Four Impossible Skate Guard Blogs

Sometimes researching history is a lot like fishing. You cast out a line and before you know it, you think you've got something... until it gets away from you. Not every photograph or video that sparks an interest or blurb in an old newspaper or magazine that sets you off on a wild goose chase results in you finding out the whole story. Yet, like fishing, half of the fun is trying. Today we'll explore four impossible Skate Guard blogs that never quite made it off the drawing board... and why.

MADAME KUGEL AND THE CRYSTAL SKATING ICE COMPANY

With a catchy motto that promised to sell you a portable ice rink complete with "the ice that gives all the thrills without the chills", the Crystal Skating Ice Company, Inc. set off on a massive American newspaper advertising campaign in the year 1916. The company offered to sell its portable rinks in sections at a cost of one dollar per square foot, suggesting they'd be perfect for carnivals, fairs, motion pictures and Vaudeville shows. The ice, they claimed, was stored in blocks "in a room comfortably heated" at the Shepard-Norwell Department Store's Colonial Restaurant in New York City. The advertisements also claimed that they'd set up a rink at their office on the seventh floor at 727 Seventh Avenue. A mysterious Madame L.M. Kugel - who I was able to find absolutely nothing definitive about - was the woman behind the whole operation. She claimed, "We have had answers from places all over the United States in reply to our advertisements in The Billboard. The inquiries we received were just the ones that we were looking for, and from just the kind of people with whom we want to do business." Newspapers do note that Fred Gerner, a Hippodrome skater and high jumper and Elfrieda MacMillian, champion woman speed skater from New England, gave exhibitions at a Crystal Ice Rink installed at the Sheppard-Norwell Company's Boston store. As well, apparently one Max Falkenbauer bought Ohio state rights as well as rights for Puerto Rico and Cuba under the United States Circus Corporation.  Col. A Carl Mahl bought the Iowa rights. Later the same year, a second Crystal Skating Ice Company, Inc. was even apparently set up in Quincy, Illinois on the sixth floor of a building owned by the Fraternal Order of The Eagles. The last mention of either Madame Kugel or the Crystal Skating Ice Company, Inc. is appears to be a notice that a patent is being applied for. The U.S. Patent Office's extensive records, even sorted by year and in connection with the Shepard-Norwell Department Store - yield plenty of similar outfits but not this one. Who Kugel was and the fate and real story of this operation was one mystery I wasn't able to solve.

ELSE AND OSCAR HOPPE

Photo courtesy National Archives Of Poland

Born June 11, 1886, Oscar Hoppe claimed the bronze medal at the 1912 German Championships behind Werner Rittberger and Artur Vieregg. The following year, he teamed up with Else Lischka to win his the pairs title of his city - Troppau - along with the men's title. The next year, he and Lischka won the German pairs title. At the end of World War I when Austria-Hungary was defeated, Troppau became part of Czechoslovakia and became known as the city of Opava... so naturally Oscar, who trained at the Troppauer Eislaufverein - started representing Czechoslovakia. From 1925 to 1931, he made several trips to the World Championships with his wife Else (Meixner) Hoppe. They even won the bronze medal in 1927, Czechoslovakia's first at the Worlds in pairs. Off the ice, Oscar worked as a Handelskammer official. He passed away on January 19, 1936 in Opava at the age of forty nine. I wasn't able to find anything on Else. Two Else Hoppe's with birth dates that would logically coincide with Oscar's are listed in the International War Graves index as 'body lost or destroyed' so it is quite possible that she didn't survive World War II... but that may not be the case at all.

STARS OF THE FUTURE

Historian Elaine Hooper was going through the National Skating Association's membership records back in from 1930 when she contacted me to point out a name that appeared that I'm sure will amuse just about any fan of "The Big Bang Theory"... Dr. L. Hofstaedter. The clipping is below and he's listed on the alphabetical list just two places ahead of the fabulous Gladys Hogg.

As we were discussing the fact that one of my next blog subjects would be Veronica Clarke a.k.a. Biddy Bonnycastle, she also sent me a clipping showing her membership with the National Skating Association at the time. This would have been when her grandmother sent her overseas to attend a finishing school in England with her sisters. My name was immediately drawn to the last name on the list.

Yes... movie star Montgomery Clift. As it turned out, I found this blurb in Patricia Bosworth's 2012 biography of him: "Brooks [his brother] became a champion figure skating in Saint Moritz, and Monty, always competitive, followed close behind. Years later, when he toured with the Lunts in 'There Shall Be No Night', the entire cast went ice skating on frozen Lake Michigan, and Monty impressed everybody with his precise figure eights and dizzying corkscrew turns. 'He was as graceful as Fred Astaire,' an observer recalls."

Montgomery Clift

Unfortunately, beyond a proficiency at skating, there just really didn't seem to be much more to the story beyond the snacky actor's NSA membership. He didn't move to Hollywood until the mid-forties and his first two films didn't even come out until 1948, the year Sonja Henie made her last big box office picture, "The Countess Of Monte Cristo." Had he been on the scene about a decade earlier I'm sure his skating talents would have been put to good use on the silver screen during the craze of Sonja spin-off skating movies. The timing just wasn't right.

THE MYSTERIOUS DR. LANGER

Dr. Walter Langer, a member of the Skating Club Of New York, travelled to New Haven, Connecticut in 1928 to compete in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships where he finished third behind Roger Turner and Frederick Goodridge. He later performed in the famed "Land Of The Midnight Sun" ice carnival at Madison Square Garden in 1930 that boasted an all star cast including Olympic Gold Medallist Sonja Henie, World Champion Willy Böckl and U.S. Champions Maribel Vinson, Theresa Weld Blanchard and Nathaniel Niles.

