The 1963 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

John F. Kennedy was President, Billy Fury's "In Summer" was a smash hit and a Baby Ruth chocolate bar went for a nickel. The year was 1963 and though America's figure skating community was still recovering from the tragic Sabena Crash that claimed the lives of an entire generation of skaters, coaches, judges and officials just two years prior, the show went on at the 1963 U.S. Figure Skating Championships held from February 7 to 10 in Long Beach, California.

Hosted by the Arctic Blades Figure Skating Club of Paramount, the event was held at the brand new, fifteen thousand seat Long Beach Arena. The rink was eighty five by two hundred feet with a capacity of eleven thousand. Not that anyone wanted to stay indoors anyway... at first. Early in the week, temperatures climbed to over thirty degrees, and skaters and coaches alike flocked to the nearby beach to take a winter swim in the Pacific Ocean.

Tommy Litz, Jerry and Judianne Fotheringill and Taffy Pergament. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

More than one hundred skaters competed in novice, junior and senior events. Practices were held at Iceland, Paramount and the official hotels were The Breakers International and The Lafeyette Hotel and Lanais. Social events included a 'Hawaiian luau' and dance at The Breakers International Hotel and day trips to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. The competition was the first U.S. Championships held in Southern California since 1954.

George Jenkinson, Ron and Cynthia Kauffman, Tina Noyes, Johnny Moore, Carole MacSween and Ray Chenson and F. Ritter Shumway. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Despite a torrential downpour which led to flooding in some areas on the Saturday night of the competition, a new record was set for attendance. General admission was set at only two dollars, or a dollar more for a reserved seat, but the fact that audiences braved the poor weather to watch some fine free skating performances was a testament to their dedication to the sport. Among those in attendance were former U.S. Champions Dick Button, Yvonne Sherman, M. Bernard Fox, Robin Greiner and Barbara Roles Pursley.

Billy Chapel, Lorraine Hanlon and Sally Schantz and Stanley Urban. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

The competition boasted the claim of being the first U.S. Championships 'in Technicolor', with blue dye being added during the ice making process to add an aesthetic appeal to both live and audiences watching Bud Palmer and Dick Button's ABC coverage at home on television. The audiences loved it; some skaters and coaches hated it. One unnamed internationally known coach, according to reporter Jerome Hall, called "the condition of the ice a disgrace." Pierre Brunet quipped, "That's very pretty, but will they make the ice pink for the girls?"

The Long Beach Arena. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

The annually awarded Harned Trophy - given to the skating club who amassed the most points throughout the event - changed hands in a most remarkable way. In 1961, the Skating Club Of Boston had taken the trophy, but the following year the Arctic Blades Figure Skating Club had snatched it in Boston. In 1963, the Skating Club Of Boston reclaimed the trophy on the Arctic Blades Figure Skating Club's home turf.

How did the event play out? With great thanks to Michael Martin, librarian at Long Beach Public Library, I'd like to invite you to hop in the time machine with me as we take a look back at this fascinating competition from decades past!

THE NOVICE AND JUNIOR EVENTS

Photo courtesy Long Beach Public Library

To the delight of the Californian audience, thirteen year old Johnny Moore of Dairy Valley (now Cerritos) took such a strong lead in the novice men's figures that Robert Schwarzwaelder, John Dystel and seven others were unable to catch him. Moore was an eighth grade student at Carmenita Grammar School who enjoyed coin collecting and horseback riding.

The novice women's title went to a talented young skater from the other coast. New York City's Taffy Pergament may have impressed many by winning, but the press was busy going gaga over the youngest competitor in the event, nine year old Janet Lynn of Rockton, Illinois, who had already dropped the Nowicki. Local reporter Jerome Hall called her "a cute little dumpling". She placed dead last in figures and tenth overall but had a blast competing and got to meet Dick Button.

Cynthia and Ron Kauffman. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Siblings Cynthia and Ron Kauffman took the junior pairs title ahead of Yvonne Littlefield and Peter Betts of Los Angeles, the reigning U.S. senior ice dancing champions. Following in the footsteps of another talented pair from Washington state - Karol and Peter Kennedy - the brother and sister team both attended the Ann Graves School, where they were one year apart. Ron enjoyed swimming, while Cindy was a dog lover.

