Son Of Lazarus: The Martin Gordan Story

Born October 15, 1876 in Berlin, Germany, Moritz Rudolph Martin Gordan was the son of Lazarus Louis Gordan and Caroline (Lamm) Gordan. Martin's father was a wealthy Jewish merchant who sold shoes and fabrics for clothing at his store Gordan & Burchard zu Berlin. Martin and his younger sister Gertrud grew up wanting for very little at the family's home at Oranienstraße 42. Sadly, Martin's father passed away in January 1892, when he was only fifteen.

At a very young age, Martin took up figure skating at the Berliner Schlittschuhclub. He soon proved to be a precocious talent who showed an unusual skill for special figures. After finishing second to Gustav Euler in a junior competition in Berlin in 1897, he won an international competition in similar pairs skating with British skater Edgar Syers the following year. In 1899, he entered the European Championships, placing fourth in the men's event behind Ulrich Salchow, Gustav Hügel and Ernst Fellner. In 1900, he competed in an pairs competition held in conjunction with the World Championships with partner Hedwig Müller. These events were held in Davos, the famous Swiss winter sports mecca where he spent considerable time training during the long winters alongside a who's who of European figure skating.

In 1901, Martin travelled to Scandinavia, where he competed in the Championships of the Copenhagen Skojtelöberforening and the Nordic Games. In Denmark, he finished second in the men's event behind Copenhagen's Erik Lagergren and second in pairs behind Edgar and Madge Syers. His partner in this event was Great Britain's Phyllis Squire, later known as Phyllis Johnson. At the Nordic Games, he was third in singles behind Oscar Holthe and Einar de Flon and second in pairs behind Christa von Szabo and Gustav Euler. This time, his partner was again Hedwig Müller. The February 19, 1901 issue of "Päivälehti no 16" described his performance at the Nordic Games thusly: "Yes, he knows how to turn and bend. His strengths, on the other hand, are those patterns that require strength and adversity."

Martin Gordan, Edgar Syers and Ernst Fellner in Davos. Photo courtesy Stadsarkivet Stockholm.

In 1902, Martin travelled to London, England to compete in the World Championships held at the National Skating Palace. He and Fraulein Weingartner placed third in the pairs event. In singles, he finished third behind Ulrich Salchow and Madge Syers. Cojntemporary sources have consistently claimed that many people believed that Syers outskated Salchow and should have won this event... but Martin actually defeated Madge Syers in the free skating phase of the competition. There have also been modern claims that Martin was outraged by being defeated by a woman, but primary sources don't support any of these arguments... good stories they may make, notwithstanding.

Photo courtesy Dutch National Archive

In the years that followed, Martin won a second bronze medal at the World Championships and two medals at the German Championships. He also competed at three other European and World Championships, though his results were far less impressive. On January 20, 1908 in Celerina, Switzerland, Martin participated in what was perhaps his final figure skating competition - the contest for the Engadine Challenge Cup. Great Britain's John Keiller Greig won the event by over eighty points; Martin finished last, earning more points but fewer placements than Gwendolyn Lycett. After retiring, he judged at the 1910 European Championships in Davos and the women's and pairs events at both the 1911 World Championships and 1931 European Championships.

Max Bohatsch, Per Thorén, Ulrich Salchow, Martin Gordan and Richard Johansson

An account of one of Martin's free skating programs from one of Robert Holletschek's books noted that his program consisted of "cross over left forward outside, curve right forward outside, three turn step, spectacle (Brille)-Rocker, Wing Eight figure with loops, Cross over right backward outside, Waltz jump, two three turns with toe pointing, jump, eight figure with grapevines, two Spectacle (Brillen)-Rocker, dance steps to the music, double three, toe spins, eight figure with three turns and loops, bracket, cross over, counter, stand on toes." Interestingly, he performed only two smalls jumps, one dance sequence and a couple of short spins, but excelled at a variety of step combinations, field movements and special figures. German skating historian Dr. Matthias Hampe - whose assistance in researching this article was invaluable - noted, "Martin Gordan from the Berliner Schlittschuhclub had moved farthest from the Viennese School among the German skaters and was described as a follower of the skating style of Henning Grenander."

Special figures of Martin Gordan's design

An account of Martin's skating from the March 29, 1902 issue of "The Leader" noted his "Berlin style was different to the others, and slightly more rough and unfinished. He confirmed that impression when he chose his own figures, but he is, of course, a strong and bold skater, with plenty of confidence [and] a very firm edge."

Off of the ice, Martin was an avid amateur photographer and entrepreneur. In 1900, he founded the Berliner Illustrations-Gesellschaft (Association of German Illustration Photographers) with school friends Karl Ferdinand Delius and Heinrich Sanden. It was the first company in Berlin devoted to the production and distribution of press photos. By the end of World War I, there were nearly twenty such agencies in the city. Martin married at least twice (in 1909 and 1909) and both of his wives names were Anna. According to an article by Nathalie Neumann in the "Journal Of Photo History", Gordan "continued [with] the BIG [Berliner Illustrations-Gesellschaft] until its closure in 1934 by the National Socialists [and was] active in the relevant photography committees during the Weimar Republic and the heyday of the illustrated press." Along with Karl Ferdinand Delius and Heinrich Sanden, he was considered one of the pioneers of sports photography in Germany.