When the Olympic Games came to Lake Placid in 1932, Dr. Langer took advantage of his Czechoslovakian heritage and entered as a representative of his home country. He finished tenth out of twelve skaters, around six hundred points back of the medallists Karl Schäfer, Gillis Grafström and Bud Wilson. This disappointing defeat would prove to be the last mention I could find of Langer competing as a figure skater.

Gail Borden II, Jimmie Madden, Dr. Walter Langer, William Nagle and Roger Turner at the 1931 U.S. Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Now just who was this character? The truth is, it's pretty complicated. There was a Walther Langer who was born August 23, 1889 in the Oderfurt district of Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. Records show that he worked as a civil engineer in Czechoslovakia and lived in Vienna, Austria, Breslau (Wrocław), Poland and Havana, Cuba before he emigrated to the United States in the roaring twenties. This particular Walter - or Walther - Langer went by Dr. Walter Langer at his New York City perfume company Hartnell Perfumes and claimed to have "a Ph.D in chemistry". He also claimed to have ties to Austrian nobility and self-titled himself The Baron von Langendorff.

The Baron von Langendorff and Eveline Diane Westall

The Baron von Langendorff and his British wife Eveline Diane Westall bought out their business partners Felice and Hartnell, renaming the company Evyan Perfumes. Together, the couple developed the famous White Shoulders fragrance. An entry from the Timeless Perfumes blog explained, "The name, White Shoulders, supposedly came from a dinner remark by The Duke of Marlborough, about how Lady Evyan's shoulders looked so white in her evening gown. An image of her in an evening gown was later embossed on the White Shoulders bottles. It would be more politically correct today to simply say the fragrance is based mainly on white flowers... gardenias, lilies, tuberose, jasmine, etc., and is worn on the shoulders when in an evening gown. Of course, it is also suited for anytime use, day or evening. The name may have been inspired by a Mary Astor film of the same name that came out in 1931. Before introducing White Shoulders, Hartnell sold a perfume called Menace and magazine ads featured a model who resembled the title character in the White Shoulders movie. Felice and Hartnell may have wanted to push the hard tough female image during those wartime years but Menace was a strange choice of name for a women's fragrance. Lady Evyan preferred the soft, feminine, grace and dignity with lace, theme. White Shoulders was first bottled in the same bottles as Menace with a large and quite ugly H on the bottle. It was placed in a pretty lace and satin box designed by Lady Evyan, she a collector of antique lace. Once the Hartnell period ended, beautiful bottles were created for White Shoulders and the other Evyan fragrances."

In the forties, The Baron von Langendorff bought a thirty two acre waterfront property in Westport, Connecticut between South Compo and Imperial Avenues and called his estate Golden Shadows. It was built on the site of the home of artist Angus MacDonall and was home to illustrious gardens with a gazebo, a greenhouse full of exotic flowers, an ice skating pond and a healthy shroud of mystery. For the decades, the property was known by locals simply as The Baron's Property.

In the late seventies, The Baron von Langendorff retired to a thirty seven room mansion in New York City previously owned by railroad magnate Stuyvesant Fish. A January 21, 1991 article from "New York Magazine" explained, "Mason got a call from the Baron Walter Langer von Langendorff, better known as Dr. Walter Langer, the creator of White Shoulders perfume and the owner of Evyan Perfumes. Mason gave the courtly old man a tour. 'I thought he was just getting a preview of the art for the Sotheby's sale,' she says. A couple of days later, however, the baron said he would pay $1.5 million in cash for the house. By the summer, it was his. The baron had recently married his second wife, Gabriele Langerwall Klopman Langer von Langendorff, whose flamboyant appearance and behaviour had earned her a certain notoriety in New York society over the years. But he still had a passion for his late first wife, Lady Evelyn Diane Westall, who had helped create the perfume company. He had maintained her New York office exactly as it had been at the time of her death eleven years earlier. She had been called Lady Evyan. And now, in her honour, he named the Sonnenberg mansion Evyan House. But it was almost empty, and in his first few years as owner, the baron did little to change that. He spent weekends in Westport; while in New York, he stayed in a penthouse apartment atop his company's First Avenue offices. His wife had her own suite in the Pierre... After a year or two some of the baron's furniture began to arrive. In 1981, he hired Jane Ashley, an interior decorator, to move in and help fix up the place. Paintings of women with the White Shoulders decolletage were hung on the walls in homage to Lady Evyan. On rare occasions, the baron used the house for corporate functions. By 1983, the baron was in poor health, and his $125-million fortune was the object of a bitter feud between his wife and Leona Robison, the president of Evyan Perfumes. On September 14, 1983, the last owner of No. 19 Grammercy Park died."

Aside from the fact that the country of origins match up and that the Baron von Langendorff had a skating pond, there just wasn't enough proof to satisfy me that Dr. Walter Langer the skater and this perfume Baron were one in the same. To top it off, the Sports-Reference website, which usually - but not always - gets it right, claims that the Dr. Langer who competed at the 1932 Winter Olympics was born in Ostrava in 1899... and died on October 27, 1955. Yet, when you do the genealogical legwork, you just can't find a thing with these dates that makes sense. As much as I dug my heels in to complete this particular blog, I just couldn't rely on my assumptions. When you're researching, you have to go strictly with the primary source material. In this case, there just wasn't enough to make the case.

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.

