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Explore a treasure trove of articles on the history of figure skating, highlighting Olympic Medallists, World and National Champions and dazzling competitions, shows and tours. Written by former skater and judge Ryan Stevens, Skate Guard Blog also offers intriguing insights into the evolution of the sport over the decades. Delve into Stevens' five books for even more riveting stories and information about the history of everyone's favourite winter Olympic sport.
The daily coverage on Skate Guard leading up to the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships continues with a really heartwarming story about a skater you may have heard of? His name's Kurt Browning and he's kind of a big deal in these parts.
In March of 1990, Kurt won his second of four World titles here in Halifax and for decades now, he's been bringing huge smiles to the faces of Maritimers by returning year after year as the perennial and always show-stopping star of Stars On Ice. One story many might not know or remember is that of the gold medal that Canadian skating fans gave Kurt after his third Olympic experience in the Lillehammer, Norway in 1994. It was meant to represent the Olympic gold medal he unfortunately never won but that his fans always steadfastly believed he deserved... and it came from right here in this very province.
Four Nova Scotia women - Bev Pettersen of Upper Tantallon, Colleen Hennessy of Bedford and Barb Snarby and Dorothy Anne MacKinnon of Liverpool - started a nationwide campaign for gold donations after Browning apologized for missing his final shot at Olympic gold. They came pouring in from coast to coast - gold-filled teeth, old wedding bands (including his own mother's), watches, chains, bracelets, brooches, gold-tipped fountain pens and gold nuggets from the Yukon River. The article "Browning Gold Rush" from the March 23, 1994 issue of The Mail Star explains how Bedford goldsmith Don Bell volunteered weeks of his time to work on the creation of the medal, which would normally cost between forty and fifty thousand dollars to design. It featured a maple leaf, an outline of Canada and a figure of Kurt in the middle. So much gold was donated that enough was leftover to make him a lapel pin as well. Of the medal, Bell said, "Every time I get talking about it, I get all choked up. It's amazing the amount of things that people sent in. To have the people part with something that's part of them just to say this is for Kurt, this is because we are proud of him, is heartwarming." Petterson said of her Gold For Kurt campaign that "it took more than a decade of work for him to earn the fans he has, so it's for his whole career of skating amateur. He's been a great role model and represented Canada so well."
The medal was presented to Kurt at the World Trade And Convention Centre in Downtown Halifax in April of 1994 by a six year old skater with cancer registered with the Children's Wish Foundation named Megan Rendall and in turn, Kurt made a five thousand dollar donation to Muscular Dystrophy Of Canada, a cause he represented. The article "Golden tribute honors Browning" from the April 9, 1994 issue of The Chronicle Herald gives an adorable account of the presentation: "After the medal presentation, Browning leaned down and kissed her cheek and she ran off stage, grinning ear to ear. The tiny six-year-old said later she wanted to marry Browning." If that doesn't make you smile, what does?
On the presentation, Kurt said in the April 7 edition of The Mail Star's article "All that glitters" that "it's an unusual situation and a very unusual honor... For me it's the last seven or eight years of my career. It's kind of a symbol of the support that everyone has given me for those years... It has nothing to do with getting gold medals at the Olympics, because to be happy I don't need one." Whether he needed that symbolic Olympic gold medal or not, I think it speaks to the impact he made to an entire country that he received it. That medal shines as a golden example if there ever was one of the impact a great skater can make on a nation and it makes me smile to know that it came from right here in Nova Scotia.
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.
After last season, I made a very intentional decision to focus the content of the blog on celebrating figure skating's unique and colourful history. To be honest, I kind of promised myself that I'd steer away from event coverage and interviews. However, with the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships being held right in my own backyard this year, in the spirit of breaking New Year's resolutions in January it only seemed appropriate that I rolled up my sleeves, took one for the team and gave you all the inside scoop. Over the next two weeks, I'll be putting the Belita book on hold and giving you a behind the scenes glimpse at all the action in Halifax.
Just what can you expect? This week, I'll be sitting in on Skate Canada teleconferences and giving you a pre-competition glimpse at how some of the favourites are feeling heading into the competition. I'll also be heading over to the Canadian Museum Of Immigration At Pier 21 to give you a sneak peek of the upcoming Perfect Landings exhibit which will be bringing skating history to life by sharing the stories of the immigrants who have helped shape Canadian skating history... names like Petra and Ellen Burka, Otto and Maria Jelinek and of course Louis Rubenstein and Carole Jane Pachl, both of whom where featured earlier this month on the blog. What else is coming? A four part series on Halifax's skating history which will be released from Sunday to Wednesday of Nationals Week that you absolutely do not want to miss as well as four more must read stories from Canadian skating history... biographies of Shaun McGill and Guy Owen, a Kurt Browning story you may not know and the crazy tale of an icy fight that got way out of control.
At the risk of sounding like an infomercial... BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! I will be talking to skaters past and present through the week of the competition and asking the questions others aren't. That's where you come in...
It's time to turn up the tempo from Waltz to Quickstep. Starting tomorrow and for the next two weeks, Skate Guard's going daily!
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.
You think Gracie Gold was the first Champion skater with that lucky last name to stand on a figure skating podium? Guess again, sweet pea. Born May 18, 1909 in Prague to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Gold, Otto Gold may be best remembered as a skating coach in North America but in his youth in what was then Czechoslovakia he established himself as a force to be reckoned with a skater. At only seven years of age, he took lessons from three time Olympic Gold Medallist Gillis Grafström. Although he never represented his country at a World Championships or Olympic Games, Otto appeared at the European Championships held in Berlin in 1930 and turned more than one head by literally coming out of nowhere and snatching the silver medal behind two time Olympic Gold Medallist Karl Schäfer of Austria, Grafström's rival.
More interested in being at the boards than in continuing a competitive career, Otto turned professional in the early thirties. His first coaching engagement was in Arosa, Switzerland. After coaching in Switzerland, Otto returned to his native Prague to teach before appearing alongside World Professional Champion Pamela Prior and the Brunet's in the show "St. Moritz And The Engadine Express" at the Coliseum in London, England.
Otto Gold, Joy Ricketts and Andrée and Pierre Brunet in "St. Moritz And The Engadine Express"
Otto liked it so much in England that he stayed and coached at the Bournemouth club for a time before again returning to Prague. He never should have come back. With World War II brewing, Otto managed to escape from Czechoslovakia in 1938 just two hours before the borders of the country were closed and general mobilization was ordered. He only had time to pack his bags, hop on a train and make his way to England for a brief stopover before heading for Canada, where he'd arranged to start a new life as a skating coach.
