games "the German national Martha Bachem and her child were placed on the list of persons to be expelled. They went back to Germany in the return home transport." Ironically, after spending much of her lifetime after her skating career ended in Germany, Martha passed away June 19, 2015... in Vienna, Austria.

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.

Edges At The Expos: Skating At The World's Fairs

Chorus of skaters at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Photo courtesy New York Public Library.

During the 1939 New York World's Fair, Norwegian skater Erna Andersen dazzled audiences on a specially constructed ice rink. Sadly, Erna was upstaged when Fair organizers decided to hold a 'Henie Day' when Andersen's compatriot Sonja Henie visited while honeymooning in New York after her marriage to Dan Topping.

Ice rink from the 1939 New York World's Fair. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

By 1946, sawhorses and wheelbarrows lined the area where the skating rink once stood as labourers began construction of the new home of the United Nations general assembly in Flushing Meadows. History was being erased and history was being made.

Maude Reynolds and Francis LeMaire performing their 'Shutlatter Dances' at the 1934 Chicago's World Fair. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Figure skating and these international expositions have had a long standing relationship through history. From Brussels to New York City to Osaka, skating has often taken center stage. The July 16, 1934 edition of "The Lodi Sentinel" recalled how The Black Forest ice show, staged during A Century Of Progress, the Chicago World's Fair of 1934 in the German village became the unlikely hit attraction of the exposition: "At the Black Forest is given one of the finest exhibitions of fancy skating. Men and women in pretty costumes do the most marvellous steps on the ice. The performance lasts about ten minutes, because the ice starts to melt after that time. When the skaters go off a huge dance platform is shot in over the ice, and dancing to fine old German tunes goes until the ice freezes again."

Promotional materials for the Black Forest Village at the Chicago World's Fair of 1934. Photos courtesy the Illinois Digital Archives.

Arthur R. Goodfellow's 1972 book "Wonderful world of skates; seventeen centuries of skating" noted, "An American ice production at a trade fair in [Jakarta] helped smooth relations between Indonesia and the United States at a time when such help was badly needed. Industrial expositions in Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam and many European cities have often found ice the hottest thing in their amusement midways. The two World Fairs in New York featured ice, as did the highly successful Canadian Expo and the massive Expo 70 in Japan. Fairground ice amusements sometimes have been touched by tragedy as well as joy. At the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893, two forms of 'ice skating' were in evidence, but one was destroyed by fire before it could be used... The skating rink at the 1893 Columbian Expo was on top of the handsome building erected by the Hercules Iron Works. This building resembled Mohammedan architecture and the smoke stack near the front center was encased in a beautiful tower 191-feet high. The rink measured 54 by 208-feet, and from four to six inches of ice were to have been maintained by the brine pumps. Freezing of the ice had just begun when a fire broke out in the tower, the wooden parts of which had been insufficiently protected from the chimney. Sixteen firemen were trapped and perished before the eyes of thousands of spectators."

At the 1964 World's Fair in New York, Dick Button staged a lavish skating production called "Icetravaganza". Fashion met skating in this high production show. The April 1, 1964 issue of the "Free Lance-Star" noted, "Chinchila dresses, capes of black and white tiger skin pattern made from pieces of Russian broadtail; as well as white Persian lamb suits are among the 'don't-be-a-cheap-skate' numbers." Despite its flashy costumes and glitzy decor, the show wasn't perhaps the roaring success it could have been. Dan Dietz' "The Complete Book Of 1960's Broadway Musicals" explains why: "The show had sparse attendance, and at one point a twelve-foot hedge was deemed the culprit for the show's lack of business. Because of its location, the demon hedge obscured the New York City Pavilion and thus many fairgoers didn't know [it] existed. When the offending hedge was trimmed, the Times said it seemed 'that an additional building had been added to the fair,' and Button hoped 'a new era had dawned' for the ice show's fortunes. Unfortunately, hedge or no hedge, the customers still didn't come. It appears the ice show was more in the format of a book musical than a revue; the script was by Gerald Freedman, who co-wrote the lyrics with John Morris (who composed the score and conducted the orchestra). The direction and choreography were by Button, who coproduced with Paul Feigay. The cast included Sandy Culbertson, Jerry Howard, Guy Longpre, Barbara Martin, Don McPherson, Pat Pauley, Fred Randall, Ronnie Robertson and Eric Waite." The show had an unceremonious and short run but Dick, as always, had a healthy attitude about the whole project: "I've been lucky to have found something I'm interested in. Too many people never get excited about anything. It doesn't matter what you're keen about - even shovelling sand against the tide makes sense if you like it."

