A Very Merry Skate Guard Christmas

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.

From Sendai To Sapporo: A Whole New Meaning To Illegal Lifts

When Toshikazu Katayama joined forces with eleven other Japanese skating coaches (many of them former champion skaters) to organize and form the Japan Figure Skating Instructor Association in 1964, he must have looked back on his own skating career and thought about how much the sport had changed.

After winning the junior men's crown at the second Japanese Championships in Sendai (the largest city in the Tōhoku region) in 1930 at seventeen years of age, Katayama had gone on to graduate from Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya, won five Japanese senior men's titles and was a member of Japan's second team of skaters ever to compete at the Winter Olympic Games in 1936 in pre-World War II Germany, where he finished fifteenth of twenty five men's competitors. However, one can't help but think how the process of fostering growth and developing a skating instructional program for all four disciplines in Japan would have been had it not been for an important legal ruling the same year Katayama won his fourth senior national title.

The Japanese men's team at the 1936 Olympic Games - Katayama is second from left

In the thirties, in addition to the annual Japanese Championships which were organized by Japan's National Skating Association in a different city each year, universities and colleges in the main cities were, according to The Age on April 26, 1935 holding "skating contests early in the year, lasting from four to six days" but they only consisted of speed skating, ice hockey and SINGLES skating. Pairs skating wasn't just excluded. It was illegal.

On February 25, 1937, Japanese police enforced an actual law change allowing male and females to skate together provided they were trained athletes, making pairs skating a possibility in the country. A February 25, 1937 article from The Miami News explains that "The practice, strictly forbidden as immoral, was legalized by police in view of the Olympic Games to be held in Japan in 1940. Only professional skaters who can obtain a certificate of good character from Japan's National Skating Association will be allowed to skim the ice together. And even then they may have some explaining to do until everyone understands the situation. Official badges will be issued by the police to protect the skaters who are granted certificates." Two of the skaters who were granted certificates? Katayama and his 1936 Olympic teammate Etsuko Inada. On April 4, 1937, only two months after the law change, they gave a pairs skating exhibition together together at the Asahi Building Skate Center in Osaka. The 1940 Olympics in Japan could have been their shining moment. They could have been their country's first Olympic pairs team.

The cancellation of the 1940 Olympics due to the war and subsequent occupation of Japan afterwards obviously greatly slowed the development of pairs skating in Japan and ended the pair's hopes of ever competing together.

It wasn't until 1956 in Kyoto when one brave pair, Fumiko Nishimura and Kinehiko Takizawa, competed in the country's first national competition. At the time, Tokyo only had two rinks, which was hardly adequate for a city of eight million people. Lynn Copley-Graves authoritative book "The Evolution Of Dance On Ice" explains that in 1956 "skating was so popular that tickets were issued for just one hour; hundreds would stand in the cold to buy tickets and skate to American music. The Korakuen club had only seventy members because membership cost so much. Most Japanese still skated on frozen lakes." Although the sport was immensely popular, in terms of competitive skating the country in 1956 was simply put... behind.

Incredible it must have been in 1964 for Katayama to sit across the table from Inada, his former pairs partner, and piece together the guidelines for a discipline that the two former skaters wouldn't have had been allowed to even attempt legally had it not been for that 1937 law change. Perhaps they had no inkling that only eight years later, their pioneering work in developing this system would allow Kotoe Nasagawa and Hiroshi Nagakubo to make skating history as Japan's first Olympic pairs team... while they looked on in 1972 in Sapporo. It seems a fitting tribute that Nagakubo would in turn go on to coach many famous Japanese skaters himself including Shizuka Arakawa, Takeshi Honda and Akiko Suzuki. It's funny how things go full circle, isn't it?

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

Hungary For Gold: A History Of The Városligeti Műjégpálya

With the medal drought for Hungarian skaters in recent years in the marquee events, it may come to some surprise to many readers to put things in perspective and realize that skaters from Hungary have actually won twenty one World or European titles and six Olympic medals and this often overlooked skating nation has one of the deepest and most interesting histories out there.

József Veto's 1965 book "Sports In Hungary" tells us that "Hungarians were made familiar with skating in the middle of the nineteenth century." In present day, Budapest is actually home of the second oldest AND the largest outdoor artificial ice surface in all of Europe, the Városligeti Műjégpálya (City Park Ice Rink)... and the history of that rink takes us back to the period that Veto referred to. The story of the Városligeti Műjégpálya actually began on November 12, 1869, when the Budapesti Korcsolyázó Egylet (Pest Skating Club) was officially formed under the direction of Géza Kresz in the gaming room of the Steingasser (Petôfi) Coffee House on the Danube.

Engraving of skaters at the Városligeti Műjégpálya in 1874

Kresz and the club's core members campaigned fiercely to the city council for permission to establish a skating rink in a small part of the park's lake every winter and quickly got the go ahead. At the time, skating was free of charge to anyone who wanted to get out there and skate. The base of the rink was the country's first 'skating house' which was actually a two-room wooden cottage built specifically for skaters to properly dress for skating and put on their skates. On January 29, 1870, the rink had a grand opening in the presence of Rudolf, Crown Prince Of Austria-Hungary and on February 2 of that year the first skating competition ever in Budapest was held. According to a November 25, 2014 article by Balázs Dezs, the 'skating house' "mysteriously burned down in 1874". Shortly thereafter, the city agreed to the Pest Skating Club's request for a new and more grand 'skating house' to be designed by famed architect Ödön Lechner. The lavish building Lechner designed and erected still survives today includes a grand hall with a panoramic view of the ice surface and a music room. The popularity of skating at the Városligeti Műjégpálya simply boomed so much a second building had to be built, so in 1895 a neo-baroque style building was added to the area.

