The Great Danes: Pioneers In Danish Figure Skating

Credited with introducing the ice sports of bandy and hockey to the people of Denmark is a Briton named Charles Goodman Tebbutt, who was also a Dutch speed skating champion in 1887. That said, Jackson Haines' European tour brought figure skating into the consciousness of the Danish people prior to Tebbutt's impact on ice sports in Denmark and in 1869 and 1870, the country's first skating clubs were formed: Kjøbenhavns Skøjteløberforening (KSF) and the Frederiksberg Skating Association.

People flocked to the frozen moats in Copenhagen, such as the Christianshavn, in the late nineteenth century in increasing numbers to skate their hearts out. It was during that pioneering period in Denmark that figure skating competitions were held in conjunction with speed skating races. Nigel Brown's authoritative 1959 book "Ice-Skating: A History" notes "it was in Denmark just after the middle of the nineteenth century when the title of 'artistic skating competitions' was billed in conjunction with speed contests; but after the usual series of speed races for men and women, which included a race backwards of more than a mile, the artistic part of of the programme terminated the competition and took the form of an obstacle race. To negotiate the twelve stumbling-blocks placed upon the ice at various intervals was undoubtedly considered an art, and neither a game, nor a race!"

Charles Goodman Tebbutt

The first Danish Figure Skating Championships were held in 1912, the same year the Danish Skating Union was formed. The men's figure skating title was won that year by a Mr. H. Meincke, the ladies title by Gerda Iversen and the pairs event by Inger Morville and Folmer Søgaard. These national figure skating competitions were held semi-annually in the country (largely because the country was dependent entirely on the weather with no artificial ice rinks to be found) but it wouldn't actually be over twenty years until a Danish skater would make an appearance internationally, despite the fact the Danish Skating Union joined the ISU in 1913.

Esther Bornstein was Denmark's first internationally competitive figure skater when she travelled to London, England for the 1933 European Championships, where she placed tenth of the eleven ladies competing. The winner that year was who else? Sonja Henie. Bornstein also made an appearance at the following year's European and World Championships, with similarly disappointing results.

The country's first breakout success story would be in Per Cock-Clausen, who won an incredible
thirteen Danish men's titles over a twenty three year span from 1940 to 1963 as well as four Nordic skating titles as well. He competed against Dick Button at both the 1948 and 1952 Winter Olympic Games and it was during the forties that the number of skating clubs in Denmark grew to twenty, a result both of Cock-Clausen's pioneering success in the sport and the harsher winters that allowed for more natural ice suitable for skating to form. Cock-Clausen was undefeated in Denmark throughout his incredibly long skating career, was responsible for the coaching of younger skaters at the Frederiksberg Skating Association and also worked to build the sport as a member of the Danish Skating Union's board as well at the same time he was competing. He wrote several books about the sport including "Skojtelob", "Konstakningens" and "Asien og verdensmagterne" and actually went on to be a successful surveyor and politician.

Cock-Clausen's success saw a greater rise in Danish skating's popularity. Harry Meistrup and Alf Refer dominated the pairs scene in the country from 1940 to 1963, with different partners successively winning every pairs title in the same twenty three year span that Cock-Clausen dominated the men's event. Unfortunately, after this heyday, the popularity of Danish skating seemed to dwindle a bit and it wasn't really until the eighties and early nineties when World Professional Champion Lorna Brown worked with skaters like the late Lars Dresler that the country again made a real impact internationally. An interesting anecdote to those who may not know: U.S. Champion and World Medallist Todd Sand was the 1982 and 1983 Danish men's champion!

In my interview with Michael Tyllesen, he talked about the evolution of skating in Denmark from the eighties to today: "Back in the eighties, The Danish Skating Federation had a training center for the most talented skaters in Denmark. When I was twelve years old, I got the offer from the Danish Skating Federation to live and train at the training center. It meant that I had to move away from my parents and live in another city in a big house with five of Denmark's biggest talents. A family would take care of all of us and make dinner and so on for us. They lived on the first floor and all the skaters lived in basement and all skaters had their own room. We went to normal school in the day and skated together before and after school/work. We had a national coach and a choreographer to teach us. Besides the ice time, we had to do off-ice, weight training, dancing, running and stretching. We even got massage once week, so we had everything we needed. We paid a small amount each month for living and training at the training center and the rest was paid by the Danish Federation. I lived at the skating center for four years then it closed down. It was very expensive to run for the Danish Skating Federation and many skating clubs didn't like that 'their' skaters were taken away from their own coach. I'm so lucky I got to live and train at the skating center and having some good skaters to look up to and train with in a professional environment. We had everything we needed to become good skaters. Some of all the best skaters we have had in Denmark ever are from the time where the Skating Center existed and I would never have achieved the results I have, if I wouldn't have lived there. It's very difficult to make good skaters in Denmark these days. It's a small country. We do have quite a lot of ice rinks, but we have to share the ice time with ice hockey. All skaters pay a monthly fee to the club and then the trainers give group lessons, so all the skaters have to share the lessons. Not all clubs allow private lessons and the talents are spread between the different clubs instead of all the talents training together at the same place. The sport has also become very expensive, so not all the skaters/parents can afford what it requires if you want to be on a high level. The Danish Skating Federation doesn't really support the skaters with much money anymore. In Denmark, we have something called TEAM DENMARK, which is an organization who support all the best athletes in Denmark. You need to be a 'TOP ELITE' sportsman/woman and place around the top ten at Europeans or the top 15 at Worlds to get money support from them. I was lucky that I got a lot of money and support from Team Denmark and the Danish Skating Federation from I was twelve years old until I finished my amateur career in year 2000, because my parents would never be able to pay all the money it has cost for my skating. In the nineties, when I started competing at Europeans and Worlds, I combined my training in Denmark with four summers in Edmonton, Canada and later four summers and also winters in Lake Arrowhead, California, which was great."

Looking at Danish skating today, you see a country with some very promising prospects. Skaters like Pernille Sørensen, Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sørensen are all making their own impacts on skating in the country and abroad and the future couldn't look brighter... and all of that success is built on an early foundation built in a Scandinavian country whose plunge into the sport wasn't perhaps as carefree as Norway or Sweden's but is just as interesting nonetheless.

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.