Put Your Hands Together For Biddy Bonnycastle

Photo courtesy Hilary Bruun

Born May 17, 1912 in Toronto, Ontario, Millicent Veronica Allen Clarke was the daughter of
Charles and Miranda (Allen) Clarke. Her father was a well-respected leather and sheepskin manufacturer who sold jackets to the military that were used in World War I. He worked with his brothers at the family company Clarke & Co. Her mother, according to her son Angus, was a "strong, dominant and determined" woman who devoted considerable time to various local charities and social groups.

Sadly, Veronica's uncle Alfred was a victim of the S.S. Lusitania tragedy in 1915 and her father died of a heart attack when she was only six years old. Her mother sold her interests in the family business, raising enough money to ensure her daughters had food on the table, a roof over their heads and a decent education.

Photo courtesy City Of Toronto Archives

Veronica grew up in Forest Hills with her mother and older sisters Jocelyn, Katherine and Aldyth. She was educated at Bishop Strachan School and at a finishing school in England. As a young woman, she had two loves - ballet and figure skating. Though a talented dancer, when she was presented with the choice between continuing dance lessons or focusing entirely on her efforts at the Toronto Skating Club, skating won out.

John Machado, Veronica Clarke, Margaret Henry and Stewart Reburn. Photo courtesy Hilary Bruun.

A year after her sister Jocelyn - a talented opera singer - tragically passed away at the age of twenty nine of ulcerative colitis, Veronica made her debut at the Canadian Championships at the age of fifteen, teaming up with Stewart Reburn to finish third in the senior pairs competition. The following year, she claimed the medal in the junior women's competition and won the Canadian fours title with Reburn, John Machado and Margaret Henry.

Photo courtesy Hilary Bruun

Over the following decade, Veronica would go on to win an incredible seventeen more medals at the Canadian Championships, including two more fours titles and two more pairs titles with her second partner Ralph McCreath. She even won the Tenstep and Fourteenstep, skating with McCreath and Jack Eastwood.

Veronica Clarke and Ralph McCreath. Photo courtesy Hilary Bruun.

Veronica's biggest accomplishment came at the 1937 North American Championships in Boston, where she finished second in the women's event to Maribel Vinson... and then went on to defeat her and partner Geddy Hill in the pairs event. Though Veronica was an exceptional skater who received training from legendary coaches Gustave Lussi and Werner Rittberger, she skated much of her career in the shadow of her training mates Constance Wilson and Cecil Smith. However, at five foot seven, she was a striking figure on the ice that was in high demand to skate in carnivals throughout Canada and the United States. When she travelled to England at one point to train, the National Skating Association even went so far as to state they were "frightfully delighted" to have her perform.

Letter courtesy Hilary Bruun

The Figure Skating Department of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada actually named Veronica to the 1936 Winter Olympic team, but since so many skaters from the Toronto Skating Club had been selected to compete in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the club circulated a letter informing the skaters that not everyone's travel expenses would be covered. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. Veronica's mother forbid her from attending the Games in Nazi Germany, stating it was "an unsafe environment". Based on some of the stories told of the experiences of the British contingent at those Games, Veronica's mother's fears weren't unfounded. Around the same time, the family home on Russell Hill Road was burglarized and all of Veronica's major competition trophies were stolen. Her daughter Hilary recalled, "These trophies were never found and presumably melted down and sold. This was a huge disappointment to Mom and she was devastated I am told."

Photo courtesy Hilary Bruun

Veronica retired from competitive figure skating shortly before she married Charles Humphrey Bonnycastle on June 29, 1938. Throughout her skating career, she'd been known in skating circles by the nickname 'Biddy', given to her by her grandmother because she was the youngest. So, in marriage, Veronica Clarke became known to friends by the catchy name Biddy Bonnycastle.

Veronica's husband was soon appointed as the headmaster of Rothesay Collegiate School in New Brunswick and soon the happy couple welcomed a daughter, Hilary, and a son, Angus. Veronica skated recreationally on both an outdoor pond and a covered rink at the university regularly, often wearing a favourite buckskin jacket that a friend of her father had given her as a gift on a trip out West. Locals, who'd never seen a 'fancy' skater of her calibre before, were amazed. She tried giving lessons to skaters in Rothesay and Saint John, but found the New Brunswick skating scene to be a bit behind the times and slow to change.

Veronica, Charles, Angus and Hilary Bonnycastle. Photo courtesy Angus Bonnycastle.

Quoted in an oral history interview on file at the Rothesay Living Museum, Veronica reminisced, "Before I got married I did nothing but skate. I mean I did get educated. I went to the Bishop Strachan School School and I managed to squeak through there but my heart was in skating and I skated all over the place. I was sent out to Vancouver once with a group of five. I took part in all the Canadian Championships and the highlight of my career was when I went down to Boston to compete against the Americans and I came second in the singles and I won the pairs with my partner, Ralph McCreath. So we were North American champions. Really, then I got married and I am afraid my career was nearly over at that point, although I did skate. A Saint John policeman came to me and said would you go and skate at the Forum for us and I said yes. The policeman said if you skate for us we will treat you right and I couldn’t resist that."

Photo courtesy Hilary Bruun

Inspired by her late uncle Reverend Robert W. Allen, Veronica devoted much of her life to church and charitable work. She served as President of her local branch of the Red Cross, the Anglican Women's Church Organization, Kennebecasis Garden Club, Riverside Golf and Country Club, played golf and enjoyed music, flowers and reading. However, figure skating remained a lifelong passion. Well into her older years, she watched the sport on television religiously with family friend Rory Grant, often commenting about how drastically the sport had changed since she'd competed. She was so upset about the elimination of compulsory figures that she wrote a letter to the "Telegraph-Journal".