The junior men's event was rather anti-climactic, with the top three remaining the same in figures, free skating and overall. Los Angeles' Billy Chapel decisively won the gold with first place ordinals from four of the five judges, ahead of Richard Callaghan of Rochester, New York and Tim Wood of Detroit. Sixteen year old Chapel attended the Hollywood Professional School and enjoyed bowling and swimming in his spare time. He hoped to attended California State and study biology, history or engineering. Betty Sonnhalter and Janet McLeod praised him for his "devil-may-care execution of his most difficult moves."

Photos courtesy Long Beach Public Library

The junior women's event was quite interesting, with first place ordinals split between five of the ten competitors in the figures. Every different judge may have had a different skater first, but fourteen year old Tina Noyes of Boston was the leader ahead of Peggy Fleming of Pasadena and Pamela Schneider of Ashbury Park, New Jersey. In one of the very few instances she was able to best Fleming, Noyes took the crown.

A young Tina Noyes and Peggy Fleming

The biggest surprise of the junior women's event was the last place finish in the figures of Maidie Sullivan of Colorado Springs. The eighteen year old had won an international junior women's competition in Davos the previous year and held the Midwestern title.

Photo courtesy Ingrid Hunnewell

Eleven teams vied for gold in the junior dance event. In the initial elimination round, teams skated the European Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango and Fourteenstep and in the final round, the top four teams skated the American Waltz, Rocker Foxtrot, Tango and Fourteenstep. The second and third place teams, Darlene Streitch and Charles 'Bucky' Fetter, Jr. of Indianapolis and Sally Crook and Edward Smith, Jr. of Boston, swapped places from the initial to final round, with fourth place going to Margaret A. Gerrity and Dominick Malevolta. Dennis Sveum, who would claim the U.S. senior title two years later with Kristin Fortune, placed sixth with partner Barbara McEvoy. The winners were twenty one Carole MacSween of Glendale, California and twenty seven year old Ray Chenson of Encino. Carole was a senior at UCLA and Ray was a blond haired, blue eyed construction foreman who had previously skated with Diane Sherbloom, who was killed in the Sabena crash.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

The Fotheringill siblings

In their third year as seniors, siblings Judianne and Jerry Fotheringill of Tacoma, Washington finally capitalized on the U.S. junior title they had won in 1959 in Rochester by winning their first and only U.S. senior pairs title. At five foot seven and five foot eleven, Judianne and Jerry were quite tall for pairs skaters and had a striking look on the ice that commanded attention.  They trained at the Broadmoor and both attended Colorado College. Judianne was a freshman who enjoyed swimming and water skiing, while Jerry was a sophomore who studied political science and psychology.

Judianne and Jerry Fotheringill. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Another sibling pair, Highland Park's Vivian and Ronald Joseph, took the silver ahead of Patti Gustafson of Lynn, Massachusetts and Pieter Kollen of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Vivian and Ronald Joseph. Photo courtesy Ingrid Hunnewell.

Pieter Kollen had won the U.S. pairs title in 1962 with Dorothyann Nelson, but their partnership had dissolved when she turned professional and joined the Ice Capades. As Kollen was the reigning U.S. senior pairs champion, he was granted special permission from the USFSA to compete with his new fifteen year old partner, as the rulebook at the time made them ineligible for both junior and senior pairs.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Tommy Litz

After finishing a disappointing fourth on the first figure, Denver's Monty Hoyt rebounded to win the first phase of the senior men's event ahead of Smoke Rise, New Jersey's Scott Ethan Allen, Hershey, Pennsylvania's Tommy Litz and seven other men. In the free skate, the reigning champion's luck ran out. Hoyt took an uncharacteristic tumble, while Litz skated lights out, performing "effortless triples" to earn the only standing ovation of the entire competition. He moved up to claim the gold ahead of Allen, Hoyt, Gary Visconti and Buddy Zack.