Böckl Up: It's Time To Talk Skating, Big Willy Style

On January 27, 1873, Richard Wilhelm 'Willy' Böckl was born in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, a southern Austrian city which borders with present day Slovenia. His skating club was the Eislaufverein Wörthersee, but during his competitive skating career he also spent some time training in Vienna while studying at the University Of Vienna. His mother Paula was a great supporter of his skating.

Much was unique about his career. For starters, he was one of a very small group of skaters that enjoyed sustained international success both before and after the Great War. He also faced incredible competition in his home country from skaters like Fritz Kachler, Ernst and Josef Oppacher, Ludwig Wrede and Erwin Schwarzböck throughout his career. In fact, in sporting publications from his era like the Illustriertes (Österreichisches) Sportblatt, he was frequently overshadowed in favour of his competitors at home from the Vienna Skating Club and Cottage-Eislaufverein even while at the height of his career internationally.

Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland

Perhaps most notable when talking about Willy's contribution to the sport in a historical context, however, is his pioneering role in emphasizing sheer athleticism in an era where excellence in school figures and presentation where the focus of many of his peers. He wasn't doing triple Axels by any means, but Willy's free skating performances focused on high single axels, a peppering of easier double jumps, split variations, steps and figures. He has been (unofficially) credited as the inventor of the inside axel and with performing the first double loop.

Left: Harald Rooth, Andor Szende and Willy Böckl. Right: Willy Böckl and Gillis Grafström. Photo courtesy "Skating Through The Years".

As for his competitive career, Willy won a total of four Austrian titles, eight medals at the European Championships (six of them gold), nine medals at the World Championships (four of them gold) and silver medals at both the 1924 and 1928 Winter Olympics behind Gillis Grafström. It should also be noted that at the 1924 Games in Chamonix, he was actually the winner of the free skate. Not to diminish his strength in school figures (because he was regarded by many as excellent) but the times he did seem to lose, figures were often the reason why. For instance, the February 22, 1914 edition of the Neue Freie Presse newspaper noted of his bronze medal win at the 1914 European Championships in Vienna that "third place went to Willy Böckl, whose free skating [was] the best of the day while [what] he did in the compulsory exercises what not on the usual level." He retired from competition in 1928 on a high, defeating future Olympic Gold Medallist Karl Schäfer at that year's World Championships in Berlin. His coach for much of his competitive career was Pepi Weiß-Pfändler.

Off the ice, Willy was a mathematician and shipbuilding engineer by trade. In a business capacity, he actually travelled back and forth from Austria and Germany to the United States on a yearly basis between 1928 and 1935 on such ships as the Aquitania, Ile De France, Columbus, Milwaukee, Hamburg, Rex and S.S. New York. During this same period, he kept active in skating as an international judge, putting his educations in both mathematics and skating to practical use. It wouldn't be long before he made the decision to immigrate to the U.S. and take up jobs coaching at the Skating Club of New York and in Lake Placid. Among his considerable stable of students were future professional star Dorothy Goos, Eastern Champion Kathryn Ehlers and U.S. Medallist, Skating Club of New York President, national judge and 1961 Sabena Crash victim Eddie LeMaire.

Willy penned the books "Willy Boeckl On Figure Skating" and "How To Judge Figure Skating", the latter offering one of the most thorough guides to the judging of school figures I've ever seen. He was an advocate for hands on education for judges, writing that becoming a good judge "needs a great deal of practice in watching good skaters and bad ones, gathering information everywhere. I would say to become a good judge needs practically as much practice as it does to become a good skater, not so much physically, perhaps, but certainly mentally. Become a skater does a figure he has time to ponder, but a judge has not much time to think. A swiftly moving free skating program passes like a film, you have to take everything of it in split seconds and only in the well trained judge's mind will everything register as far as the human mind is able to register the multitude of quickly similar following moves."

Right photo courtesy National Archives of Poland

As if winning six European titles, four World titles, two Olympic medals, judging, coaching and writing about skating weren't enough, in August 1938, Willy was elected the first President of the American Teacher's Guild, an early forerunner of today's Professional Skater's Association. In the fifties, he was even part of Royal Dutch Airlines' international tour program, personally conducting tours Anna McGoldrick style to 'the internationally famous ice skating rinks in Europe.' In the spring of 1940, he survived an emergency appendix operation.

Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive

Willy retired from coaching in 1944, taking up the position of President of the Universal Tire Company in Boston. Information regarding his death is unclear. Several non-primary sources cite his passing as occurring in the city he was born (Klagenfurt am Wörthersee) although his Social Security Index Records seems to imply that his death actually occured in Massachusetts. We do know that he passed away on April 22, 1975 and is missed by many. Two years later, he was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall Of Fame alongside fellow World Champions Lawrence Demmy, Donald Jackson and Jean Westwood. His trophies were ultimately donated by his daughter to the World Figure Skating Museum's collection after his death.

Courtesy the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

Willy's legacy is as a jack of all trades, master of all and to me, I look at his athletic style at the time of the staid English Style and graceful Continental Style as really quite a revolutionary approach to free skating at the time, whether it's your cup of tea or not. Skating has long had its skaters who you think of more for their athleticism than artistry like Timothy Goebel, Midori Ito, Tonya Harding, Elvis Stojko and a good majority of today's competitors under the current IJS system, and you know what, there's room for everyone's strengths in the history books. I think Willy would agree that great skaters are all worthy of a round of applause and a fair score!

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.

America's Axel Paulsen: The Johnny Nilsson Story

Norway's Axel Paulsen was one of very few skaters to navigate his way between the worlds of figure and speed skating with ease. A multiple time winner of the World Professional Speed Skating Championships, Paulsen was also the inventor of the difficult Axel jump which still bears his name today. As we know, he performed it on speed skates. America also had its own Axel Paulsen in Johnny Nilsson, a champion speed skater who was also a very fine 'fancy' skater in his own right.