Let's talk about some of the incredible milestones in figure skating history that happened at the

Városligeti Műjégpálya. On January 6, 1871 in what was the rink's second year of existence, Jackson Haines gave an exhibition to members of the Pest Skating Club and Austro-Hungarian aristocracy there. He was so popular with audiences that the next winter he returned and gave two more exhibitions on January 6 and 7, 1872. The impact he made on skating in Budapest was undoubtedly marked as interest in figure skating grew relatively quickly in the country thereafter. Tibor von Földváry represented Hungary at the second European Championships held in Vienna in 1892 and three year's later the rink played host to the 1895 European Championships, which von Földváry handily won in front of an appreciative home crowd. He would go on to play an integral role developing the early rules of the International Skating Union.

Five years later, on January 20 and 21, 1900, the country's first National Championships in figure skating were held at the rink and eight years later, the Hungarian Figure Skating Association was formed. The country's very first World Champion, Lili Kronberger (who was also only the second female World Champion in history) actually won her second of four consecutive World titles at the Városligeti Műjégpálya in her home city the next year in 1909. I use the term 'won' loosely because she was actually the only skater in the ladies event that year... but a gold medal is a gold medal. When Kronberger retired in 1911, the next three World titles pre-World War I were won by ANOTHER member of the Pest Skating Club, Budapest's own Zsófia Méray-Horváth. 

The rich skating community in Budapest suffered a huge blow during World War I when initial plans to develop the skating club were put on hold for financial reasons. A 1920 article from the Hungarian Association explained that due to finances and the War "the former champions are no longer able to compete and if you can not compete, you do not know how to relate to advanced non-residents that the situation in the finances of the ice rink's plan will not be achieved for years from now. It will be good if the natural ice rink can be maintained but all of this ultimately inhibits the development of sports, not to say it is impossible." It took a few years for things to come around but in 1926, an outdoor artificial surface was built to replace the lake rink and in 1968 that surface was extended in size. The new surface brought in many travelling ice shows and in 1929, the Városligeti Műjégpálya played host to the ladies and pairs World Championships, where hometown favourites and future two time European Champions Olga Orgonista and Sándor Szalay won their first international medal. Those World Championships were also the site of Sonja Henie's third of ten World titles. The rink would go on to play host to the 1935 and 1939 World Championships for the men and pairs before another World War set the Városligeti Műjégpálya back in an incredible way.

Bombed and severely damaged during World War II, the Városligeti Műjégpálya incredibly reopened for business in 1945 and has since played host to World Championships in both speed skating and bandy as well as the 1955 and 1963 European Championships in figure skating. At the 1955 event, another Hungarian pairs team, the brother/sister duo of Marianna and László Nagy walked away with the gold medal. Sadly though (depending on which country you're cheering on I suppose), the last time the Hungarian anthem was played during a medal ceremony at the World Championships was in 1980, when ice dancers Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay took home the gold at Worlds in Dortmund, West Germany.

Hungary for some great skating? The Városligeti Műjégpálya, which is now a national heritage site, still thrives during winter months in the city. The cost of a full day pass to skate is approximately $5.50 in Canadian dollars, a pittance considering the skating history you'll be surrounded by. If you decide to make the trek, have a hot bowl of Halászlé and think of Jackson Haines!

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 1951 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

Held from January 31 to February 3, 1951 in conjunction with Seattle, Washington's centennial celebration, the 1951 U.S. Figure Skating Championships marked only the second time in history that America's national competition was held on the west coast, the first being the 1947 competition in Berkeley, California. A successful five thousand dollar bid from a new civic events group called Greater Seattle, Inc. allowed the crowds to show up in droves at the Seattle Ice Arena. The media had a field day as the best skaters in the U.S. showed up to compete. A unique feature of the 1951 U.S. Championships was live commentary. Announcer John Heater from the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club educated spectators by microphone during the competition as to the in's and out's of what they were watching. It was almost like television commentary ahead of its time... minus the television. 

Speaking of commentary... in the senior men's event, a twenty-one year old Harvard junior we all know and love named Dick Button took home his sixth consecutive U.S. title. The February 3, 1951 issue of The Toledo Blade noted that "Button went into the night's free skating competition with only a slim [3-2] lead over 19-year-old Jimmy Grogan of Colorado Springs. Grogan, who had to watch from the sidelines in 1950 with two cracked ankles, dipped, twirled and spun in the air like a ballet dancer. A few minutes later Button came out. He swooped from one end of the shiny surface to the other with a dazzling display of triple-turn leaps, splits, glides and tip-toe spins." In third was eighteen year old Hayes Alan Jenkins from Cleveland, Ohio, ahead of future famed coach Don Laws. In his book "Dick Button On Skates", Uncle Dick explained that in Seattle, "For the first time I was unable to train properly for a championship. I had been heavily pressed for time to skate at Harvard and only in the nick of time was able to present a new jump, a 'double axel-double loop' [combination]... Perhaps with some thanks to this double axel-double loop I defeated Grogan's most determined threat to win by seven places to eight. That meant that three judges gave me first place and two put Grogan on top. It couldn't have been closer."