Tommy Litz, Scotty Allen and Monty Hoyt

Eighteen year old Tommy Litz was a senior at Hershey Junior College. The five foot six skater with brown hair and blue eyes was coached by Felix Kaspar and skated out of the Hershey Figure Skating Club. His father Floyd was a supervisor at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation but Tommy had dreams of studying medicine... but not before he won the U.S. title. Quoted in Patricia Shelley Bushman's book "Indelible Tracings", Litz recalled, "I wanted to be a national champion so bad that it was indescribable. It was a magnificent honor to win."

In his book "Falling For The Win", Gary Visconti recalled his first year as a senior at Nationals thusly: "It was my first time in California and I reached a remarkable fourth place, unheard of for your first try... We were elated by the result. No one there knew I was performing on a severely sprained right ankle... All went great and somehow I won fourth in figures for a real victory, both personal and in that elite group of athletes. The next event, final free skate, was 24 hours later. Another shot [of cortisone], and no pain or feeling whatsoever. Weird ... an ice skater with no feeling in his foot. Wow! The triple toe-loop was my hardest jump in the opening of my routine; should we do it? Yes or no? Mr. Don [Stewart] said, 'Why did we come here? Let’s go for it, boy.' Well I performed fantastic and became an alternate for the World Team, a real earned honor."

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Ten teams weaved their way through the steps of the Paso Doble, Foxtrot, Argentine Tango and Viennese Waltz and their free dances in hopes of claiming the gold medal in the senior (Gold) dance event in Long Beach. In a three-two split, Boston's Sally Schantz and Buffalo's Stanley Urban managed a huge upset in defeating Yvonne Littlefield and Peter Betts, whose free dance - according to "Skating" magazine - was "rich in content and showmanship".

Yvonne Littlefield and Peter Betts (left) and Lorna Dyer and John Carrell (right). Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Schantz and Urban had first skated together the summer previous at a training camp but didn't actually team up until the November before the competition. Schantz hadn't yet passed her Gold Dance test; Urban had never been to the Nationals before. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, captain of his high school track team and played hockey in Buffalo. Future U.S. and North American Champions Lorna Dyer and John Carrell took the bronze in their first Nationals together, ahead of Mary Ann Cavanaugh and King Cole and Jo-Anne Leyden and Robert Munz, Shortly after the event, Littlefield and Betts eloped.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Photo courtesy Long Beach Public Library

As the event was hosted by her home club, there was a lot of talk in the local media about the absence of Barbara Roles Pursley, the young mother who had made a comeback the year previous to win the 1962 U.S. senior women's title. In her absence, seventeen year old, five foot seven Lorraine Hanlon of Boston - a student of Cecilia Colledge - took a strong lead in the figures ahead of Seattle's Karen Howland. However, it was fifteen year old Christine Haigler of Colorado Springs - the youngest woman in the senior division - who won the free skate. Only fourth after figures, Haigler's free skate was the talk of Long Beach and proved to be enough to move her into second overall behind Hanlon, who faltered in her final performance, falling on a double Salchow and struggling on the landings of two other jumps. Hanlon had spent considerable time training in Switzerland the year prior after graduating from The Winsor School.

Lorraine Hanlon

Twenty one year old Karen Howland settled for third. After narrowly missing a spot on the 1961 World team - and thus saving her life by not getting on Sabena Flight 548 - she was diagnosed with Guillain–Barré syndrome. The fact she was even able to compete in Long Beach was no small feat. In Patricia Shelley Bushman's book "Indelible Tracings", she recalled, "I skated very well but a judge came up to me afterwards and said she basically screwed me; it was a political thing."

A lot may have changed in figure skating in the last fifty seven years, but these stories from the 1963 U.S. Championships in Long Beach remind us just how exciting skating in the sensational sixties was.

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.

Youth Of Yesteryear: The Yvonne Sugden Story

Born October 14, 1939 in the market town of Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, Yvonne de Montfort Boyer Sugden was the daughter of Alan Boyer Sugden and Evelyn Freda Bertha de Montfort Wellborne. Her father hailed from Rochdale; her mother Lancashire. Yvonne and her beloved dachshund Midas grew up in London, where her father worked as a chartered accountant.