Like Paulsen, the Minneapolis skater was also a repeat World Professional Speed Skating Champion, winning his titles in 1902 and 1903. The February 8, 1903 edition of "The Pittsburgh Press" offered a record of Johnny's second World Professional win in Montreal: "The feature of the day was the three-mile professional race, the finish of which was the closest ever seen in this city. Nilsson made the pace for more than two miles when he dropped back and McCullough, the former amateur champion of the world, took the lead, holding it to the turn in the finish, when Nilsson shot ahead and broke the tape at the finish four feet in front of McCollough. Three thousand people cheered loud and long while the champion circled round the rink and when he arrived at the tape bowing his acknowledgements he was literally carried off by his friends and admirers." His victorious win in Montreal was recorded for the "Living Canada" series by Pulitzer prize winning photographer Joe Rosenthal, who took the iconic "Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima" World War II picture. As a speed skater, Nilsson held records at the turn of the century in all races from a half a mile to five miles. As an interesting footnote, he wasn't the only Johnny Nilsson to be the world's fastest skater. Confusingly to my research for this blog, in 1963, Sweden's Jonny Nilsson won the World All-Round Speed Skating Championships in Karuizawa, Japan.

Big thanks to Bev Bayzant for providing this rare image of Nilsson from the McMaster University Archive Collection!

Johnny was allegedly every bit as good a 'fancy' skater as he was a speed skater. A revised copy of Frederick Toombs' book "How to become a skater" gives an account of his show skating expertise: "Nilsson probably never has had an equal, certainly no superior. Every imaginable 'stunt' of the fancy skater is at his command and he has originated a large number of startling feats. For example, he will approach a chair at full speed on one foot and leap completely over its back, landing on the same foot without losing his balance. Then again he will place three of four barrels side by side and jump over them, turning around in mid-air and landing with his face toward the barrels. A novel sight it is to see him run backward on the points of his skate. He goes round and round a circle with his feet in the spread-eagle position, increasing his speed without raising either blade from the ice."

Johnny was also an excellent oarsman, gymnast, tumbler, boxer, wrestler and sprinter. Even more interestingly, he was also quite the engineer. During his lifetime, he built three motorcycles, three automobiles and worked on developing an airship. He also was one of the contributing writers of the 1902 book "The Art Of Figure Skating".

Johnny believed that his success was owed to his teetotalism, as referenced in Toombs' book: "Nilsson may well be described as a 'jolly good fellow.' His genial disposition has made him a prime favorite wherever he is known. He is a 'natural born' humorist, and witty indeed is the man that can turn the laugh against the champion... Nilsson believes that every skater should be temperate in his habits, and should indulge in a variety of exercises, so as to give himself good all-around muscular development. He never smoked a cigar or cigarette; nether has he ever indulged in intoxicating liquors. Therefore it is easy to understand how he has been able to uphold his supremacy for almost a decade." Whatever floats your boat, I guess. I'd much rather have a glass of wine and toast to Johnny Nilsson, the late, great, unknown American contemporary of Axel Paulsen.

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.

South American Skating History... You'd Be Surprised!

The Palais de Glace in Buenos Aires

Patinação, patinaje... no matter the language, I promise you that the history of ice skating in South America is not only a fascinating tale but one that takes us back in the time machine much further than many would suppose.

We'll start by revisiting the story of the continent's first Olympic figure skater, Horatio Tertuliano Torromé. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1861 to an Argentine father and a Brazilian mother, Horatio Tertuliano Torromé emigrated to Great Britain with his family and took up figure skating. In 1902, he almost won a medal at the World Figure Skating Championships in London, England, but dropped from a third place finish in compulsory figures to finish fourth in free skating and just off the podium underneath Ulrich Salchow, Madge Syers-Cave and Germany's Martin Gordan. In 1905 and 1906, Torromé would compete at the British Figure Skating Championships and win the men's competition, which wasn't technically a men's competition as female skaters contested the men for the 'men's title' until they were finally given a competition of their own in 1927. A forty six year old Torromé qualified to compete as a representative of Great Britain at the 1908 Olympic Games and almost did, but instead opted to represent his father's home country of Argentina. He was the only athlete in ANY sport to represent Argentina at those Games and in the more than hundred years and countless Olympic Games since then, there still hasn't been another figure skater from Argentina. Although he would finish seventh of the seven men finishing the men's event at those Games (two didn't finish), Torromé would also judge the pairs figure skating competition at the 1908 Games. I know what you're thinking. He didn't SKATE in South America so it doesn't count. It wasn't long before people were at all.

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the lifestyle of high society in Buenos Aires, Argentina began to echo that of Europe more and more. In 1910, Joseph R. King, a Briton living in the city, built the opulent belle epoque style Palais de Glace on land provided the city and opened the space as South America's first ice rink. The venue is still operational today for trade shows and exhibitions and explains its early skating days as such on its website: "Modelled on the Paris Palais des Glaces, the skating rink round occupied the central hall, and the surrounding boxes and lounges gatherings were distributed. In the basement of the building machines manufactured ice that supplied the track were installed, and the first new floor boxes, confectionery and a body completed facilities with a vaulted ceiling culminating in a dome with a large central skylight that even today preserves, designed to give natural light to the rink. Halfway through the 1910s, with ice skating and less in vogue, the Palais de Glace became an elegant ballroom with oak floor to welcome the new ambassador of civic culture: tango." The actual year of the Palais de Glace's transition from ice rink to ballroom was 1915 and it was in the venue that Porteno trendsetter Baron de Marchi staged tango soirees there in the 1920's, after which the dance was accepted by local high society. In a letter that was reprinted in her book "A Voyage To South America And Buenos Aires", Ida May Jack Cappeau recalled her visit to the rink thusly: "I went with Carlos and Angelica to the 'Palace de Glace' to watch the skating. It was a splendid building, and presented a very animated sight. There were many beautiful ladies skating and many pretty children. Some of the costumes were extremely smart. There was some fancy skating. We had tea while there, and I was introduced to many delightful friends of the S-P's."

Although skating didn't catch on greatly in South America at first, it enjoyed a surge of popularity in the early forties in both Brazil and Argentina. Here's a fun fact! Ice dancing pioneer Muriel Kay tells us in her book "Origins Of Ice Dance Music" about a rumoured South American Sonja Henie connection: "Sonja Henie was credited with playing a part in bringing Carmen Miranda to the U.S. According to some versions (and there are several) of the discovery of 'the Brazilian Bombshell', Sonja Henie, in the company of Broadway producer Lee Shubert, saw Carmen Miranda's show at Cassino da Urca while on a short visit to Rio in February 1939, and realizing the U.S. 'show biz' potential of the entertainer, pressured Shubert to give her a contract. Reportedly, Sonja even wore to a shipboard party a costume that Carmen Miranda had given her." Sonja was not the only skater to be taken by the samba.