With the retirement of two time and reigning senior women's champion Yvonne Sherman, it was sixteen year old Sonya Klopfer of Brooklyn, New York who rose to the occasion to take the title ahead of Tenley Albright of the Skating Club Of Boston and Virginia Baxter of the Skating Club Of Detroit. After the school figures, reported the February 1, 1951 Ellensburg Daily Record, "Sonya Klopfer took a lead over Tenley Albright of Boston with 946.4 points to 932.7. Four judges placed Miss Kopfer and another placed her second in school figures. Miss Albright drew three seconds, a first and a third. Only the placings of the top three judges are counted." She held her lead through the free skate to clinch the crown.

Perhaps the biggest story of the 1951 U.S. Championships however was the courageous performance of three time and defending U.S. senior pairs champions 'The Kennedy Kids' Karol and Peter Kennedy, hometown favourites that moved on to represent the Broadmoor Skating Club. The February 5, 1951 edition of the Lewiston Daily Sun noted that "Peter, 23, bedfast with a high-fever virus infection of three days, mustered enough strength to complete the routine with his sister, then collapsed briefly in his dressing room."

In "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice", Lynn Copley-Graves explained that in the ice dance competitions, "the new qualifying restrictions reduced the number of couples in Silver Dance, but the number of couples in Gold Dance increased. The handsome couple, Carmel and Ed Bodel, had waited it out long enough to gain the title in Gold Dance. Both had been encouraged by friends to skate, he in 1938 and she in 1942. They had joined up as partners in 1945. Their goals included developing their free skating and improving their compulsory dance interpretation. The two-year partnership of blonde Caryl Johns and tall, dark Jack Jost swept Silver Dance over seven other couples. They also won Junior Pairs. Such success in two events required six or seven hours of practice a day in singles, pairs and dances after they had graduated from high school. Caryl's mother, a speed skater, had her studying tap dance and ballet at the age of five, but Caryl switched to figure skating after seeing Sonja Henie. Caryl had passed the Seventh Figure Test and four Gold Dances. Jack had passed the Eighth and all but one Goldd Dance, which he termed the 'pretzel twister', the Viennese Waltz. Jack also held his school's singles title in tennis." Six couples competed in the Gold Dance event, the silver medallists being Virginia Hoyns and Donald Jacoby and the bronze medallists Carol Ann Peters and Danny Ryan, who was sadly later one of the victims in the 1961 Sabena Crash.

The junior women's title went to one of Seattle's own, fifteen year old Frances Dorsey. Chicago's Noel T. Ledin won the novice men's title. Dorsey was a sophomore at the Helen Bush School who enjoyed horseback riding and skiing, while Ledin was a sixteen year old student at the Luther Institute in Chicago who played football and baseball. The novice women's crown went to an eleven year old upstart from New York named Carol Heiss, who moved up from a second place finish after the school figures behind Georgianna Sutton of Los Angeles for the win. Heiss was in her sixth year of public school on Long Island.

Dudley Richards

The junior men's title went to a young Harvard schoolmate of Dick Button's, Dudley S. Richards of Boston. Third was a young David Jenkins. Richards' win in Seattle was actually a brilliant comeback story. At Harvard, Richards was a roommate of none other than Edward M. Kennedy. Kennedy, in his memoir "True Compass", recalled what made Richards' 1951 title win so incredible thusly: "I started off lucky with a great roommate: a slim, sandy-haired boy named Dudley Richards. I'd casually known Dudley from summers in Hyannis Park. He and his older brother Ross were good sailors. Ross had sailed against Bobby and given him all my brother could handle. Dudley's passion was ice skating, and by his early teens he was a top Olympic prospect. But at sixteen he'd seemingly shattered that dream: diving into water that was shallower that he'd realized, he suffered a broken back. He recovered, but only after two years of intensive physical therapy, during which time he did not skate at all." In a February 21, 1951 article in The Harvard Crimson, Richards called Dick Button "very inspiring" and said that "he really made me work, both by professional advice and by telling me I could do well." Sadly, ten years later, Richards would also perish in the Sabena Crash.

Great footage of Dick Button skating in an Olympic Team fundraiser at Madison Square Garden in 1951

The annual Oscar L. Richard awards for greatest artistry in free skating for men and women went to Hayes Alan Jenkins and Gloria Peterson of Seattle. The Bedell H. Harned trophy, which was awarded to the club whose skaters won the most points over the course of the entire competition, was won by the Skating Club Of Boston. The Broadmoor Skating Club finished a close second. The U.S. Championships may have returned to Seattle in 1960 and 1969, but it has been over four decades since the competition has been held in The Emerald City. So a word to all of you wise Skate Guard readers in Washington state: I think it's probably soon your turn, isn't it?

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

An Apfel A Day Keeps The Russian Judges Away: The Arthur Apfel Story

Photo courtesy BIS Archive, Gerschwiler Family Collection

I love unique stories and Arthur Julian Apfel's is most certainly right up there. The son of Betty (Lejeune) and Emil Apfel, Arthur Apfel was born October 29, 1922 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He got his start skating at Milner Park during The Empire Exhibition and later trained at the Wembley Ice Rink in Springfield, Johannesburg. Although he showed tremendous aptitude for the sport in his younger years, he was skating in a country that hadn't yet fully established a well-organized competitive and test structure. Although the South African Ice Skating Association had been established in 1937 and South Africa became a member of the International Skating Union the following year, early competitions held in the country were mostly focused on valsing (ice dancing) and were sporadic affairs. If Arthur was going to make his mark on the skating world, he needed to move on up and out.