Veronica's daughter Hilary went to great lengths to arrange a touching meeting between her mother and Ralph McCreath when they were both seniors. Hilary recalled, "I was very nervous about it because I thought maybe it would be dead silence. They just sort of looked at each other. It was so long ago! She must have been late seventies or eighties when I did this. They were sort of shy and then they finally began to chatter about the old days and we just sat there looking at them sort of spellbound because they were working... communicating together. Finally, we left the room and let them talk because we felt they didn't need us looking at them."

Sadly, Veronica passed away on July 27, 1999 in Saint John, New Brunswick at the age of eighty seven. Though she won twenty medals at the Canadian Championships and a North American title, she has yet to be honoured posthumously with an induction into the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame... or given much recognition at all for that matter. As is the case far too often in the skating world, certain skaters are fêted for their accomplishments while others are historically ignored. The fact that Veronica has fallen into the latter category is nothing short of unfortunate.

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 1959 European Figure Skating Championships

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine

In the decades leading up to the 1959 European Figure Skating Championships, the stunning outdoor ice in Davos, Switzerland played host to some of the most important competitions in figure skating history. Ulrich Salchow, Karl Schäfer and Barbara Ann Scott all won European titles in the skating mecca. 

Photo courtesy Národní muzeum

Sadly, the competition held from February 1 to 8, 1959 would prove to be the final time that "the largest natural sprayed ice rink in existence" in Davos would play host to the European Championships and as far as grand finales went, the skating at this event did not disappoint. Many of the competitors arrived well in advance of the competition to acclimatize themselves but found themselves limited in their practice time as both the rink where the competition was to be held and another rink adjacent to it used for practices - separated by a wall of snow - closed at five in the afternoon daily. Let's take a look back at the stories and skaters who made headlines at this historic event!

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

West Germans Margret Göbl and Franz Ningel finished fourth in the pairs event in Davos in 1959.

Twelve pairs contested the pairs title in Davos in 1959. The retirement of the Czechoslovakian team of Věra Suchánková and Zdeněk Doležal, who had won both the 1957 and 1958 European titles, left the field wide open. The athletic Soviet team of Nina and Stanislav Zhuk were considered favourites by some, but there was much buzz about the promising West German partnership of Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler.

Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler in 1959

With her former partner Franz Ningel, Marika had won the bronze medal for three consecutive years from 1955 to 1957. In the end, the Austrian, West German, Polish and Swiss judges placed the West Germans first, the Czechoslovakian and Soviet judges had the Zhuk's first and British judge Pamela Davis (like the cheese) stood alone in giving her vote of confidence to her country's champions Joyce Coates and Anthony Holles. Future World ice dance champion Eva Romanová and Pavel Roman, skating double duty in both the pairs and ice dance events, finished a dismal last. In winning, Kilius and Bäumler became the first German pair since the Falk's to claim the European title.

Not everyone was impressed with Kilius and Bäumler's performance. Dennis Bird described it as "brittle and striving for speed for speed's sake". In "Skating World" magazine, Maribel Vinson lamented, "Must we all rush round incessantly 'busy', performing everything we know how to do within a span of five minutes in order not to seem 'dull'?"

THE MEN'S COMPETITION 

Czechoslovakia's Karol Divín and France's Alain Giletti had been one-two in 1958 at the European Championships in Bratislava and were both considered top contenders for the men's crown in 1959. Inspired by the 1952 innovation of Dick Button, both Giletti and his compatriot Alain Calmat attempted triple loops in practice in Davos.

Alain Calmat, Karol Divín and Alain Giletti

In the school figures, the Austrian, Czechoslovakian, West German, East German and Dutch judge placed Divín first while the French and Soviet judges gave Giletti the nod. A third contender, Austria's Norbert Felsinger, earned first place marks from the Swiss and British judges.

Norbert Felsinger and Joan Haanappel

Alain Calmat won the free skate with first place ordinals from six of the nine judges, the other three preferring the concise style of Divín. A young Manfred Schnelldorfer landed a double Axel in his free skate and Felsinger beamed while delivering the finest free skate of his career in a scarlet tailcoat, but Divín and Giletti remained in the top two positions on the podium.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Hanna Walter, Sjoukje Dijkstra and Joan Haanappel

Hanna Walter had placed second at the 1958 European Championships in Bratislava, but her winning teammate Ingrid Wendl had retired. A specialist in the school figures, Walter was all but assured a victory in the first phase of the competition if she skated up to her usual potential. She met all expectations and received first place ordinals from six of the seven judges, the Dutch judge placing her in a tie with Joan Haanappel. Holland's Sjoukje Dijkstra, West Germany's Ina Bauer and Austria's Regine Heitzer trailed behind Walter and Haanappel.

Ina Bauer

Ina Bauer won the free skate with first place ordinals from five of the nine judges, displaying superior artistry and spins in her program set to a classical medley including "Méditation" from "Thaïs" by Jules Massenet. Two judges apiece placed Dijkstra and Czechoslovakia's Jana Dočekalová (who attempted a triple Salchow) first. Heinz Maegerlein's 1964 book "Triumph auf dem Eis" noted that both Bauer and Dijkstra skated exceptionally well in the free skate. Walter and Haanaapel delivered less than stellar performances, each receiving ordinals as low as tenth place. There were so many entries that the skaters who ranked twenty first through twenty eighth skated in a second group in the free skating. The results were later combined with the twenty who advanced to the top flights of skaters. In the end, the gold went to Walter, the silver to Dijkstra and the bronze to Haanappel.