Guy Owen's gaucho act. Photo courtesy Skating Club Of New York.

In 1941, Guy Owen and Maribel Vinson Owen starred in the continent's first ice shows at the Cassino de Urca Rio de Janeiro. Their shows, imported by the William Morris Agency, were well received and featured Bill and Betty Wade, Douglas Duffy, Alex Hurd and a chorus of six young women. Upon returning to North America, they debuted an early ice interpretation of the samba dance. Guy Owen even performed a popular solo act as a gaucho.

The Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima's rink in Buenos Aires. Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine.

That same year in Buenos Aires, the Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima opened a small ice rink on the seventh floor of an office building. It was so popular that between six and hundred people skated there daily and the club had a waiting list of eight thousand. The October 8, 1935 edition of "The Glasgow Herald" explained, "This club, inspired by Dr. [R.C.] Aldao, one of the most public-spirited citizens of Buenos Aires, and financed out of unclaimed lottery prizes, provides for thousands of the young people of that great city a centre of healthy social life at nominal subscription." Essentially Argentina's answer to the YMCA, ice skating for a time was an incredibly popular activity. 

Barbara Wright Sawyer. Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine.

Barbara Wright Sawyer, Renata Bikart and Lucien Büeler taught at the Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima, using the United States Figure Skating Association's rulebook as a guide as the country had no established skating federation or teaching program. Barbara Wright Sawyer, who had trained in England with Howard Nicholson prior to World War II and coached for a spell at the S.S. Brighton, produced and starred in a series of ice ballets at the rink - "Blue Danube", "Swan Lake" and "A Wedding In A Garden". The latter show raised a considerable sum for the Red Cross. 

By 1943, the Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima had opened a second rink on the rooftop of a massive, world renowned casino over two hundred miles away in the seaside town of Mar del Plata. Barbara Wright Sawyer took over this rink and presented her own hour-long shows, which included on-ice adaptations of the Tango, Habanera, Jota and Milonga. This rink only operated from January to March.

Photos courtesy "The National Ice Skating Guide"

Three years later, Elizabeth and Fritz Chandler starred in an ice revue called "Hielo y Estrellas" (or "Stars And Ice"). The tour, run by Samuel Bakerman and Jose Borges Villegas, had a portable ice rink and tent that seated three thousand. It played shows in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Barquismieto, Maracaibo and Caracas. In 1947 cast member Roy McDonald recalled, "We opened [in Caracas] with a packed house and the natives gave every number a big hand. These South American's really appreciate a fast moving show and have a grand sense of humour. The attendance was wonderful all the time... During carnival time many of the natives attended the show in full dress costumes of varied description. Skating in a tropical climate is entirely different from skating anywhere in the States. One has a tendency to tire easily and there seems no end of perspiration. The ice surface was covered from the heat all during the day so that we did most of our rehearsing and practicing at night - sometimes long into the wee hours of the morning."

Susana Peralta, a student of  Lucien Büeler during World War II. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Speaking of the forties, one of skating's biggest stars of the era had a South American connection. Belita (Jepson-Turner) - whose story we looked at on the blog back in August 2013 - got her first name from the Argentinian side of her family. The June 15, 1946 issue of The Milwaukee Journal explains that "her great-grandfather, Charles Drabble, went from England to Argentina in a sailing ship, and was one of a group of Englishmen who played an important part in the development of the country. Acquiring thousands of acres of land in the vicinity of Buenos Aires, he established five great estancias (ranches), mainly devoted to the raising of cattle. He built his own railroads to these properties, established his own bank in the capital and later started a great frozen meat company. One of the estancias, and its terminal railroad station is called 'La Belita.' The firm of Drabble Brothers is now one of the great commercial firms of the Argentine."

The Diligenti quintuplets

By the fifties and sixties, touring companies were heading to South America gypsy style with ice making supplies, large ensemble casts, Salchows and stilt skates. After the Lamb-Yocum's Ice Parade's South American tour in 1950 proved unprofitable, Morris Chalfen's Holiday On Ice tour had slightly more success. In addition to Brazil and Argentina, figure skating was exposed to the people of Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia through these tours. The famous Argentine quintuplets - Carlos Alberto, Maria Ester, Marla Fernanda, Maria Cristina and Franco Diligenti - even had a skating connection. The May 9, 1955 edition of The Day noted that the family lived "outside Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a palatial home which has nineteen rooms, a skating rink, tennis court and swimming pool."

Sonja Henie's 1956 tour of South America was an utter disaster. She contended with ice making problems, moths and rats while skating on a converted bullring in Caracas. Performing on an impromptu ice rink on a basketball court in Rio de Janeiro, she wasn't in top form and received a lukewarm response.

Advertisement from "Skating" magazine, November 1963

Popularity of skating in South America waned in the seventies but in the eighties made a resurgence. Tivoli Park, an amusement park in Rio de Janeiro, partnered with Holiday On Ice to open an ice rink that offered instruction to Brazilian skaters. Its head coach was Pamela Harvey, a British skater who was married to a tobacco executive. Deidre Ball and Hans Hoefer's 1988 travel publication "Argentina" explained, "Ice skating has become the latest form of entertainment for young and old alike. You'll be able to find ice skating rinks all over Buenos Aires and in most of the major cities of the provinces." However, there was a big difference between skating as recreation and skating as competitive sport and it wouldn't be until the twenty first century that the country would start fielding competitors in international events when in 2002, the  Confederação Brasileira de Desportos no Gelo became a member of the International Skating Union and was followed closely behind two years later by the Federación Argentina de Patinaje sobre Hielo.

Today, skaters like Isadora Williams and Denis Margalik are representing South America with pride in international competitions. Just as Horatio Tertuliano Torromé was Argentina's first - and to this date only - Olympic figure skater back in 1908, Williams earned her place in the history books as Brazil's first Olympic figure skater in 2014. Figure skating may still not be as developed as in other parts of the world but today, Santiago, Chile's Parque Arauco mall plays host to an ice rink. Colombia's Los Yarumos fifty three hectare nature park offers horseback riding, barranquismo (rappelling through a waterfall) and seasonal ice skating. You can do paragraph double three's in Peru at the Mini Mundo in Lima's Jesús María district or execute brackets on Bolivia's synthetic XtraIce rink in La Paz. Every loop and lutz would only be adding to the continent's unique skating history.

