Director's Seat: The Sad Story Of Adrian Pryce-Jones

Adrian Pryce-Jones (right) on the set of the film "Hobson's Choice". Photo courtesy British Film Institute.

The son of Marion (Dawnay) and Henry Morris Pryce-Jones, David Adrian Pryce-Jones was born September 13, 1919 in the town of Windsor, England. He had a privileged, upper-class upbringing. His father was a decorated Colonel in the Coldstream Guards. His grandmother was Lady Victoria Alexandrina Elizabeth Gray. The Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne and the Earl of Wharncliffe were his uncles. He was also related to the managing director of the Pryce-Jones Department Store in Canada - once the Hudson's Bay Company's biggest competitor.

Adrian took up figure skating as a teenager and began pursuing the sport seriously while studying at Eton College. He regularly travelled to London to train with Arnold Gerschwiler at Richmond Ice Rink and within a few short years, earned the NSA's Gold Medal in Figures. In 1938, he won the bronze medal in the junior men's event and finished sixth in the senior men's event at the British Championships. In 1939, he repeated as the junior men's bronze medallist. He was hailed by reporters as the next 'big thing' in British men's skating - the heir apparent to the likes of Graham Sharp and Freddie Tomlins. 

Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine

Just as Adrian's star was rising in the figure skating world, World War II broke out in Europe. Like so many other young British skaters, he joined the military. He served with the Welsh Guards in North Africa and Italy, reaching the rank of Captain. 

Henry Graham Sharp, Adrian Pryce-Jones and Arthur Apfel. Photo courtesy "Ice Skating" magazine.

After the War ended, Adrian staged a comeback to the figure skating world and won the bronze medal in the senior men's event at the 1946 British Championships, behind fellow servicemen Graham Sharp and Dennis Silverthorne. None of the men who entered had much practice, recalled Sharp, and "rehabilitation to civilian and family life [took] time." For Adrian and his rivals, participating in such an event before a large, clapping crowd may have been therapeutic to some; jarring to others. Adrian fell into the latter category, but still chose to return to compete one last time in 1948 in a bid to make the Olympic team. He again took the bronze, but dazzled the audience with his "well-known and surprising sit spin with his hands clasped behind his back." Retiring from competitive skating, hre served as a judge and on the NSA's Ice Figure Committee for a time. 

At the same time he was competing, Adrian embarked on a career as a director. His credits included a stage adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" and the films "Moulin Rouge", "Summertime", "Time Without Pity", "Deep Blue Sea" and "Hell Is Sold Out". He worked with dozens of 'A List' stars including Katharine Hepburn, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Charles Laughton.

Adrian's success in the figure skating, film and theatre worlds and the fact he was a jovial man - the kind to entertain friends with impromptu piano performances at parties - made him quite popular. However, his private life led to his ultimate (premature) downfall. In his memoir "The Bonus Of Laughter", Adrian's brother (the author) Alan Pryce-Jones wrote, "It was only... in my forties that I came to know my brother. After the War, he went into the world of cinema, impelled by a brother-officer, Terence Young, and for some twenty years led a successful career with Carol Reed, Otto Preminger, and other good directors, working on such movies as 'Moulin Rouge' and 'Summertime', but never given the chance of setting up film on his own. To direct stars needs a special temperament; and it is on the first assistant-director that this need falls with special harshness. He had to calm the star's tantrums. He had to set up a location in, say, Tobago. He had to undertake prodigies of organization. And not this Adrian was not really suited. He was very efficient and very well-liked. But the strain of constant movement led him to drink a little, then to add to pills to vodka, then to drink a lot. Finally, he was going from nursing-home to nursing-home, too often becoming engaged to a fellow-alcoholic on the second floor. What can a brother do? I tried cajolement, tyranny, warning, sympathy. And at times all went well. Adrian was a delightful companion [though] he was unexpectedly shrewd, but years later, towards the end of his life, I remembered the advice of an American friend who had worked on 'Horizon' with Cyril Connolly, and suffered from a sister afflicted with periodical bouts of drunkenness. 'There is only one thing to do,' Tony Bower had said, 'with an alcoholic. Ask them to stay. Furnish their room with cases of liquor and bottles of pills, and hope it won't take too long' - brutal advice, but comprehensible." After Adrian's father's death in 1952, his mother gave him a small inheritance, which he apparently squandered on brandy. He passed away in St. Moritz, Switzerland on December 15, 1968, at the age of forty-nine.