Though the Futurama ride at the 1964 World's Fair might not have accurately predicted everything about life in the world today, international expositions still draw in hoards of tourists around the world. The next two 'universal expositions' will be held in Dubai in 2020 and Buenos Aires in 2023, providing Trump doesn't get the whole world blown up by then. Will figure skating be among the entertainment? Only time will tell.

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.

Railroads And Rulebooks: The Hank Beatty Story

"Good judgment on any subject is not a gift. It is the power of logical reasoning, based on knowledge and observation. It is born only of long study and must be exercised with care and sportsmanship." - Hank Beatty

"It has been fun to look back, but it is much more productive to look ahead." - Hank Beatty

Born June 11, 1900 in Cleveland, Ohio, Henry 'Hank' McIntosh Beatty was the son of Robert and Alexandrine (McIntosh) Beatty. He grew up on Devonshire Drive in Cleveland Heights and his father was a railroad worker with the Cleveland and Eastern Traction Company.

Hank's father got him a job with as a timekeeper when he was a teenager. At the age of eighteen, he graduated from Asheville School in North Carolina and was drafted for the first World War but luckily wasn't sent overseas to Europe. Instead, he studied at Cornell University, where he got a degree in electrical engineering. He became the Vice-President of a limestone and building materials company and enjoyed photography, game fishing and playing 'archery' golf until his marriage to Elizabeth Coates in October 1923. It wasn't until 1937 - at the age of thirty seven - that he first laced up a pair of skates and fell in love with figure skating when his children signed up for lessons at the Cleveland Skating Club.

Though Hank's own skating prowess was questionable, he became a trustee of the Cleveland Skating Club and served as its Vice-President. He stepped up to the plate as an organizer when Cleveland hosted the U.S. Championships for the first time in 1940. Quickly catching the attention of the powers that be in U.S. figure skating at the time for his organizational skills, he became a member of the USFSA executive later that year. In 1946, he was elected as the USFSA's ninth President, serving in that role for three years and playing an integral part in fostering growth in the organization during the post-War years. In 1949, he returned to his role as the chairperson of the USFSA's Competitions Committee and was appointed as an International Referee.

Hank also served as chair of the U.S. Olympic Games (Selection) Committee for every Olympic Games from 1948 to 1964 and as either the Chief or Assistant Referee at sixteen U.S. Championships, eight World Championships and three North American Championships, as well as the 1964 Winter Olympic Games. He played an important role in bringing the 1957 World Championships to the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. This event marked the first time that the United States had hosted the Championships since 1930. He acted as General Chairman of the 1959, 1965, 1969 and 1975 World Championships... all held at The Broadmoor and all largely successful. Incidentally, in early 1960 Hank had moved to Colorado Springs and called the Broadmoor his home club. A skaters residence there was named Henry M. Beatty Hall in his honour.

In 1958, Hank organized an exhibition tour of American skaters in Japan, which fostered growth and education in that country and goodwill between the two skating associations. At the 1961 U.S. Championships, he held black tie cocktail parties for the judges every night before dinner in his hotel suite. When judge Walter Powell, his friend and peer, was killed in the Sabena Crash, he stepped in as an ISU Representative and served in that capacity until 1967. Arguably, Hank's most important contributions to American figure skating were his development and editorship of the USFSA's Competitions Manual and work in editing Heaton Ridgway Robertson's book "Evaluation Of Errors In Figures". Both texts, in their own ways, had a profound impact on education and development in his country.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

Recalling his early days of judging and refereeing events in an article that appeared in "Skating" magazine in 1971, Hank emphasized, "Don't get the idea that the early skaters couldn't skate. Their figures were equal to or better than those skaters today. Their free skating was very good: good, that is, within the limitations of the then known moves. I once asked a skater who had competed with the famous Sonja [Henie], whether she could have free skated with the present crop. She replied, 'That is a difficult question to answer. In the first place. big jumps like the Axel were considered unladylike, and secondly, with the longer skirts and heavier clothing we wore, jumping was quite difficult. But I believe that were Sonja competing today, she could hold her own with anyone.'... There were many unusual happenings in those days. In one competition, the free skating was held in a curling rink where the roof was supported by columns that skaters had to dodge during their programs. Another time, the ice had been painted for decoration and some of the chemical came up through the next layer of ice making it virtually impossible to perform a paragraph figure. An embarrassing moment occurred when a champion showed up with orchestration for sixteen pieces, and the host club had planned on a piano and drums, or a record player... These and countless other problems were overcome somehow, and figure skating continued and developed into the great sport that it is today."