This piece originally appeared as part of a six-part podcast series called Axels In The Attic. You can listen to Allison Manley of The Manleywoman SkateCast and Ryan Stevens of Skate Guard's audio version on Podbean or iTunes.

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

The 1951 Plane Crash: Remembering Helen Fishbeck

They say that history repeats itself and the rather sombre topic of today's blog is a reminder of just that. Exactly ten years before Sabena Flight 548 crashed en route to Brussels, Belgium killing the entire U.S. figure skating team - almost to the month - another American skater's dreams were cut short in a horrific air tragedy.

Born January 28, 1930 in Detroit, Michigan to Lloyd and Bernice Fishbeck, Helen Lois Fishbeck was a talented junior skater who trained in Michigan in the winter and in New York at summer camps in Lake Placid. In March 1948, she was even a guest soloist at the Ann Arbor Figure Skating Club and University Ice Skating Club's joint show "Melody On Ice". Incredibly, she had turned professional in her mid-teens, taking up coaching jobs in Detroit and Lake Placid before completing a stint coaching at Akron's Iceland in Ohio in the winter of 1950/1951.

Although Helen loved passing on her knowledge to younger skaters, she still had a great drive and passion to perform and that winter auditioned for Ice Follies. She got the job and was set to join the tour rehearsals on Sunday, March 26, 1951 in Milwaukee in anticipation of a March 29 opening night, according to The Milwaukee Sentinel. On March 25, after teaching at Iceland in the morning she boarded a small pilot plane with a thirty six year old Akron detective named Clarence Kitchen who rented the plane from Akron Airways where he was a part-time flight instructor, twenty three year old student at Ohio State University James J. Longstreth and Ernest H. White, a twenty five year old flying student and Goodyear Aircraft Corporation employee. With a little help from her friends, Helen had absolutely no intention of missing her first day of work with Ice Follies the next day.

Things didn't work out that way at all. The March 26, 1951 edition of "The Toledo Blade" explained, "a few minutes after the red cabin Stinson left Akron - and within a mile of clear skies over Cleveland - the craft got into trouble in a cloud bank. Residents near the Brooklyn Heights farm where it crashed said the plane spiraled down from the clouds, tried to level off, and tore through roadside treetops - some six inches thick. As the damaged craft roared along for another half-mile, the left wing broke away, the engine and propeller broke loose, and the fuselage, with its four occupants, ended up a twisted mass of metal that had to be torn apart by trucks and chains." Sadly, Helen and her three travelling companions were all killed.

After the crash, two administration safety officials from Cleveland began working with C.E. Stillwagon of Romolus, Michigan's Civil Aeronautics Board conducted a formal investigation of the crash and the victims were taken to the Cuyahoga County morgue, where Helen's parents had to identify her body. I couldn't even imagine how heartbreaking and painful that must have been. Her autopsy lists her cause of death as "multiple contused, compound comminuted fractures of 85% of all the bones in the body, lacerations of the thoracic and abdominal and pelvic viscers. Laceration and a isceration of the brain. Airplane accident." Not sugar coating anything, the twenty-one year old skater would have probably suffered terribly.

We all read and watch the news to some extent. Earthquakes in Nepal, shootings in churches, "weapons of mass destruction", civil unrest, missing airplanes... It's hard to wrap your head around it all. Although the loss of a whole generation of U.S. figure skaters, coaches and officials ten years later would capture international headlines and threaten to decimate American skating's future, from that tragedy came a wonderful appreciation of the love of skating of those individuals who died in Brussels that day like Maribel Vinson Owen and her daughters. That said, I felt it was just so important that I share the story of another young skater whose dream of a bright future in figure skating was cut short in a very similar way. Helen, you are remembered.

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.

Freddie Tomlins And The Nazi Watch

There's something about jewelry and accessories and British men's skaters of the thirties. Back in February, we looked at the unusual story of 1935 World Silver Medallist Jack Dunn and a supposedly cursed ring. Today on the blog we're going to explore an equally bizarre story involving a Briton who too was a World Silver Medallist in the thirties and a watch. Coincidence? You tell me.

Freddie Tomlins was a 1936 Olympian, European and World Silver Medallist in 1939 known for his speed and power and was by all accounts quite a jumper for his era. He also at one point held a speed skating record for the two hundred and twenty yard distance in Britain. Shortly after winning his medals in European and World competition, Tomlins enlisted with Britain's Royal Air Force, first as a truck driver before serving as an air gunner in the tail of a big British bomber in raids over Germany. He then came overseas for further training in aviation in Canada at a pilot school in Ontario. While brushing up on his flying skills, Tomlins was afforded several leaves to perform in skating shows in North America, including a charity show in Oakland, California in December 1941 and the Minto Skating Club's Minto Follies show in March of 1942.  

After finishing fifth at the 1937 World Championships in Vienna, a seventeen year old Tomlins travelled to Germany and competed in an international competition at the Berliner Sportpalast. He won the gold medal, defeating Horst Faber and the rest of the Germans entered. While in Berlin, Tomlins was personally presented with an eighteen carat gold watch by none other than HITLER himself (who he met three times during his skating career) inscribed in German with the words "To our dear Freddie Tomlins in remembrance of his skating in the Berliner Sports Palast, March 29 to April 4, 1937". The Nazi leader's words to Tomlins? "Great sport like this will unite the nations". Reading that quote almost made me throw up a little in my mouth.

The watch Hitler gave to Tomlins served both a practical and symbolic purpose. A March 5, 1942 article in The Ottawa Citizen speculates that "during the long dark hours as his plane sped on its dangerous mission, he must have smiled with deep satisfaction at the gold watch on his left wrist to learn how time was passing. For in these flights over enemy territory he felt he was being given a chance to repay the donor of the watch. Freddy, although he would not be without the watch for anything has no love for the giver, who was no other than the hated little paperhanger with the toothbrush moustache, the arch-criminal himself, Adolf Hitler." In a December 19, 1941 article in The Spokesman-Review, of the watch Tomlins was quoted as saying "That will come in handy one of these days! It is just right for timing the release of the bombs."  