Yvonne Sugden (middle) as the winner of the Open Novices Free Skating Competition at Wembley in January of 1949. Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine.

Just before her seventh birthday, Yvonne's parents took her to see the Walt Disney film "Pinocchio". The cinema was too full, so they went to an ice rink "just to watch" instead. She was amazed by what she saw and started skating the next day. When she started turning down invitations to parties to focus on her skating lessons, her parents knew she was serious about it. At the age of nine, she won a novice competition at the Empire Pool, Wembley. 

Hans Gerschwiler, Yvonne Sugden and Ája Zanová. Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine.

At this time, Yvonne's parents took her out of school at her instructor Jacques Gerschwiler's suggestion. She trained three to five hours a day at Queen's and Streatham Ice Rinks, going to bed every night at seven thirty and getting up at six. A governess was employed to teach her English, French and German studies. 'Gersch' also frequently took her to Davos and St. Moritz, insisting that training outdoors in Switzerland would better prepare her for competing in different weather conditions.

Left: Yvonne Sugden. Middle: Yvonne Sugden and Michael Booker. Photo courtesy Michael Booker. Right: Yvonne Sugden.

In her little off time, Yvonne enjoyed ballroom dancing... and actually won a bronze and silver medal at that as well. In the summers, she played golf, went swimming and rowed around in her three-seater collapsible canoe. She described the most exciting experience in her life as being presented to Princess Alexandra at the premiere of the film "Alexander The Great".

In 1949, Yvonne won the British junior women's title and in 1950 (the youngest competitor at age ten) she placed sixth in the senior women's event. She moved up to fourth the following year. Her breakthrough year was really 1952, when she just missed an Olympic berth at the British Olympic Trials and finished second to Valda Osborn (who was six years older than her) at the British Championships, defeating her in the free skate. At her debut at the European Championships, she placed a disappointing eighteenth but that autumn, she won the Richmond Trophy. She would go on to win the prestigious international event twice more in subsequent years.

In the autumn of 1953, Yvonne claimed her first of three British senior women's titles. It's significant to note that on all three of these occasions she placed ahead of Erica Batchelor, who was well-liked by audiences for her more theatrical style. Yvonne's successes gave the people of Great Britain something to cheer about during the bleak post-War era when rationing and unemployment were  harsh day-to-day realities.

Yvonne Sugden and Tenley Albright at the 1955 World Championships

Yvonne's international results were incredibly impressive. In 1953, she was fifth at the European Championships and eighth at the World Championships. At the latter competition, the Swiss judge had her third in the free skate, ahead of a young Carol Heiss.

Right photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine

In 1954, Yvonne won the bronze at Europeans and was sixth at Worlds. Two judges had her in the top three in the free skate at Worlds, while Canadian judge Melville Rogers had her down in eleventh. In 1955, she won an international competition in St. Moritz (defeating Sjoukje Dijkstra) and placed second at Europeans. At the latter event, she led winner Hanna Eigel after the figures, but fell in the free skate costing her the title. At Worlds that year, she was eighth.

Competitive successes from 1953 to 1955 garnered Yvonne significant media attention both at home and abroad. She appeared on the BBC program "The Younger Generation" and received fan mail from all around the world. One letter from Hungary was simply addressed to "Miss Yvonne Sugden. Somewhere In England."

In 1956, Yvonne's final year of international competition, she claimed the silver medal at the European Championships - her third consecutive medal at that event - losing six judges to three to another Austrian, Ingrid Wendl. In her only trip to the Olympic Winter Games, she lost the bronze medal to Wendl by less than three points. She had been fourth after figures, but turned in what was judged only the ninth best free skate. This was particularly disappointing, as British newspapers at the time had been hailing her as "England's only hope" for a medal.

Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria

Those reporters weren't far off - Yvonne's fourth in Cortina d'Ampezzo was the British team's highest finish in any sport at those Games. Again finishing fourth behind Ingrid Wendl at the World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Yvonne retired at the age of sixteen. Her mother/manager told reporters she wanted her daughter "to be an ordinary little person [that] will eventually marry a nice young man.". In her "BBC Book Of Skating", Sandra Stevenson later asserted, "Part of her problem was that her mother had to accompany her abroad for two months of the year just when her father's career was at its busiest and he needed her support the most."

