Long Shots From Le Locle: The Elyane Steinemann and André Calame Story

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine

Hailing from Le Locle, a tiny municipality in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland, Elyane Steinemann and André Calame didn't exactly grow up in the epicenter of the Swiss skating 'boom' of the first half of the twentieth century. Davos was a four hour drive; St. Moritz nearly five. Elyane started skating at the age of eight after seeing Karl Schäfer perform in Neuchâtel. Her family moved to Lausanne shortly thereafter and she joined the Club de Patinage Artistique Lausanne, passing her first skating test at the age of twelve in March of 1941. As a singles skater, she placed seventh in an international junior competition in Davos in January of 1943, but rising through the ranks during World War II meant that competitive opportunities were limited early in her career.

Maja Hug, Eliane Steinemann and André Calame and Kurt Sönning

André Calame was the son of a pastor and came from a very athletic family. His brother Emil was on the Swiss national football team; his brother Henry was a boxer. As a sixteen year old, he made the hour long trip from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Bern to practice skating on artificial ice. He would skate for twelve hours a day and then return home to attend business school. He claimed the Bernese men's title in 1943 and 1944. In 1946, a skating professor from Montchoisi named Miss Oetker paired the young skaters. With little guidance, they practiced alone in Lausanne for three to four hours a day. The conditions were less than ideal. André complained, "It is evident that we need room to execute our program, and that it is difficult to work seriously when you have to sneak in between the skaters. The participants of the Swiss Championships were fortunately able to get the skating rink every day for five precious minutes." These conditions, coupled with the fact the fact that Lausanne's skating season was short, meant that the young team were forced to leave the double Salchow and loop jumps they hoped to include in their program on practice ice. Despite this, they finished second to Luny Unhold and Hans Kuster at both the 1947 and 1948 Swiss Championships.

Elyane and André made their international debut at the 1948 World Championships in Davos. In a February 11, 1948 interview in "Gazette de Lausanne et Journal Suisse", they said, "We are delighted [to be selected]. We will go to Davos with joy, without nourishing the slightest hope. We will do our best, that's all. Because, there we will probably be the couple whose technical training is the most recent." They had a poor skate and finished dead last. In jest, Mr. John Nicks called André 'André Calamity'.

Shortly after that event, Elyane and André began working with Austrian coach Inge Solar and travelling to England in the summers to train under famed Swiss coach Arnold Gerschwiler. With proper training, their skating improved drastically over a very short period of time. From 1949 to 1951, they reigned as Switzerland's pairs champions. In both 1950 and 1951, they finished fourth at the World Championships and second at the European Championships, making history as the first pairs team from Switzerland to medal at the European Championships. They defeated some pretty accomplished teams in their brief time at the top too, including World Champions Jennifer and John Nicks and their Swiss successors, Silvia and Michel Grandjean.

André Calame

Their partnership ended when Elyane accepted an offer to turn professional following the 1951 World Championships in Zürich. André retained his amateur status long enough to win the 1952 Swiss senior men's 'B' title before joining suit. The duo skated in ice pantomimes in Wembley, the Wiener Eisrevue in Austria and Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier's Eisrevue in Germany from 1952 to 1959. Elyane moved to Canada and taught at the Riverside Figure Skating Club in Windsor, Ontario, the Noranda Figure Skating Club in Quebec and the North Shore Winter Club, Burnaby Winter Club and Vernon Figure Skating Club in British Columbia.

Jiřina Nekolová, Susi Giebisch, Willy Petter, Emmy Puzinger, Sissy Schwarz, Kurt Oppelt and André Calame. Photo courtesy Dr. Roman Seeliger. 

André returned to the Neuchâtel Mountains as a coach at the Locle Skaters Club. During the early sixties, France's top skaters flocked to the club to train. From 1963 to 1967, he coached the Italian skating team. Among his students were Giordano Abbondati and Rita Trapanese. In 1967, he formed an international skating school in St. Gervais, where he worked with skaters from all over Europe, including Austria's Claudia Kristofics-Binder, France's Jean-Christophe Simond, Switzerland's Mona and Peter Szabo, Belgium's Katrien Pauwels and Hungary's Jenő Ébert. He married to Simond's mother, whose first husband had died on a mountain climbing expedition. From 1968 to 1970, he served as the Swiss Skating Federation's Secretary and from 1976 to 1981, he taught in Megève. He was a much sought-after coach and turned down offers to teach in Paris, Basel and Moscow in order to stay in Switzerland. He sadly passed away suddenly of a heart attack at the Orly airport in Paris at the age of fifty five on November 26, 1982. Elyane passed away on October 25, 2009 in Hinton, Alberta.

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.

Connecticut Catalyst: The Heaton R. Robertson Story

Heaton Robertson during his time at Yale University. Photo courtesy Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives.

