Discover The History Of Figure Skating!
The Poison And Power Of The Pen
The Twentieth Century Bernard Fox Story
"Joan and Bernard slipped over the ice with long silken glides that, because of their very effortlessness, were a moving picture of joyous youth." - Maribel Vinson Owen, "Advanced Figure Skating"
The son of Mary (Fitzpatrick) and Matthew Fox, Matthew Bernard 'Babe' Fox was born October 6, 1916 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He had two older brothers, Paul and Gerald, and in his youth divided his time between the family's year round home in Brookline and summer home in Marblehead. His Roman Catholic parents were well-to-do enough to employ three live-in servants. His father was the President and Director of the Brigham dry goods merchandising company and a former chairman of the Board of Directors of the B. Peek Co. in Lewiston and Filene's in Boston.
In 1935, Bernard won the U.S. novice men's title and travelled abroad to England, where he toured the country's top ice rinks, learning dances like the Kilian, Blues and Viennese Waltz which weren't widely known in the United States at the time. The trip ended badly - his pairs partner Joan Tozzer broke her leg and Bernard injured his knee.
The following season, Joan and Bernard won the U.S. junior pairs title. Bernard also won the junior men's crown, making history as the first man to win the national novice and junior titles in successive years. A noteworthy feature of Joan and Bernard's pairs routine were the Salchow jumps they did past other, which Maribel described as "a particularly rhythmic move, as the sway of their bodies as they approached on the rather long preparation was interesting and the dip for the jump was timed so that they passed each other actually in the air."
After claiming the bronze medal in senior pairs in 1937, Joan and Bernard went on to win three successive U.S. senior pairs titles. They also won the North American Championships in 1939. During their competitive career, Bernard was studying at Harvard University, where Joan's father worked as a professor. He graduated with a Bachelor Of Arts in 1938.
Joan and Bernard were named to the 1940 Winter Olympic team, but as we all know, those Games were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II. Joan's engagement was announced before the 1940 Nationals, as was the fact that she planned to "completely, absolutely" retire from the sport once she was married that July.
Joan spent much of the War in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her husband Phillip served in the Police Reserve, spending "three nights a week out in a patrol car hauling in drunks, blackout violators, settling domestic troubles, seeing that all alien radios are locked up, etc." She worked four days a week in the Women's Air Raid Defense, plotting airplanes around the islands on giant maps. In her spare time, she volunteered with the U.S.O.
During the time he served in the military, Bernard was still very much involved with skating. He served on the USFSA's Competitions and Rules, Skating Standards and Judges and Judging Committees and acted as a judge at several U.S. Championships. In 1948, he judged the men's and pairs events at the Winter Olympic Games and the women's event at the World Championships. The fact he never judged at a major international event again can be well explained by his marks at those Worlds in Davos. In the free skating, he and the Swiss judge who sat stood out like a sore thumb, placing the twenty skaters in the exact same order, often differing wildly from the rest of the panel with their marks.
Bernard had married Lucy Linder Pope six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, with whom he had two sons, David and Richard. The couple divorced in the late sixties and she remarried to acclaimed Australian tennis player and coach Harry Hopman.
Bernard passed away in Santa Monica, California on October 6, 1998 - his eighty-second birthday. Though Joan Tozzer was inducted to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 1997, Bernard has never been honoured for his contributions to the sport in the thirties and forties.
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
The 1954 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
South of the border, journalists Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly had just released a thirty minute documentary on McCarthyism. The country's Liberal government was led by Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent The latest fashion trends were Garbadine suits and taffeta dresses. Jo Stafford's "Make Love To Me" blared on Electrohome stereos. The year was 1954, and from March 11 to 13, Canada's best figure skaters convened in Calgary, Alberta for the Dominion's Figure Skating Championships.
In 1954, the European Championships in Bolzano and World Championships in Oslo had been held in late January and mid-February. The Canadian and U.S. Championships were both held in March, in the height of carnival season. Their results were considered when the CFSA named the North American and World teams at their autumn 1954 Annual Meeting.
When skaters and officials arrived in Calgary, they were met by a group of 'caddies' (skaters who held up the judges' scores) dressed in leather jackets and white cowboy hats. By the time of the free skating finals at the Stampede Corral, even the judges were sporting white hats. Social events included a reception at the Glencoe Club, numerous supper parties hosted at the homes of local skating officials and a trip to nearby Banff to swim in the hot springs. Let's take a look back at the most important aspect of these Championships - the skating!
THE JUNIOR EVENTS
New champions were crowned in all four of the junior disciplines. Doreen 'Do Do' Leech and Norman Walker bested Claudette Lacaille and Jeffery Johnston to win the McLaughlin-Stephens Cups for junior dance in a three-two split. The dances were the Ten-Fox, European Waltz and Paso Doble.