FROM JOHANNESBURG TO LONDON

Photo courtesy "The Skater" magazine

Arthur set sail for Great Britain, rented a room and started training in Richmond, London under legendary Swiss coach Arnold Gerschwiler. Although Gerschwiler's star pupil at the time was of course his nephew Hans, he improved by leaps and bounds while in London but wasn't particularly popular among his peers. His only great successes as a competitive skater all came in one season and were actually quite ironic.

Henry Graham Sharp, Adrian Pryce-Jones and Arthur Apfel. Photo courtesy "Ice Skating" magazine.

The Swiss trained, South African skater beat England's best to win the 1946 British Championships and headed to neutral Switzerland for the 1947 European Championships, the first international figure skating competition held on the Continent after World War II ended. He finished fourth.

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine

At the World Championships that followed in Stockholm, Sweden, Arthur won the bronze medal behind Gerschwiler and Dick Button. The irony? Skaters from Germany, Austria and Japan were not welcomed to compete at those first World Championships after World War II and Arthur, who medalled, was Jewish.

THE PROFESSIONAL RANKS

Opting to turn professional prior to the 1948 Winter Olympics, Arthur took a job as senior instructor at the Olympia Ice Rink in Johannesburg and starred in shows at the Morecambe Ice Dome at the Figure Eight Park. He also teamed up with another South African skater named Leah Rom to develop an incredibly unique act: acrobatic (adagio) pairs skating with both partners on stilt skates. Their act took off brilliantly and before long the pair returned to England to appear in Sir Arthur Elvin and Tom Arnold's ice pantomime "Humpty Dumpty" alongside Daphne Walker, Gloria Nord, Anne Rogers, Margo McMenemy and Len Stewart. While there, Arthur also appeared in a BBC broadcast of Cabaret On Ice alongside Jennifer and John Nicks and Jiřina Nekolová. He returned to South Africa and coached at the Charlton Ice Rink.

SPINNING SENSATION

The most unique aspect of Arthur's story is truly that at a time when other skaters were focusing their attention to achieving near perfection in school figures and making revolutions in jumping, he was devoting a great deal of time and effort to innovating spinning. Although it was Dick Button who invented the flying camel spin during this period, it was Arthur that really set the standard for the modern crossfoot spin. In his 1968 book "Winter Sports", Howard Bass wrote, "I have seldom seen [the crossfoot spin] performed better than by South Africa's Arthur Apfel, who won the British championship in 1946... [He] made quite a specialty of the cross-foot and it may therefore be of useful interest to record his conviction that, contrary to a common assumption that the toes should be quite together, a far greater speed can be obtained with the left toes against the right boot, about an inch from the tips of the right toes. Another little trick Arthur found out, which can only be used with perfect control and balance, is to clasp the hands together as soon as they are near enough to do so. This creates a sort of leverage and the arms can be thereby pulled in much more quickly, which has the effect of giving a sudden burst of speed towards the end of the spin."

ARTHUR APFEL'S LETTER

A few years ago, Arthur penned a letter (now in the archives of the National Ice Skating Association in England) which refers to a video in the archives, his beliefs with regard to spinning technique and his work in developing stilt skating in South Africa and abroad. I am sharing it in its entirety with permission as sharing this knowledge was clearly the intent of Arthur in the first place:

"I am writing to you for 2 reasons, I have taught my routines to some stars of ice shows that have come out to South Africa from Europe etc. Not existing known skating, which I know has advanced enormously to fantastic heights, but for example, Anita Curtis who came down to our Charlton Ice Rink to practice. I saw her doing some wonderful sit spins and when I spoke to her she told me that she was in Holiday on Ice, which was playing in one of the arenas in Johannesburg. I told her about lifting her free leg in the position I used in my film. She put this into her number. I went to the show with a friend and got seats right against the ice. She did the spin right next to me. Later she had photographs of the first 2 positions and sent them to me, In the 3rd position the free leg drops down into the cross toe position. After she left it came to me that it could be done from a camel and I sent her a sketch of this spin. I never saw her again.

In the same show the stilt walker, a Russian 1st name [Porfia?] came to me and I took round Johannesburg. I showed him my comedy routine,. part skate part stilt.. He looked at my film as did Anita. [Porfia] managed the skate/stilt and said he was going to try it overseas in a show.

My second reason. I watched my son Julian's skating film again after all these years. He started at 1 year 5 months and 'retired' at 3 but I will come to my son later.

To carry on with my first story I would like to teach some of my spins to the skating world before I take the knowledge with me! As with Anita Curtis it must be a very good skater but they could pass it on to anyone good or medium. Now for the instructions:

The first spin I will call the 'leg up' spin can be seen in my film. It must be fast. The sit spin will already be done fast by your skater, then in the leg up position it will be even faster. If it is fast enough the free leg seems to disappear and the leg looks like a hoop around the body. Then the free leg drops down into the cross toe position into a fast end. The same spin can be done from a camel spin instead of a sit spin...

Now for the next spin. In my film go from a sit spin (the sit spin does not count in this spin - I mention it so you can recognize it on the film) then from the cross foot stop with a toe rake and spin in the reverse direction. Now for the lesson. It will start with a cross toe (not crossfoot) dig the toe rake in to stop & let the shoulders twist round (see the film). Untwist the shoulders without changing feet and set yourself spinning in the opposite direction on the back outside edge cross toe spin. You must be able to do a back outside cross toe spin (also called back cross toe spin) on the same foot as you do a normal cross toe spin before you will be able to do this spin. Very difficult. Now you will see me in the end of the film that is the end of the spin. Lately I have realized it would not be necessary to end the spin there, instead dig the toe rake in again and go back to the original cross toe spin. Then if you have enough energy reverse backwards and forwards until you are exhausted.