In Canada, he established himself by opening the first summer skating school in Canada in Kitchener, Ontario. He also taught at the Minto Club, in Vancouver and Lake Placid and at the Crystal Ice Skating Rink in Norwalk and continued to perform in club ice shows for a time. In 1942, Otto coached Mary Rose Thacker to her third and final Canadian ladies title. In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen on February 3, 1942 he was asked to compare Thacker with Sonja Henie and responded that comparing the two "would be like comparing Jack Dempsey with John L. Sullivan; nobody really knows. They are of different eras so one can one can only guess." He said of Thacker that "Mary Rose is blessed with much natural talent but her greatest asset is her capacity for work. Her school figures are almost perfect, but her free skating can be improved still more."
Otto took his job seriously. He had a reputation for being a stern coach with 'piercing black eyes'... but he got results. Olympic Gold Medallist Barbara Ann Scott King, who took from Otto, once said "I think it's very good to have a coach that doesn't praise you much." He complimented her after a competitive performance but once during their seven year partnership. In David Young's book "The Golden Age Of Canadian Figure Skating", Young wrote that "one time, Barbara Ann was having trouble with a three-change-three which required that the right knee be turned out. After two days of turning the offending knee inwards, Otto ordered her to go home and write out one hundred times, 'When doing a three-change-three, I must keep my right knee turned out.' With her busy schedule, the youngster felt she was overloaded, and now she had an additional burden. So, her homework done, she scribbled out the hundred lines with a pencil. It didn't matter if Otto could read it or not - he knew what it said. The coach took one look at the assignment and said 'Do it again, in pen and ink. He paused and added, 'And neatly!' It was a lesson she never forgot, and a coaching attitude that years later she determined was entirely sound. Scott King said that "a teacher must take it for granted that you respect him, or you would be wasting your time taking advice from him."
In the mid sixties, another Olympic Gold Medallist - Dorothy Hamill - had a warmer experience with the tenured coach who allowed her to lodge with him and his wife. She did recall in her book "A Skating Life: My Story" that in Lake Placid, "the top coaches, about seven of them in total, each had his or her own section in an L-shaped pattern down and across the ice. No one but the student taking a lesson could enter that privileged zone. Not every coach was allotted a patch and some of them shared. I was a very impressed that Otto Gold had his own spot and no one else could ever use it but him."
Otto worked with a who's who of Canadian figure skating through his career as a coach. Among them was none other than Donald Jackson, who under Otto's tutelage won his first senior medal at the Canadian Championships in Galt in 1956. Jackson and Otto parted ways in 1957 when the Czechoslovakian born coach began to devote more and more time to the grooming of his own daughter Frances' career. She was a prodigal young star at the Minto Skating Club and finished sixth while representing Canada at the 1961 North American Championships in Philadelphia. The next year, in the wake of the Sabena crash that wiped out the entire U.S. team, Frances applied for American citizenship and made an attempt at the U.S. title, finishing fourth. Interestingly though, like all of Otto's students, Frances was a wiz at school figures and finished second in that phase of the event at those 1962 U.S. Championships.
However, when asked which of his students was his prize pupil in a January 1962 interview in the Reading Eagle, Otto responded with a smile: "That's easy. Who else but the great Barbara Ann Scott, the pretty Canadian, who became the world's champion in 1947, and has a room full of trophies and medals that attest to her progress." In the same interview, Otto spoke about the mounting popularity of skating in North America, crediting his pupil Barbara Ann as well as Dick Button and Hayes and David Jenkins for generating incredible interest in the sport at the time. He was also asked about judging, to which he responded with a smile, "there are complaints always but I've never found where the winner didn't deserve to win. As long as the judges have open minds, there should be no complaints."
Later in life, Otto was predeceased by his wife and moved back from Bell Island in Norwalk where he had resided for some years to Willowdale, Ontario. He passed away in Scarborough Hospital on April 6, 1977 from injuries sustained in a tragic fire, leaving behind his daughter Frances Gold Lind and two grandchildren, and was interred in Spring Grove Cemetery in Fairfield County, Connecticut. He may have been a tough cookie as far as coaches go, but Otto was responsible for helping some of the sport's biggest stars along in their pursuits for excellence and I don't know about you, but he certainly earns my respect.
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.
Yarmila 'Carole Jane' Pachl was born November 23, 1938 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her father Jan was a prominent chocolate manufacturer and her mother Jarmila a stage and film actress, so you might think her childhood might have been easy street. That simply was not the case. Her father, who opposed the Nazis during World War II, was put in a concentration camp and was fortunate enough to escape with his life. Meanwhile, his daughter was busy exploring her passion for figure skating and looking toward a brighter future. In the December 3, 1955 edition of The Ottawa Citizen, Carole Jane explained that she "loved figure skating so much that Mother took me to England where the famed Arnold Gerschwiler took a look and thought I had some promise. In early 1947 we went to St. Moritz and had some intensive coaching from Gerschwiler - that really got me enthused. I wanted to live on my skates." Despite the young skater's promise as a skater, the road to glory would definitely end up taking a curve ball. As Carole Jane's wealthy father fell out of favour with the Communists in Czechoslovakia, they seized most of his possessions and the family were forced to flee to a new life and safety in Montreal.
When she arrived, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Carole Jane divided her ice time between the Forum and Verdun Auditorium because both spaces offered the young skater free ice time. At the Forum, she'd skate extremely early in the morning and was only allowed to turn on one lightbulb while she practiced. Hockey players would file in before their early morning practices just to marvel at the young skater's obvious talent. Doors opened relatively quickly for the young skater who at the time couldn't speak a word of English when the Montreal Skating Club's then-president John Lockerby sponsored the child's early citizenship (ahead of her parents and older brother) so she could cross the U.S. border to train in Lake Placid alongside Dick Button with coach Gustave Lussi. In her free time, she enjoyed reading, collecting records and skiing. She even won a slalom race in the Laurentians.
Building on the sound skating technique taught by Lussi, Carole Jane began working at the Minto Skating Club with another famous skating coach of the era, Otto Gold, who had of course coached 1948 Olympic Gold Medallist Barbara Ann Scott. She passed her gold tests in both Canada and the U.S. by the age of fifteen and a year later was one of four Canadian ladies skaters who made the trip to Oslo, Norway to compete in the 1954 World Championships where she finished eighth despite a leg injury.
The following year Carole Jane won her first of three consecutive Canadian titles as a bit of a dark horse, as she'd missed competing at Canadians the previous season after winning the bronze medal in 1953. One judge remarked, "Pachl was like a runner in a long-distance race. She didn't lead in compulsory figures and she didn't lead in the free skating - the leaders were constantly changing - but she was the most consistent competitor, and that consistency paid off." As Canadian Champion, Carole Jane headed to Vienna, Austria where she finished sixth and made quite the impression on judges, the press and the people watching, so much so that offers to turn pro arrived in only her second trip to Worlds. She turned down the offers saying "I wish to represent Canada in the 1956 Olympics in Italy - I am a Canadian, you know." The Czech turned Canadian had every reason to be confident. She was attempting double axels when many of her rivals were lucky to land their double lutzes and flips, and she had an influential coach on her arm. As talented a free skater as she was though, she was no lover of figures. She once said, "I hated them. I used to daydream through the figures thinking about the free-skating part, My father got so mad at me once for not concentrating that he took my skates and threw them in the garbage."