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

The 1972 European Figure Skating Championships

Commemorative pin from the 1972 European Championships

Platform shoes and high waisted, flared boot cut pants were all the rage for men, Don McLean's "American Pie" topped the music charts and the Tequila Sunrise was the latest cocktail fad. 1972 may have been an Olympic year, but from January 10 to 15, all that mattered to many skating buffs was the European Figure Skating Championships.

Christine Errath. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

The event was held at the newly completed, state of the art Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden as part of the city's three hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations. The two hundred by one hundred foot arena, which had completed construction less than a year prior and seated up to ten thousand spectators, was the largest indoor rink in Scandinavia at the time. Ticket sales were astronomical, proving that Swedish skating fans were just as enthusiastic as they were in the days of Ulrich Salchow and Gillis Grafström. The thousands of spectators that showed up certainly weren't disappointed, for the competition proved to be every bit as engrossing as the Olympics and World Championships that followed. Let's take a look back at all of the excitement!

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

The ice dance podium

West German siblings Angelika and Erich Buck took a three point lead the compulsory dances and increased it through the entire event. They did the unthinkable in beating the unbeatable Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov, earning a string of 5.9's and one 6.0 in the free dance. It would prove to be the one and only time in the height of their career that Pakhomova and Gorshkov would ever be defeated in international competition and the crazy thing about it all was that it wasn't even particularly close in Gothenburg. In her book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice", Lynn Copley-Graves noted, "Angelika and Erich Buck had never skated so well. Betty Callaway had guaranteed their content, style and musical interpretation."

Janet Sawbridge and Peter Dalby in 1972. Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine.

The bronze medal went to Britons Janet Sawbridge and Peter Dalby, who were students of the legendary Gladys Hogg. Though they were an unlucky thirteen points back of the winners, Sawbridge and Dalby earned a 5.9 from the West German judge in the free dance and a great reception from the Swedish crowd. Only a fifth of a point separated the fourth and fifth place teams, Hilary Green and Glyn Watts of Great Britain and Tatiana Voituk and Viacheslav Zhigalin of the Soviet Union. As was more often than not the case back in those days, the results of the top ten teams didn't change a wee bit from the start of the competition to the end.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Liudmila Smirnova and Andrei Suraikin

As the three time and defending European Champions, Irina Rodnina and Alexei Ulanov were heavily favoured to win again in Gothenburg. They took a lead in the compulsory short program with an outstanding performance and coasted to victory with an almost perfect free skate. Irina's two-footing of a double Axel and Alexei's difficulty on the second jump in their side-by-side four jump combination were their only errors. The silver medal went to their Soviet teammates Liudmila Smirnova and Andrei Suraikin, who challenged Rodnina and Ulanov artistically but failed to offer the same level of technical content.

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

East Germans Manuela Groß and Uwe Kagelmann claimed the bronze, with completing Groß completing two throw double Axels and a throw single Axel on a bandaged knee. West German Erich Zeller students Almut Lehmann and Herbert Wiesinger were fourth and a second East German pair, Annette Kansy and Axel Salzmann, moved up from sixth after the compulsory short program to fifth overall. Only two pairs in the top team weren't from East or West Germany or the Soviet Union... a testament to the utter dominance of Eastern Bloc pairs at the time.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

The women's podium

The women's competition in Gothenburg boasted a whopping twenty-eight entries, the largest field since the 1959 European Championships in Davos. 'Human scribe' Trixi Schuba showed her utter superiority in the school figures, amassing an insurmountable one hundred and thirty point lead in the school figures. Eminent skating historian Dennis Bird remarked, "It is doubtful that such a decisive advantage has ever before been achieved since the European Championships began in 1930; not even Jeanette Altwegg or Sjoukje Dijkstra were ever so far ahead."

Trixi Schuba. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine..