Now for the next spin. A jump change foot sit spin. I go into a sit spin, change feet then jump onto the foot I started with and stop. To find the spin in my film it is at the beginning of the programme but it is taken from above and is not very clear but I do it again later and it is taken from the side and is very clear.

A fifth spin is any particular spin on the left foot the same spin on the right foot. I do this in my film in the comic section on a stilt. Of coarse the stilt has nothing to do with the spin so ignore that. I come out of the first spin on the back inside edge on the same foot then step into a spin on the other foot.

That is five spins. I am addressing this to you hoping you will find someone to show this letter to. It will need a good spinner to try these. Anita Curtis was a very good spinner and she did a spin she got from me. She was excited about it and sent me some photographs.

Yours very sincerely

Arthur Apfel"

Arthur Apfel congratulating 1950 South African Champion Eric Muller. Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine.

THE LATER YEARS

Continuing to coach in South Africa for many years after he stopped actively performing as a professional, Arthur developed a line of ankle supports for skates which enjoyed popularity in public rinks Great Britain in the sixties and seventies. He became something of a Tonya Harding fan later in life. He travelled to Portland, Oregon in 1992 and was honoured at a party with Tonya and her then coach Diane Rawlinson. In a newsletter that went out to Tonya's fan club in 1994, he wrote, "I wish to express my whole hearted support of Tonya, and I believe completely in her innocence. I know what a sweet disposition she has. I was pleased Tonya won the U.S. Championships, and I saw her skating on TV a number of occasions. It always thrills me to see her on the ice." So, South African skater goes to England, wins a medal at the World Championships, pioneers pairs skating on stilts and does some great work in developing spinning technique... and becomes a Tonya fan? Certainly an eclectic mix, that's for sure and heaven knows I love eclectic.

Arthur's wife Eleanor (Oxton) passed away in 2013 and he spent his last years in a nursing home in Johannesburg, South Africa. In November 2015, Hilary Passmore informed me that (in his nineties, mind you) "Arthur is still alive and skating around with his walker! He has a copy of the video, which we have all seen. Amazing." Sadly, he passed away on September 15, 2017 at the age of ninety four.

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.

How Ice Skates First Arrived In South America

Back in August, Allison Manley and I dived in and explored the startlingly unconventional history of figure skating in South America in the first episode of the Axels In The Attic series. As fabulous as all that fun was, there is another unique story from that continent's early skating history that didn't make the cut and I really think you're going to get a kick out of it.

Long before Joseph R. King built the Palais de Glace in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1910, ice skates made their first known appearance in South America... and it's actually kind of a funny story. Back in the very early nineteenth century, trade was booming and the English, with their great passion for figure skating, just kind of assumed that everyone skated. Well, why not? They skated in Amsterdam, Paris, Hamburg and even in The New World. Why not in South America? After all, the Brits had thriving sugar plantations (albeit full of kidnapped African slaves) in Guiana. Why wouldn't those 'civilized' Brits living in South America want to entertain themselves and cut fancy figures on the ice?

The June 1812 issue of The Quarterly Review in London (Vol. vii, No. 15) noted that "we have been informed that the good people of Birmingham sent out sixty tons of skates and warming-pans to South America."  There was one problem. There wasn't a single ice rink on the continent and with ice refrigeration not yet being a thing, unless you found a frozen lake high in the Andes or something you weren't doing any figure eight's honey. I can just picture this ship showing up with these completely foreign objects that locals probably just assumed were fancy knives of some sort. What happened next? Did the good people of South America figure out what these alien objects were and start skating in the mountains? Not so much. But perhaps oblivious to the clime they were sending them to, the British kept sending down ice skates!

Later that year, renowned British mineralogist and sea captain John Mawe recorded in his book "Travels In The Interior Of Brazil" that yet "another [merchant] sent skates [to Brazil] for the use of a people who are totally uninformed that water can become ice." These strange shipments were actually very common back in those days, with everything from warm woollen shawls to coffins (which weren't used by the Brazilians) arriving in Rio de Janeiro.

The research of Brazilian journalist Laurentino Gomes notes that a French visitor confirms having seen the skates unloaded on a dock. In his book "1808: The Flight Of An Emperor", Gomes explains that this shipment of ice skates had "nothing to do with the climate and local necessities of course, but they arrived in Brazil practically without import taxes and ended up fulfilling uses never envisioned for them... The ice skates transformed into knives, horseshoes, and other metallic objects. The traveller even saw a doorknob in Minas Gerais made of ice skates." That's a doorknob I wouldn't want to be shaking hands with.

So there you have it, folks... the story of how ice skates first arrived in South America and your inspiration for your next DIY project! Who would have thought skating history could be so crafty?

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 Little Housekeeping: Upcoming Blogs And An Announcement!

It is no secret that figure skating history is my passion. Ever since I have started writing this blog, I have explored hundreds of fascinating topics relating to the sport's colourful history. The good news is I have no intention of stopping any time soon. I have spent a very considerable amount of time preparing a wide variety of upcoming blogs that span the decades and centuries and explore topics from all around the world and I can't wait to share them all with you! 