Eight talented young men competed for the Howard Trophy in the junior men's event. All but one judge placed Dick Rimmer of the Minto Skating Club first. The second place skater, Norman Walker of the Connaught Skating Club, received ordinals ranging from first to sixth. Sixth was Bob Paul. Dick Rimmer was a fifteen year old only child. He was in tenth grade at Guelph Collegiate, studying Mathematics, Latin and French.
THE ICE DANCE COMPETITIONS
As was customary at the time, there were separate contests for the Waltz, Tenstep and Senior Dance. Geraldine Fenton and Bill McLachlan of the Granite Club won the latter two events, but lost the Dance title to Doreen Leech and Norman Walker, the junior dance champions. Eighteen year old Fenton had won the 1953 junior dance title with Glen Skuce and enjoyed swimming and painting. McLachlan was a tenth grade student at the Lawrence Park Collegiate who enjoyed philately, leathercraft and basketball.
The dance event consisted only of compulsories - the Ten-Fox, Paso Doble, Quickstep and Three-Lobe Waltz. Though many junior dance champions 'skated up' in the senior ranks in the years that followed, Leech and Walker hold the unusual distinction of being the only couple in history to win both the senior and junior dance titles in the same year. Leech was a twenty one year old stenographer; Walker worked several part-time jobs to finance his skating.
THE PAIRS AND FOURS COMPETITIONS
Audrey Downie, Patricia Spray, Brian Power and Norman Walker of the Connaught Skating Club were the only entry in the fours event. As the rules required more than one team to compete for the prize to be awarded, the British Columbian team gave an exhibition instead - but it was marked by the judges nonetheless. The four broke up later in the year when Spray got married and Walker turned professional to coach at the Wascana Winter Club.
Fresh off a win at the 1954 World Championships in Oslo, Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden were the obvious favourites in the senior pairs event. They trounced their competitors - Audrey Downie and Brian Power and Dawn Ann Steckley and David Lowery - earning first place marks from every judge.
THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION
After the school figures, only four points separated the top four senior women. Carole Jane Pachl, who would go on to win the Canadian title from 1955 to 1957, was unable to compete due to injury. Barbara Gratton managed to defend her Canadian title by the slimmest of margins in a three-two split over the Glencoe Club's Sonja Currie, who won the Canadian junior title in 1953. 1952 Olympian Vera Virginia 'Vevi' Smith took the bronze, ahead of Dawn Ann Steckley, Ann Johnston and Barbara Jean Jacques.
Barbara Gratton's winning free skate was set to a medley of music from the 1937 Walt Disney film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". She was seventeen years old and a grade thirteen student at Loretto Abbey in Toronto. She planned to attend the University Of Toronto in the autumn.
THE MEN'S COMPETITION
Peter Firstbrook had turned professional, paving the way for a new Canadian Champion to be crowned in Calgary. Charles Snelling and Douglas Court sported Canadian 'flashes' from their trip to the World Championships in Oslo. Snelling had been the runner-up to Firstbrook at the previous year's Canadians; Douglas Court the junior men's champion. Despite an unusual wardrobe malfunction - a pocket comb falling out of his jacket early in his free skating performance - Snelling held on to his lead in the figures to unanimously defeat Court and the third men's competitor, Toronto's Paul Tatton.
Charles Snelling was only sixteen and was so excited by winning the Minto Cup that he carried it around at the after party. He was a grade eleven student from Toronto who enjoyed playing baseball, building model airplanes and collecting photographs of street cars.
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
Let's Talk Toe-Loop's!
I think it goes without saying that in the early twentieth century, figure skating didn't have the same obsession with jumping as it does today. A successful skater possessed a strong mastery of the school figures and in free skating aspired only to present a charming program peppered with novel moves - a toe-pirouette here, a special figure there, maybe a spiral, pose or small jump to accentuate a highlight in the rinkside orchestra's music. Jumps were by and large experiments.
One such 'experiment' that started popping up in programs in the Edwardian era was the (unattributed) Spectacle or Brillen jump, which Irving Brokaw described in his 1913 book "The Art Of Skating". The Brillen jump took off from a back outside edge with a toe-pick assist, with the skater landing on the left back outside edge. At the time, the Axel and loop were perhaps the most popular jumps and the Brillen never quite took off.