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Fifteen ice dance teams vied for gold in Davos in 1959 but the one team that everyone was talking about was Doreen Denny and Courtney Jones. Prior to their appearance in Switzerland, naysayers had expressed doubts as to whether or not Jones would be able to achieve the same level of success as he had previously with June Markham. As soon as the Britons took the ice for their first practice, the critics were silenced. However, with 1958 European Bronze Medallists Barbara Thompson and Gerard Rigby unable to attend, Great Britain - who had swept the podium the previous five years - was left with only two teams competing in Davos. The compulsory dances were interrupted after only six teams skated. Bright sun and strong winds had left the ice conditions less than desirable and the event had to be postponed to the next day. In a class by themselves, Denny and Jones easily won their first international title together ahead of teammates Catherine Morris and Michael Robinson.

France's Christiane and Jean-Paul Guhel

In her book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On The Ice", Lynn Copley-Graves recalled, "It took the absence of a third British couple to break their stranglehold on the European podium since the first Dance event in 1954. The Guhels drew attention with their unique free dance to be honoured with the first non-British medal. Rita Paucka and Peter Kwiet skated a very fast free marred by a spill to end fourth. Elly Thal and Hannes Burkhardt pulled up a notch to fifth with their free dance." As was often even more the case then that it is today, there was very little movement in the ice dance event with the exception of Romanová and Roman. The judges had no clue what to do with the sprightly young team. The British judge had them in fourth and the Italian judge had them in eleventh, where they ultimately ended up. Denny and Jones' winning free dance was broadcast on BBC Sportsview alongside features on cricket, curling and football.

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.

Mascara And Mazurkas: Make-Up In Skating Through The Years

1951 Avon Cosmetics advertisement featuring Barbara Ann Scott

As trends in figure skating have changed over the years, so too obviously have trends in its fashion and hair. As skaters became stars of the stage, screen and even the circus in the early twentieth century, another aspect of their appearance came into consideration... what they wore on their skin.

Most earlier accounts of the make-up skaters wore speak to portrayal of certain characters, sometimes controversial and even dangerous. Red McCarthy painted himself with silver lead based paint 'make-up' in as King Bat Of The Forest and Canadian and American skaters alike donned blackface to perform in club carnivals. Ice Capades star Donna Atwood told NEA Staff Writer Alicia Hart that skaters wore "heavy, dark make-up" for a Tahitian number. She claimed, "If we didn't remove our make-up often enough, we'd soon find our pores had become terribly enlarged."

Left: Cosmetic ad from the Oshawa Skating Club's 1945 "Ice Frolics" carnival program. Right: Sonja Henie posing for a beauty column.

In his book "Ice Cream", Toller Cranston recalled how Andra McLaughlin Kelly told him Sonja Henie "went to elaborate pains with her make-up... [She] did not apply it directly to her body in the usual way, with a powder puff or sponge. Instead, she had herself dipped into a vat of candy-floss-pink liquid makeup that had been specifically created for her. When Andra showed me a sample of the colour, I found it grotesque. Andra assured me, however, that under exactly the right lighting conditions (which the star, of course, demanded), Sonja's entire five-foot-three, 110-pound body glowed like a perfect Georgia peach. The tint of the potion, manufactured exclusively for her use, became known as 'Sonja Pink'."

Top: Right: Beetleware dressing table box, circa 1930's. Photo courtesy Museum Of Design In Plastics - Arts University Bournemouth. Bottom: Stratton compact featuring five women skating, circa 1935-1940. 

Sonja actually offered up her make-up advice to the masses in a piece that appeared in "Photoplay" magazine in 1939... and didn't mention being dipped in a vat of foundation once: "If you find yourself so busy and occupied with one thing or another all day long, that you can hardly find time to powder your nose, much less renew your lipstick, take Sonja Henie's advice on how to keep your lipstick on. Sonja says she powders her lips before she applies the lipstick because the rouge then stays on twice as long. To set it even more, try using the most indelible lipstick you can find in a definitely light shade. Then, over that, use your regular stick in the shade you prefer. Sonja says that if you follow this procedure 'no matter what you go through during the day some colour will be left.'"

Max Factor ad from the 1951 issue of the "Ice Skating International Directory"

In a 1951 article published in the "Ice Skating International Directory", Max Factor Jr. pitched the need for all skaters to wear theatrical make-up. He wrote: "The right type of glamour make-up is as essential for the Ice Skater - either in solo appearances or as a member of the cast of the ever-increasing number of Ice Shows - as for any other type of production or personal appearance before the public. Many of the outstanding Skaters have appeared in films and have come to my Hollywood Studio for advice on their make-up, and in England, where there is a continuous stream of new productions on ice, the Max Factor Hollywood Make-up Artists' services have been in great demand. The basic glamour make-up for a Skating Show is much the same as for a theatrical or film production - most performers know enough about stage make-up and so I do not propose to go into the fundamentals in this brief article - BUT there is one important difference to remember. In a stage production the players are separated from the audience; they rarely come close. Skaters, on the other hand, are frequently within a few feet of the spectators. 'Glamour' make-up is easily acquired, but not so easily retained without a certain amount of care and attention. A performer in your field, who comes into close range of the audience must look as glamorous at close range as from a distance under the brilliant lighting. Skating artists should keep very clean outlines to the eyes and mouth. Use brushes for both. Lip Gloss applied over the lipstick gives a lovely sheen which is attractive and at the same time, protective. It also has the virtue of lengthening the life of lipstick application. For face and limb make-up the most popular shades with Ice Skaters in Max Factor Pan-Cake make-up are Nos. 24, Tan Rose and 2879. Some performers prefer to use Pan-Stik (the latest form of make-up) for the face, and Pan-Cake for the body. But this is something for the individual to decide. Atmospheric conditions in a rink are, of course, very different from those of stage or set, but performers on the ice find that Max Factor Pan-Cake remains perfect as a make-up under the most strenuous conditions - even under water - but that is a different medium altogether, altogether it may be a comforting thought for those who 'skate on thin ice'."