Trailing Schuba by some margin after the first round of competition were Switzerland's Charlotte Walter, Italy's Rita Trapanese, Hungary's Zsuzsa Almássy and the UK's Jean Scott. In the free skate, a pair of Jutta Müller students - Sonja Morgenstern and Christine Errath - claimed the top two spots. Morgenstern landed a triple Salchow and received a 6.0 for artistic impression from the Italian judge; Errath wowed the crowd with her technical difficulty and panache.

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

However, the duo of young East German women  had only been sixth and seventh in figures - well behind Schuba and the others - and were only able to move up to third and fifth respectively. Despite a fall in her fifth place free skate to music from "Man Of La Mancha", Schuba still claimed the gold, defeating Trapanese by one hundred and twelve points.

Though she had more points than Morgenstern, Almássy lost out on the bronze by one ordinal placing. Walter finished sixth, Scott seventh and Maria McLean of Great Britain eighth. After the event, a German newspaper reporter who clearly had no understanding of the judging system in place at the time cruelly pointed out that Schuba was a "champion without a double Axel"... because of course, the judging system was totally her fault.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION 

The men's podium

The biggest story of the men's competition didn't happen on the ice at all. It was, of course, the defection of Günter Zöller. Minus one East German boarding a boat to freedom, the twenty-three remaining men's competitors played out a game of chess on ice in the school figures. Many of the men shuffled positions considerably from figure to figure, but it was three time and defending European Champion Ondrej Nepela who was most consistent. Though he lost the RFO Paragraph Three to Sergei Chetverukhin of the Soviet Union, Nepela held a solid forty three point lead heading into the free skate. Chetverukhin, Patrick Péra, Vladimir Kovalev and John Curry followed in places second through fifth.

In the free skate, Péra fell on a double Axel and failed to complete any triples. Chetverukhin fell on a triple Salchow but skated an otherwise elegant and masterful performance. Curry tumbled on a triple loop but succeeded in landing a double Axel and triple Salchow. Yuri Ovchinnikov, only seventh in figures, took advantage of the mistakes of the others and claimed second place in the free skate... but wasn't even able to move up one spot overall.

Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd

Nepela delivered one of the most outstanding performances of his entire career, landing a triple Salchow, triple toe-loop, double Axel and double Lutz within the first minute of his program. When he landed a double Axel/double loop combination later in his program, it was clear that no one was going to touch him. He claimed his fourth European title with an impressive lead of sixty four points and fourteen ordinal placings over Chetverukhin. Péra, seventh in free skating, took the bronze ahead of Haig Oundjian, Curry and Kovalev.

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.

A Man By Any Other Name: The Ferdinand G. Chatté Story

Photo courtesy Flin Flon Heritage Project

Ferdinand Georg Chatté was born on January 23, 1886 in Riga and in order to understand a key part of his story, it's only right to start with a short Latvian history lesson. At the time of Ferdinand's birth, Riga was part of the Governorate of Livonia, an administrative unit of The Russian Empire. At the time, Livonia wasn't ruled by Russian laws but instead was administered by the local German Baltic nobility. These nobles insisted that the German language be preserved in the region and it was common for German pastors to issue birth certificates with Germanized names. Ferdinand Georg Chatté was given the name Carl Waltenberg.

A talented and largely self-taught young skater, Ferdinand left the Livonia and weaved his way through the skating centers of Europe, making a living teaching in the early ice rinks of Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Manchester and Grindelwald. A personable young man with brown hair and blue eyes who spoke four languages, he had no trouble making friends along the way.

Left: Hala Kosloff and Ferdinand G. Chatté performing in California during the Great War. Right: Ferdinand G. Chatté  at the Manchester Ice Palace.

Ferdinand emigrated to America in 1913 and made a name for himself in the skating world during The Great War. He performed at the Zoological Gardens in Cincinnati, the Arcadian Garden of the Multnomah Hotel in Portland, the College Inn in Chicago and the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego and taught skating in New York City and Seattle. To supplement his income from skating, he worked as a lifeguard in the warmer months.

After the war ended, Ferdinand moved north to Canada and taught at the Rideau and Minto Skating Clubs in Ottawa, the Toronto Skating Club and Montreal Winter Club - working with many of the top skaters of the day, as well as teaching upper-class socialites and their children the finer points of figures. Most notable was the impact he made on Western skating clubs. He began teaching at the Winnipeg Skating Club in 1925 and was largely responsible for the breakthrough successes of Manitoban skaters during The Great Depression.