"Being too young to further engage in the senile sports of chess or yacht racing, or sitting in my chair (though I do love that one), I spend all my leisure time in going about the country for figure skating events. Pretending to myself that the writing of tracts on judging is doing a lot of good, but in reality in order to play around on the ice with a lot of very young people. Grow old with me!" - Heaton Robertson, "Fortieth Anniversary Record Of The Class Of 1904 - Yale College", 1947

Born November 23, 1882 in New Haven, Connecticut, Heaton 'Heat' 'Robbie' Ridgway Robertson was the son of Abram and Graziella (Ridgway) Robertson. His father was a prominent judge and his grandfather Dr. John Brownlee Robertson a former mayor of New Haven.  His great-great-grandfather emigrated from Scotland to Charleston, South Carolina in 1765.

Heaton's father, Judge Abram Heaton Robertson

As a young man, Heaton attended Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He later earned a B.A., Ph.B. and E.M. at Yale University. While at Yale, he served as an assistant instructor in mining and metallurgy. The Yale College Class Book 1904 noted, "He chose [Yale] because the college was a near a place where he could get good food - namely, home... Robbie's grievance seems to be the lack of a smoking-room."

After his graduation, Heaton taught mathematics at Yale, mined in Cripple Creek, Colorado and served as the chief construction engineer for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company. From 1916 until his retirement, he served as the chief engineer of the Connecticut State Shellfish Commission. While serving in that position, he revised all of the state charts for Long Island Sound and developed a system for locating and preserving oyster beds in Connecticut. When he wasn't focusing on the delicious treasures that lied below the ocean waves, he was busy playing chess, winning races in his sloop, the Varuna, attending the Trinity Episocopalian Church or showing his support for the Democratic Party. He had two children with his first wife Emily, who passed away in 1915, and later married Myrtle Dean DeLancey, the widowed daughter of a prosperous Chicago advertising executive. His son Heaton II graduated from Yale and taught flying during World War II.

Heaton R. Robertson, Doris Shubach and Walter Noffke. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

In addition to his many accomplishments off the ice, Heaton was one of the biggest movers and shakers in the figure skating world. A three time winner of The Hobbs Trophy in Lake Placid, he was a perennial competitor at the U.S. Championships in the roaring twenties and one of the more prominent members of the New Haven Skating Club. He was third in the junior men's event at the U.S. Championships four years in a row (from 1923 to 1926) and finished second with partner Mrs. John T. Sloan in the first junior pairs event at the U.S. Championships in 1923. At the same time he was competing, he was active as a judge, referee and accountant.

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

In addition to serving as President of the U.S. Figure Skating Association from 1940 to 1943, Heaton held various positions on the organization's executive including Treasurer, Chairman of the Competitions and Rules Committee, Eastern Committee, Judges And Judging Committee and Standards And Tests Committee. He served as a national and international judge, accountant and referee and sponsored and assisted with the USFSA's first Judges Manual in 1942. He later authored the books "Evaluation Of School Figure Errors" and "What Judges Are Looking For In School Figures And Free Skating". Despite the effects of World War II, during his presidency of the USFSA subscriptions to "Skating" magazine nearly doubled and efforts were made to improve judging and education for skaters and coaches alike.

Heaton, who was registered for the draft during World War II, recalled the USFSA's efforts to keep figure skating alive during the War thusly: "The competitions were continued all through the war, as were most of our other activities. This was at first considered to be impractical and perhaps not even quite patriotic. It was later agreed that competitions should be run wherever there were suitable entries, and other activities followed a similar course. As it turned out, there were plenty of entries in all but the Men's Senior class, and the wartime competitions were otherwise remarkably successful. Our organization deals very largely with the young people who like to take tests and to compete, and a somewhat older group fond of dancing. This healthy and absorbing recreation was a distinct asset to those whose war efforts entailed long hours and unusual responsibilities. For the young, whose impressionable years were lived under changed conditions, the concentrated effort of long hours spent in skating did very much for them, too."

Top: Heaton Robertson presenting a trophy to Arthur Vaughn Jr. Bottom: Heaton R. Robertson presenting a trophy to Jane Vaughn Sullivan. Photo courtesy "Skating Through The Years".

Benjamin T. Wright, the late ISU and USFSA Historian, recalled, "Robertson made a substantial contribution to the development of judges' education in addition to standardizing the methods of instruction for judges' schools. An excellent teacher himself, [he] worked long and hard on a one-on-one basis with many candidate judges... He made a comprehensive revision of the judges lists, weeding out many who were inactive, over age or otherwise incompetent... He was a truly versatile and intellectual person, serving as a competitor, judge, accountant, referee, club officer, Association officer, committee chairman and author... A remarkable intellect, he was perhaps best remembered for his 'nurturing' and teaching of new young judges... He was a skilled mathematician, and one story about him reflects that. At a competition he was judging, at the end of the free skating, he asked for a few moments to transcribe his marks. It was found that he had started out with too high a range, so he had just kept right on marking above the then maximum mark of 10.0, and after the event, in virtually a few seconds, he transposed his entire set of marks down to within the maximum permitted. Fortunately for him, the modified open system was being used!"