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
The next season, Carole Jane achieved her dream of attaining one of the two ladies spots at the 1956 Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, finishing an impressive sixth in a field of twenty one skaters and besting future Olympic Gold Medallist Sjoukje Dijkstra in the process. Canadian Champion turned lawyer Ralph McCreath managed the Canadian skating team for the COA in 1956 and once recalled, "She was a breath of fresh air around the team. She was bouncy and vivacious and certainly was an asset to the team. She was a sensational skater and a really great competitor. Everybody loved her." It wasn't really all roses though. In a 1986 interview in The Gazette in Montreal, Carole explained that "three days before the competition my foot caught a crack in the ice during practice and I fell and hurt my back. They treated me for three dislocated vertabrae. But I skated anyway." Missing Worlds, she returned to Canada where her injury received a much more grim diagnosis - something was indeed broken. She explained that "they froze my back and I was able to compete (and win) in the Canadians. After that I was in a cast from my chest to my hips for ten weeks." And that's how Carole Jane retained her Canadian title.
The following season, Carole Jane's last in competition, she would win her third consecutive Canadian title, take the silver medal behind Carol Heiss at the North American Championships and finish an impressive fourth at the World Championships in Colorado Springs, missing out on the bronze medal by only six points. A professional career was out of the question for the talented young skater, who was still actively receiving plenty of offers from tours. In Dick Bacon's article "Pachl earned skating titles the hard way", Carole Jane explained, "My father wouldn't sign permission. He didn't think it was right to lead a gypsy life. He thought I should learn some accounting and live a normal life."
In the sixties, Carole Jane operated a hockey school at the Verdun Arena where Donnie Marshall and Phil Goyette of the Montreal Canadiens often stopped by to help out and also for a time taught figure skating. She also taught at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York for a time. She dropped the use of her middle name Jane (which she admittedly used to sound more like Barbara Ann Scott with the three names) and answered to Carole Pedvis after marrying a food broker named Leonard Pedvis. She raised two daughters, Natalie and Kim, while working part time in the public relations industry and doing accounting for her father the former chocolatier and Holocaust survivor before moving to Florida.
Although Carole Jane never won a Olympic or World medal, this talented Czech turned Canadian skater indeed did make quite an important contribution to Canadian figure skating. She paved the way for some very talented Canadian ladies skaters like Wendy Griner and Petra Burka who would both find considerable success internationally in the sixties and she did it with style... which is no small order for anyone.
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.
Photo courtesy Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Born September 23, 1861 in Montreal, Québec, Louis Rubenstein went on to undoubtedly become one of the most influential and important figure skating pioneers. His parents, Max and Leah Rubenstein, had emigrated to Canada from Poland eleven years before his birth, and were one of only roughly two hundred Jewish families living in the city at the time. Louis' first introduction to the sport came in 1864, when Jackson Haines came to the city to give his final North American performance before heading to Europe to spread the gospel of skating there. He would have been only three years old at the time. Inspired by Haines' performance, Louis took to the ice and soon joined the highly esteemed Victoria Skating Club and skated alongside his brothers Abraham and Moses.
Although Louis was quite well respected by his peers for his excellence in school figures, he lost by exactly one hundred points in his first recorded competitive appearance in 1879 to older competitors Messrs. Periera and Barlow. He rebounded to win his city's championships and in 1883 won his first unofficial Canadian title (unofficial because there was no official national governing body of skating regulating competitions yet, but we'll get to that later) at his home rink. As early as the following year, Louis was invited to participate in a series exhibitions and competitions in Atlantic Canada including stops in Saint John, Bathurst, Chatham, Moncton and Halifax. A poster advertising his 1884 appearance in St. Stephen, New Brunswick described his appearance as "the event of the season". Louis held court at the national competition in Canada for seven consecutive years in the 1880's and also garnered considerable attention at the Montreal Winter Carnival, of which skating was an important component. He won five North American titles as well, starting in 1885 and two U.S. Championships in 1888 and 1889. His travels during that decade took him everywhere from New York to Detroit to Vermont to Picton, Ontario. How did he find the time to do it all? Although Louis was a partner in the family business, which was a silver, gold and nickel plating and manufacturing firm, it appears his role might have been more on paper than in getting hands-on as he would have required significant time to travel in the winters from event to event for weeks or months at a time. He was a bachelor though, very much married to his work on the ice... and he was lauded as North America's best skater in newspapers everywhere.
Photo courtesyMusée McCord Museum. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
Why settle for the best in North America? By the end of the 1880's, Louis was eager to take on the rest of the world. Kevin B. Wamsley and Don Morrow's excellent book "Sport In Canada: A History" offers a great explanation of just how he came to compete against the world's best: "When news of the St. Petersburg (Russia) 'world' championship - staged to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the St. Petersburg Skating Club - reached Montreal in mid-December 1889, the choice of the most appropriate and deserving representative to be sent by the Amateur Skating Association of Canada was a foregone conclusion. Four hundred dollars was raised to defray Rubenstein's expenses. In early January 1890, he boarded the Cunard Royal Mail steamer Etruria in New York carrying letters of introduction from Canada's Governor-General, Lord Stanley, to the foreign office and the British ambassador in St. Petersburg". Knowing full well that under the czarist rule in Russia, anti-Semitism was alive and thriving, Louis wasn't exactly expecting to be welcomed with open arms when he arrived in Russia. Gay skaters in Sochi, anyone? I digress. What he was walking into was such a shitshow that even the December 30, 1889 edition of the Montreal Gazette wrote prior to his departure that "our skaters can now wait confidently for the cablegram that shall inform us the redoubtable Louis has either carried off the championship in triumph or is snugly incarcerated in the Trubetskoi Bastion." Oh good.
Right photo courtesy Musée McCord Museum. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
Although the voyage over the Atlantic was smooth sailing, what happened when Louis arrived wasn't. He checked into the Grand Hotel d'Europe and within a few days found himself summoned to the cop shop. He was interrogated and asked if he was Jewish. Responding yes, his passport was seized but he was released. Returning to practice, he was hauled back into another police station days later and told to leave the country within twenty four hours. The reason? "We cannot permit Jews to remain in St. Petersburg". Louis plead his case to the British Ambassador Sir Robert Morier, who returned his passport with the words "British Subject" crossed out and replaced with "L. Rubenstein, Jew". He was advised to compete in the World Championships but leave the country immediately thereafter.