Ferdinand's most famous student was North American and Canadian Champion Mary Rose Thacker, whom he coached from the age of three to twelve, before she began working with German coach Leopold Maier-Labergo. 

Ferdinand went on to coach at the Royal Glenora Club in Edmonton, Vancouver Skating Club and Flin Flon Figure Skating Club. He also taught at several Eastern clubs including the Copper Cliff Skating Club in Sudbury and the Winter Club of St. Catharines. He passed away in Vancouver, British Columbia on January 24, 1958, one day after his seventy-second birthday - having paid a direct or indirect role in the development of thousands of skaters on two Continents.

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 1945 Canadian Figure Skating Championships

On January 25, 1947, the Battle Of The Bulge ended in a victory for the Allied Forces. Two days later, Soviet forces liberated the last seventy five hundred inmates from the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi occupied Poland. During this same three-day period, seemingly a world away, a contingent of Canadian figure skaters gathered at the Varsity Arena in Toronto to compete in the 1945 Canadian Figure Skating Championships.

Though a long list of men - including Donald Gilchrist, Sandy McKechnie, Jack Vigeon, Ralph McCreath and Philip Lee - were serving in the Canadian military, senior men's, pairs and dance events were included at the Canadian Championships for the first time since 1942. Two other important 'firsts' also occurred in 1945. 

The event marked the first time Canadians were held in a public arena and the first time the school figures skated were printed in the programs. In order to accomplish this, figures were drawn in advance but the programs weren't announced to the skaters until fifteen minutes before the start of events. As senior men's and women's figures were on different days, the program had to be printed twice. Melville Rogers, the referee for all of the events, presided over all the events.

Hugh Godefroy (left) and Frank Hillock (right), fighter pilots with the Royal Canadian Air Force and members of the Toronto Skating Club

It was Olympic Medallist Theresa Weld Blanchard's first time attending an event in Canada since the War started. In "Skating" magazine, she wrote, "I was struck by the youth of all the skaters (but this is true everywhere) and by the fact that they were all new since 1939... Canada should be proud of the new flock of skaters and can look to a good future, as the Juniors are all of a high quality." 

Just who were these 'youthful new' skaters and what were their stories in Toronto in 1945? Let's take a look back and find out!

THE JUNIOR EVENTS

Frank Sellers

Eighteen year old Norris Bowden teamed up with fourteen year old Suzanne Morrow to unanimously win the junior pairs event. Bowden was in his first year at the University Of Toronto and opted to skip the singles events due to his studies. Sixteen year old Frank Sellers of Winnipeg won the junior men's event four judges to one over Giles Trudeau of Montreal. Sellers started skating when he was five, and trained in Kitchener with Otto Gold in the summers. He was five foot nine, with brown hair and blue eyes, enjoyed swimming, bowling and badminton and aspired to study medicine when he went to university. What made his victory in 1945 incredibly remarkable was the fact he skated with his left arm in a plaster cast!

Doreen Dutton

History was made in the junior women's event, when nineteen year old Doreen Dutton of Drumheller, Alberta became the first woman from west of Winnipeg to win the Canadian junior women's title. Most of Dutton's competitors were competing at the Canadians for the first time, and she had finished second the year prior. She reminded Theresa Weld Blanchard of Cecilia Colledge. She had skated for many years at the Glencoe Club, but was representing the Porcupine Skating Club, where she'd been training under Madge Austin. She was an only child and according to her mother, her biggest concern was "how she was going to be an aunt." The bronze medallist in the junior women's event, Pierrette Paquin of Ottawa, went on to be a distinguished judge.

Left (top to bottom): Doreen Dutton, Suzanne Morrow and Norris Bowden, Gloria Lillico and William de Nance, Jr. Right (top to bottom): Nigel Stephens, William de Nance, Jr., Joan McLeod, Olga Bernyk and Alex Fulton, Olga Bernyk and Alex Fulton. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

THE PAIRS AND ICE DANCE COMPETITIONS

Olga Bernyk and Alex Fulton of the Porcupine Skating Club unanimously defeated Winnipeg's Sheila and Ross Smith in the pairs event. Twenty-one year old Fulton had been serving as a bombardier with the Royal Canadian Air Force since 1943 and only had four years of skating under his belt before he began his military service. He and nineteen year old Bernyk had only practiced their program for three weeks prior to the event.