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

After being named an Honorary Vice-President of the USFSA in 1951, Heaton passed away at the home of his son in Branford, Connecticut on May 9, 1953 at the age of seventy two, having suffered from a serious stroke two years prior. He was inducted posthumously into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 1977 and his name was attached to the U.S. novice women's trophy.

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.

Reader Mail: Every Three Months Is Still Faster Than Canada Post

It's once again time to unpack the mail bag, answer some of your questions and share some of the interesting e-mails and social media messages that have come my way over the last few months. As always, if you have a question you'd like me to tackle or feedback on a blog please reach out via e-mail.

READER QUESTIONS

From Margo (via e-mail): "What was the first TV broadcast of skating?"

A: In pre-War England, the BBC regularly aired radio broadcasts of commentary from major figure skating competitions, including the 1937 World Championships, 1937 British Championships and 1939 European Championships. Television broadcasts of figure skating began in the autumn of 1946, with an exhibition of waltzing on ice and short snippets of performances by Muriel Roberts, Eva Nyklova and Jimmy Macauley filmed at the Empire Pool, Wembley. In October of 1948, BBC viewers were treated to a performance by the reigning Olympic Gold Medallist, Barbara Ann Scott. The first skating production to be broadcast at length was "Ice Frolics Of 1949", directed by Miss Gladys Hogg, which aired in February of 1949. The cast included Jennifer and John Nicks, Michael Carrington, Marion Davies, Peri Horne, Toni Congden and Bernard Spencer. Two months later, the BBC filmed the Manchester Ice Dance Trophy, and broadcast part of the event, as well as an interview with winners Sybil Cooke and Bob Hudson. That same winter, American television audiences had their first tastes of the sport. In his column in the February 1949 issue of "Skating World" magazine, Harry Hirsch recalled, "The National Broadcasting Company scored a revolutionary 'first' on televsion, when it televised the first ice show from one of its studios in Rockefeller Center. A 20 ft. X 20 ft. tank was installed the night before - the twenty-feet pipes had to be cut in half before they could be handled by the elevators - and the Ballards, Chet Nelson and Alice Farrar, all from thee Hotel New Yorker ice show gave exhibitions that became the talk of the industry twenty-four hours later. The show was so well-received that it will be repeated in February and there is talk that a large industrial firm will sponsor a weekly ice show for thirteen weeks. Christmas Eve, as part of a Christmas Show presented by the Chevrolet Dealers Of America, another ice sequence was televised. Again real ice was frozen in a studio of the Columbia Broadcasting System and this time it was the Prestons and Trixie, the juggler, who gave television audiences a thrill with their acrobatic feats. A new and wonderful medium for exhibiting ice shows has been created and due to the fact that ice shows do not have any spoken words and all action is visual, television will win new friends for this glorious sport and profession."

From Artyom (via e-mail): "First Master of Sport to skate to music Carmen?"

A: Great question, Artyom! It's hard to definitively say who was the first, but one of the earliest skaters I've found that used it was Willy Böckl, the World Champion from 1925 to 1928. He performed to Bizet's "Carmen" in the famous "Land Of The Midnight Sun" carnival in New York City in 1930. Donald Jackson started using "Carmen" for his free skating music in 1958, and famously used it when he won the World title in Prague in 1962. Manfred Schnelldorfer used it to win Olympic gold two years later in Innsbruck.

From Ashley (via Facebook): "I enjoy reading your blog! I am always learning something new. I'm curious about some of the weirdest things you've encountered in doing your research."

A: Thank you for your kind words, Ashley! I encounter some pretty crazy stuff, but some of the crazier stories that first spring to mind are Isabella Butler, the circus daredevil who toured America doing ice shows at the turn of the century and the one on Sonja Henie's wild party with the elephants. I'm sure there are a ton I'm forgetting. Two bizarre things I've never covered that stand out in my mind are the time part of the roof caved in when Lynn Nightingale was doing her free skate at the Richmond Trophy and what happened to the Belgian pair, Contamine and Verdun, at the 1936 Olympics in Germany. It was their turn to skate soon and they brushed past the S.S. Guards. As a result, they got locked up until right before it was their turn to skate.

Ann Johnston. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

From Sara (via e-mail): "Who was the first Canadian woman to do a double Axel?"

A: The first woman to do a double Axel at the Canadian Championships was Ann Johnston in 1956. Even though she had a more difficult program, she lost the free skate and title to Carole Jane Pachl that year. What's interesting about Ann being the first to do it is the fact that she preferred spinning to jumping and was known as being particularly stronger in the figures.