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

Sadly, Hank passed away in Cleveland on August 11, 1972 at the age of seventy two, just months after serving as the Assistant Referee of the pairs competition at that year's World Championships in Calgary, Alberta. He was elected posthumously to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 1977 and is remembered fondly by a nickname which well describes the many contributions he made to American figure skating: 'Mr. USFSA'. After his death, H. Hendall Kelly recalled in "Skating" magazine, "Henry was gifted with keen intelligence, a forceful personality and great executive ability. He was deeply interested in figure skating and the Association and turned his talents wholeheartedly towards its activities and progress. His influence and contributions to the sport can never be surpassed in extent and value."

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 Minoru Blog? I Just Couldn't Sano!

On the island on Honshu to the south of Tokyo was a town located in Higashiyatsushiro District of the Yamanashi Prefecture called Isawa. It no longer exists, now amalgamated as part of city of Fuefuki. However, it was in that town on June 3, 1955 that Minoru Sano, a trailblazer in Japanese figure skating was born.

Minoru first took to the ice at the age of four with his brother and sister on Lake Shōji near Mount Fuji and after his first visit to an indoor skating rink while attending elementary school, he attended a specialized training camp for promising young skaters at Nihon University in Tokyo. It was there he started working with Tsuzuki Shoichiro, who would remain his coach for his entire amateur career. Moving his way up the ranks, Minoru won his first senior medal - a bronze - when he was a fifteen at the 1971 Japanese Championships. By the following year in Osaka, he'd moved up a rung on the podium to claim the silver. It was gold in 1973 in Takano, Kyoto. His first senior men's title earned him a trip to the 1973 World Championships in Bratislava, where he finished a forgettable fourteenth.

That fall, Minoru travelled to Calgary, Alberta where he made history (for the first time in his career) by winning Japan's first medal at Skate Canada International, a bronze behind Toller Cranston and Ron Shaver. After repeating as Japan's senior men's champion in Hiroshima in early 1974, he returned to the World Championships, this time in Munich, West Germany. A disappointing eleventh place finish in the school figures left him in a position where he needed to make up ground in the short program and free skate and he did just that, moving up to eighth place from eleventh. That 'coming from behind after figures' scenario would be one that repeated itself time and time again throughout much of the rest of his competitive career, as was the case that fall at Skate Canada in Kitchener, where he climbed all the way from fifth place to take the silver medal behind Ron Shaver, ahead of American Charlie Tickner. Another medal at the Moscow Skate competition in the Soviet Union later in the fall of 1974 established Minoru as a skater to watch.

After winning a third Japanese men's title in Shiganawa in early 1975, Minoru headed to the World Championships in Colorado Springs ready to make a move on the top echelon of skaters. Disaster struck when he sprained his foot just days prior to the competition. Although he dropped two places down to tenth place, his gutsy performances earned Japan two men's spots for the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics. However, after the competition what he thought was a sprain turned out to be a fracture. The prospects of Minoru's Olympic dream appeared bleak.

Minoru rallied to win a fourth consecutive Japanese title in Tokyo, earning (alongside Mitsuru Matsumura) one of two men's spots on the Japanese Olympic team heading to Innsbruck. The judges didn't quite know what to do with him, offering scores in the figures that ranged from sixth to eleventh and in the short program that ranged from fourth to tenth. At the end of the day, he finished ninth overall. It was Japan's best result in the figure skating events of those Olympics. In Sweden at the World Championships that followed, he finished seventh overall. However, the March 4, 1976 issue of The Ottawa Citizen noted, "His spectacular high-speed performance [in the short program] included the only successful triple lutz/double toe-loop of [the] competition."

Minoru's final season in the amateur ranks was his most successful. In 1977, he won his fifth consecutive Japanese men's title in Kyoto then headed to the World Championships in Tokyo. Despite the pressures of performing in front of a massive hometown crowd, Minoru actually won the free skate ahead of a who's who of top men's skaters of that era - Jan Hoffmann, Vladimir Kovalev, David Santee and Charlie Tickner among them - with his daringly athletic performance. A sixth place finish in the figures almost kept him off the podium but he managed to win the bronze medal, a historic first medal at the World Championships for Japan.

Vlasimir Kovalev, Jan Hoffmann and Minoru Sano on the podium at the 1977 World Championships

Leaving the amateur ranks on a high note, Minoru turned professional and married an Olympic gymnast. He dabbled in music, releasing songs with Toshiba EMI and helped found Japan's first homegrown ice show, Viva! Ice World. In the show, he skated both singles (showing off a newly acquired backflip) and pairs with Emi Watanabi.

In 1980, he moderated a weekly sports news show on Nippon Television called Exclusive! Sports Information and took a stab at competing in the World Professional Championships in Jaca, Spain. He tied in the judge's scores with American Scott Cramer and lost the title on the audience score by literally one point. Unphased, Minoru continued his skating with Viva! Ice World and work in television on FNN News Report as a sportscaster throughout the eighties. Confusingly - believe me - another Minoru Sano was also an extremely popular Japanese personality during this period. The other Minoru Sano was a celebrity ramen noodle chef.