Six couples entered the dance events - the Waltz and Tenstep. There were three judges for dance, unlike the other events which had five. The winners of the Waltz were Toronto's Gloria Lillico and William de Nance Jr. Seventeen year old de Nance was the son of the event's chairman and an accomplished tap dancer. The couple trained under Albert Enders. They had two firsts and a third, the other first going to third place team Virginia Wilson and Will White Jr. Olga Bernyk and Alex Fulton won the Tenstep, with Lillico and de Nance Jr. second. As was the case in the Waltz, the winners had two firsts and a third. Again, third place team Wilson and White received the other first.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

With most of Canada's top men's skaters away at War, the return of the senior men's event in 1945 was a contest between two talented teenagers. Frank Sellers, 'skating up' in senior, won the figures and for a time, it seemed he was destined to win both the junior and senior men's title. In a three-two split of the judging panel, the gold went to nineteen year old Nigel Stephens of the Granite Club.  Stephens was a student at the University of Toronto, studying economics. 

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

In 1944, Barbara Ann Scott had a runaway victory in the school figures, trouncing Marilyn Ruth Take by one hundred and fifty points. Scott wore a ruby red velvet sequined dress, perhaps inspired by the famous slippers in "The Wizard Of Oz", for her free skating program. She skated brilliantly, again easily capturing the Devonshire Cup unanimously by a considerable margin. Marilyn Ruth Take again placed second. In a three-two split, fifteen year old Gloria Lillico topped Nadine Phillips for the bronze. Lillico was only fifth in juniors the previous years, hampered by a poor showing in figures. Her work on figures with Albert Enders with paid off. Later that year, Scott became the first female to win the Lou Marsh Trophy and the youngest woman to win the North American Championships.

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.

Extra, Extra, Wrede All About It: The Ludwig Wrede Story

"Magnificent posture, huge swing and impressive jumps worked together to make his freestyle level with Grafström." - "Wiener Sport-Tagblatt", March 11, 1924

Ludwig Wrede was born on October 28, 1894 in Vienna, Austria. He first took the ice as a youngster at Eduard Engelmann's rink and soon joined the Training-Eisklub, where he excelled in both hockey and figure skating. In his youth, he was good friends with Alfred Berger, the pairs partner of Eduard Engelmann's daughter Helene.

Ludwig made his competitive debut prior to the Great War, winning the Wanderpreis competition at the his home club in January of 1912. In the process, he defeated two-time World Bronze Medallist Leo Horwitz and Rudolf Kutzer, the future coach of many Austrian World Champions. He suffered an injury the following season, but managed to finish second behind Ernst Oppacher at the Wanderpreis des Arbeitsministerium in Troppau. At the age of nineteen in 1914, he finished fifth in his first trip to the European Championships. Three judges had him in the top three in free skating, and it really looked like he was going places. Then the War broke out. 

Great War military record for Ludwig Wrede. Photo courtesy Carl Kotlarchik.

Like many other young men in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ludwig joined the kaiserlich-königliche Landwehr, which was the Austrian faction of the Landstreitkräfte Österreich-Ungarns. He served in the Schützen-Regiment 1 of the Wehrmacht, reaching the rank of Fähnrich but was wounded more than once. It was actually quite remarkable he continued to skate afterwards as his injuries took a toll on his overall health and strength.

Ludwig returned to competition in 1922, placing third in the men's and pairs events at the Austrian Championships. With Melitta Brunner as his partner, he took the gold in both pairs and men's the following year. He placed fifth in his first trip to the World Championships in 1923, but was a strong second in the free skating. A talented athlete, he was known for his strong Axel and loop jumps and fast spins. He even created his own jump - the Wrede - which took off from a back outside edge, with one and a half revolutions in the air, landing on a forward outside edge on the opposite foot. His downfalls were that he tended to get nervous when doing his school figures and lacked a sense of presentation in his free skating. Gunnar Bang recalled,  "Ludwig Wrede skated with speed and made many respond to [his] jumps and pirouettes, but he did not succeed in captivating the audience. Despite his skill, his program became dull and dry."