From Cheryl (via e-mail): "Can you help me identify who entered the U.S. professional skating ranks after the plane crash? I know about John Nicks and Carlo Fassi. Any others you know of? I found an article about Nicks that states there were 12 rinks with open positions in 1962 so he had opportunities."

A: Great question! European pros had been coming to teach in North America since the early twentieth century. There would have been a handful of new opportunities as a result of coaches shuffling around after the Sabena Crash, but there would also been openings because of new rinks, the popularity of studio skating schools etc. Some would have been filled by European pros, but the majority were filled by North Americans who were already professional and were seeking new job opportunities. New professionals in 1961 included Doreen Denny (two-time World Champion with Courtney Jones) and Tim Brown (three-time World Medallist). Doreen taught in Villars, Switzerland with her husband (Italian Champion) Gianfranco Canepa and Tim taught in Squaw Valley and the St. Moritz Ice Skating Club. Bill Kipp, Danny Ryan, Edi Scholdan, Maribel Vinson Owen, Bill Swallender and Linda Hart Hadley were the six coaches that were killed in the Crash. Bill Kipp taught at the Arctic Blades Figure Skating Club, which was based at Paramount Iceland. In early 1961, the coaches there were Bill, Joan Zamboni, Dori-Ann Swett, Don Berry, Hubert Sprott and J.J. Bejshak. Mr. John Nicks took over Bill's position. Edi Scholdan taught at the Broadmoor Skating Club. In early 1961, he and Gerry Tapper were the club's professionals, with Susan Sebo teaching in the summers. Carlo Fassi and Walter 'Red' Bainbridge took over for Edi in Colorado Springs, and were assisted that first summer by Clarice Dillon and Geraldine Tapper. Bill Swallender ran a studio rink with his wife Genevieve and taught at the Detroit Skating Club with Ronnie Baker and Mimi Pong Page in the winter and at the Michigan State University Ice Rink in East Lansing with Pierre Brunet, Bud Wilson, David Spalding, Beryl Williamson and Jean Arlen Jordan in the summer. The next season, Ronnie Baker and Mimi Pong Page remained as the head pro's at the Detroit Skating Club and Jack B. Jost and Eugen Mikeler joined the staff in East Lansing. Ginny Baxter ran the Swallender's studio rink for a period of time after his death. Danny Ryan and his wife were the head professionals at the Winter Club Of Indianapolis. Ron Ludington and Marilyn Meeker Durham were added to the teaching staff at the Club in 1962, joining Danny's widow Rose Anne who also taught in Lake Placid. Linda Hart Hadley and Ila Ray and Ray Jr.'s father taught at the Seattle Skating Club with Clarence Hislop and Carol Mittun and ran the Hadley & Hart studio rink. The next season, Carolyn Smith was hired to teach at the studio rink. The studio rink was still going in 1965, with Lois Hadley, Carol Mittun and Sharon Morrissey as head pros. Carol and Clarence Hislop remained at the Seattle Skating Club. They were joined by Dean Dyar, Marsha Deen, Helen Killoran and Sharon Constable. Maribel Vinson Owen had ties to the Skating Club Of Boston, the Phillips Academy Rink in Andover and the Tabor School Camp Rink in Needham. The teaching staff in Boston in early 1961 included Cecilia Colledge, Willie Frick and Marion Proctor. Five years after the Crash, the professionals in Boston were Cecilia Colledge, Bud Wilson, Marion Proctor, Tom McGinnis and Frank Muckian.

FISHING FOR INFORMATION

Back in 2017, I did a blog on the Barney & Berry skate manufacturing company in Massachusetts. A man named John reached out asking, "I have a fishing pole Barney and Barry. All I know is it older than 1930, even early as 1910. I found nothing on it. Can you give me any information?" I don't know thing about the Barney & Berry company making fishing poles - but if anyone can help, by all means send me a message and I'll pass it on to John.

THE BURLING TRIPLETS 

I also wrote about The Burling Triplets, a sister act from Toronto, back in 2017. Laura reached out to me in November: "I was reading your Skate Guard blog about the Burling triplets and I would like to know if you have anymore information about them like their training their childhood etc. I am trying to write about them and there are some things I can not find like their lives before skating and after skating marriages deaths. Their skating training, individual personalities and more." If anyone knows more, reach out and I'll pass your message on to Laura.

GRAHAM SHARP

Photo courtesy "Ice Skate" magazine

In December, J.D. reached out on Facebook to share his memories of World Champion Graham Sharp, who was featured on the blog back in 2015: "H. Graham Sharp was my first skating pro in the late 1960’s in Tulsa OK. He was a fine gentleman, and made figures look easy. He still sported the dashing mustache. Good chap!"