As triple toe-loop's became 'a thing' in the late sixties and early seventies, there came to be a decidedly American preoccupation with the the toe-loop and its variation, the toe-Walley. The difference, one was told, was in the entrance and that the toe-Walley took off from an inside edge, not an outside one. This became a talking point when Elaine Zayak won the 1982 World Championships with six triple jumps - all toe-loop's, Salchows and toe-Walley's - and the infamous 'Zayak rule' came into play. In "Tracings" magazine in 1983, Alexandra Stevenson wrote, "There may be quite a controversy over triple toe-Walley's this year. For a right-footed jumper, a toe-Walley is a jump from a right inside edge and the left toe, turning counter-clockwise. The trouble is that after the approach, a left three turn, almost no one steps onto the inside edge. They step onto the outside edge. That makes the jump a toe-loop jump. The new regulations state that a triple jump cannot be repeated except that one triple can be repeated in combination. At Skate America, Cynthia Coull of Canada did a triple toe-loop, a triple toe-loop in combination and a triple toe-Walley. How can the judges tell if it's a true triple toe-Walley? Most skaters are playing it safe and not trying it. Cynthia's coach, Kerry Leitch, says he has talked to many judges who say the toe-Walley can be accepted as a separate triple, but I know of many who won't. It will be interesting to see what this quarrel brings up internationally." The fact that slow-mo replay was not something that ISU judges had access to under the 6.0 system is something definitely worth considering.
Later in the eighties, there was more toe-loop controversy. Jozef Sabovčík's historic first quadruple toe-loop was ratified, then wasn't, and Kurt Browning was credited as the first man to officially land the jump two years later. Sabovčík had his redemption in 1995, when he made history as the first skater to land the jump in professional competition at the Men's Outdoor Championships in Sun Valley. Thanks largely to Elvis Stojko, quadruple toe-loop's became the name of the game by the late nineties and in 2018, Alexandra Trusova was credited by the ISU as the first woman to land the jump in an ISU Championship.
TECHNICAL FIRSTS UNDER THE IJS SYSTEM
Only jumps receiving a 0 or positive GOE were considered when compiling this data.
Element |
Olympic Games |
World Championships |
European Championships |
Four Continents Championships |
Triple toe-loop (men's) |
Jeffrey Buttle, Sergei Davydov, Anton Kovalevski, Stefan Lindemann, Evan Lysacek, Viktor Pfeifer, Evgeni Plushenko, Emanuel Sandhu, Matt Savoie, Shawn Sawyer, Zoltán Tóth, Kevin van der Perren, Tomáš Verner, Johnny Weir, Min Zhang (2006, short program) |
Kristoffer Berntsson, Gheorghe Chiper, Samuel Contesti, Yon Garcia, Brian Joubert, Maciej Kuś, Stéphane Lambiel, Viktor Pfeifer, Roman Serov, Silvio Smalun, Kevin van der Perren, Min Zhang (2005, Qualifying Group B) |
Gheorghe Chiper, Andrei Griazev, John Hamer, Stéphane Lambiel, Viktor Pfeifer, Roman Serov, Kevin van der Perren (2005, short program) |
Sean Carlow, Gareth Echardt, Ben Ferreira, Kazumi Kishimoto, Chengjiang Li, Justin Pietersen, Matt Savoie, Shawn Sawyer, Daisuke Takahashi, Min Zhang (2005, short program) |
Triple toe-loop (women's) |
Silvia Fontana, Tuğba Karademir, Fleur Maxwell (2006, short program) |
Miki Ando, Joanne Carter, Sasha Cohen, Idora Hegel, Lina Johansson, Yan Liu, Susanna Pöykiö, Joannie Rochette, Júlia Sebestyén (2005, Qualifying Group B) |
Candice Didier, Laura Fernández, Carolina Kostner, Lina Johansson, Karen Venhuizen (2005, short program) |
Amber Corwin, Na Hou, Yukari Nakano (2005, short program) |
Quadruple toe-loop (men's) |
Evgeni Plushenko, Emanuel Sandhu, Min Zhang (2006, short program) |
Stéphane Lambiel, Min Zhang (2005, Qualifying Group B) |
Brian Joubert, Stéphane Lambiel (2005, short program) |
Chengjiang Li, Daisuke Takahashi, Min Zhang (2005, short program) |
Quadruple toe-loop (women's) |
Kamila Valieva (2022, team event free skate) |
none |
Alexandra Trusova (2020, free skate) |
none |
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
Softly, Deftly, Music Shall Surround You: Tracing The Origins Of Figure Skating Warhorses
In the mid-twentieth century, the expression 'warhorse' became part of the international vocabulary, often used to describe a work of art or music that became familiar because it was seen or shown many times.
Though there are millions of amazing pieces of music in the world, the figure skating world has long had a tendency to circle back to warhorses. When one skater has used a piece of music to effect, coaches or choreographes often take notice. It's a rare example of recycling not being good for the (figure skating) environment.
The music that some consider to be overused in figure skating today isn't the same music that was considered to be overused in decades past. In the first half of the twentieth century, Strauss waltzes and pieces like "The Dream Of Olwen" and "Les Patineurs" were used ad nauseum. At the 1964 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, no less than seven skaters performed to music from the same operetta - Franz von Suppé's "Banditenstreiche". The latter pieces are rarely used today, but programs to pieces like "Carmen" and "West Side Story" are a dime a dozen.