Little is known of Martin's fate during World War II. Numerous historical documents confirm that he was Jewish, but databases of Holocaust survivors make absolutely no mention of him being detained or interred in any of the larger concentration camps. Genealogist Renee Steinig, whose assistance in researching Martin's story was vital, learned that Martin's sister Gertrud and her son Dr. Erich Faerber escaped to Shanghai, Lutheran birth record or not. Following the War, Gertrud emigrated to America, passing away in Ohio in 1966. The January 28, 1972 issue of the "Cleveland Jewish News" noted that Martin's nephew Erich "devoted his law practice to aiding refugees in their restitution claims against Germany." What we do know is that Martin survived the War, passing away on June 22, 1961 in the spa town of Baden-Baden, West Germany at the age of eighty-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.

Dashing Duos: The Stories Of 6.0 Canadian Waltzing Champions

In the years before ice dance was established as its own discipline at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships, dozens upon dozens of delightful dance teams competed at the National level in Waltz, Tenstep and Fourteenstep competitions. 'Back in those days' it wasn't uncommon for skaters to compete in any combination of singles, pairs, fours and ice dance competition at the same event, often with different partners in different categories. Today, we'll explore the stories of three duos who claimed gold medals in the Waltz, Tenstep and Fourteenstep events that predated the first official Canadian ice dance championship in 1947. The achievements of these dashing duos may be overlooked but believe me... their stories are quite interesting!

HELEN MALCOLM AND JOE GEISLER

Photo courtesy Skate Canada Archives

Early in the second World War, the number of entries in the Waltzing and Tenstep competitions at the Canadian Championships dropped considerably as more and more skaters enlisted or became involved with war work. Helen Malcolm of the Montreal Winter Club, who won the bronze medal in the junior pairs event in 1940 with Peter Stanger, teamed up with Joe Geisler to win the Waltz event in 1941.

Joe Geisler skating with Mary Jane Rowe. Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale du Québec.

Joe Geisler, an immigrant from Germany, went on to be known as 'Mr. Figure Skating' in Quebec, serving on the CFSA board of directors and as chair of the Eastern Canada Section and of the 1967 North American Champonships. For his dedication to the development of skating in Quebec, he was inducted into the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame in 2001.

GLORIA LILLICO AND WILLIAM A. DE NANCE JR.

At the 1945 Canadian Championships at the Varsity Arena in Toronto, fifteen year old Gloria Lillico claimed the bronze medal in the senior women's competition and William (Bill) A. de Nance Jr. claimed the silver medal in junior pairs with partner Joan McLeod. Lillico and de Nance Jr., who took dance from Albert Enders at the Toronto Skating Club, teamed up to finish first in the Waltz and second in Tenstep. The following year, they finished second in the Waltz and the Tenstep together.

Gloria Lillico with Elizabeth Taylor at an Ice Follies show in 1948

In 1947, Bill formed a partnership with Joyce Perkins and finished second in the Waltz, Tenstep and the first Dance championship of Canada behind Margaret Wilson Roberts and Bruce Hyland. He later teamed up with stenographer Joy Forsyth to finish second in the Waltz and Tenstep at the Canadian Championships in 1950. In 1955, Bill won the Waltz title at the Canadian Championships with his wife Beverley. Off the ice, Bill was a lawyer, author and accomplished tap dancer. Gloria went on to skate in the Ice Follies.

JANET AND FRASER SWEATMAN

Janet and Fraser Sweatman were born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on October 29, 1917 and October 13, 1914. Their mother, Constance Travers Sweatman, was an accomplished writer of novels, radio plays and poetry. Their father, William Travers Sweatman, was a prominent lawyer and photographer who served as President of the Winnipeg Board Of Trade... and the Winnipeg Winter Club, of which he was one of the founders.

Nearly a decade before focusing on ice dance with his sister, Fraser achieved success as both a singles and pairs skater. He won a bronze medal in the junior men's event at the 1929 Canadian Championships and a silver in senior pairs with Audrey Garland in 1935... besting Constance and Bud Wilson.

Top: Audrey Garland and Fraser Sweatman. Bottom: Constance and Janet Sweatman.

After competing with Audrey Garland at the 1936 Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (where the team had the bad luck of drawing the first position in the starting order), Fraser teamed up with Janet to win the Birks Cup for Waltzing and finish second in the Tenstep at the Canadian Championships in 1938... again besting the Wilson's! What made the Sweatman's success in 1938 so remarkable wasn't only the fact they skated in minus forty temperatures. They were also only voted the third best team in the Tenstep at their own club's selection competition just days prior. The February 26, 1938 issue of the "Winnipeg Free Press" recalled their performance in that year's Winnipeg Winter Club carnival thusly: "In a lovely Alpine village a pair of waltzers, Janet and Fraser Sweatman... were clad in green and white, with tiny pointed Alpine hats. The rhythm and ease of these two skaters brought them the Canadian waltzing championships in January, and they demonstrated their fine pair skating well."