THE MINTO SKATING CLUB FIRE AND BARBARA ANN SCOTT

In October of 2020, I had a lovely phone call with Wayne Ayre, who now lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Wayne was a survivor of the 1949 Minto Skating Club Fire and the son of William Ayre, the rink attendant. Wayne shared his memories of the fire and the Minto Skating Club's most famous member in the forties - Barbara Ann Scott: "It was early in the morning - very early. Mom came into the room and she said, 'The Minto's on fire! Get up!' There was four of us kids and kids and a cousin. Mom said, 'I want you to take them downstairs and across the street and go to Mr. Davies house.' Well, it was starting to get smoky and I was a boy scout -  the cubs. They taught us at cubs that you never walk in a fire in the middle of the steps. As soon as Mom told me to go down the stairs, I told the others. Our cousin Shirley - poor Shirley - she started screaming and carrying on. Mom just went over and whacked her and said, 'We don't have time for that.' Anyway, we went down the steps no problem. I also knew from cubs that doors will jam once they get heated. I got the door open easily and we walked across the street to Mr. Davies' house and he took us all in. Now, if you picture a triangle, that would be the Minto. It was on 151 Waller Street. Next to the Minto, going towards Laurier Avenue, which would be the first street you come to, there was a double house. Around the corner, there was a barber shop and another little place and a fire station. Now, Dad used to let the firemen come in the side door, about halfway down the building. He'd leave that door open so the firemen could come in and watch the skaters. When the guys were working there at the holidays, they'd bring in a turkey or something and the women that ran the skater's canteen would cook their turkeys for them. Her name was Tilley. Well, she had a boyfriend named Cecil... When there was a fire, Cecil and Tillie packed up everything and would take hot coffee, sandwiches, things like that to a fire so that firemen could have something while they were working... and no recognition for that, no money to help pay for it. That's just something they did... Now, we were across the street at Mr. Davies' house and the firemen, when we went in, they said, 'Oh my goodness - the family!' so they came running up the alley way and then they went back and got the trucks. By that time, they found that we were there and we were counted, to make sure we were all present. Then, the fire trucks got into place and started pouring their water on and so on. An aluminum ladder they had put up to get to the top melted... that's how hot that fire was. Dad had these tanks that were twelve, fifteen feet long... maybe twelve inches in diameter. These were steel tanks that contained hydrous ammonia in gas form or liquid form. He was worried that they might blow, with the heat. So he said, I've got to go in and release the pressure on those tanks. The fire chief said, 'Take this guy - this fireman - to go in.' Dad only had only lung. When they went in, the fireman passed out, overcome by the smoke. So Dad had to drag him back out. So the fire chief says, 'Wait a minute, Bill, I'll get another person for you.' He said, 'I don't have time.' and he went in and released the valve so the ammonia could escape. Well, for a man with one lung... and then he came out and then the police showed up. The first thing they wanted to know was, 'Where's the family?' so they got us out of bed and they counted us. Every time we turned around, we were being counted. Dad, for some reason, said, 'No photographs.' We were taken away to a friend of his, you know - a couple, who lived in an apartment building not far away. It was a three story apartment story, and this was on the third floor. It was one of those ones where the stairs went around and there was a big hole in the middle. We got in to share a bed with her son and there was a knock on the door. It was a reporter. Mrs. Jacobs said, 'No, their father said no pictures.' We got up to see what was going on and at that point, he jammed his camera in through the crack of the open door and she leaned on the door and she was a woman of considerable size. It hurt his arm, so he let go and he dropped the camera. She scooped it up, threw it over and it went down that center area below three stories. He said, 'You're in a lot of trouble!' She said, 'I don't think as much trouble as you are.' Then we stayed there that night. Somebody got us clothes because everything we had was gone. Dad didn't have much insurance - six hundred dollars. I think we went to our grandparents place the next day... They drove us by and there were the bunk beds, fused to the wall. That's how intense that heat was..."

Barbara Ann Scott. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

"So, Barbara Ann Scott was much unlike her Mom - she was a really nice person. My parents got me skates so that I could learn and we got in some kind of a disagreement and I said, 'I'm not going to learn to skate.' A child rebelling... Well, Barbara Ann Scott taught me to skate... Now, when Barbara Ann was contending in '48 for the Worlds and Ottawa, she would come in around five or five thirty in the morning to practice skating. My Dad had to get up, open the building, turn on all the lights. She went [through the management] and came back and said, 'I've spoken to the President and they're going to give me my own key.' She told my Dad, 'Bill, you don't have to get up anymore. They've given me a key. You just have to show me how to turn on the lights.'... Her mother was more, 'Do you know who I am?' She was kind of full of herself, the mother. She was kind of hard to deal with, but Barbara herself was lovely. Now, moving forward... When Barbara Ann was at the height of her career, she had dress shops called Barbara Ann's Dress Shop or something and there was one here [in Halifax] on Spring Garden Road. It was in the paper that she was going to be in the store. Our daughter Dawn wanted to borrow the car and I said, 'I was going to go over to Halifax because I'd love to stop into the store and see Barbara Ann Scott.' After, I changed my mind and said to Dawn I wasn't going to go. She said, 'No Dad, you're going.' She agreed to drive me over there. When I went in, there were a number of people, of course, around her. I waited for a chance. When I saw the opportunity I stepped up and said, 'Hi Barbara Ann, I'm Wayne Ayre'. She said, 'Bill Ayre's son! How's your parents?' I thought that was pretty good for her to remember that after all those years. She was just a really nice person and my claim to fame is that she taught me how to skate."