As we know, Cover Girl doesn't cover boy, so Max Factor make-up soon became a staple in the cosmetic bags of both men and women touring with professional shows. In her 1956 book "Thin Ice", Jacqueline du Bief advised, "Make-up is an element that must not be neglected but it should be used with discretion because if applied too lavishly there is a risk of giving the face too set an expression. Its intensity, as with the colour of the costume must depend on the lighting used."

In the amateur ranks, many men resisted putting on a little make-up until the rise of television made it almost a necessity. Interestingly, the program for the Oshawa Skating Club's 1950 "Ice Frolics" carnival lists a female make-up artist for the female skaters and a male artist for the males. Though they were generally far more minimalist than the female stars of the ice shows, most competitive female skaters embraced cosmetics with open arms. By the early seventies, the Washington Ice Rink was offering make-up lessons to female skaters of all ages. Some twenty years later, former Canadian ice dancer Linda (Roe) Bradley opened her own business - The Artistic Impression Makeup Company - offering seminars, consultations and even her own make-up line for skaters. In the nineties, Josée Chouinard also appeared in ads for Almay cosmetics.

While many skaters succeeded at the cosmetic craft, others have been often critiqued. The inimitable Toller Cranston threw shade at two time Olympic Gold Medallist Oleg Protopopov's radiant shade of orange foundation and no one will ever forget that famous line uttered by Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 Winter Olympics when the medal ceremony was delayed while Olympic officials tried to find the Ukrainian anthem. After she'd been mistakenly told that Oksana was re-applying her make-up, Nancy said in front of the cameras: "Oh, come on. She's going to get up there and cry again. What's the difference?" Two years earlier, Jim Kershner of the "Spokane Chronicle" gleefully snarked, "I'm sorry, but this sport is just too frustrating to watch. It's excruciating to see all of those skaters' bottoms careening across the ice like human curling stones... I'd like to see a category called 'Makeup Per Square Inch,' in which points are subtracted for each pound of makeup employed. This would solve one of the biggest problems in figure skating today: huge chunks of makeup scattered over the ice after a skater takes a fall. The problem is even worse when it's a female skater." Sportswriters are a quaint bunch, aren't they?

All kidding aside, the trends in skating make-up may have greatly evolved over the years but one thing is for certain: cosmetic companies have made a small fortune off of figure skaters... and that's not likely to change any time soon.

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.

Yao Bin: A Blast From Last

Yao Bin was born on August 15, 1957 in the city of Harbin, which is in the Heilongjiang province in northeastern China. Coached by Li Yaoming, a former skater who survived forced 'thought-remolding' and forced labour at a prison camp in Chalianhe in the late sixties, he became a member of the Harbin figure skating team in 1970 at the age of thirteen. To say training conditions weren't ideal was an understatement. China had few educated coaches, little funding, no off-ice training, only had ice five month a year of ice and few rinks. These issues, coupled with poor equipment and skate sharpening techniques, really meant that everything was working against Bin from the start.

Bin trained on the frozen field of Red Star Stadium and in the bitter cold of the frozen Black River in Heihe, on the northern Chinese border with Siberia. At the age of twenty in 1979, Li Yaoming hand-picked him and twelve year old Luan Bo to be China's first international pair team. Their coach had only ever seen pairs skating performed live once - at the 1978 World Championships in Ottawa - and the team's early attempts at skating in tandem were anything but successful. Once, while practicing a throw both partners took bad falls at the same time. The team practiced lifts with Luan Bo being picked up off a rinkside table in a helmet and pads. Without access to video footage, Bin studied pictures of North American and European skaters and tried to recreate the elements in the pictures on the ice. It was an unconventional start in pairs skating to say the very least.

In 1980, the team travelled to the World Championships in Dortmund as the first Chinese pair to compete internationally. With no funding to send their coach, they arrived alone and were too intimidated to even skate on their first practice. Never having skated in an indoor rink of international competition size before, only used half the ice surface. Not even in the same league with the other pairs, they were laughed at by their competitors and the West German audience. In a 2005 interview with the Russian Olympic Committee, Irina Rodnina recalled, "I remember the debut of the Chinese pairs in the world championship of the 80th year. Frankly, I very much laughed."

The following year, Harbin got its first rink and perhaps as a result of the disastrous debut in Dortmund, Chinese officials allowed skaters to borrow videotapes from the Soviet Union for study. Bin memorized every move. With more favourable training conditions, the team ramped up their training efforts. However, they remained in last place at the 1981 and 1982 World Championships.
By 1983, Bin and Bo began using Western costumes and music and upping the technical ante of their programs, even including side-by-side double jumps and a throw triple Salchow in their free skating program. A bronze medal win at a Winter Universiade competition in Sofia, Bulgaria justified their efforts.