We will ring in the New Year with a Janet Lynn Spectacular, where special guests Robin Cousins, Randy Gardner, JoJo Starbuck, Allison Manley, Doug Mattis, Frazer Ormondroyd, Allison Scott and more will share their favourite Janet Lynn programs. We will revisit many historic moments in Janet's career along the way. January will be Canadian Figure Skating History month. Topics will include The Minto Skating Club Fire, biographies of five Canadian skaters, coaches and officials whose stories will fascinate you to no end, a little known story from Kurt Browning's career, a four part series on skating right here in Halifax in conjunction with the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships... and a few surprises. In the months to follow, we will explore competitions, shows and tours past, biographies galore and many shocking 'did you know?' stories that will leave your jaw on the floor.

Speaking of jaw on the floor, mine is. I did all of this writing in advance for a reason. On December 1, I began devoting time each day to a mammoth task that I have been wanting to tackle for an extremely long time. I am finally writing a feature and could not be more excited! It is going to be a biography of actress, dancer and figure skater Belita Jepson-Turner. For those of you who aren't familiar with her story, don't go looking for the Skate Guard blog on her. There was one but honey, I had to take it down. It was really dated, really sparse and really no indication of the level of research I am putting into this project. I will keep you all posted periodically on how progress is going and I will also ask that if you or anyone you know knew Belita personally and would like to contribute to this feature, please get in touch. I would love to hear from you!

I hope you all enjoy the coming blogs. They will be posted in the usual schedule I have been following for some time - two to three a week. The sixth and final episode of Allison Manley and I's Axels In The Attic podcast series will be coming to you soon too, so stay tuned for that! As always, thank you all for reading and supporting the blog. I mean that. Without your interest and support, I would not be doing this. 

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.

Skating On The Wrong Side Of The Law

Over the course of history, many skaters have almost found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Insert bad Tonya Harding joke here. However, we're not talking Tonya today. Instead, we'll be exploring some of the rather unusual laws and rules surrounding ice skating that have cropped up over the years and believe me, they range from the reasonable to the ridiculous.

On the more reasonable side of the scale are rules that have come into play with regard to concern to the ice itself. Aside from the obvious 'SKATING PROHIBITED' signs posted by lakes and ponds where ice thickness has posed a safety risk to skaters, there have been rules put into place with regard to the contamination of ice. The December 22, 1906 issue of The Farmer noted that in Fairfield, Connecticut, "Bunnell's Pond, at Beardsley Park, is covered with heavy ice, but skating is prohibited by the Bridgeport Hyadraulie Co., the water being of the city's system of reservoirs." This concern over contamination was not uncommon and was often linked to concerns about 'cutting ice' for food refrigeration, hospital use and consumption. One example evidencing actual legislation regarding this concern was recorded in the January 27, 1909 issue of the Norwich Bulletin: "At the request of Dexter L. Bishop of Meriden and other leading ice dealers of the state, representative Wilbur F. Parker has introduced a bill in the legislature prohibiting the pollution of ice, or water on ponds or lakes from which ice is cut. The bill was referred to the committee on public health and safety. Mr. Bishop explained the necessity of the proposed measure, which is a matter that most persons thought was already covered by the statutes. The ice men have looked into the question and find, they say, that there is no law governing tile contamination of ice although the pollution of water is well taken care of in the law book. Mr. Bishop says that when ice is forming it drives out all polluting substances, so that the danger comes from foreign matter on the surface and it is therefore, imperative that the top of the ice be kept clean. Consequently ice which is to be cut should not be used by skaters, the icemen say. Some ponds cannot be skated upon but others are open to the public and the dealers want the skating surface to be confined to those parts which are not intended for cutting. 'Action is very necessary,' Mr. Bishop stated, 'because ice is coming into more general use in sick rooms and much ice water is drunk in summer.'"

Other bans on skating were based on location. In 1981, they had a problem with people skating on a frozen water fountain in Reading, Pennsylvania and three years earlier in Nashua, New Hampshire they even had problems with people skating in a graveyard! The February 6, 1978 issue of The Telegraph noted that "skating around monuments in Woodlawn Cemetery is out. A cemetery spokesman said youngsters are sometimes allowed to skate on pockets of ice which form on an unused back portion of the Kinsley Street cemetery and the arrangement has work out well. But skating in the section of the cemetery used for burial is prohibited. Youths seen skating around monuments last Saturday morning must have strayed from the back side of the cemetery, the spokesman said, and they went unseen by the cemetery attendant who was working in the greenhouse." Kids these days! Although ice skating down sidewalks in Moscow or Amsterdam was not an uncommon sight, some American cities actually passed city ordinances banning the practice.

Tipping the scale from reasonable to ridiculous are some arcane laws that were downright sexist in nature. Lynn Copley-Graves wonderful book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On The Ice" recalled that over the years, "rules cropped up in the United States governing interaction with women on the ice. Headland, Alabama law prohibited men from 'turning and looking at a woman that way' while ice skating. When caught a second time for the infraction, the looker had to wear 'horse blinders' for 24 hours. In Newburgh, New York, no married woman could skate on the Sabbath unless 'properly looked after' by her mate who followed twenty paces behind carrying a loaded 'musket over his left shoulder'. La Follette, Tennessee law specified, 'no man could place his arm around his woman' at a dance or in a skating rink 'without a good and lawful reason.'"

As insane as those last three were, this last one had me cackling even more. The Thursday, December 18, 1919 issue of The Washington Times noted that in Washington, D.C., "at the Zoo all but five hundred square feet of the pond is covered with ice an inch thick. The rest is not frozen and the ducks are still having a merry time. Superintendent Hollister says the skating cannot begin until the ducks are out, and the ducks won't come out until it's completely frozen. Then again Superintendent Hollister said he would take the ducks out of the pond if it wasn't for the fact that every time they try to catch a duck, he dives under the ice and disappears." It sounds like something out of a sitcom episode, doesn't it?