Like Jeannette Altwegg, Great Britain's star skater four years earlier, Yvonne turned down numerous offers to skate professionally. She took a job as a secretary, relishing the fact she finally had some free time. Sadly, her father passed away in February of 1957. In 1958, she announced her engagement to a Warwickshire law student named Anthony Fear. She ultimately married a man named Michael Love in October of 1960 and divides her time between homes in Portugal and Hampshire, England.

What made Yvonne so successful a skater wasn't just her youth and fearlessness, it was the fact she was a well-rounded skater whose skill in both figures and free skating was considerable. Who knows what great things she might have gone on to had she stuck with it for another four years?

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 1953 European Figure Skating Championships

Jennifer and John Nicks

Held from January 23 to 25, 1953 at the Große Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, West Germany, the 1953 European Figure Skating Championships marked an important step back into the international sporting community for many German people, no matter which side of Berlin they lived on. In fact, the event was one of the very first major international sporting events held anywhere in Germany following World War II.

The venue for the competition, then one of the largest indoor rinks in Europe, had been basically destroyed during air raids and its restoration had been no easy task. The event was the final European Championships where ice dancing was excluded. It also marked the first time one country won a gold medal at the European Championships as well as the first time another country's skaters won a gold medal in their discipline. Let's take a trip in the time machine and take an ever so brief look at how things played out!

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Alain Giletti

Italy's Carlo Fassi unanimously won the school figures, with France's Alain Giletti second on every judge's scorecard, Great Britain's Michael Booker third and Switzerland's Hubert Köpfler fourth. In the free skate, West German psychology student and roller skater Freimut Stein moved up from fifth to claim the bronze, much to the delight of the Dortmund crowd. Giletti actually defeated Fassi in the free skate four judges to three, but the Italian's healthy lead in the figures earned him the gold. He became the first Italian skater in history to win a gold medal at the European Championships and to this day remains the only one to do so in the men's singles competition.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

In a four-three split with Hungarians Marianna and László Nagy, siblings Jennifer and John Nicks emerged victorious and made history as the first British pairs team ever to claim gold at the European Championships. The bronze went almost unanimously to the Austrian pair of Sissy Schwarz and Kurt Oppelt. In an instance of blatant national bias, the Belgian judge (like the cheese) stood alone in giving a third place ordinal to his country's entry, Charlotte Michiels and Gaston van Ghelder. Every other judge had them dead last and that's where they ended up.

Marianna and László Nagy

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Valda Osborn. Right photo courtesy Julia C. Schulze.

The women's competition in Dortmund simply could not have been closer. In the school figures, eighteen year old Valda Osborn of Great Britain - who had long skated in the shadow of Jeannette Altwegg - managed to defeat West Germany's Gundi Busch on home turf three judges to four. The tables turned in the free skate, when all but British judge Pamela Davis placed Busch first. Ultimately, Osborn's advantage in the school figures earned her the 1953 European title over Busch... by just one placing. Though well behind Osborn and Busch, two skaters who battled for bronze were similarly close. Briton Erica Batchelor edged West Germany's Helga Dudzinski for the bronze, again by one placing and again on the basis of her school figures scores.

Although four British women placed in the top ten, Pamela Davis couldn't have been accused of national bias in her judging. She actually placed West Germany's Rosi Pettinger first in the free skate. She ended up seventh overall. The same couldn't be said for the Belgian judge, who was back to the same tricks he pulled in the pairs event. He placed his country's entry, Liliane de Becker, tenth. No one else had her higher than fifteenth, which is where she ultimately finished.

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.