In case it all sounds too familiar, Tomlins' story was featured briefly before on the blog but certainly with no mention of this watch or in great detail. The ultimate irony is that the watch given to the future pilot officer by the Nazi leader himself did him absolutely no good. While fighting a German submarine, Tomlins was killed over the English Channel on June 20, 1943. Was it fate, bad luck or another curse? We'll never know... We do know that a talented skater who could have gone on to achieve even more had he survived the war was lost in 1943 and turning back the hands on a watch can't bring him back. 

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.

Interview With Todd Eldredge

When I made the decision to phase out interviews on the blog in June, I had originally planned for the July 5 interview with Olympic Gold Medallist Robin Cousins to be the final one, but due true to life, things don't always work out the way you originally plan! I had actually set up an interview with World Champion, six time U.S. Champion and three time Olympian Todd Eldredge prior to my interviews with Robin and Petr Barna but due to scheduling, we weren't able to chat until after I had made the announcement. So for both me and you, this turned out to be an extra special treat as I have long admired and respected Todd and his skating. An incredible athlete who actually won his first of six World medals back in 1990 right here in Halifax, Todd's career spanned more than a decade and has inspired so many of us. We reflected on his time competing, talked shop about the IJS system and the current crop of elite men's skaters as well as about coaching, performing professionally and much more. I hope you all enjoy this wonderful bonus interview as much as I did!:

Q: The things you accomplished during your competitive career were just incredible. The 1996 World title (and four other World medals), six U.S. titles spanning over a decade, three trips to the Olympics, five wins at Skate America, the Goodwill Games title in 1998... I could go on and on and if you had the time, I'd be happy to. If you had to pick one moment that was the most fulfilling and another that was by far the most excruciating, which would they be?

A: The most fulfilling would have to be the obvious - standing atop the podium at the Worlds in Edmonton. It's the ultimate goal for any skater to be able to win a World title or Olympic title so to have been able to come back from several years of injuries and hard times to pull that off was an incredible feeling. The most excruciating would probably be dislocating my shoulder at the beginning of the '98 Olympic season and losing valuable training time to feel one hundred percent prepared for the outcome I had hoped for.

Q: One part of your career I'd like to ask about are your experiences competing in the pro-am and open events. You won a great deal of them including the Canadian Pro/Open, Ultimate Four and Masters Of Figure Skating Competition. For you personally, how were these kinds of events particularly fulfilling and do you think figure skating would benefit from an influx of these events in the present day? 

A: I enjoyed participating in those events. They were great for getting and keeping in top form as well as for reaching outside the box creatively which I believe helped me grow more as a performer in my later years of competing. I think there could be a place for events like those in the future, however I believe the reason those events worked as well as they did is they were a showcase of past and present all coming together under somewhat similar rules to what we had all competed with. It would be very different now to get any of the marquee names from the past as they would have to learn an entirely different way of skating. They could work if you only used past champion skaters who have competed under the IJS system as that would keep them relevant with the current rules... unless they change the rules every week.

Q: You're now coaching in McKinney, Texas alongside your former coach Richard Callaghan. What is your own personal coaching philosophy?

A: I am enjoying my time coaching both figure skater and hockey players. They are both rewarding in their own right. When you have a skater who scores a personal best or completes a new move or passes a test or if I have a hockey player who makes it onto a higher level team or simply gets on a team for the first time. It's fun to be a part of the next generation of both sports. I like encouraging the young kids who are interested in skating and hockey to have fun with it and work hard because you never know how far it will take you.

Q: Whether it's coming from people reporting on the sport or from so-called fans, we live in a different age with social media where skaters are connected twenty four hours a day with their audience. This obviously brings with it both a lot of positive and negative. What are your thoughts on the impact of social media on skaters?

A: As you say, it can be both a positive and negative for athletes. It is something that is very individual. A skater who thrives on the recognition and excitement they may get from fans via social media can use that for motivation whereas in the situation of someone facing bullying or negative criticism, then it can be harmful to their skating and even affect them personally as well. It's definitely a subject that skaters and coaches have to approach and deal with on a skater to skater basis. What works for one may not work for another.

Q: Of the men competing on the world level today, who excites you the most to watch from a coaches perspective? 

A: There are many skaters I enjoy watching and each skater has something different to offer. I enjoy watching Yuzuru Hanyu for his youthful exuberance and the ease with which he is able to do all the crazy jumping passes he can do. Josh Farris' short program at Nationals was unexpected and incredible, Denis Ten reminds me of Patrick Chan a bit with the way he skates with such ease and can connect all the elements within his programs. I really enjoyed seeing Adam Rippon this year go for the quad lutz but moreso he really came to the rink with a renewed aggressiveness and confidence that he was missing before.

Q: How important is diet in your life?

A: My wife has a plethora of delicious things she can whip up, all of which are extremely healthy. I should have eaten like this when I was training and competing!

Q: Is touring professionally again something you see in your future?

A: I don't think I will tour again for any extended period of time at all. I am enjoying being at home with my wife and boys too much and watching them grow up that I wouldn't want to miss any of the fun. Our son Ayrton keeps all of us laughing with his hilarious personality. Who wouldn't want to be home for that all the time?

Q: Who are your three favourite skaters of all time and why?

A: My top three favourite skaters of all time.. One would have to be Janet Lynn. She was and still is a pioneer for the sport and is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. She always seemed to have a smile of her face as she floated across the ice. Brian Boitano was the skater I wanted to emulate most because of his consistency and longevity in the sport. Who else is 50+ and still performing and doing triples? Awesome! Michelle Kwan... I think her record speaks for itself as far as her skating is concerned, but for someone who had such a long a illustrious career to have reinvented herself to work as an envoy for the government to help others around the world is nothing short of remarkable.

Q: If you could change one thing about the current judging system, what would it be?