Audrey Garland and Fraser Sweatman. Photos courtesy Nathan Kramer of the Manitoba Historical Society, Winnipeg Free Press.

Clipping courtesy Manitoba Legislative Library. Used with permission.

The following year, the siblings claimed the national Tenstep title that eluded them the year before. Fraser and his parents then moved to Toronto, where their father died in 1941. He married, had three children and served in the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps and Canadian Army during World War II, earning the rank of Captain.

Janet Sweatman. Photo courtesy Nathan Kramer of the Manitoba Historical Society, Winnipeg Free Press.

Janet married a Winnipeg businessman living in Toronto and moved to Barrancabermeja, Colombia for a time before settling in Montreal. Fraser entered the medical supply business, joining Ohio Medical in 1954 and working to develop high quality equipment for anaesthesiologists and establish safe practices for anaesthesia. Fraser passed away on May 15, 1991 in Toronto at the age of seventy seven after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease and Janet passed away some years later.

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 Ice Cycles

The Ice Cycles tour started with a bang in 1946 as a co-production between the Ice Capades and Ice Follies. Three years later, the Ice Follies bowed out, leaving the show under the ownership of John H. Harris' company International Ice Attractions, Inc.

By the fifties, The Ice Cycles operated primarily in Canada and the northern U.S. but also hit several cities in America's Midwest and West Coast. In short, if the Ice Capades tour didn't stop in a city for whatever reason, the Ice Cycles most likely did. Thanks to a stroke of luck at an antique shop in Great Village, Nova Scotia, I chanced upon a copy of the program of the 1953 tour. I also did a little digging to offer a greater sense of what that year's tour was all about.

For starters, in most cities that Ice Cycles stopped during the 1953 season, the show played non-stop matinee and evening shows to packed crowds for days at a time. Some of the stops were longer (an eleven day stop at San Diego's Glacier Garden in November 1952) and others longer (a three day stop at the Ottawa Auditorium in April 1953) but on average the show played in each city for a good five days.

Among the numerous stops were Fresno, Spokane, Portland, Shawinigan, Toledo and Calgary's Stampede Corral. Ticket prices ranged from one to three dollars, with programs going for thirty five cents apiece. The tour travelled with its own musical director, percussionist, organist and conductor and hired orchestras in each city it visited to play as needed.

Shirley Winter

The cast of the Ice Cycles Of 1953 wasn't full of instantly recognizable names but that's not to say some very talented and popular skaters didn't participate. France's Raymonde du Bief made her Ice Cycles debut on the 1953 tour and was perhaps the biggest headliner. Other prominent professional skaters who participated included Margaret Field and Jimmy Lawrence, Chuckie Stein, Shirley Winter, William Knapp, Marjorie Taylor and Ronnie Baker, drag comedienne Willie Kall and the handsome Marshall Garrett. Trixie The Skating Juggler was a huge hit during the first half of the tour but left after Christmas to be replaced by the adagio team of June and Bob Ballard. Charles and Vida Uksila directed the performances and wardrobe and choreography was done by Chester Hale, Rosemary Stewart and Bob Dench.

Though hailed as 'nine shows in one', what made the Ice Cycles Of 1953 tour historically significant was that it marked the first time the Walt Disney version of "Cinderella" was staged on ice in North America. This historic 'first' took place through an exclusive arrangement with Walt Disney and understandably played a huge part in why the audiences were so abundant. Keep in mind that at point in the film version that we all know and love had only been out for three years!

The half-hour long skating adaptation of Walt Disney's "Cinderella" condensed the entire story, starring Field and Lawrence as Cinderella and Prince Charming, Shirley Winter as the Evil Stepmother, Terry Derfield and Gayle Winters as Anastasia and Drizella and Priscilla Matson as the Fairy Godmother. The December 11, 1952 issue of the "Spokane Daily Chronicle" noted, "The number is the longest and by far by the best in the show. The costumes and the props in the 'Cinderella' play are breathtaking. One prop, the pumpkin coach, seen only for a few seconds, is valued at several thousand dollars."

Willie Kall and Marshall Garrett

Other prominent acts included "Gypsy Gold", a lavish production number starring du Bief, Knapp and Winter and The Ice Cyclettes and Cycliers; a Christmas act with Chuckie Stein dressed as Santa Claus himself; a Teddy Bear's Picnic and a patriotic number called "State Of The Union" dedicated to those serving in the Korean War. In December when the show was in Spokane, a free, condensed matinee show was given for anyone under the age of sixteen, provided they made a clothing donation to be sent overseas. The December 14, 1952 issue of "The Spokesman-Review" explained that the donations were being accepted so that "a number of youngsters will suffer a little less from the bitter cold of their Oriental winter." This kind gesture was coordinated by John H. Harris and a former Ice Cycles cast member serving in Korea named Lieutenant Roger Russell.