V Is For Von Birgelen: The Georg Von Birgelen Story

"It is nothing for von Birgelen to jump over the top of a seven-passenger limousine before breakfast, or at least during a skating show." - Bradley Fisk, "Buffalo Courier-Express", March 16, 1941

The son of Elizabeth (Hupe) and Theodore von Birgelen, Georg von Birgelen was born March 3, 1915 in Zürich, Switzerland. As a young man, he excelled in a variety of sports including soccer, football and running. When he first tried on a pair of skates at the age of sixteen, one came loose during a turn and he fell and broke his arm. Undaunted by this mishap, he bought "a special pair made of Swedish steel" and was showing off what he'd taught himself on the ice in exhibitions less than two months later.

Georg first made his mark as a speed skater, winning a three thousand meter race in Zürich in 1937 and finishing sixth overall at the Swiss Championships in Davos in 1938. That same year, he came to England to study both figure and speed skating. In no time flat, he earned the National Skating Association's Gold medal in speed skating, gave exhibitions during the intermissions of hockey games at Streatham Ice Rink and beat the country's summer record for the one mile race. He turned professional in London in 1939, emerging as one of the world's experts in two of skating's biggest novelties at the time - stilt skating and barrel jumping.

Georg made a name for himself in America during World War II by offering 'his services' up to skating clubs who were holding carnivals. He was a hit from Lake Placid to Lake Arrowhead and went on to appear in Sonja Henie and Arthur M. Wirtz' show "It Happens On Ice" at the Centre Theatre and a number of smaller scale touring productions such as Michael Christie's Ice Revue of 1942, New York Ice Fantasy and McGowan and Mack's hotel shows. His popularity led to invitations to tour with larger scale productions like the Ice Vogues and Holiday On Ice. He even adapted his act to rollers for the "Skating Vanities" tour. Skating also took him to warmer climes, like Colombia, Argentina, Honolulu and Haiti, where he performed for a former ruling family.

Georg's performances were always huge hits with audiences. He'd usually start by dashing around the rink at razor neck speed and quickly stopping on one foot, spraying snow on the audience. He skated in two foot stilt skates and leap over all manner of things - two kitchen chairs set fifteen feet apart; two kitchen tables, thirty inches high and ten feet long; even an army jeep. One of his most popular tricks was a 'blind' leap through two paper hoops. The first hoop was thirty inches in diameter and the second only two and a half feet. The paper would, of course, obstruct his view of the second loop and he'd have to contort himself in the air to make it through the second one that was hiding behind. This trick was, to audiences, as thrilling and mystifying as any magic trick.

Something much bigger was at play while Georg taking America by storm. He became entangled with a former skater named Lilly Stein, who was under surveillance by the FBI. Lilly was a Jewish, New York based double agent for the Nazis who would sleep with men, then attempt to blackmail them "to give up secrets". In 1941, she was one of thirty three people arrested as part of the Duquesne Spy Ring, the largest espionage case in American history. Very curiously, passenger manifests show that Georg travelled to and from Portugal in 1940, listing his point of contact in America as Lilly. In his book "Double Agent: The First Hero of World War II and How the FBI Outwitted and Destroyed a Nazi Spy Ring", Peter Duffy noted Georg "was described by the Bureau as Stein's Swiss boyfriend in an apparent attempt to distinguish him from the multinational pack." What role, if any, Georg may have played in these matters is unknown.

Photo courtesy "National Ice Skating Guide"

After the War, Georg started his own small-scale touring production called Symphony On Ice. He and his wife/assistant Eileen Meade (whom he met while touring with Holiday On Ice) headlined twice a day shows in shopping malls, restaurants and fairs for decades and were engaged for some time at the Viking Restaurant in Dania, Florida. Georg and Eileen's shows featured the usual ice show fare of the time - figure skating, comedy acts, live musicians and variety numbers. At each show, they'd pick a youngster from the audience and take them on a sleigh ride around the rink. At one nightclub performance in Boston, they performed before a Saudi Arabian king. Eileen recalled, "He insisted on a second performance. His reason was somewhat unique. Several of his favourite wives accompanied him on the trip, but he'd only brought one to dinner. So he wanted to bring the rest of them down so they could see the show." These shows continued until 1984, when Eileen and Georg decided to stay a little closer to their home in Maryland. They supplemented the income from their ice shows by teaching at the College Park Ice Skating Club.