A: The system... I like the idea that it's a cumulative points system from short to long so there is a chance for someone who skates well and sits in sixth place, but only a couple points behind, to be able to pull up and win any event. I don't necessarily like the idea that the audience needs to be given so much information about the rules and scoring that they become disinterested and confused at what they are watching and why things are being scored as they are. If I had to understand what the angle of attack and the spin rate of the ball and the groove depth of the club and the swing plane and the swing speed and the shaft angle and the wind direction and how that affected the outcome on every shot during a round of golf at the Masters, I would be exhausted after the first hole, totally confused and would most likely switch the TV over to something else I could just enjoy watching for the purity of whatever that activity is football, baseball, hockey, auto racing or even the Food Network. I get it there has to be rules, but when it gets so complex that it becomes difficult to follow and understand for those not in the sport then it isn't working to help keep those who are interested still watching and generate more interest for those who might not be.

Q: What's one thing about you most people don't know?

A: I always put on my skates the same way: right foot in then left foot then tie the left then tie the right.

Q: If you could go back in time and tell a twenty year old Todd Eldredge one thing, what would it be?

A: Work hard, but work smarter. I was a work horse doing run through after run through and working all my jumps over and over until I felt happy with my completion percentages. Toward the end of my career, I worked so much smarter and gave myself limits of the number of things I needed to do in a day and just made sure I did them when I intended to instead of beating things into the ground. I have the hip replacement to show for it now!

Q: What is the biggest lesson that figure skating has taught you about life?

A: One of the most important lessons skating has taught me is focus. If you focus on something positively you will always have a positive outcome, no matter if you achieve the result you expected of yourself or not you will take the positive out of any situation and apply that towards your next goal and so on.

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.

Out Of Africa: Adventures In African Skating History

1923 clipping from "The Illustrated Sporting And Dramatic News" depicting skating in Kenya

Back in October 2013, I wrote Winter Sports Without The Winter: Skating In Africa and touched a little on the development of skating in South Africa and Morocco as well as pointed out several other countries where skating programs and rinks have slowly been starting to crop up. Today, I want to celebrate the colourful and unusual skating history of the continent and let me tell you... I think you are going to have your jaw on the floor for much of this. Get your safari hats, binoculars and skate bags ready... things are about to get very interesting!:

TRAGEDY IN LESOTHO 

The landlocked country of Lesotho lies in Africa's southern climbs and is completely surrounded by South Africa. Owing to its altitude in most areas, temperatures in winter can actually reach as low as minus seven to minus eighteen Celsius and snow and ice really aren't uncommon sights in the highlands year round. It's really no surprise that skating caught on in the small country and sadly, when a particularly bitter winter storm moved in on July 10, 1988, three young skaters skating on a lake near the country's capital, Maseru, perished when the ice broke and they fell through in a tragedy that mirrored The Regent's Park Tragedy in London on a much smaller scale. An older man also froze to death in Linakeneng, a town in the northeastern Mokhotlong highlands during the storm. This late eighties calamity served as a reminder that the omnipresent danger of outdoor skating is every bit as real in Africa as it is in the rest of the world.  

A HELLUVA REACTION

Photos courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide"

In 1960, the iconic skating tour Holiday On Ice for the first time decided to take on an extensive tour of the African continent. The cast included sixty Americans who were permitted to participate as part of the U.S. State Department's cultural exchange program. The first half of the tour started in Khartoum, the capital city of the Republic Of Sudan and travelled through Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania through to Mozambique. After a Christmas break where they were permitted to return home, skaters returned to the continent for shows in South Africa and The Congo. A December 3, 1960 article in The Miami News explained that "the African company carries its own ice-making equipment with it into the back-country on railroad cars." Although probably considered incredibly politically incorrect by 'today's standards', tour producer Morris Chalfen remarked "You get a helluva reaction from the natives, once you get them to come. They don't know at first what you're talking about. In Nairobi, they didn't even have a word for skate. We finally called it 'knife-on-show.'" 

PAPA HOUPHOUËT'S ICE RINK

The first President of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Félix Houphouët-Boigny, played such a significant role in the decolonization of Africa and was so beloved by citizens that during his thirty three year tenure as the country's leader that they referred to him as Papa Houphouët. It was really no surprise when he got the crazy idea in 1970 to have an ice rink built in the Western African city of Abidjan that they flocked in to see what all the fuss was about and get their skate on for the first time. The rink was in a hotel called The Ivoire and an October 8, 1970 article in the Reading Eagle pointed out that "a painful one-point landing suffered by one young Ivoirian miss on the new ice rink in the presence of President Felix Houphouet-Boigny suggests it may never become the Ivory Coast's favorite rink." The Ivoire did manage to keep the rink (the only one in Western Africa) operational until the nineties, when the economic crisis hit the hotel hard and the skating rink wasn't able to subsist on the dwindling business from mostly the children of European expatriates. That 1970 reporter may have been right but who knows? Maybe one day skating will make another comeback in Côte d'Ivoire. Time will tell.

THE WORLD CHAMPION ICE SKATING CHIMP

A lot of the details of how Jinx - or Spanky - came to North America are sketchy at best but we do know that he was according to owner Dave Pitt "orphaned in the jungles of Equatorial Africa". The ape first showed up as a novelty in a skating show in The Sands in Las Vegas under the name of Jinx and went on to perform multiple shows a day with four female skaters at the Manhattan Savings bank in New York in December 1960 as part of a Christmas ice show installed in the lobby. A December 18, 1960 article in the Palm Beach Daily News describes the rather hairy skater as keeping "a cranky eye open to see how his audience reacts to his act. He breezily jumps hurdles, walks on stilts, cuts up the ice in a dizzy spin, does a couple of leisurely backflips, and in an unusually show off mood, manages a wobbly figure-8. That bit of exertion over, Jinx refreshes himself by lapping up some of the cool ice water at his feet then looks up expectantly at his audience. If applause is not immediately forthcoming Jinx remedies that by leading the ovation himself." Two years later, professional skater Dave Pitt bought eleven year old Jinx from his then owner and trainer Darlene Selleck at a Las Vegas gambling casino for one thousand, five hundred dollars, renamed him Spanky The World Champion Ice Skating Chimp - no, there wasn't really a competition - and together they joined the cast of Ice Capades. Together, Pitt and his African born friend made waves in Colombia, South America, where according to an August 7, 1962 article in the Schenectady Gazette, "officials recorded his speed at 32 miles per hour... Later that night, Spanky made a tremendous leap, powering his 81-pound frame through the air to a distance of 10 and a half feet." However inhumane training animals to ice skate might be considered today, this American import from Africa certainly made his mark.