I guess the moral of the story is that as ridiculous as many of the rules governing the judging of the sport today may indeed be, the ISU aren't the only ones who have had a knack for coming up with some pretty crazy rules surrounding ice skating over the years. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some ducks to deal with!

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.

Nudes On Ice: Yes, It's A Thing That Happened

On an episode of "Murphy Brown", stoic anchorman Jim Dial responded to someone saying "We're
all naked under our clothes" by stating "I, for one, am not!" A fitting introduction for the naked truth of today's Skate Guard blog if there ever was one... for this one takes a look at figure skating's best kept dirty little secret: Nudes On Ice.


No, ladies and gentlemen, this is no joke. In years past, Las Vegas' Thunderbird Hotel, Hacienda Hotel and Union Plaza Hotel played the backdrop for a series of incarnations of figure skating shows featuring a cast of talented skaters (almost) in their birthday suits. The shows were produced by both Bill Moore and George Arnold. After producing their original effort Rhythm On Ice at the El Cortez in 1960, Arnold (a former Ice Capades skater) and Moore opted to take advantage of the old "sex sells" adage and produce the shows Ecstacy On Ice, Spice On Ice, Fantasy On Ice, Playgirls On Ice and Nudes On Ice. Mike Weatherford's 1998 article in the Review-Journal explained that with their show "the duo received belated recognition, of a sort, when Nudes On Ice became a surprise hit at the Union Plaza in 1988. The low-budget title was one they had recycled from an early production at the Aladdin. But national publications such as The Washington Post and 60 Minutes humorist Andy Rooney made it a metaphor for a dying era of Las Vegas show business." The final show ran until late 1990.

The shows were staged on smaller tank ice stages (fifteen by fifteen feet in one case) and featured skaters like Canadian Champion Kay Thomson and Polish show skater Jola Iglikowska. The first of the shows was held in the seventies at the Thunderbird Hotel and in a 1979 interview, Arnold explained "when I was asked to come out here from New York and produce the ice show, I had never seen a nude ice show before. I actually had to ask my father and mother for permission to produce the show, Ecstasy on Ice. The show ran for over three years. It even made the cover of Time magazine." Weatherford described the productions as "defiantly old-fashioned even as Las Vegas redefined itself: Topless showgirls on rainbow-colored staircases, sequined costumes with plumes and feathers, and jugglers and other speciality acts once synonymous with the Strip." The seven act show featured both male and female cast members in various skimpy costumes and a steppy little grand finale set to the show's theme music, "Staying Alive", "The Lady In Red" and "New York, New York".

A feature in the May 1989 issue of Spy Magazine explained that the Nudes On Ice name was technically a little misleading: "advertisements for the show beckon temptingly from taxis and billboards all along the strip: NUDES ON ICE! NUDES ON ICE! Unfortunately, the too perfect title is something of a misnomer. Yes, the skaters are on ice, but no, they're not technically nude: they're topless since total nudity in hotel shows is illegal in Nevada. And to make matters even less nude, only four women out of a coed cast of fifteen are topless. The quartet glides across the stage at the beginning of each number, then skates to the side, clomps off the ice and stands motionless, forming a not technically nude proscenium for the forthcoming entertainment."

All in all, I don't know about you... but if I paid for tickets to Nudes On Ice and didn't get to see any full frontal male nudity, I'd be asking for my money back... or at very least some free chips and someone to validate my parking. That said, this all but forgotten if not really seedy series of shows did do one thing for the sport: offer a whole new meaning to baring your all on the ice.

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 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.

Decorum And Double Threes: Skating In The English Style

There's a little private irony to the timing of today's subject matter. I actually lay out a calendar of when each blog will be published to try to give a bit of diversity in terms of era, subject matter and location of all of the skating history topics explored. I had December laid out months in advance but only two days ago, I received some reader mail from a descendant of British figure skating pioneer Henry Eugene Vandervell, whose story we delved into briefly back in April. And here we are again today, discussing his baby...  the now largely defunct English Style of skating. 

When I say English Style, I am not in any way referring to the cold, calculated precision of The Modern English School that produced fabulous skaters like Cecilia Colledge and Henry Graham Sharp. I am also not referring to the characteristic elegance and ingenuity of more modern British skaters like John Curry, Robin Cousins and Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. On the contrary. I am referring to an extremely distinctive and uniquely British style of skating that reigned supreme in that country prior to the twentieth century.

In Victorian England, figure skating was a perfect mirror of society itself. Stiff, rigid, unforgiving... Back then, skaters had stiff, erect posture and knees. They kept their arms at their sides at all times, even if it impeded their ability to turn. If you were a skater at The Skating Club in London, which formed in 1830, the loops you were doing were the kind with your feet firmly planted on the ice, not the jump later invented by Werner Rittberger that we see routinely in the triple rotation variety these days. There were no jumps or spins in the English Style. In fact, the manner in which figures were skated barely resembled the school figures that prevailed for much of the twentieth century in international competition.