I've combed back issues of "Skating", "Skating World", "The Skater" and "The Canadian Skater" magazine and old books and put together an interesting little list of warhorses and their surprising possible origins. In some cases, the skaters who first used a piece of music are quite obvious (Michelle Kwan's free skate to the soundtrack from "The Red Violin" for example) while others, like Maurice Ravel's famous composition "Bolero" (made famous in skating by Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean) might surprise you. What are your favourite and least favourite skating warhorses?
Warhorse |
Possible Original Performer(s) |
Carmen |
Willy Böckl, "The Land Of The Midnight Sun" (Skating Club of New York carnival), 1930 |
Music Of The Night from Phantom Of The Opera |
Dorothy Hamill, 1987 World Professional Championships |
El Tango De Roxanne from Moulin Rouge |
Evgeni Plushenko, 2001/02 free skate (amateur competitions) |
Bolero |
Finale, 1934 Ice Follies of the Toronto Skating Club |
Exogenesis (Muse) |
Sinead and John Kerr, 2010/2011 free dance (amateur competitions) |
Malaguena |
Marion Davies, 1949 gala at Queen's Ice Rink, Armando 'Pancho' Rodriguez, 1950 free skate (amateur competitions) |
Otanal |
Maria Butyrskaya, 1997/98 free skate (amateur competitions) |
Blues For Klook |
Maya Usova and Alexandr Zhulin, 1992/93 free dance (amateur competitions) |
Lawrence Of Arabia |
Jimmy Crockett, 1963 All Year Figure Skating Club carnival |
La Tosca |
Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, 1992 Tom Collins Tour Of Champions |
Evita |
Sergio Ballongue, 1980/81 free skate (amateur competitions) |
The Mission |
Paul Wylie, 1988/89 free skate (amateur competitions) |
The Nutcracker |
Used in no less than six different North American club carnivals in 1940 |
Reel Around The Sun from Riverdance |
Opening Number, 1996 Elvis Tour of Champions, Kate Robinson and Peter Breen, 1996/97 free dance and Aren Nielsen, 1996/97 free skate (amateur competitions) |
The Red Violin |
Michelle Kwan, 1999/2000 free skate (amateur competitions) |
Liebestraum |
Mary Jane Halsted, Margaret Leslie and Lorraine Hopkins, 1936 Montreal Winter Club carnival |
Scheherazade |
Harrison Thomson, 1939 Hollywood Ice Revue |
Samson And Delilah |
Peggy Fleming, 1967/68 free skate (amateur competitions) |
Clair de Lune |
Vivi-Anne Hultén, 1939 Skating Club Of New York carnival |
Moonlight Sonata |
Opening Number, 1934 Ice Follies of the Toronto Skating Club |
The Feeling Begins from The Last Temptation Of Christ |
Jill Trenary, 1992 U.S. Open Professional Figure Skating Championships |
Romeo And Juliet |
Mary Bohland and Don Condon, 1945 Ice Follies |
West Side Story |
Peggy Fleming, 1967/68 exhibition program |
Rhapsody In Blue |
Group Number starring Maribel Vinson and George E.B. Hill, 1935 Skating Club Of Boston carnival |
Schindler's List |
Paul Wylie, 1994 Vicks 44 North American Open |
The Firebird |
Cathleen (Pope) and Willie Frick, 1936 Skating Club Of Boston carnival |
Hallelujah |
Brian Orser, 2002 Kurt Browning's Gotta Skate II |
Feelin' Good |
Caryn Kadavy, 2005 Desjardins World Team Skating Challenge |
Swan Lake |
Up for serious debate – Lucienne Bonne and Sonja Henie both performed “Dying Swan” routines around the same time and Lucienne claimed Sonja stole the act from her. The first was also perhaps Charlotte Oelschlägel, who Maribel Vinson Owen recalled seeing perform to it on a trip to Europe in 1931. |
Once Upon A Time In Mexico |
Evgeni Plushenko, Stephen Carriere, Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem and Alexander Aiken, 2005/06 free skates (amateur competitions) |
Nessun Dorma |
Erik Larson, 1989/90 free skate (amateur competitions) |
In This Shirt |
Jeffrey Buttle, 2012 Medal Winners Open |
Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini |
Hayes Alan Jenkins, 1956 on The Ed Sullivan Show |
Nothing Else Matters |
Steven Cousins, 1995 ISU European Tour Of Champions |
Who Wants To Live Forever? |
Viktor Petrenko, 1990 World Championships (exhibition) |
Paint It Black |
Hilary Green and Glyn Watts, 1975/1976 free dance (amateur competitions) |