SKATING'S JANE GOODALL

Another African immigrant to America with two names - her birth name Norma Vorster and adopted name Norma Foster - made quite an impact both in skating circles and the animal kingdom. After winning a gold medal at South African Figure Skating Championships and the 1956 Miss South Africa title, Foster represented her country at the Miss Universe pageant, took up Latin American ballroom dancing and acted in three films before moving to the U.S. in 1967. However, in the seventies, the former skater returned to her old stomping grounds in South Africa to host what else but a Jane Goodall-inspired show called "Wildlife In Crisis". Twenty six episodes of the show aired in Canada and the U.S. in the seventies. In a July 31, 1976 article in The Morning Record, the skater explained that "there is a good deal of deception being handed to the public in many wildlife series. Man is not as beastly and ruthless in regard to wildlife as some would have you believe... We concentrate on the enormous human effort that is being exerted on behalf of wildlife. Most wildlife shows present animals supposedly in their natural environment and how they behave. But in actuality this is a complete fallacy. It doesn't exist in Africa, most of these shots are staged. Africa has seen enormous encroachment by man in recent years, so what is really important is not going for animals in this so-called 'natural' environment, but showing the enormous problems the continent is having with wildlife management."  It's a shame that this African skater wasn't able to save Jinx - or Spanky - from exploitation in North America. She was only about a decade and a half too late.  

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.

John Forbes And The Starr Manufacturing Company

Every so often a blog begs to be written. Material jumps out at you in the most unlikely of places. In this case, it started with a book from The Heritage Trust Of Nova Scotia called "Rogers' Photographic Advertising Album, Halifax 1871" given to me by a friend with old advertising copy and photographs of the city I live in from the nineteenth century. What sealed the deal was my July visit to Sherbrooke Village, a living museum in Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia. While on a walking tour with friends, after tasting homemade buttermilk made the old fashioned way, we found a pair of Starr Skates hanging on a hook on the wall in the town jail. When we made our way to The Cumminger Brothers' General Store, we found a poster for the Starr Manufacturing Company advertising the same skates displayed on the wall. These coincidences, all within the course of a couple of weeks, convinced me it was finally time to sit down and write about an important part in skating history that hits very close to home.

For those of you who have never even heard of John Forbes, Starr Skates or the Starr Manufacturing Company, I'm betting the term 'Halifax Skates' means little to you, either. However, back in the nineteenth century, it was John Forbes, who at the age of eight emigrated from Birmingham to settle in Nova Scotia with his family of artisans that completely revolutionized skate making. Before we get to just how he did this, I want to talk a little about what skates were like in the years preceding his inventions.

J. Keith Young's October 12, 1965 Chronicle Herald article "Acme Spring Ice Skates A First For Nova Scotia" (which I was able to track down in the form of a yellowed newspaper clipping in the archives of the Halifax Public Libraries) tells us that "for some three hundred years wood frame skates only were available with a screw in the skate going up into the heel of the boot and two leather straps for fastening. As can be imagined, hilarious accidents were rife when the boot-heel would break off or the straps break at a crucial time. The first all-metal skates followed with brass plates at the toe and heel with corresponding plates inset into the sole and heel of the boot. The plates engaged and locked with a pin and later improvements saw the heel-plate turned up as a lug at the back of the boot. In this latter style a metal nut was set into the back of the heel and a small thumb-screw passed through the lug into the nut, making for a fairly sturdy setup for skating. Nevertheless, customers of the day bemoaned the obvious shortcomings of the skates and young Forbes began thinking on how to improve the skates."

John Forbes actually worked as a young man as a clerk in a Halifax hardware store, where ice skates were a popular purchase for many in the unforgiving Eastern Canadian winters. Full of ideas as to how he could solve the quandary of unsatisfied customers, he left for the United States to gain machine experience and capital for his projected business. While below the border, war with the Southern states broke out and his return to Nova Scotia was hastened until 1860. From 1865 to 1868, Forbes patented four different designs of his Forbes' Patent Acme Skates, which would come to be known largely within Canada as Starr Skates, as they were manufactured by The Starr Manufacturing Company and abroad simply as Halifax Skates, because they (you guessed it) came from Halifax. Dartmouth if you want to get technical... but around these parts we don't like to give those folks across the harbour too much credit. I'm allowed to say that. I've lived over there.

Forbes' design was a variation and improvement of an all metal skate designed by one Alexander McMillan that was adopted in 1860 by the Skating Club of New York. McMillan's skate attached to the foot without the aid of straps or fastenings, with the heel fastening by means of an oval plate with a rectangular gripper. The toe part of the skate attached by clamp. In the case of Forbes' skates, no plates were needed and the skates could be easily adjusted to ones boot or removed with a single lever. The heel was actually fixed in length and the toe length was adjusted by means of a lever-clip mechanism. Simply put, for the time they were the best thing going... and they sold like hot cakes.

More than three million pairs were manufactured in Dartmouth and shipped all around the world from the most bustling harbour in Canada. Young's 1965 article further tells us that "governments ordered extra sizes for men on far-north expeditions who needed skates suitable for those wearing heavy boots large enough to fit over moccasins. In the year 1877 alone, some 100,000 pairs were marketed and the Forbes Acme pattern of 1871, with modifications, is still a favourite." Or was back then. More of those old pairs of Starr Skates like the ones I saw at Sherbrooke Village are still kicking around at antique stores and in dusty attics than you'd think though. Trust me.

Sadly, John Forbes passed away in 1915, but his revolutionary skates continued to be designed and marketed by The Starr Manufacturing Company well into the thirties. What I love about Forbes' story is that his revolutionary work in redesigning skates not only solved a problem (which is what every great invention should do) but it also made skating so much more accessible and enjoyable for so many people... and in the process put Nova Scotia on the map in the skating world. The best part? In just a few short months at the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships, the skating world will be returning its focus to this very area... and I can't wait to meet many of you in MY CITY! We'll have to take a trip to the Nova Scotia Sport Hall Of Fame where I can show you a pair of Forbes' skates in person. As Cicero once said, "To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?"  I don't know about you, but I refuse to be ignorant.

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.