Photo courtesy Musée McCord Museum. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
Skate Louis did... in front of members of the very Emperor who opposed him (Alexander III)'s court. Part of the competition, which included school figures, special figures and specialties was won by the outcast from Canada. In winning a gold medal, he defeated skaters from Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. He explained his experience in letters home that were published in Montreal newspapers: "Instead of what we call our list in Canada there are three separate competitions in Russia. The real figure skating or what we call list skating goes under the name diagram skating in Russia. There are two other departments - special figures and specialties - and in these there is a tendency to acrobatic work, which would not be recognized as fine skating in Canada." Safely returning home to Montreal by way of New York, Louis retired from the sport in 1892 after capping off his career with another U.S. title for good measure.
Photo courtesy Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Every bit as important to his on ice contributions to skating were Louis' off-ice ones. He was made honorary secretary of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada and would later serve as its president. He was instrumental in forming the International Skating Union of America as well and also presided over that organization. Just incredible if you ask me.
Think his story ends there? Guess again sweetie. During the summers Louis was competing as a skater, he was an avid and quite successful cyclist. He became the president of the Canadian Wheelman's Association for eighteen years and was the man behind the success of the 1899 World Bicycle Meet which was awarded to Montreal. He bowled, played billiards, curled and was president of the Canadian Bowling Association, Montreal Athletic Commission, the Montreal branch of the Royal Life Skating Society, Montreal Amateur Athletic Association and Young Men's Hebrew Association. He was even a city alderman for seventeen years. He undertook the sale of the family business in 1929 and it remains in operation today. How this man found time to sleep is beyond me. Posthumously, Louis was recognized by inductions into the Canadian Sports Hall Of Fame, Jewish Sports Hall Of Fame in Israel, World Figure Skating Hall Of Fame and Skate Canada Hall Of Fame.
A 2004 article from the "Canadian Jewish News" also noted, "He was a populist politician who took an interest in the welfare of the poor. His decision to establish the Rubenstein Bath was of no small importance to poverty stricken Montrealers who lacked something so basic as running water.
A keen politician, Rubenstein sometimes filled in as mayor... His funeral attracted thousand of mourners. Several years after Rubenstein's passing, a group of well-heeled Montrealers raised about $2,000, no insignificant sum during the Depression, for a fountain in his memory. It was finally erected in 1937... The fountain is the only public monument in Montreal, and perhaps in Quebec, honouring a Jew."
Louis' death on January 3, 1931 marked the end of an era and the beginning of another. Only two years later in August 1933, the Christie Pits Riot broke out in a Toronto playground after a baseball game six months after Adolf Hitler took power in Germany. An account in the Toronto Star described the event: While groups of Jewish and Gentile youths wielded fists and clubs in a series of violent scraps for possession of a white flag bearing a swastika symbol at Willowvale Park last night, a crowd of more than 10,000 citizens, excited by cries of 'Heil Hitler' became suddenly a disorderly mob and surged wildly about the park and surrounding streets, trying to gain a view of the actual combatants, which soon developed in violence and intensity of racial feeling into one of the worst free-for-alls ever seen in the city. Scores were injured, many requiring medical and hospital attention... Heads were opened, eyes blackened and bodies thumped and battered as literally dozens of persons, young or old, many of them non-combatant spectators, were injured more or less seriously by a variety of ugly weapons in the hands of wild-eyed and irresponsible young hoodlums, both Jewish and Gentile". Less than a decade later, young Jewish diarist and skater Anne Frank would face her end in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during The Holocaust. Louis' work in fostering a better sporting world would not be for nought though. At the fountain in his honor in Fletcher's Field in Montreal, the water still flows. The water reminds one of Louis' resolve in life to flow on and on despite the hate he himself experienced in his trip to Russia and in the winter it freezes into ice, the very surface he changed the skating world upon.
This piece originally appeared as part of a six-part podcast series called Axels In The Attic. You can listen to Allison Manley of The Manleywoman SkateCast and Ryan Stevens of Skate Guard's audio version on Podbean or iTunes.
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.
With the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships just weeks away right here in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I couldn't think of a better month to devote the blog entirely to exploring tales from Canadian skating history! This month on Skate Guard, we'll have the final episode of the Axels In The Attic podcast series with Allison Manley, an incredible exploration of Halifax's skating history and biographical sketches of Carole Jane Pachl, Shaun McGill, Otto Gold, Guy Owen and more... but first, we'll kick off 2016 with the harrowing tale of the 1949 Minto Skating Club fire.
Founded in 1904 by then Governor-General Of Canada, the Earl and Countess Of Minto, the Minto Skating Club has played an integral part in Canadian skating history from its inception and is still thriving today at its current location on Lancaster Road in Ottawa. The first home of the club was actually the Minto's own residence at the time, Rideau Hall, which has been the official residence and workplace of every Governor-General in Canada since 1867. As much of the membership was drawn from the Rideau Skating Club (which was already in operation before the Minto Club) the Rideau Skating Rink on the corner of Theodore (now Laurier) and Waller Streets became a natural choice for a more permanent residence for the club. The Minto Skating Club (at the Rideau Skating Club) played host to Canada's first official Canadian Figure Skating Championships in 1905 but in 1907, a fire occurred at the rink of the severity requiring the cancellation of the 1907 Canadian Figure Skating Championships.
The Minto Skating Club resumed operations both at the Rideau Rink and Dey's Arena until a new permanent home for the club was found in 1922 on nearby Waller Street at a rebuilt Rideau Skating Rink. The Minto Club took over the rink and it was renamed the Minto Rink. Elite level skating thrived under the direction of coaches from abroad and in the thirties the club dominated Canadian figure skating with an iron fist. In 1948, the club produced its first World (and only Olympic) Champion, Barbara Ann Scott. A year later, the flames that had haunted the club since the 1907 fire returned in the form of an inferno of epic magnitude.
On November 1, 1949, the Minto Skating Club was simply put... destroyed. In the early morning hours, early morning motorists saw the reflection of the fire and believed the entire downtown was ablaze. Shortly before 5 AM, an alarm was sounded to which five fire stations responded. A November 2, 1949 article from the Ottawa Citizen explained that "firemen were severely handicapped by the heavy draft created in the vaulted interior of the rink proper which sucked the flames along at lightning speed. They were able to do little more than surround the building and concentrate their efforts on preventing the blaze from spreading to adjacent houses on Waller Street, Laurier and Hasty Avenues."