"Minstrel Daze"

After studying skating's regrettable history of bringing blackface to the ice, I was a little terrified when I saw that the grand finale of the Ice Cycles Of 1953 was called "Minstrel Daze". Thankfully, the powers-that-be on the tour that year had the good sense to completely avoid the horribly offensive and racist fare offered by others who tackled similar themes, instead dressing the skaters like the kind of Southern dandies one might see at Blanche Devereaux's family reunion.

Delightfully campy, with elaborate stage sets, intricate costumes and diverse casts, the touring ice shows like Ice Cycles that enjoyed success throughout the world for decades serve not as relics of a bygone era but as reminders of skating's true entertainment potential.

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.

Zofia Bilorówna And Tadeusz Kowalski: Polish Figure Skating Pioneers

Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland

Founded in the thirteenth century, the city of Lviv changed hands many times over the centuries. Now considered one of the ten largest cities in Ukraine, Lviv has been taken over by the Soviets, Lithuanians, Poles, Germans and countless others over the centuries. Residents of this city respect the importance of history but even today, the contribution of two of its residents to figure skating's history is something that has been long forgotten.

Photos courtesy National Archives of Poland

Born on May 31, 1894, Tadeusz Kowalski was the son of Mieczysława and Emilii (Kubala) Kowalski. Joining the Wojsko Polskie (Polish army) as a young man, he rose through the military and was promoted to the rank of Captain in August of 1924 at the age of thirty for his service during the Polish-Soviet War. A year earlier, his friend Henry Bilora had achieved the same honour. Both young men played football together at the 1st Military-Civilian Sports Club, a vast sporting complex in
Czarni Lwów that included football fields, cycling and running tracks, tennis, basketball and volleyball courts and an ice rink. It was at that one-stop shop sporting facility (known as the 'Czarni') that he was introduced to his friend Bilora's younger sister Zofia Bilorówna. Zofia, five years younger than Tadeusz and ten years younger than her brother Henry, was considered one of the most talented skaters who held membership in the Sports Society.

Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland

Zofia and Tadeusz teamed up in 1926 and the very next year, won their first of an incredible nine consecutive Polish pairs titles. On February 23, 1934, they made history twice at the European Figure Skating Championships... by being both the first Polish pairs team to compete at a major ISU championship and by being the first Polish pairs team to win a medal at a major ISU championship. Following up their feat with top five finishes at the 1934 World Championships and 1935 European Championships, they ended their competitive career in 1935. Their 1934 medal win was Poland's best result internationally for decades until Grzegorz Filipowski came on the scene and won two European medals and a World bronze medal in the eighties.

Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland

Both Tadeusz Kowalski and Henry Bilora were involved in the defense of Lviv during the Invasion of Poland. Captured by the Charkowie branch of the NKWD in 1939, they were both murdered during The Katyn Massacre. It's believed Henry was killed in Kiev; Tadeusz in Kharkov. In a matter of months, Zofja mourned both her brother and skating partner. Little is known about her fate in the years that followed aside from the fact she passed away on June 23, 1962 in Rzeszów. What we do know is that team has never really received much attention... and it is time that changed.

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 Quick Minute For The Quickstep

In the height of the roaring twenties, the 'bright young things' of England flocked to halls to sip gin rickeys and dance the charleston. It was during this carefree era that Molly Spain and Frank Ford introduced a combination Quicktime Foxtrot and Charleston dance for two which became known as the Quickstep. The dance gained popularity as quickly as its syncopated steps and by the early thirties, it was a bona fide ballroom dance with its own strict tempo and characteristics.

But how did it become an ice dance? In the summer of 1938, the National Skating Association of England held a two-day dance conference at Queens Ice Rink at Bayswater, London. One of the main topics discussed were the rules for 'new dance competitions', where couples were encouraged to use their ingenuity to come up with new ice dances. The September 1938 issue of "The Skating Times" noted that judges were looking for new dances that met the following requirements:

"1. Does not contain any steps such as would preclude its being generally skated in the usual dance intervals.
2. Has a well-marked rhythm.
3. Is easy to learn.
4. Is always progressive around the rink.
5. Maintains ease of guidance at all times."

On November 22, 1938, the National Skating Association held a new dance competition at the Westminster Ice Rink in London, which was open to both amateur and professional couples. The judges put a cross on their cards by the dances they wanted to see again. The winning dance - the Argentine Tango - was performed by the only amateurs in the event, Daphne Wallis and Reginald Wilkie. Wallis and Wilkie also demonstrated two other new dances at this event for the first time - the Paso Doble and Quickstep. Though these dances didn't place in the top three, they both received crosses from the judges. Wallis and Wilkie again performed their Quickstep at a similar competition in December of that year. It became an instant hit with British ice dancers and was quickly adopted as a Gold (First-Class) Dance by the National Skating Association.