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.

Exploring The Collections: Show Programs

Every Skate Guard blog that is put together draws from a variety of different sources - everything from museum and library holdings and genealogical research to newspaper archives and dusty old printed materials I've amassed over the last ten years or so. 

This year, I thought it would be fun to give you a bit of a 'behind the scenes' look at the Skate Guard Collections, which include books, magazines, VHS tapes, show and competition programs, photographs and many other items. These Collections date back to the nineteenth century and chronicle figure skating's rich history from the days of quaint waltzes in coats and tails to quadruple toe-loop's.

 Whether you're doing your own research about a famous 'fancy' skater in your family tree or a long-lost ice rink in your community or just have a general skating history question you can't find the answer to online, I'm always happy to draw on these resources and try to help if I can. 

The first aspect of the Skate Guard Collections I wanted to write a bit about are show programs. For as long as skating shows, carnivals and ice pantomimes have been around, audiences have been given or sold printed programs that provide a chronological order of performances and highlight the skaters in the show. There are dozens upon dozens of these programs in the Skate Guard Collections, including many richly illustrated programs the Ice Capades and Ice Follies tours - the illustrations in which were really works of art in themselves. 

So, what can we learn from show programs? More than you might think! In addition to beautiful photographs of the skaters participating, the program for the Toronto Skating Club's thirty-fifth annual carnival in 1942 tells us:

- The members of the Club's Board Of Directors and Committee's, which give us clues as to the names of the parents of many of the Club's top skaters.

- That many club members were serving in the military or engaged in War work.

- That the year prior to this Carnival, the Board Of Directors were able to donate twenty-five thousand dollars to the Red Cross Blood Donors Service through the co-operation of members.

- The music that was popular amongst skaters at the time. Norah McCarthy, the 1940 Canadian Champion, skated to Emil Waldteufel's "Frühlingskinder", while a youngster's group number, which featured future stars like Suzanne Morrow, Marilyn Ruth Take and Norris Bowden, was set to "Tip Toe Through The Tulips" and Arthur Pryor's "The Whistler And His Dog".

- The instructors who were teaching at the club at the time. The senior professional in 1942 was Walter Arian and the 'lady professionals' were Elizabeth Fisher and Joan McNeil.

- That Boris Volkoff, the famed dance choreographer, played a key role in creating the ice ballets in the carnival.

- The products and services that skaters and their families would have been using at the time - which give us insight into the costumes that they sewed, the cosmetics, jewelry and tights they wore, the availability of ready-made C.C.M. skating wear that was sold at local department stores and yes - the cigarettes they smoked. 

When you look at the programs of larger-scale touring ice shows like the Ice Follies, you really get a sense of the glitz, glamour and expense that went into staging these kinds of productions. The program for the 1964 tour talks about the sixteen-year association of composer Larry Morey. Larry worked with music director George Hackett, an orchestra and vocal groups to create original music for four of the tour's acts in 1964. In case you're wondering who Morey is, he co-wrote the songs "Whistle While You Work", "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "Heigh Ho" from the 1937 Disney classic "Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs"! Another interesting thing we can learn from this particular program is how international the cast of the Ice Follies was becoming by the sixties. The cast featured dozens of skaters from the United States, Australia, Austria, Canada, Great Britain, Hungary, Switzerland and Germany. If you crack open the program for the 1954 show, you can see that there were less than ten non-North American cast members.

One of the most useful aspects of show programs are the short biographical snippets that are often included. These short write-up's can tell us where a skater was from, at what age they took up the sport, what their interests were off the ice and what their accomplishments were prior to the time they skated in the show. As an example, the biography for World Champion Dianne de Leeuw from the 1977 Holiday On Ice tour's program tells us that she was twenty and had been skating for sixteen years. So now we know that Dianne started skated at the age of four... a seemingly insignificant but interesting fact that you won't find if you pop her name in the Google.

For a list of the show programs in the Skate Guard Collections, click here. If you've got show programs collecting dust in your attic or basement that you'd like to donate, I'd love to hear from you!

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 Best Of 2020: A Skate Guard New Year's Spectacular

I suspect that 2020 is a year that all of us will be happy to see the tail end of. The COVID-19 pandemic and other world events have changed all our lives, perhaps more than we even realize. This year, face masks and social distancing have become our "new normal" and anxiety is a beast we are all facing collectively. 

Our White Christmases haven't been like "the ones we used to know". Instead of gathering around tables with friends and family near and far, many of us are connecting with loved ones via FaceTime and sending presents via Canada Post.