As Colonel E.J. Underwood, the club's President and C.H. Cummings, the club's Secretary-Treasurer arrived on the scene, the rink's attendant and his family were outside recovering from their daring escape from the inferno. After finishing making ice only two hours earlier, at 4:30, William Ayre and his wife along with their four children (sixteen year old Jacqueline, eleven year old Wayne, eight year old Gail and three year old Garry) had been sound asleep when Mrs. Ayre woke her husband at the smell of smoke. All six escaped from the burning building with their lives in just the knick of time, Mr. Ayre telling the press "If we hadn't awakened right then we would never have gotten out alive. We were very lucky because another minute or so would probably have meant [the end] for the six of us." A forty nine year old woman named Blanche Laviolette, a resident at a rooming house next to the rink, was recovering from a serious operation at the time of the disaster and collapsed on the pavement and suffered a heart attack as the result of the excitement of the catastrophe. Treated at one of the fire stations responding to the disaster, she was reported to be "resting comfortably" later that morning.
A local detective named Raoul Desjardins told The Ottawa Citizen that "the fire seemed to center around the corner where they say the furnace room was. When I first got there, there was only dense clouds of smoke filtering out of the building. Then as the firemen broke in with their hose lines the flames mushroomed out and went up the walls to the roof. The whole thing was ablaze from end to end within a matter of minutes. It was impossible to get near the building because of the heat much less attempt to salvage anything inside. It was only good fortune that the caretaker and his family got out for the whole place was a raging inferno within ten minutes."
The fire raged until mid-morning, the heat so severe that an aluminum fire ladder melted "until it ran like butter". When the ashes settled, only the front and rear walls of the rink remained standing and not only was the home of the Minto Skating Club gone but with it precious memories, equipment and memorabilia. According to the Ottawa Citizen article, "Club President Colonel Underwood stated that new ice-making equipment had recently been installed at a cost of $35,000, and that a new tea room for junior skaters and a sitting-out room had been added to the club's quarters in the past several years. There were about 30 trophies in the building, symbolic of achievement by Ottawa skaters over the years since the club was founded in 1903 by the Earl and Countess of Minto. There were also many valuable pictures and a framed letter from Lady Minto. All fell prey to the flames... Members of the club suffered serious loss due to the destruction of skating costumes, boots, skates and other equipment stored in lockers of the building. Several new blocks of steel lockers were recently installed in the club and these blackened and seared by the flames still stood in one end of the building amid a clutter of debris this morning. Firemen, however, were of the opinion that the intense heat had probably ruined their contents."
Skaters weren't the only once displaced by the fire. Just days before, Olympic Silver Medallist and World Champion Andrea Kékesy had come from Hungary to Ottawa only to find herself with nowhere to coach. Nino Minelli, a Swiss skating instructor who had only that year emigrated to Canada to teach at the club lost all of his skating equipment and clothing in the fire. Another serious loss were the official records of the Canadian Figure Skating Association, which at the time were stored in the building. It didn't help the club had just collected its annual membership fees within the previous week. That cash was gone too. The membership of five hundred skaters were all estimated to have lost approximately one hundred dollars each in skates, equipment and clothing in the flames, raising the total loss in the fire to approximately three hundred thousand dollars, no paltry sum even then. If you take inflation into account you're talking over three million today. How do you rebuild from something like that?
Incredibly, the Minto Skating Club bounced back. Returning to the club's roots, members took buses to the Buckingham and at the invitation of the Governor-General, skated on the open air rink at Government House. New music was recorded by Harris Johnson to replace the club's music library that had been destroyed. In no time, a new rink was built on Henderson Avenue, which played host to the Minto Skating Club until 1986-1987 when the club transitioned to its current home. It has played host to a membership that reads like a who's who of Canadian figure skating including World Champion Donald Jackson, Canadian Champion Lynn Nightingale and Olympic Silver Medallists Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay over the years.
Rose Kennedy once said, "Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?" One has to look back at the indomitable spirit of the skaters of the Minto Skating Club, who somehow found skates, costumes, coaches and ice and pressed on after losing everything, and remember that life goes on, that giving up is never an option. We're here on this earth to sing after every storm.
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.
"I don't skate for points. I skate for the love of skating." - Janet Lynn, The Milwaukee Journal, February 8, 1972
"Love skating for its own sake." - Janet Lynn, The Reading Eagle, January 27, 1973
"I guess there's some kind of love in me that I didn't manufacture myself. This is a talent God gave me, one which He helped me to develop." - Janet Lynn, Lawrence-World Journal, September 26, 1976
I am going to let all of you in on a little secret: I am a huge Janet Lynn fan! I guess the real question is "who in their right mind isn't?" For quite some time now, I have wanted to devote a blog to looking at Janet's larger impact in the figure skating world. A little lightbulb went off when I was trying to come up with ideas for a top ten countdown to ring in 2016 and I said to myself, "sweetie, why don't you take on the impossible task of doing a top ten countdown of Janet Lynn's all time best performances?" With a career as impressive as hers - an Olympic bronze medal, two medals at the World Championships, two medals at the North American Championships, five U.S. titles, wins at the World Professional Championships - it was obvious this wasn't going to be an easy task, so I figured I'd get by with a little help from my friends. Join us in cracking open a bottle of champagne and ringing in the New Year by revisiting some of the best performances from one of the most beloved skaters of all time! 10. 1971 U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS (FS)
At the 1971 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Buffalo, New York, Janet trailed Julie Lynn Holmes by a razor thin margin after the school figures. As an audience of over five thousand at the Memorial Auditorium hung on her every edge, she made the error of falling early on in her free skate on a triple toe-loop. In the Daily News on January 26, 1972 she said, "I didn't land right. I really didn't have enough guts going into it, if you know what I mean." Instead of give up, she fought back and that's what Allison Manley told me she loved the most about Janet when we talked about a similar mishap in the short program at the 1973 World Championships: "she got back up!" In fact, at those 1971 U.S. Championships, Janet skated so brilliantly throughout the rest of her program that she was able to win her third consecutive title ahead of nineteen year old Holmes and fourteen year old Suna Murray, receiving first place ordinals from six of the seven judges. So excited was she by her win that she danced until 12:30 in the morning that night and then, according to the Lewiston Evening-Journal on February 1, 1971, the next day "bounced joyously in a corridor to the music of the Gold Dance skaters while she awaited her cue to take to the ice for an exhibition of her championship talent." 9. 1970 U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS (FS)
In Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1970, Janet Lynn defended her U.S. title at the age of sixteen with what was beyond any doubt one of her finest performances at the U.S. Championships, skating to Debussy's
"Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune", Liszt's "Les Preludes", Adam's "Le Corsaire" and Beethoven's "Leonore Overture No. 3". Frazer Ormondroyd, who possesses one of the most enviable collections of historical skating video of all time and is quite the skating historian in his own right, expounded his choice of this performance as one of his favourites: "I think she skates her long program even better in 1970 than she did in Lyon in 1971, which was already brilliant. Her jumps are springy and airy and her speed and flow just jumps through the screen. Plus there is a youthful effervescence, a sort of carefree abandon, to the way she skates. By 1971, it is different. She's still brilliant but I can sense the expectation on her to be wonderful."