Ludwig lost the Austrian men's and pairs titles in 1924, but rebounded to take the silver medal at the European Championships and place fifth once again at the Worlds. Had he not had momentarily forgotten how to do one of his figures, he might have placed even higher. 

Herma Szabo and Ludwig Wrede. Photos courtesy National Archives Of Poland.

The following year, Ludwig formed a new pairs partnership with Herma Szabo, the reigning Olympic Gold Medallist and World Champion. Herma and Ludwig were a great match and from 1925 to 1927, they won two Austrian and two World titles, as well as the bronze medal at the 1926 World Championships. 

Top: Herma Szabo and Ludwig Wrede. Bottom: Ludwig Wrede, Herma Szabo, Pepi Weiß-Pfändler and Willy Böckl.

Ludwig continued to compete internationally in singles during this period, placing in the top eight at four ISU Championships. By this time, he was training under Pepi Weiß-Pfändler at the Wiener Eislaufverein.

Herma Szabo and Ludwig Wrede. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria. 

Two weeks before the 1928 Winter Olympic Games, Herma Szabo announced her retirement, forcing Ludwig to scramble for another partner at the eleventh hour. Officials at the Wiener Eislaufverein asked Melitta Brunner if she would skate with Ludwig again. In an interview with Harrington E. Crissey Jr. for "The Journal of the Figure Skating Historical Society" in 1994, Melitta Brunner recalled, "I replied that I'd do it but I considered it a great sacrifice as it would rob me of my practice as a singles skater. Because Wrede and I only had two weeks to practice before the Olympics began, I think we did pretty well to win the bronze medal. I did everything Wrede told me to, but during the competition I rose too soon from a sit spin. That may have cost us the gold. Wrede bawled me out afterwards. All I could do was apologize. We did one very difficult lift in the program. Wrede did a back outside rocker while he lifted and held me and then let me down. I don't think the general public realized how difficult that was. Just doing a back rocker on your own is hard. The music for our program was Waldteufel's 'Estudiantina Waltz'. We also did a sit spin side by side and another one holding each other in waltz position. Pepi Weisz helped us a little but Wrede and I, primarily Wrede, made up our programs... Back in those days, pairs basically coached themselves."

Though Melitta and Ludwig won a pair of bronze medals at the 1928 Winter Olympic Games and World Championships, but their successes weren't without their controversy. Theresa Weld Blanchard recalled that in St. Moritz at the Olympics, "Melitta Brunner and Ludwig Wrede of Austria made a most spectacular, although, some of us felt, a slightly illegal opening. They started way down the ice surface behind the ropes marking off the rink and he lifted her high in the air as they reached the boundary and glided in on a very spectacular spiral. Carry lifts were just coming in then and this one made a big impression on me."

Melitta Brunner and Ludwig Wrede. Photo courtesy National Archives Of Poland.

In 1929, Ludwig won the bronze medal at the European Championships in singles. He also won a silver and bronze in the World men's and pairs events, held that year in Budapest and London. At the time, he was thirty-four - much older than his peers - and a married father of two young girls. He was a trained electrical engineer and a very serious-minded, introspective man who enjoyed writing poetry in his spare time. He was a firm believer in training outdoors. He thought the air was "harmful" in indoor rinks, "perhaps all right for the last three weeks [before a competition] but not for a season." 

Top: Sonja Henie, Karl Schäfer, Andrée (Joly) and Pierre Brunet, Julius Edhoffer, Melitta Brunner and Ludwig Wrede at a carnival at the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society in 1930. Bottom: Karl Schäfer, Sonja Henie, Ludwig Wrede, Melitta Brunner and Georges Gautschi.

Ludwig's final international competition was the 1930 World Championships in New York City. He placed a creditable fifth in singles and second in pairs with Melitta Brunner. He and Melitta's swan song was beautifully skated to Strauss' quintessentially Viennese "Blue Danube" waltz. Two years later, he staged a comeback at the Austrian Championships, forming a new partnership with Olly Holzmann. The duo placed a disappointing third, but managed to outrank former World Champion Otto Kaiser and his new partner Hansi Kast.