Figure skating has suffered setback after setback this year, but if there's one thing we can be certain of - it's that our sport will ultimately survive. It has survived two World Wars and a devastating plane crash. It has survived the elimination of school figures and a transformative judging system change. It has survived the deaths of irreplaceable coaches and rink closures... and it will survive this too. 

As we look forward to a brighter future, I wanted to take some time to look back. Over the last twelve months, Skate Guard blog has shared over one hundred fascinating stories from figure skating's rich and colourful history. I wanted to end the year by sharing ten of my favourite pieces from 2020 that you may have missed. 

Happy New Year to all of you... wishing you health, happiness and hope in 2021. Life will absolutely not get better instantly "when the ball drops", but it will get better in time.

10. THE 1960 WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2020 World Championships in Montreal were cancelled at the eleventh hour this past March, just five days after the World Health Organization confirmed the existence of a global pandemic. That same week, I published my piece on the 1960 World Championships in Vancouver, which was supposed to go up during Worlds in Montreal. This year was the sixtieth anniversary of those Championships - the first Worlds ever to be held in Western Canada. 

9. WHAT DID THEY DO IN '62?

As news broke of the cancellation of the 2020 World Championships in March, the skating world struggled to understand what the event's demise meant for the 2020/2021 season. Little did we know at the time that we'd be seeing more event cancellations this autumn! In an attempt to make sense of the confusion, I looked back at how entries for ISU Championships were decided in 1962, the year after the World Championships were cancelled because of the Sabena Crash.

8. THE FLOATING ICE RINK AT CHARING CROSS

In December, we explored the story of The Floating Rink Ice Rink at Charing Cross, a very unusual  Victorian era rink that has been long forgotten.

7. BRAVERY IN BUDAPEST: THE DÉNES PATAKY STORY

Photo courtesy Sean Pataky

In January, I had the privilege of sharing the story of Dénes 'Dinko' Pataky, a medallist at both the European and World Championships prior to World War II. His incredible life story of bravery, survival and skating is absolutely worth revisiting.

6. THE 1997 CANADIAN FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Something I'm extremely grateful for are the generous donations that so many of you have made to the Skate Guard Collections. Kate's donation of a box of VHS tapes helped provide another element to this May blog on the 1997 Canadian Championships in Vancouver.

5. COCKTAILS IN CHICAGO: THE COLLEGE INN AND TERRACE GARDEN ICE SHOWS

The Great War and prohibition played backdrop to the golden age of the hotel ice show in Chicago. This May blog looked back at the stories and skaters that shaped the story of a Windy City spectacle.

4. THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF SIDE-BY-SIDE JUMPS

From the first sober singles to Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford's trademark side-by-side triple Lutzes, this May blog explored how side-by-side jumps evolved and became a benchmark in pairs skating.

3. PREMIER DANSEUR: THE ALFRED MÉGROZ STORY

Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France

Decades before John Curry brought ballet to figure skating's forefront, one trailblazing Swiss skater formed a troupe of classical ice dancers. This September blog examined the story of Alfred Mégroz.

2. THOSE THAT STAYED: THE FATES OF FIGURE SKATING'S 'ENEMY ALIENS'

Photo courtesy National Archives, Kew - War Cabinet Memoranda

During World War II, anti-German sentiments in Great Britain led to the expulsion and internment of thousands of German-speaking civilians in Great Britain. This June blog explored the fates of several figure skaters affected by these actions.

1. FIGURE SKATING IN THE EDWARDIAN ERA

Skate Guard's third full-length feature, released this December, is a deep dive into figure skating at the turn of the century. Featuring biographies, results, pictures and forgotten histories, this piece offers a clear glimpse of the pulse and progress of the sport during a transformative time in history.

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.

Impossible Blogs Of 2020

One thing that 2020 hasn't taken away from me is my curiosity. I'm always on the hunt for fascinating new tales from skating history to share with all of you. Nine times out of ten, my wild goose chases result in a "finished product." However, for a myriad of reasons, some photographs or blurbs in old newspapers I come across just don't pan out. Today, I'm sharing five impossible Skate Guard blogs that never made it off the drawing board this year.

OSKAR UHLIG

Berlin's Oskar Uhlig is remembered historically as the very first skater to win the European Championships. He claimed his first and only European title in Hamburg in January of 1891. Those Championships, which included both figure and speed skating competitions, were organized not by the ISU but by the German-Austrian Federation. Though speed skaters from six nations competed at this event, the seven figure skaters that participated all hailed from Germany or Austria. Oskar's score was over thirty points higher than the second place finisher, Herr Schmitson. 

Following the 1891 European Championships, Oskar finished as runner-up at the 1892 German Championships to Vienna's Georg Zachariades. In 1893, he was elected as the Chairman of his home club, the Berliner Eislaufverein. He later served as the club's Vice-Chairman. Oskar acted as a judge of the men's events at the 1894 and 1909 European Championships and the women's event at the 1909 World Championships. 