Photo courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide"

Georg acted as the first manager of Baltimore's Memorial Stadium Ice Rink and later taught skating and operated Von's Custom Skate Shop at the Northwest Ice Rink. He collapsed at the rink and died on October 8, 1990 at the age of seventy five, leading behind a legacy as one of skating's greatest tricksters.

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 Animal Dance Craze

"The season for skating and jazz has begun,
And frivolous flappers are out for fun,
Seeking the scenes where the arc-lights glare,
Taking a chance in the chill night air."

- Advertisement for Woods' Peppermint Cure, 1922

When one thinks about the early history of ice dancing, the first dances that usually come to find are earliest versions of Valses (waltzes), quadrilles and marches. However, a long forgotten fad that swept both Europe and North America during the second decade twentieth century made its way to the ice for a several winters and people went nuts over it. The music was of course ragtime and its accompanying dance craze? Animal dances.

Mae Hollander and Louis Borod in Ten-Below Tango position

The Turkey Trot, Bunny Hug, Kangaroo Hop, Monkey Glide, Duck Waddle, Angle Worm Wiggle And Grizzly Bear... All that was missing was the Camel Toe. Oh wait, there was the Camel Walk instead... The general idea of these fun dances was that couples were supposed to imitate the animals the dances were named after with their movements. As you can imagine, hilarity often ensued and many dance clubs actually forbade the dances to be performed within their walls. For some, waddling like a duck or wiggling like a worm was simply too vulgar.

Instead of give up the Grizzly Bear, some translated animal dances to the ice. The October 24, 1915 issue of "The New York Times" reported, "Already several adaptations of modern dances have been made to be executed on skates. The ice waltz, the snowball trot, the frosty hesitation, the ten-below tango and the polar bear hug are some of the ice dances." That same winter, "The Spokesman-Review" reported that "various modifications" of these dances had already been skated on the ice for several winters. These weren't ice dances how we think of them now. They were largely stationary and really wouldn't have required much skating skill beyond being able to stand up and turn around so even the least adept skaters could get their Ten-Below Tango on to the strains of Scott Joplin without too much trouble.

As is the case with most dance crazes, animal dances fell out of favour by the early twenties. However, one of the more sophisticated ones survived and evolved... the Fox-Trot. It was was officially unveiled as a legitimate pattern ice dance by Eva Keats and Erik van der Weyden at a competition in April 1933 organized by the National Skating Association's Departmental Committee For Ice Dance which sought out new dances.

However, skaters were enjoying earlier interpretations of the dance on the ice some time before. Ernest Philip Alphonse Law's 1925 book "Dancing On Ice" mentions a 'Fox-Trot competition' skated to the Bohatsch Ten-Step figure in Manchester in 1924 that was "rather criticized by some authorities on figure-skating." Law himself was admittedly skeptical about the ability to translate the dance to the ice: "The two-step comes easily enough; but to dance exactly the ordinary fox-trot steps on the ice, from the very nature of the surface, is not practicable. Some successful adaptations, nonetheless, have been made to the fascinating rhythm of syncopated music." Erik van der Weyden himself wrote of the dance he and his wife created: "It should be emphasized from the start that the Fox-Trot is a serpentine dance, skateable in rinks of any size or shape. No special placing was ever intended, and it is left to individual dancers to get the best possible interpretation, consistent with strong edges and correct steps." Just as the Ten-Below Tango and Polar Bear Hug fell out of favour, Eva Keats and Erik van der Weyden's original vision for the Fox-Trot has evolved considerably in the decades since it was first officially introduced. It's a reminder of one constant in figure skating history: continuous change.

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.

Ready For Reader Mail?

It's once again time to unpack the mail bag, answer some of your questions and share some of the interesting e-mails and social media messages that have come my way over the last few months. I'm going to try to do this quarterly from now on so things don't pile up. As always, if you have a question you'd like me to tackle or feedback on a blog please reach out via e-mail.

READER QUESTIONS

Jana Dočekalová and František Mrázek 

From Kateřina (via e-mail): "I am [wondering] if you have information about Jana Dočekalová."