Minoru continued performing professionally in Japanese skating shows until the early nineties before beginning work as a television commentator for Fuji TV and coach. Among his former students? Shizuka Arakawa, Yamato Tamura and his own daughter Midori, who became a successful professional skater in her own right. He also appeared in the 2009 Japanese skating film "Coach" starring Miwa Nishida, Noburo Kaneko, Yuna Komatsuzaki and Sayaka Yoshino. Other skating greats including Midori Ito, Shizuka Arakawa and Miki Ando made cameos in the film.

Currently, Minoru coaches alongside Yutaka Higuchi and Miwa Fukuhara at the Meiji Jingu Outer Gardens Skating Rink in Tokyo's Sendagaya district and serves as the President of the Japan Figure Skating Instructor Association. He has also served on the council of the Japan Skating Association. The dedication that Minoru has shown to the sport of figure skating - wearing pretty much every hat there is at one point or another - is remarkable and his skate of a lifetime back in 1977 can't help but make you smile, even to this day. To Minoru Sano, the skating world owes a big "domo arigatou"!

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 1925 European Figure Skating Championships

German editorial cartoon of skaters at The 1925 European Figure Skating Championships

On February 7 and 8, 1925, a frozen lake in the mountains of the Black Forest, an hour from the small town of Triberg im Schwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg, was the unlikely yet idyllic setting for the 1925 European Figure Skating Championships. The event marked the first time in fifteen years that Germany had played host to the European Championships; the first since the Great War ended. Interestingly, the event also marked the final appearance at the Europeans of the man who finished second at the 1910 European Championships in Berlin... Werner Rittberger, who was credited as the inventor of the loop jump.

Six men from three countries vied for gold in Triberg before a panel of five judges - two from Germany, two from Austria and one from Hungary. Despite poor weather conditions - rain and a thaw - all six skaters performed exceptionally well in the figures. As expected, the two German judges cast their votes for Rittberger. One of the two Austrian judges and the Hungarian judge placed Austria's Willy Böckl first, while the other Austrian judge voted for another Austrian, Otto Preißecker. Despite drawings that a reporter from the "Wiener Sportagblatt" described as "magnificent", Georges Gautschi placed outside of the top three, hampered by the fact that he was the only competitor without a judge on the panel to support him. However, that same reporter noted, "Böckl offered the most consistent performance and created a clear lead mainly by [his] wonderfully soft transitions. Rittberger (Berlin) did much better compulsory exercises as in the previous year in Davos. Dr. Preißecker shone as well, but his tracings were not perfect. [Paul] Franke (Berlin) skated well, but was nevertheless the weakest among the championship candidates."

The following day, the temperature dropped by ten degrees and the sun came out as the six men took the ice to perform their free skating programs. The reporter who covered the event for the "Wiener Sportagblatt" called the event thusly: "In [free] skating Rittberger offered little content, but in the execution gave a first-class performance. Gautschi also did not show too much, but has in the presentation substantially improved. Dr. Preißecker skated nervously and for this reason was a little weaker than we are used to. [Ludwig] Wrede's freestyle was excellent. He succeeded in everything, including the Axel Paulsen backwards. [Willy] Böckl brought a lot of difficulty to his freestyle, but the very unfortunate music inhibited [his performance] and much of its effect was robbed."

Willy Böckl

After the judge's marks were tallied, four judges still had Bockl first in free skating, while the Hungarian judge tied he and Rittberger. Overall, Böckl easily took the win. Gautschi and Preißecker were close in the free skate, but Preißecker managed to defeat him by four ordinal placings for the bronze. It's interesting to note that Austrian judge Karl Mejstrik had Rittberger, Preißecker, Gautschi and Wrede in a four-way tie for second in the free skate. As he'd won the event twice before, Böckl's win was far from a surprise to anyone. However, Ludwig Wrede's fifth place finish shocked many. He had won the silver medal at the event the year prior and had been considered one of Böckl's main challengers prior to the competition.

Medal from the junior men's event at the 1925 European Championships

In addition the 'main event', a number of other skating titles were decided in Triberg at the European Championships. There were also non-championship classes for senior men and women, junior men and senior pairs. Skaters from the Wiener Eislaufverein - Hugo Distler, Hilde Thiel and Karl Kronfuss - swept the singles events, while Else and Oscar Hoppe of Troppau took the pairs title. Speed skating races were also held, and these were dominated from skaters from Vienna also.

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.