The Quickstep was first demonstrated in America the following summer at Lake Placid, and by 1940, the Skating Club of New York was including the dance in its triweekly dance sessions. In 1941, the Quickstep was added to the USFSA's new Gold Dance test schedule. It was first tested in the summer of 1941 at Lake Placid and introduced to the USFSA's competition schedule not long after. The ISU was equally enamoured with the Quickstep and included it as a compulsory dance at the 1952 World Championships in Paris, where another British couple - Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy - rose to the top of the podium. Interestingly, the dance was first performed at a tempo of forty four beats per minute. By 1950, the tempo was one hundred; by 1980 its current one hundred and twelve. Today, the Quickstep is now almost three times as fast as it originally was!

In his 1951 book "Dancing On Ice", Erik van der Weyden remarked, "The fairly advanced skater should get considerable pleasure from the Quickstep. It is a lively dance, with plenty of go, and a simple yet not too long sequence, requiring a fair amount of skating skill and control, but giving ample opportunity for strong edges. No sense of satisfaction can be derived from dance if not on good edges, but if skated with élan, it has a peculiar sway and character which makes it thrilling to dance, and pleasant to watch."

The Quickstep was introduced as an OSP during the 1984/1985 season. ISU regulations permitted dancers to include toe steps (but not toe jumps) in their dances and specified that couples could stop during their OSP "in ballroom quickstep fashion, so long as the stop did not disrupt the course of movement." When first performed at the St. Ivel International competition at Richmond in September 1984, the winners of the Quickstep OSP were Canadians Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall. They skated their Quickstep to  Lew Pollack's ragtime standard "That's A-Plenty".

The Quickstep continued to be performed as a compulsory dance at the international level throughout the eighties and nineties and returned as an Original Dance rhythm during the 1994/1995 season. It was during this season that Finns Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko debuted their legendary Quickstep to the Claude Bolling's score from the 1970 Jacques Deray gangster film "Borsalino". Their delightful dance became ratified as its own compulsory dance - the Finnstep - in 2008, and became a required sequence in the Short Dances during the 2014 Olympic season.

Most recently, figure skating fans tuned in to "Dancing With The Stars" to watch Tonya Harding dance the Quickstep with an axe and a man in a bear suit in her quest for the Mirrorball Trophy. Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" may not have been the music Molly Spain and Frank Ford would have envisioned their dance would have been performed to, nor would have Daphne Wallis and Reginald Wilkie known that skating and the quickstep would have such an enduring relationship.

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 1967 North American Figure Skating Championships

Event program. Courtesy Sandra Bezic.

"You've got to be kidding me." Those had to have been the words that came out of the mouth of Joe Geisler, the Chair of the 1967 North American Championship Committee, when he learned just a week prior to the event he had spent three years planning was in very real danger of having to be postponed or cancelled. Just a week prior to the 1967 North American Championships, Montreal's civic employees went on strike, abruptly closing the doors of the advertised venue, the five year old, eighty five by two hundred foot Maurice Richard Arena on Viau Street, which could seat over six thousand, three hundred spectators.

Event advertisements showing planned location. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

With little time to spare, Joe Geisler and his Committee members - the CFSA's George J. Blundun and Dr. Sidney Soanes and USFSA's Spencer Cram and Robert T. McLeod - met with the manager of the closed venue and Montreal's skating clubs in hopes of finding a speedy solution to their dilemma. It was ultimately decided to split the event between three (less dazzling) venues, the Town of Mont Royal Arena, University Of McGill Arena and Centre Sportif of the Universite de Montreal. Members of the sponsoring club, the Montreal Silver Blades, jumped in to handle everything from catering to ticket and program sales. Skating fans even stepped up to the plate to volunteer and the local newspapers and radio stations did their best to help advertise the change in venues so that ticket sales wouldn't suffer.

Addresses from Presidents of the USFSA and CFSA. Courtesy Sandra Bezic.

This 'show must go on' last minute effort allowed the event to be staged from February 10 to 12, 1967 as planned. Sheldon Galbraith even showed up with his Ampex 3/4 inch reel recording equipment in tow so that his students would have the advantage of reviewing their practice sessions and competitive performances after they'd skated. It was the first time instant replay had been used at the North American Championships.

Let's take a look at how the event played out! As we'll learn in today's blog, the behind the scenes drama paled in comparison to much of the excitement on the ice that chilly February.

Skaters coming off the ice after an opening 'parade of contestants'. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Though audience members complained that the drafty McGill Arena where the compulsory pairs short program was held was just as cold as it was outside - minus twenty five degrees Celsius - Seattle siblings Cynthia and Ron Kauffman didn't seem affected by the bone-chilling temperatures. They took a strong lead, earning first place ordinals from six of the seven judges. Conditions weren't quite so brutal at the more modern Centre Sportif, where free skating events in all four disciplines were contested. This time, the Kauffman's - who drew first to skate - set a bar so high that none of the other five teams were ultimately able to match. Though again placed second by one of the four Canadian judges, they won the title and Layman Trophy by a comfortable margin. Susie Berens and Roy Wagelein and Betty Lewis and Richard Gilbert completed a historic first time American sweep of the pairs podium at the North American Championships.