While skaters in Continental Europe, Canada and the United States were all experimenting with what we know today as free skating, the Britons held firmly to their ideals about what skating should be. Vandervell, who was instrumental in educating and instructing skaters in the English Style, had great convinction in the belief that one's socio-economic background played a role in their skating talent. In his 1873 book, he wrote: "Among the lower classes, as we have often noticed on the ice, notwithstanding that as a class they excel in most of the manly exercises, and in rapid skating or running are expert. Yet, when we come to figure-skating, we shall not fear contradiction when we assert that the most graceful and finished skaters come from the better educated, or the middle and upper classes, the clergy and military, and gentlemen belonging to any of the higher professions, being at the top of the scale; very few of the lower class, as we descend the social scale, knowing more than to 'go ahead' and when one of these worthies reads the doings on the ice in the daily papers, he doubtless gets somewhat mystified with waltzes, quadrilles, polkas, serpents, pedlar's acres, and birds of every description, as well he might, and small blame to him." Vandervell goes on and on to this point, reminding us that not for a second should we think that this stiff English Style of skating in the Victorian Era wasn't anything less than a prim and proper 'old boy's club'.

Getting back to the fundamentals of the style itself, Mary Louise Adams' book "Artistic Impressions: Figure Skating, Masculinity, and the Limits of Sport" notes that "Once mastered, basic turns and edges were skated in unison by groups. Although groups sometimes had up to ten skaters, the usual number was four. One skater would act as a caller, giving instructions to the others. The goal of the exercise was conformity. An orange was used to mark a central point on the ice and the skaters would perform their turns and edges moving towards and then away from the orange. The more perfectly they could match each other's movements, the more successful the exercise. Anything difficult to match, for instance, the degree of bend in a knee, was eliminated. All flourishes were eliminated. Anything that would set one skater apart from the others was eliminated. Skating, which had once offered the possibility of individual expression and freedom of movement, evolved mid-century into a kind of regimented team activity." To those last sentences speak to you on any level with regards to the uniformity of today's IJS system? They certainly do to me, that's for sure. I digress.

Excerpt from George Meagher's 1900 book

In his book "Figure Skating", Monagu Monier-Williams offers a rather succinct description of good English Style form: "At the moment when he firmly on his edge, the knee must be promptly extended, and the body held absolutely upright, but with a slight sideways inclination; that is to say, if the skater is progressing forwards on the right foot, the body must not look full front, but the right shoulder and the right thigh must lead the left shoulder and thigh being slightly turned to the rear. The unemployed leg must be kept free of the ice, and carried behind the employed leg wherever possible, the heels of the two feet being approximated. The head must always be turned the direction of progress, and is to be carried horizontally, and never inclined either upwards or downwards. A tendency to look down on the ice is the commonest ever, and is to be carefully avoided. The arms should also hang loosely by the sides of the body in an easy position, and should not swing about unnecessarily." Thinking of the importance of arms in teaching the most basic of skating moves (a three turn for example) to skaters today, the English Style seems almost impossible, but instruction in this rigid, uniform style was everything in the few skating clubs in operation in England and Scotland during the Victorian era, thanks greatly to instructional writing by authors like Vandervell.

There was a certain disdain many practitioners of this style felt for European skaters practicing the Continental Style. M. Bland Jameson wrote to skating historian Dennis Bird: "To us sober English skaters - with our severely-controlled movements, these exuberant (International) skaters seemed to be showing off and performing circus stunts. We looked askance at their black tunics and tight-fitting breeches, trimmed with Astrakhan fur. Discourteously, and not to their faces, we called them 'lion tamers'... I think it is possible, even probable, there really was a deep feeling than amounted to animosity,,, Our efforts at combined figures must have appeared joyless and solemn to the International skaters, just as their efforts at spins seemed to us grotesque." The feeling was certainly mutual. Will Cadby wrote in "Switzerland In Winter" that "A first-class programme carried out by two expert International skaters is more beautiful and attractive than any English skating can possibly be."

With increased influence of the Continental Style taking hold in England, largely due to the fact that skaters of both styles practiced routinely together in Switzerland at the time, the English Style slowly fell out of vogue. Edgar Syers, the husband of Olympic Gold Medallist and World Champion Madge Syers, lobbied for the adoption of the Continental Style in England and was instrumental in bringing the World Figure Skating Championships to London, England in 1898. When wider audiences saw what they were effectively missing all these years, the rigid English Style's decline was hastened greatly in the last decade of the nineteenth century and after World War I, the Continental Style was the 'in thing'.

The English style may have declined in favour but it didn't die. BIS historian Elaine Hooper explained, "It continued to be most popular and there used to be an English Style Championship and tests certainly up to the 1980's and possibly longer. There was also the Challenge Cup which was a most prestigious trophy and was competed for by teams of figure skaters. I have held some of the winning medals from the early twentieth century. They were won by Phyllis and James Johnson and shown to me by their granddaughter." The Skating Club, which I mentioned earlier, became the Wimbledon Skating Club and in 1932, by command of King George V, became the Royal Skating Club. To this very day, the members of the club practice the same style originally skated in the nineteenth century at the Guildford Spectrum in Parkway, Guildford, Surrey by Vandervell and his contemporaries. Figures with terminology like "off pass", "about" and "around of... complete" are performed individually as well as hand-in-hand combined figures with both two and four skaters... with the caller and orange in a historically correct fashion. I can't express how cool I think that this style has survived literally centuries under our noses.

Results of the National Skating Association's 1958 Championship in the English Style

I think the moral of the story when looking back at the rigid English Style's ultimate demise in the mainstream is that when audiences saw (or were reminded of) what they were missing at those 1898 World Championships, they applauded. In this day and age when uniformity has become the name of the game in competitive skating, all it would take would be one brave competitor to flout the rules in style with a program filled with wonderfully musical level one scratch spins and footwork sequences, Cantilevers and hydroblades perfectly timed to well interpreted music to work the audience up into a frenzy... to remind them what they've missed about skating. Who, praytell, will be the rebel?

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.