By the time of the 1984 Winter Olympics, Bin was twenty six. High hopes of moving up from last place in Sarajevo were dashed with a disastrous short program. Bo and Bin again finished dead last of the fifteen pairs competing. He retired and became a coach for the Harbin team. Two years later, he was China's national figure skating coach. In August 1987, he graduated from night school at the Harbin Normal University Sports College with a degree in Physical Culture. A versatile coach who excelled at everything from music to costume design, he took advantage of opportunities to study Soviet skaters in the Urals district. His coaching philosophy was later founded on a passion for building a uniquely Chinese skating program. Fuelled by constant reminders of his own skating days, he became fiercely determined to prove China's ability to develop its skaters without Western influence.

In 1996, he was moved to Beijing and separated from wife and son. In a television feature aired during the Vancouver Olympics, he sadly shared, "I was not even there when my son was born. That is why my son's name is Yau Yuan which means 'far away' in Chinese." Since 1998, Bin has been the director of China's national figure skating committee. His students have included Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, Qing Pang and Jian Tong, Wenjing Sui and Cong Han, Dan and Hao Zhang, Peng Cheng and Hao Zhang and countless others. Almost single-handedly, he has put Chinese pairs skating on the map. If there's one thing we should glean from Yao Bin's story, it is that history is not always doomed to repeat itself.

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.

#Unearthed: An Account Of Napoléon III's Skating Parties

When you dig through skating history, you never know what you will unearth. In the spirit of cataloguing fascinating tales from skating history, #Unearthed is a once a month 'special occasion' on Skate Guard where fascinating writings by others that are of interest to skating history buffs are excavated, dusted off and shared for your reading pleasure. From forgotten fiction to long lost interviews to tales that have never been shared publicly, each #Unearthed is a fascinating journey through time.

As you might recall from the blog on Jean Garcin, the Gilets Rouge and the Cercles des Patineurs, Napoléon III hosted extravagant, private skating parties on a secluded portion of the Bois de Boulogne called "la pelouse de Madrid" for the Cercles des Patineurs in the nineteenth century which were tremendously popular in Parisian society at the time. To gain a sense of what these exclusive affairs were really like, in this month's #Unearthed we will step back into Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte and his wife Eugénie de Montijo's time and explore an account from a British newspaper correspondent reporting for the "South Australian Register" on Friday, March 29, 1861!

Napoléon III and the Empress Eugenie Skating in the Bois de Boulogne, Culverhouse, Johann Mongels (1820-91) / FORBES Magazine Collection, New York, USA / Bridgeman Images. Used for educational purposes.

AN ACCOUNT OF NAPOLÉON III'S SKATING PARTIES (UNNAMED BRITISH NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENT)

Last night I had the luck to be present at a grand Court skating match by torchlight. In Paris the streets were muddy; it was supposed a decided thaw had set in, the ice on the lake in the Bois de Boulogne was pronounced unsafe - it was, as I ascertained myself, watery on the surface, and not a soul was to be seen upon it. But beyond the Longechamps racecourse, and on the banks of the Seine near M. de Rothschild's splendid villa, and just opposite Suresne, there is a meadow studded with pretty clumps of high trees which was overflowed during the late floods, and which, although the thermometer had risen to a shade above zero, still presented a smooth coating of solid ice, there being scarcely any water underneath. At this spot the Emperor, with as much secrecy as possible, had made a rendezvous for 10 o'clock at night. The great Golidot, undertaker of public rejoicings, hung the branches of the trees with hundreds of Chinese [lanterns], and serving-men, as numerous as those peasants who erst walked all night long up and down the ponds about the royal palaces to prevent the frogs waking the Kings of France, promenaded the frozen meadow with lanterns fixed on their heads. Besides this constant illumination, there was an intermittent succession of Bengal fire and fizzing torches, which lighted up the scene al giorno. A body of men in white blouses - a special ice police - formed a cordon round the field of operations, and kept off those who were uninvited; but the crowd of spectators, though considerable, consisted mainly of the inhabitants of St. Cloud, Suresne, and the neighbouring villages. The population of Paris knew nothing of the fête, and up to this hour neither the 'Moniteur' nor any other journal has said a word about it. As soon as the Emperor and the Court arrived the sport commenced in very business-like style. The Empress got into a sledge, and M. Hartogs, a German gentleman, whose proficiency as a skater attracted the imperial notice two years ago, and who is now called at Court the Emperor's Aide-de-Camp de glace, had the honour of pushing Her Majesty on the ice. He took her along at railroad speed, and was out of sight of shore in less than a minute. The Emperor then put on his skates, and conducted the sledge of a lady whose name I could not learn. The Countess de Morny, enveloped in velvet and white furs, essayed her prowess, but was supported by two gentlemen, who gave her a hand on each side. The Princess Poniatowski went along very well by herself. In a short space of time the ice was thickly studded with a host of chamberlains, generals, aides-de-camp and even judges, who had come with the Court party to join in the fashionable amusement of the hour. The notion of coming to skate in a thaw was highly approved, for the night was by no means cold. The Emperor and Empress remained on the ice till half-past 11. This afternoon, the frost in the meantime having returned with considerable intensity, the sport was resumed by the imperial party at the same spot. M. Hartogs gave the Empress a promenade in a beautiful sledge, which was sent for by telegraph from Germany, and only arrived this morning. Afterwards Her Majesty ventured to skate, but only with the assistance of two gentlemen. She is not at her ease upon the ice, and considering that she comes from sunny Spain, this is not to be wondered at. The Emperor is a very good skater. He does not attempt any tours de force, but he is perfectly master of his movements. His wont is to go along rather slowly, and he stops frequently to contemplate the animated scene around him. Not the least etiquette is observed on the ice. No clear space is kept about the Emperor or Empress. They go about just like anybody else, and today, unlike last evening, everybody without exception was allowed to skate at the same time with them. The Emperor had nothing whatever but his own adroitness to prevent him from being knocked over by the first tyro in the sport whose skates might run away with him. It was an interesting sight to see the master of so many legions, the mighty potentate upon whose mysterious breath the fate of so many nations hangs, slipping about unpretentiously on the ice, no squire, or even servant following him, and apparently as much on an equality with the people about him as a carter is with a ploughman on an English farmyard pond. Once a young man, who saw the Emperor skating slowly along the middle of the lake, steered almost indiscreetly close to him and gave him the go-by, with the evident intention of getting credit with spectators for being the best skater. The Emperor then, without any apparent effort, increased his speed, gracefully distanced his opponent by a few yards, and contented with his victory, resumed the steady pace which, as I said before, he seems to affect."