Photos of competitors. Courtesy Sandra Bezic.

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION  

To the surprise of few, defending North American Champions Lorna Dyer and John Carrell took a unanimous lead in the compulsory dances over Canadians Joni Graham and Don Phillips and Americans Judy Schwomeyer and Jim Sladky. Similarly to the Kauffman's in the pairs event, Dyer and Carrell drew first to skate in the free dance... and their marks were so high that there really wasn't much room for the teams that followed to have beaten them no matter how well they skated. Considering they were the reigning World Bronze Medallists and none of their challengers had even attended the 1966 World Championships in Davos, this wasn't exactly surprising. Graham and Phillips finished third in the free dance, but narrowly defeated Schwomeyer and Sladky for the silver. After the morning practices on the final day of the event, there was an informal dance session "for out-of-town guests and Host Club members".

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Chilled to the core at the McGill Arena, the six men's competitors shuffled positions early in the school figures, with Canada's Donald Knight coming out on top of Scotty Allen and Gary Visconti by a considerable margin when the dust settled. The men's free skate was perhaps one of the most evenly matched ever contested at the North American Championships, for not only were Knight, Allen and Visconti outstanding skaters. They were joined by Dr. Charles Snelling, Jay Humphry and Tim Wood - all excellent performers in their own rights. First to skate was Humphry, who delivered perhaps his finest performance to date, landing a triple toe-loop in the last minute of his program. Allen, who skated second, faltered on several jump landings. Knight followed with a confident performance, and Visconti, who skated fourth, was an audience favourite. Snelling's performance was marred by an untimely fall caused by a camera flash... which led to a back injury. Wood, last to skate, drew generous applause for his exciting and technically demanding performance. The judges, who had their work cut out for them, split their marks largely between Knight and Visconti in the free skate. With the figures factored in to the game, Knight took the gold and Rogers Trophy with first place ordinals from six of the seven judges, followed by Allen, Visconti, Humphry, Wood and Snelling.

Photos of competitors. Courtesy Sandra Bezic.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Peggy Fleming and Valerie Jones skating their figures. Photo courtesy Valerie (Jones) Bartlett.

The women's school figures were the first event of the Championships and the free skating the last. At the outdated Mount Royal Arena, defending World Champion Peggy Fleming established a healthy early lead over Valerie Jones, Tina Noyes, Karen Magnussen, Roberta Laurent and Jennie Walsh.

Valerie Jones. Photo courtesy Valerie (Jones) Bartlett.

In the free skate, Valerie Jones dazzled with her use of vocal music near the end of her program, which at that point in time, though seldom used, wasn't yet 'outlawed'. Fleming skated remarkably and won over many Canadian fans who had previously viewed her negatively as 'that American girl who beat Petra Burka' before they actually got the chance to see her skate live. Karen Magnussen struggled on her first few jumping passes. Then, out of the blue, the music stopped and the power in the arena went out. She spent forty minutes in a dark dressing room with her coach and a screwdriver fixing a blade problem then restarted the program at the beginning and skated superbly. Despite her effort, she tied for last place in the free skate and was unable to move up from fourth. Fleming was the unanimous winner, followed by Jones and Noyes. 

Matchbook from the Fontainebleau Motel

Prior to the event, skaters had been bussed to the nearly-completed site of Expo '67 for a press briefing on the World's Fair. During the event, they partied it up at a 'special evening' at the Fontainebleau Motel. After the competition, a banquet was held where prizes were awarded and pictures were taken. In "Skating" magazine, Janet Carnegie Dolan recalled, "As usual for this kind of event, the wait for the results seemed longer than necessary. and the presentations an anti-climax. Because of the power failure, the afternoon had already been longer than scheduled. Those who had been following the events closely realized there was little chance of any startling changes in the standings from the compulsory events. On the whole, the championships had been a success. The favourites had won in most cases. Even the least technically-minded spectator at a skating championship who becomes more of an expert than the judges could find little cause for complaint. It is no small chore to organize a Championship of this caliber. In the face of extraordinary difficulties, the 1967 North American Championship Committee and the sponsor club... had come through splendidly and deserved straight sixes across the board."

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.

C. Bangs, C. Bangs, Wasted By The Way He Moves: The Chauncey Bangs Story

Marion McDougall and Chauncey Bangs. Photo courtesy Library And Archives Canada.

Born February 28, 1901 in Ottawa, Ontario, Chauncey Robert Bangs was the son of Alice Maude May Hurdman and Chauncey Ward Bangs, Jr. His grandfather, Chauncey Ward Bangs Sr. was the city's mayor in 1878, and his father was a prominent coal merchant. The Bangs family - Chauncey, his sisters Norah and Madeleine and parents - lived on Frank Street in a quiet area of Ottawa near what is now called Centretown. A devout Presbyterian even in his youth, Bangs was educated at the Model School and Ottawa Collegiate and started skating at the Minto Skating Club when he was only a young boy.