A: Thanks for reaching out Kateřina! I've never done a blog about Jana Mrázková (Dočekalová) but what I can tell you is that she was by all accounts a remarkable free skater. She attempted a triple Salchow in the free skate in 1959 - something that women just weren't doing at that time. Some witnesses say she landed it at that year's Worlds in Colorado Springs, but Petra Burka has been historically credited as being the first woman to land it in competition. Jana was often way, way behind in figures though so that's what ultimately cost her more than one medal. After going from fourth at the 1960 Olympics to twenty fifth (!) in 1964, she turned pro and toured in a Czechoslovakian ice revue with her motorcyclist husband František Mrázek. She defected from the Iron Curtain in the summer of 1965 when the tour was in Yugoslavia, crossing the border to Austria on foot on a rainy night and seeking political asylum. The next year, she came to America and toured with the Ice Capades. She started teaching at the West Toronto Figure Skating Club in 1968. I wasn't able to find much more on her after that aside from a 2014 obituary for her husband."

From Lucy (via e-mail): "I always find your blog informative... I am from Austin and have been attending figure skating championship events since the 1980's. The first championship I attended was the [U.S.] Olympic Festival in Houston. Do you know when [the Festival] was first held?"

A: Glad you're enjoying Skate Guard, James! The U.S. Olympic Festival, was first held in July of 1978 in Colorado Springs and was then called the National Sports Festival. The idea of the festival was to showcase American athletes in a variety of sports. The Festival was held in non-Olympic years to build up the hype for the next Games and in the first couple of years, that hype was obviously for the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid. Figure skating was among the twenty sports showcased the first year and the winners were Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner in pairs, Carol Fox and Richard Dalley in dance and Linda Fratianne in women's. David Santee and Scott Hamilton were both in the top three after the men's figures, but withdrew. The winner was Scott Cramer.

TROPHIES GALORE!

From Ulrich Sander (via Facebook): Prizes and medals of my grandma Elsa Rendschmidt.

THE 1960 WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

From Ron Vincent (via e-mail): "Bringing back and featuring skating history is fabulously interesting to me and some postings bring back personal memories e.g., I was a spectator at the 1960 Worlds in Vancouver. The excitement was huge. Before there were rules about how late a competition could take place, I think Alain Giletti won around 1 am! This is what stimulated the rule. Don Jackson of course skated very well and we were all proud... At 1:00 am. few people had left or were asleep! Excitement prevailed right until the last minute – they wanted to know who won! Worlds was not on TV at the time (I'm pretty sure) and so this was one of the hottest tickets of the season."

LOVE FOR LYNN COPLEY-GRAVES' BOOK

From Frazer Ormondroyd (via Facebook): "The Evolution Of Dance On Ice" by Lynn Copley-Graves... draws from so many sources and rather than recreating history in narrative form, it relies on depth of research. There is hardly anything this book can't tell me when I want to look up something related to ice dance. I wish we had a similar resource for the other disciplines."

From Carol Lane (via Facebook): "The Evolution of Dance on Ice... the depth of research is astonishing."

From Elaine Hooper (via Facebook): "Totally agree about the Lynn Copley-Graves book. I have had my copy for many years and is a go to for so much information."

HOTEL AND NIGHTCLUB SHOWS

From Randy Gardner (via Twitter):

EDITH WHETSTONE AND AL RICHARDS

From Debbie (Richards) Jennings: "One of the neat things about my parents time skating back in the day was how much of a social thing it was. They would go to the rink every Tuesday night for dancing and again Saturday for the 'tea' dance where they had amazing food. Then there were outside skating parties on lakes and rivers. Old style. They were all life long friends who supported each other. After Daddy died (I was eight) in the plane crash, the skating club skaters took care of Mom in the best way. They were her lifelong friends."

THE GREAT CARMO CIRCUS

From Daisy (via Facebook): "This small "window hanger" (14 1/4" x 9 1/4") for British magician Harry Cameron's "Great Carmo Circus and Menagerie" of 1929 sold at auction today for $187.50... It was at a magician auction in Chicago. It has a few circus items too. I thought you would like to see 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.