8. 1972 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES (FS)
After the school figures contested in the Mihako Skating Rink at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, Trixi Schuba had 9.0 ordinals. She decisively edged out American Julie Lynn Holmes for that lead with Karen Magnussen's 23.0 and Janet Lynn's 27.0 keeping them well back in third and fourth. With the scoring system as it was at the time, Schuba had the Olympic gold medal in the bag before she even took to the ice to perform her free skate. Rather than give up, Janet Lynn shone brilliantly at the Makomanai Arena in a pink dress, skating to Beethoven's "Leonore Overture" from "Fidelio". She made only one error. In the February 8, 1972 issue of the Sarasota-Journal, she explained, "I jumped up to go into a sit spin and I just sort of sat instead. It happens all the time. This is a slippery sport." The judges rewarded an otherwise stunning performance with the top marks in the free skate. In both technical merit and artistic impression, she received nothing lower than a 5.8. One judge even honoured her with a perfect 6.0 for artistic impression. However, her fourth place finish in the free skate coupled with Karen Magnussen's equally strong performance kept her in third place, earning her the Olympic bronze medal. In Kelli Lawrence's wonderful book "Skating On Air", Lynn debunked the myth that an error in the free skate had much to do with her final standing, instead blaming that pesky paragraph loop: "If you weren't balanced properly and ran out of momentum at the top of the loop, you got what looked like a little fish... and that's what happened to me. Everyone thinks it was the fall on the flying sit... but I knew it was at least partially the fish!" 7. 1973 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (FS)
In perhaps one of her most beloved performances at the World Championships, Janet rebounded from a disastrous twelfth place short program to deliver an ethereal and inspiring free skate at the 1973 World Championships. Her effort won her the free skate and two perfect 6.0's from the Austrian and East German judges. The scene was described in the March 1, 1973 issue of The Gettysburg Times thusly: "The capacity crowd of 11,000 in Bratislava's Winter Stadium reacted with rapture at the ballet-like free skating of the Rockford co-ed. They chanted 'Janet, Janet' and threw carnations pinched from the arena's decorations when Miss Lynn was presented her silver medal... Miss Magnussen wept at the awards ceremony when her nation's flag was raised and the anthem 'O, Canada' was played. She pulled Miss Lynn and bronze medallist Christine Errath of East Germany up to her level of the victory platform." On the courage to go out and skate her heart out after her heartbreaking short program, Janet beautifully said in The Argus Press on March 2, 1973, "I love skating. I loved skating even Wednesday night. I hurt inside from the way I skated, but I realized I still have a life to lead." 6. 1971 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (FS)
In Lyon, France in February 1971, Janet finished fifth in the compulsory figures but won the free skate with an absolutely jaw dropping, flawless performance. When Trixi Schuba, Julie Lynn Holmes and Karen Magnussen were announced as the medallists, the audience erupted into a chorus of boo's. Kelli Lawrence and Janet Lynn recalled the scene: "When the booing failed to subside, renowned skating coach Pierre Brunet approached Lynn on the sidelines and coerced her up to the edge of the ice so she could appease the crowd, a coercion that was captured by the TV cameras... As it turns out, the move remains something she regrets doing. 'Basically I was told to go and take a bow,' Lynn explains. 'I have not been in touch with Karen or Trixi, but I've apologized to Julie [Holmes] for that because it was wrong for me to do that. I was a young girl; I should have had better judgment and said no, but my superiors told me that's what I needed to do. It was wrong to take away from their time, and what they had absolutely earned,' she laments." This particular incident was absolutely a catalyst in the introduction of the short program and the international figures .vs. free skating debate. However, the ever humble Janet had nothing but praise for her competitor and friend Schuba: "Trixi deserved every gold medal she got, under the rules we had at the time. Her figures were unbelievable. I'd stand there looking at them saying: You've got to be kidding me! Something can actually DO that?! Trixi should absolutely be praised for what she's accomplished." 5. 1981 WORLD PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (TP)
After skating with Ice Follies for two years, retiring, getting married and becoming a mother, Janet Lynn's triumphant return to competition at the 1981 World Professional Figure Skating Championships in Landover, Maryland was the stuff dreams are made of. I spoke with two time World Bronze Medallist and North American Champion JoJo Starbuck, who was actually an All Stars teammate of Janet Lynn at the competition about her favourite Janet Lynn programs and she said, "I have three! "The Blue Danube" (by John Curry) and "The Sound Of Music" - both done in the World Pro competitions, and of course Afternoon of a Faun from the early 70’s in competition." Ironically, all of JoJo's picks made the list and I personally feel this particular piece was one of Janet's strongest as a professional. I think I've watched it about ten times.
4. 1973 U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS (FS)
At the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Denver, Colorado's Diane Goldstein won the school figures. However, a sixth place short program dropped her down to third heading into the free skate. Trailing after figures, Janet actually lost the short program to Dorothy Hamill. In the January 27, 1973 issue of The Reading Eagle, her coach Slavka Kohout explained, "Janet probably didn't skate as well as she could have. It's good ice, but a springy one. She went up higher than she wanted, and came down later than she wanted on her double axel jump." Janet said, "I was glad I didn't win the short program because I didn't think I deserved it." Dorothy Hamill reflected on the win with gratitude in her book "A Skating Life: My Story", stating: "It was a milestone for me. Janet Lynn had been my favourite skater and my inspiration since I had seen her skate in Lake Placid when I was ten years old. Now, just five years later, I had won the short program and had beaten her. It was the first year of the short program, and it was to my advantage because now my weakness, figures, counted for only 40 percent of the total score whereas before it had been 60 percent. I have Janet to thank for that monumental change in skating." However, Dorothy's luck was short lived. Resplendent in yellow, Janet rebounded with a flawless free skate to Ravel's "La Valse" and Debussy's "La Mer", earning three 6.0's for artistic impression. Her fifth U.S. title win equalled Peggy Fleming's recent record of five U.S. titles. Frazer Ormondroyd counted this performance as one of his favourites, expressing that "1973 Nationals is just a triumph of choreography, execution and musicality. She biffed her second double axel in Bratislava at Worlds even though she had better lines there. Janet lost a LOT of weight between Nationals and Worlds; the difference in her physique is startling. Plus the yellow dress at Nationals is... not good but the choreography and intent of the program are quite simply light years ahead of their time - maybe they stand alone. I honestly cannot think of another ladies program so artistically complete." 3. 1982 WORLD PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (AP)
Going back to JoJo Starbuck's favourite performances, Janet's elegant performance to Johann Strauss' "The Blue Danube", choreographed by John Curry and skated at the 1982 World Professional Figure Skating Championships in Landover, Maryland is really the embodiment of everything that made her skating so unique and special. American Open Champion Doug Mattis loved it and shared that he "skated on sessions with her in Denver summer/fall of 83 and she skated that program with no warm up perfectly every day. (She warmed up off the ice.)" World Champion Randy Gardner (a Pro Stars teammate of Janet at this event) called "The Blue Danube" in "magnificent", saying that "all skaters should watch this! Her flow across the ice is unequalled with her speed, control and quality and skill, all in one. So refreshing to see. [It] gives us hope that pure figure skating can and will be done in the future." 2. 1973 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (EX)
When I asked Frazer Ormondroyd what his favourite Janet Lynn performances was, he shared with me a gem of a program I'd never seen before. If this video was an old Beta or VHS tape in my hands, it would have easily been worn out by now. I assure you of that! Her exhibition to "Vilja Song" from Franz Lehár's "The Merry Widow" (skated at the 1973 World Figure Skating Championships in Bratislava) was actually quite unique and different from many of her other pieces in its construction and keeps me coming back and looking at it differently. Her encore to "Shaft" is an absolute must see as well.