This writer's account seems to ease the notion of the Emperor being beyond reproach on the ice. Although these affairs were indeed exclusive, he was not surrounded by servants and bodyguards; he was out there taking in the pleasures of skating like everyone else. The history books so often fail to capture the simple humanity of political leaders and this tale of the last French Emperor gliding along the ice in competition with an unnamed young man less than ten years before he was captured at the Battle of Sedan reminds us all that the ice has a way of levelling the playing field.

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.

Bygone In Budapest: Four Forgotten Hungarian Skating Stars

Figure skaters in Budapest, circa 1896

From the many champions who graced Budapest's historic Városligeti Műjégpálya to the legendary Zsófia Méray-Horváth, figure skating history has been peppered with stories of Hungarian figure skaters who have made important contributions to the sport's rich history. Today on the blog we will take a look at the stories of four forgotten Hungarian skating stars from days past!

NADINE SZILASSY

Born in 1918, Budapest's Nadine Szilassy reigned as the queen of Hungarian figure skating during the mid to late thirties. She won her country's national title three times from 1935 and 1938 but ultimately missed out on a chance to represent Hungary at the 1936 Winter Olympics to her rival Éva Botond, the skater who finished one spot ahead of Belita Jepson-Turner in Garmisch-Partenkichen. Though by accounts a fine free skater, she was a specialist in school figures. 

Nadine Szilassy and Ferenc Kertész. Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland

In 1939, she turned her attention to pairs skating and teamed up with Ferenc Kertész to place seventh at that year's World Championships in her hometown. After winning a fourth national title in 1940, she ended her competitive figure skating career during World War II. 

GYÖRGI KORDA AND PÁL VÁSÁRHELYI

For seven years from 1959 to 1965, Györgi Korda and Pál Vásárhelyi reigned supreme as Hungary's ice dance champions. Although they never medalled at an international competition, their insistence on pushing the envelope didn't go unnoticed by audiences around the world at a time when no team dared upset the apple cart. One of the earlier teams to attempt a 'four-piece' free dance, their 1964 effort included a mixture of ballet, modern jazz, ballroom dance and comedy. British skating historian Dennis Bird called their skating "a little too unconventional" and Lynn Copley-Graves noted that "much of it was deliberately angular and looked ugly." They attempted to introduce a national folk dance to the fold in 1963 and were known for their showmanship but a lack of elite level coaching in Hungary coupled with the fact they only made it to England to touch up their compulsories once a year kept them from making the leap to the medal podium. However, their one year leap from twelfth to fourth at the European Championships from 1962 to 1963 was unprecedented at the time and a testament to their determination to succeed in an era when British teams dominated the international ice dancing scene. They retired in 1965 after receiving marks that ranged from fifth through twelfth at the World Championships in Colorado Springs.

DR. ELEMÉR TERTÁK

Born November 2, 1918 in Budapest, Hungary, Elemér Terták was the son of Ádám and Löwi Regina Terták. His father was a notable economist. Although his mother was Jewish, Elemér attended a Roman Catholic school. He started skating at the age of eight at the Városligeti Műjégpálya and made his debut on the international stage in 1934, winning the bronze medal at the European Championships in Seefeld, Austria behind Karl Schäfer and Dénes Pataky.

Though a three time Hungarian Champion, Elemér skated in the shadow of Dénes Pataky for much of his earlier skating career. Despite this, he earned two top ten finishes at the World Championships in 1934 and 1935 and at the age of seventeen, placed eighth at the 1936 Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

The following year Elemér placed third at the European and World Championships behind Felix Kaspar and Henry Graham Sharp but in the two years that followed, he fell out of medal contention and stopped skating competitively.

In 1940, Elemér earned a doctorate degree in law at University Of Budapest. In the years that followed, he served as Vice President of the Hungarian Skating Association and played an important role in the rebuilding of skating programs in his country after World War II. From the forties through the eighties, he served on the ISU Council and various ISU committees and acted as an international judge and referee. He was assistant referee in the men's event at the 1980 Winter Olympics and the referee of the pairs event at the 1984 Games in Sarajevo.

As a judge, Elemér often went against the grain. At the 1948 World Championships in Davos, he placed Eva Pawlik ahead of winner Barbara Ann Scott. His scoring of Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden in 1955 in Vienna almost cost them their second World title. At the 1963 World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, he placed controversial Hungarian ice dance team György Korda and Pál Vásárhelyi fifth. Four other judges didn't even have them in the top ten. In the eighties and nineties, he penned five books about figure skating including "Műkorcsolyázás és jégtánc". He also worked closely with Benjamin T. Wright in the development of "Skating Around The World", the ISU bible of figure skating history. He was given an honorary membership to the ISU in 1988 and passed away July 8, 1999 in Budapest at the age of eighty, having dedicated nearly his entire life to the development of figure skating.

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.