When Chauncey was only seventeen, his older sister Madeleine died of an accidental overdose of corrosive sublimate, prescribed to treat "neurasthenia", a catch-all diagnosis for "bad nerves". Perhaps wanting to escape the gloom of the household, he left to study law at the University Of Toronto for a time but returned midway through his studies to help his father manage the family business, the C.W. Bangs Coal Company.

Chauncey Bangs and Marion McDougall

In 1921 at the age of twenty, Chauncey competed at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships for the first time. Entering the fours event with Lady Rachel Cavendish, J.R. Booth, Jr. and Lily McGee as the 'Minto four', he experienced the disappointment of losing the title to a four from the Montreal Winter Club. After a five year hiatus, he returned to the Canadian Championships in 1926 and claimed the silver medal in both the pairs and fours events, skating with his partner Marion McDougall and Edith Secord and H.R.T. Gill.

Competitors and judges at the 1927 Canadian Championships. Back: Miss Morrissey, Dorothy Benson, Margot Barclay, John Machado, Elizabeth (Blair) Machado, Cecil MacDougall, Mr. Sharp, Norman Mackie Scott, Evelyn Darling, Constance Wilson, Jack Eastwood, Maude Smith, Bud Wilson. Front: Kathleen Lopdell, Paul Belcourt, Frances Claudet, Jack Hose, Henry Cartwright, Isobel Blyth, Melville Rogers, Marion McDougall, Chauncey Bangs. Photo courtesy "Skating Through The Years".

The years that followed would be happy ones for Chauncey. In October 1927, he married a Haligonian, Dorothy Page, at the Fort Massey Church on Queen Street in Halifax. The couple returned to Ottawa and took up residence at an elegant house on Monkland Avenue, designed by W.E. Noffke as a wedding present from his parents.

Marion McDougall and Chauncey Bangs

In both 1927 and 1928, Chauncey and Marion McDougall claimed the Canadian pairs title. Maribel Vinson recalled their partnership thusly: "They have made dances the leitmotiv of their programs, weaving every other move, the jumps, lifts, etc., into the dances, and subordinating figures that might have been high lights into the rhythm of the dance itself." Unfortunately, Chauncey and Marion's partnership ended when Marion married Bradley Grainger and moved to London.

Marion McDougall and Chauncey Bangs. Photo courtesy Library And Archives Canada.

After another brief hiatus from skating, Chauncey returned in 1931 with a new partner, Frances Claudet. They too presented a program that resembled ice dance more than pairs skating, not separating or adding highlight moves like small lifts or jumps. The judges must have liked what they saw, as duo reclaimed the Canadian pairs title with ease. It was as if thirty year old Chauncey had never left the sport!

Frances Claudet and Chauncey Bangs. Photo courtesy "The Seigneur", Lucerne-in-Quebec Association magazine.

Frances and Chauncey lost the Canadian title the following year to Constance and Bud Wilson, but earned spots on the Canadian teams being sent to the 1932 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid and the 1932 World Championships in Montreal. In Lake Placid, they placed an impressive sixth, right behind the Wilson's. The February 13, 1932 issue of "The Ottawa Journal" noted, "Miss Claudet and Chauncey Bangs executed a novel and interesting program of figures and dance steps with ease and grace, meriting the fine ovation they received." In Montreal, Frances and Chauncey moved up to fifth, besting the Wilson's and earning the top placement of the four Canadian pairs who participated. Tragically, his figure skating career was cut short not long after when he suffered a serious fall on the ice which knocked him unconscious.

Though he was a tennis enthusiast and a member of the Royal Ottawa Golf Club, he devoted most of his free time after his retirement from competitive figure skating to the management of the Minto Skating Club. Then, on January 27, 1942 at Civic Hospital in Ottawa at the age of forty, Chauncey passed away of a heart attack suffered after a bout of pneumonia. He was outlived by his wife, parents and sister. His funeral was attended by a who's who of the Ottawa figure skating community, including Melville Rogers and Elmore A. Davis. Less than six months later, his mother passed away too. Though he was a three time Canadian Champion, Olympian and devoted himself to the Minto Skating Club his entire life, his story really isn't what one would call a happy one.

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 Hard Luck Club: Three Figure Skaters Who Just Couldn't Catch A Break

History affectionately remembers figure skaters who have succeeded in achieving their goals and leaving the sport better than they found it. Great champions like Sonja Henie, Toller Cranston, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean and Kurt Browning are names known to even the most casual observer of figure skating. For every great champion, there are literally thousands upon thousands of skaters who - despite their greatest efforts - just couldn't seem to catch a break in this slippery sport. Today, we'll beat a trio of very determined skaters who (try as they might have) faced more than their fair share of tough breaks.