1. 1983 INTERNATIONAL PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (AP)
Again going back to JoJo Starbuck's favourites, Allison Scott echoed her choice of "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" as one of Janet Lynn's most amazing performances: "'Afternoon of a Faun' is the one I associate with Janet. So many great programs but it is always the first that comes to mind." I loved seeing the piece skated as an exhibition during her amateur days, as did Frazer Ormondroyd: "There's just a purity to it that is extraordinary. She seems to have so much time for everything. It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime heart-stopping performances where your life seems to stop momentarily as you watch. Literally nothing else matters... it still transfixes me every time I watch it." I personally believe that when she revived as a professional piece near the end of her performing career, the growth, maturity and nuance in the program had developed extensively. Olympic Gold Medallist Robin Cousins agreed: "We're well after her competition days were done but she returned to the pro events with one of her amateur show programmes. Better in ’83 than it had been in her heyday! It's quintessential Janet, the joy, the effortless control of every move and a pure performance in every sense." Whether you prefer the earlier version or its rebirth as a professional piece, it's impossible not to adore this program.
I've interviewed hundreds of skaters and one of the questions that I always asked was who THEIR favourite skaters were. Again and again, like clockwork... Janet Lynn, Janet Lynn, Janet Lynn:
"Janet Lynn was my idol. When I was twelve, Janet competed in the 1968 Olympics. I loved the way she moved across the ice." - Suna Murray
"She was ethereal on the ice. Her calm, her beautiful lines and beautiful jumps were the epitome of ice skating to me." - Linda Villella
"Janet was a combination of Dorothy, Peggy and maybe Katarina Witt. She had all of the interpretive qualities and the power and energy, yet she had this delicacy about her. I remember specifically becoming aware of the ballet side of her skating. Janet had that. Her feet were magnificent and nobody has come anywhere close to that. I remember a footwork sequence she did where she got a standing ovation almost in a wave while she was going down the rink doing to a step sequence. It was one of the most incredible things I've seen." - Tim Wood
"Janet Lynn... the edges with effortlessness, the transparency of her expression that came from a heart of faith and moved all who watched her to the core." - Paul Wylie
"Oh, that half the skaters in the world could perform with such pure joy and natural emotion." - Robin Cousins
That's just the tip of the iceberg, I assure you. However, I think the one person who summed it up best was a skater that I always dreamed of interviewing one day but sadly never got a chance to. In his 1975 book "Toller", Toller Cranston said it perfectly: "She has a quality about her that almost defies description. There is something almost mystical in the way she moves, the flow of her hair, the delicate motion of her arms, the dream-like fluidity. She is a beautiful wraith... I sincerely believe that Janet Lynn is the greatest female skater the world has ever seen." I sincerely believe that Toller was right. Hope you all enjoyed this collection, Happy New Year to you all and let's carry this love and passion for figure skating's wonderful history into 2016!
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.
There has long been this assumption that just because Ireland is 'a new player on the skating block' in terms of competitive skating, there isn't much of a history there. That simply isn't true. Although the country's first permanent indoor ice rink wasn't built until 1980 (when the Dublin Ice Rink was opened in a converted cinema in Dolphin's Barn Rialto) the country's skating history goes back quite a fair deal further.
Desmond Keenan's book "Ireland 1603-1702, Society And History" hints that weather largely explained why ice skating didn't take off in Ireland as it did in Great Britain, even if it was introduced around the same time to the country: "Yachting and skating were introduced from Holland at the same time. Yachting was to become very popular among the rich gentlemen but the mild winter climate probably inhibited the spread of ice skating."
However, more hospitable winters weren't always the case. In 1876, the Earl of Kilmorey spent over thirty thousand pounds (a princely sum back in that day) to erect (Peter Griffin laugh... erect) the Mourne Hotel in Rostrevor. The hotel was really almost like a Victorian resort in Ireland, for the grounds had a large concert hall, public gardens with coloured lamps and open air musical concerts and... you guessed it, a skating rink! The Mourne Hotel was a getaway that offered those staying a spell to convalesce in style and rid themselves of their ills through bedrest, fresh air, amusement and physical activity. Exercise through skating was an important part of their albeit primitive therapy while visiting. Some of the complaints of those staying - according to The Irish Monthly - included consumption in its early stages, bronchitis and bronchitic asthma, acute diseases, recovery from surgery and mental and physical overwork.
"The Cork Examiner" asserted that the Cork Skating Rink was operational in 1878, with skaters accompanied by music from a live band. The February 21, 1878 edition tells us that "the Austro-Hungarian band will play a selection of dance music at the Rink this evening from 8 to 10 o'clock, for the members of the club and their friends." What does that tell us? Ireland had a nineteenth century skating CLUB. That same year, four young women - Catherine and Maria Gallagher, Kate Frith and Margaret Johnstone - sadly drowned when the ice gave away on Lough Erne near Ennis.
In the winter 1881 or 1882, Famous Irish poet W.B. Yeats learned how to skate on the frozen Lough Gill in County Sligo, a locale that popped up frequently in his poetry. His sister Elizabeth (Lily) wrote of their skating adventures during 'the Great Frost': "For the first few days we four just stayed on the river near the shore and floundered about and fell. Every now and then someone with a kind heart and strong arm would help us for a while and then vanish. I remember Willy's long legs whirling in the air and seeing that he wore red socks. But in a few days we could all skate and away we went, up the river, through the narrows, and out into the lovely lake with its wooded islands."