Aside from his contributions to the figure skating world, the historical record offers few clues as to who this mystery man was! Searches in the German and Austrian newspaper archives were far from fruitful but two possible clues are a Geni.com entry for one Otto Oskar Uhlig, born circa 1860 and an 1869 book of rankings of the Royal Saxon Army published in Dresden listing an Oskar Uhlig among its officers.

CHAOS IN KIRKCALDY

I came across this article in the January 20, 1940 of "The Fife Free Press". It describes a series of unprovoked attacks at ice rink in Kirkcaldy, Scotland not long after the start of World War II. There's definitely a story here, but I wasn't able to come up with enough other sources to fill in the blanks.

H.W.D. FOSTER

Dr. Frank Mills, Guy Saunders, William Bonnell, Gordon Trent, Herbert Sheen, John Ryder and H.W.D. Foster recreating "The Wizard Of Oz" in the 1931 Toronto Skating Club carnival. H.W.D. is the Tin Man. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library.

While researching several pieces on skaters from Toronto in the roaring twenties, the name H.W.D. Foster kept on popping up. After I discovered that he medalled at the 1929 Canadian Championships in fours skating with the Smith sisters - Cecil and Maude - and Jack Eastwood, I became more curious about who this 'mystery man' was.

Sam Jarvis and H.W.D. Foster as Antony and Cleopatra in the 1926 Toronto Skating Club carnival. Photo courtesy City Of Toronto Archives.

It turns out that he represented Canada at an international competition in Lake Placid in 1926, where he won medals in the junior men's, pairs, Waltz and Tenstep events. His partner for the latter three was Maude. This would have been before she teamed up with Jack Eastwood. Although I was able to link him to a fabric company called Cutten & Foster and The United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada and find several photos of him both on and off the ice, my quest to learn more about H.W.D. was cut short pretty quickly... when I couldn't figure out what H.W.D. stood for. I might have solved that mystery in the summer of 2019, when I found a mention of the death of one Horace W.D. Foster, husband of Doris Catherine Neal, in the November 1965 issue of "Skating" magazine, but wasn't able to find out much more.

BETTY SCHALOW

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Betty Schalow was the only daughter of Gustav and Mildred (Gross) Schalow. Her father was a German immigrant who worked as a repair mechanic for the telephone company. She started skating at the age of twelve at the St. Paul Figure Skating Club and in New York City in 1943 won the U.S. junior pairs title with Arthur Preusch. She also placed fifth in the novice women's event at those Championships.

Not long after, Betty moved to Oakland, California to attend Mills College with aspirations of becoming a medical technician. However, when Ice Follies came to San Francisco, she auditioned and was signed as a member of the famous Ice Folliettes chorus.

Betty Schalow with film stars Cesar Romero and Ann Miller. Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library.

Five foot three, one hundred and fourteen pound Betty began studying under Roy Shipstad and Evelyn Chandler and quickly moved up the Ice Follies ranks, skating pairs acts with Arthur Preusch, Hugh Hendrickson and Marshall Beard before landing the 'leading lady' role in 1952, as a replacement for Canadian Champion Norah McCarthy.

Betty Schalow and Marshall Beard with the cast of Ice Follies

Betty's style of skating was described by reporters as a hybrid of Roy Shipstad and Evelyn Chandler's styles. World Champion Jacqueline du Bief noted, "The distinctive signs of her style are purity of line, speed, and the bite of the edges, as well as the blending of the movements." She became particularly known for her spread eagles and intricate footwork. Many of her performances were quite theatrical in nature. On the 1953 tour, she appeared as Venus, skating among the clouds in the "Symphony Of Stars". Betty was a fixture of the tour for well over a decade. An injured ankle and a broken leg didn't even deter her from appearing in the Ice Follies twentieth anniversary tour in 1956.

Left: Betty Schalow with Peter Lawford and Ava Gardner, Right: Betty Schalow with Bob Hope. Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library

Betty married two of her tour mates from Ice Follies, Carlos Romero Jr. and Patrick Shanahan. Shanahan skated a comedy act on the tour with Bill Cameron. The couple's French poodle, Pierre, even appeared in the show for a time. Off the ice, Betty enjoyed reading, cooking and collecting antiques.

Although there are no shortage of pictures of Betty floating around (and even a short clip of her performing from the late Carl Moseley's collection) I was unable to find any information about her life post-skating, or even a birth date.

A MUNICH TRAGEDY ON ICE

This one's pretty short and (not so) sweet. When I came across this 1953 clipping, I just knew there was a story there. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find out who René Fensom was (presuming she was indeed British) or which ice show she was touring with... possibly one of Tom Arnold's Continental troupes? At least, as they say, she died doing what she loved. 

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.