BODO BOCKENAUER

Photo courtesy the German Federal Archives

Born December 22, 1940 in the East Berlin borough of Weißensee, Bodo Bockenauer was groomed as a figure skater under the tutleage of Inge (Kabisch) Wischnewski at the East German sports training center Sports Club Dynamo Berlin. In 1959, he won his first of three East German men's titles and placed an unlucky thirteenth in his international debut in that year's European Championships in Davos, Switzerland. After a dismal fifteenth place finish the following year at the European Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he placed an impressive eighth at the 1961 European Championships in Berlin and was regarded as a skater whose career was on an upward trajectory.

Photo courtesy the German Federal Archives

After the cancellation of the 1961 World Championships due to the Sabena Crash, he returned to the international stage in 1962, placing an impressive sixth at the European Championships in Geneva, Switzerland. At that event, he gave what was perhaps the best performance of his career. All but one judge had him in the top three in free skate and the Italian judge actually had him first in that phase of the event ahead of Alain Calmat, Karol Divín and Manfred Schnelldorfer. Sports journalist Heinz Magerlein described Bodo's performance in Geneva as "surprisingly strong and very difficult" in his 1964 book "Triumph auf dem Eis". However, at the World Championships in Prague that followed, he placed a disappointing eleventh. After competing at the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle on December 12, 1963, he attended the second of two joint qualifying competitions between East and West German skaters for the 1964 Winter Olympics in West Berlin on December 19, 1963. Mid-competition, he took off and sought asylum through the West German embassy. It wasn't long before the STASI took a special interest in the Sports Club Dynamo Dynamo Berlin and "ideologically unstable and fluctuating people with connections to West Berlin and the non-socialist countries."

Bodo Bockenauer and Ralph Borghard; Photo courtesy the German Federal Archives

After establishing a new training base at the Augsburger Eislaufverein, Bodo made a bid to return to the international stage representing West Germany. In 1965, he won the bronze medal at the West German Championships and won an international competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, defeating Great Britain's Malcolm Cannon and Czechoslovakia's Jan Sramek, but it wasn't enough to earn him a spot on the West German team. Moving up to second the following year, he made his return to the World Championships in Davos, but placed a disastrous twentieth in a field of twenty one competitors. After finishing an equally dismal sixth at the following year's West German Championships, he opted to turn professional. Entering the World Professional Championships at Empire Pool, Wembley that spring, he defeated Great Britain's Allan Williamson in a three-two split to claim the World Professional title, ending his competitive skating career on somewhat of a high note. Moving to Zürich, Switzerland, he set up base as a coach at the skating club in Küsnacht, where he worked with Swiss skaters and hockey players for decades. Though Bodo's big switch may have worked out for him in the end, it certainly did not have the effect on his competitive skating career he may have been looking for.

ANITA DE ST-QUENTIN

Born November 13, 1901 in the spa town of Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, Anita Louise Brown-White had perhaps the shortest and least sweet of skating careers in history. After marrying a French real estate man named Christian de St. Quentin, she moved to Nice, devoted herself to figure skating and opted to represent France alongside Andrée (Joly) Brunet in the women's event at the 1928 Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. At those Games, Anita placed dead last of twenty entries in both the school figures and free skating, setting a record for the lowest score ever at the Olympics under the judging system in place at the time. Her total of 1114.25 points was over hundred points lower than nineteenth place finisher Elvira Barbey and over one thousand, three hundred points lower than the winner, Sonja Henie. Under that system, she was also the only skater in Olympic history to earn less than half as many points as the winner. Never competing at the European or World Championships, she retired from the sport in disgrace and died in her forties near the end of World War II.

TSUGIO HASEGAWA  

Photo courtesy Asahi Newspaper Compilation Center

Born June 18, 1913, Tsugio Hasegawa came of age during Japan's Taishō period and graduated from Keio University in Minato, Tokyo... Japan's oldest institute of higher education. Using his book smarts to his advantage, Hasegawa attempted to teach himself the in's and out's of figure skating completely by studying diagrams of school figures and pictures of skaters in Western books. Receiving very little in the way of formal instruction, he entered the Japanese Figure Skating Championships three years in a row while studying at Keio and each time lost to Toshikazu Katayama.

Tsugio Hasegawa, Toshikazu Katayama, Kazuyoshi Oimatsu and Zenjiro Watanabe. Photo courtesy National Archives Of Poland.

At the age of twenty two, Tsugio was offered a chance of a lifetime when Japan sent a team of five skaters to Europe to compete at the 1936 European Championships, Winter Olympic Games and World Championships. Clearly out of his element, he withdrew from the European Championships in Berlin after placing second to last in figures. Mustering up the courage to give it a second go at the Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he placed a disastrous twenty third out of twenty five skaters... over one hundred points behind the winner. He was the lowest ranked of the four Japanese men who entered the event. Urged on by his teammates, he made the trip to Paris in hopes of redeeming himself at the World Championships. He again placed dead last. After participating in a carnival on ice at the Old Sanno Hotel that December, he considered giving up the sport but decided to give it one last go and returned to the Japanese Championships... where he lost to Katayama for a fourth time. After participating in a nation wide winter sport championship for students the following winter, he retired from the sport and faded into obscurity.

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.