Clanricarde as caricatured by Spy (May 1900)
Ireland's first skater of note was the Marquis of Clanricarde, a much despised noble. A June 22, 1906 newspaper article recalled the Marquis' skating exploits: "His appearance is as little calculated as to arouse good will as his manner and reputation, and his thin lips, scanty gray whiskers, thin, aquiline nose, parchment-like cheeks and peculiarly-arranged hair, are quite in keeping with his hard, harsh voice and his appalling egotistical utterances. He had but one fad, namely, skating, a pastime in which he still excels, in spite of his seventy-three years. He presents an extraordinary appearance on the ice... His costume on these occasions consists invariably of dark-blue cloth trousers, with a broad stripe of black braid up the side, three or four Cardigan knitted jackets of undetermined hue and great age, over which is worn a remarkably short tweed jacket, made of an extraordinarily loose cut, to give room to the layers of knitted waistcoats underneath. His hat is a genuine old-fashioned 'stovepipe' of ancient vintage, perfectly flat in the brim, and perfectly straight up and down for the crown. He speaks to no one on the ice, being wholly absorbed by the work of cutting figures and letters with his skates."I have to say... this is the best description of a skater ever!
There you have it, folks! A look back to nineteenth century skating in Ireland. Who`would have thought, right? I guess Irish eyes were smiling on me as I did this research. It really did turn out to be a pot of gold.
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.
It's that time of year again when we gather with loved ones, break out the booze and bird and have a ball! I kicked off my Christmas celebrations today here in beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia by burning off some steam skating on the Emera Oval.
It has been a very crazy few weeks. Between working like a dog, shopping up a storm and spending time with those near and dear, I have been plugging away like mad at research for the Belita book. It has been a blast! I am happy to take a break from all that fun to share with you the Christmas edition of the blog!
As we all know, figure skating history is rich with wonderful holiday themed performances, shows and television specials (many of which I have touched on already during last couple of years) but there is just so, so much more when it comes to skating at Christmastime that I am thrilled to share. So ignore that grinch named Cinquanta for a moment and get ready to celebrate the best and the rest in this special holiday history roundup!:
AN OLDE ENGLISH CHRISTMAS Colour me surprised (not really) that 1976 Olympic Gold Medallist John Curry stole the show in Perry Como's 1977 television special "An Olde English Christmas". Produced by Yvonne Littlefield, the variety production also featured appearances by actress Gemma Clark and musicians Petula Clark and Leo Thayer. The fact of the matter is that it had to be a much happier moment for Curry than the Christmas season before. In Bill Jones' wonderful book "Alone: The Triumph And Tragedy Of John Curry", Jones recounted the sting of homophobia Curry felt when at the 1976 Sports Journalists' Association Christmas bash at a London hotel when a comedian introducing Curry cruelly quipped on the microphone: "It's good to feel the Christmas spirit among us all. And here comes the fairy for for the tree." Jones recalled that "Curry received his award in near silence, heartbreak written on his face. It was, he later said, 'one of the most hurtful incidents in my life.'" One can only hope that the fact that his Christmas performance a year later during Como's special was praised incredibly highly must have served as some small consolation and put him a little more in the holiday spirit.
A JOYFUL CHRISTMAS WITH JANET
Remember when we took a look at skaters who were also musicians last November? Yeah, neither do I, honey. No, but seriously... one musical skater who I failed to mention in that particular blog was 1972 Olympic Bronze Medallist Janet Lynn! In 1973, Janet released a record in Japan called "A Joyful Christmas With Janet". It's got all of the classics: "Silent Night", "O Holy Night", "Jingle Bells", "The Christmas Song" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" and it could be yours on vinyl for the not so low, low price of $59.99 USD. The holiday season in 1973 was in fact incredibly good to the U.S. Champion. Just days before Christmas, Janet won the first of Dick Button's World Professional Championships, which were held in Japan and billed as the $100,000 International Professional Figure Skating Festival. THAT kind of money buys a whole lot of egg nog and mistletoe. If you are feeling the Janet Lynn love, do not forget that we will be ringing in 2016 on the blog with a top ten countdown of her best performances! You do not want to miss it!
CHRISTMAS SKATING WITH DOROTHY HAMILL
From one legend of U.S. ladies skating to another, 1976 Olympic Gold Medallist Dorothy Hamill appeared with a cast of skating loving youngsters in the 1982 Andy Griffith special "An Early New England Christmas", which actually won a Primetime Emmy Award. Although we don't see much actual skating from Dorothy in this clip, the song and skating we do see is absolutely charming and kind of gives you that warm feeling you get after one too many glasses of homemade holiday rum punch.
IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL OSMOND TIME OF THE YEAR
Just when you think things just can't get anymore saccharine sweet, here's the Osmond brothers skating a holiday themed performance in one of their many television specials. I can't say I'm personally a huge fan of the Osmond's (just not really my thing) but you have to admire the fact that these brothers all look so smooth on their blades. Although Donny and Marie did indeed perform together on the ice in other shows they did, this clip doesn't feature Marie. In case you're wondering, the youngest and smallest is indeed the man with the perfect teeth - Donny himself.
C IS FOR (CHRISTMAS) COOKIE
I can honestly say I hadn't ever seen this scene from the 1978 television special "Christmas Eve On Sesame Street" (that I remember at least) and I thought it was absolutely adorable! I'm sorry, but there's something about The Count counting while Ernie, Bert and The Cookie Monster played 'crack the whip' that just cracked ME the hell up.
A VERY TONYA CHRISTMAS Did you know that 1991 World Silver Medallist Tonya Harding's first public performance since "the whack heard around the world" fallout was on December 23, 1994? You better believe it. During a public skating session at the Dorothy Hamill rink at Clackamas Town Rink in Portland, Oregon, Tonya came out in a red felt Mrs. Claus costume with faux fur trim to skate a solo performance to "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas". She had to dodge about a dozen skaters during her performances but managed to stay on her feet. She did, however, scrap a planned second (pairs) performance with Patrick Page to "Please Come Home For Christmas". As expected, the rink was packed with fans, detractors and curious onlookers alike as well as a throng of reporters and photographers. After her 'show', she handed out candy canes to the media and wished them "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays". Not everyone was thrilled about the free show by the disgraced Olympian. In the morning Spokesman-Review the day of the show, Rod Turley, who was shopping with his two young children, remarked "It's despicable. She'll probably wear some really skimpy outfit. What kind of message is that sending to the kids, Tonya Harding as Mrs. Claus?" The only message that imagining this particular performance sent me was that it was time to break out the wine and have MYSELF a merry little Christmas... nooooow.
From my family to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Festivus For The Rest Of Us... Whatever and however you celebrate, I celebrate the fact that you all have enjoyed exploring figure skating's rich and fascinating history with me throughout the year. It's been a blast and I can't wait to continue on the journey! There won't be a new blog until after Christmas Day or Boxing Day but I'll be back with something you're going to love reading over your turkey, cranberry and stuffing sandwiches on December 27 to start the countdown to a new year of great skating. Peace and love to you all!
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.
.jpg "Gold collected to make a medal for World Figure Skating Champion Kurt Browning")
.jpg "World Figure Skating Champion Kurt Browning")
.jpg "Kurt Browning")