Ludwig Wrede (second from left) at the 1930 World Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Ludwig finally decided to call it a day and in January of 1935 opened the École Internationale de Patinage Artistique in Villars. His old friend Sonja Henie came and skated at the school's opening. Ludwig remained in Switzerland for some time, teaching both serious figure skaters and high-society types wintering on the Continent. One of his students was Lady Kennet (Elizabeth Young), a well-known British author and artist. 

After World War II, Ludwig served as a judge at both the 1954 and 1959 European Championships. He had actually been first named as an international judge by the Austrian Federation when he was still competing. He passed away in Vienna on New Year's Day, 1965 at the age of seventy, and has yet to be honoured with an induction to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. 

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.

Interpretations: The Herbert Alward Story

The son of Robert and Leonie Alward, Herbert Andrew 'Bob' Alward was born October 20, 1916 in Budapest, Hungary. Though he was the grandson of a Welsh master mariner, Herbert didn't have a typical upbringing in the British Isles. Instead, he and his older siblings William and Bessie grew up in Vienna, Austria, where their father worked as the Continental representative of a British business firm. Herbert and his siblings attended an öffentliche Schuler (state school) and in their spare time, William took up ice hockey and Bessie and Herbert figure skated at the Wiener Eislaufverein. A 1951 feature in "Skating World" magazine recalled, "His first ambition was to be an ice hockey player, and, later, a speed skater. Parental disapproval, after he had suffered numerous injuries, made him give up both these aspirations, and he followed his sister's example and took up figure skating."

Herbert's beginnings in the figure skating world weren't exactly impressive. In his first club competition in the junior men's class at the age of twelve, he placed dead last. Two years later, he landed a Lutz jump and moved up to second in the same event behind future Olympic medallist Erik Pausin. In February of 1932, he finally won the Wiener Eislaufverein's junior men's title, defeating Dominik Schönberger, Karl Zeilinger and Josef Weichselberger. Under the watchful eye of coach Pepi Weiß-Pfändler, he began earning the reputation of a skater with great promise.

In 1935 at the age of eighteen, Herbert won an international event in Zürich as well as a junior competition held in conjunction with the World Championships in Budapest, besting Béla Barcza-Rotter, Kristóf Kállay and three others. His victory at the latter event was considered somewhat controversial at the time, as the three Swiss judges on the panel placed him first and the two Austrians had him third in the figures, but he unanimously won the free skating. The British press hailed him as "a dark horse" for a medal at the 1936 Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but he withdrew his entry prior to the event for unknown reasons. That year at the World Championships in Paris, he placed a disappointing ninth.

Henry Graham Sharp, Freddy Mésot, Freddie Tomlins, Felix Kaspar, Elemér Terták, Markus Nikkanen, Herbert Alward, Emil Ratzenhofer and Jean Henrion at the 1937 World Championships in Vienna.  Photo courtesy Julia C. Schulze.

In January of 1937, Herbert finished second at an international competition in St. Moritz held in conjunction with the European Speed Skating Championships. He went on to place in the top five at both the European and World Championships, establishing himself as a bona fide medal contender at the senior level. The following season, he achieved just that, winning the bronze medal at events. At the European Championships, the German judge actually tied him with the winner, Felix Kaspar, in free skating. His medal win at the World Championships that season was by the narrowest of margins, ironically on the strength of his school figures as he was known as a better free skater. In 1939, he finished second at the 'Ostmark' Championships but opted to represent Great Britain, the country of his parents' birth, at the World Championships in Budapest. When Germany annexed Austria, he was invited to a meeting with Hans von Tschammer und Osten, whom the Nazi's had appointed as Reichssportführer. He was promised full training facilities and support if he would skate for Germany, but he declined.

In the spring of 1939, Brits living in Austria were advised to flee the country. Wisely, the entire Alward family hightailed across the English Channel immediately following the 1939 World Championships. The fact that Herbert's older brother William was by then working as a courier with a travel agency may have helped secure their safe passage. Herbert and his sister Bessie took up residence in a semi-detached home on Birchwood Avenue in Wallington, Surrey. Census records note that she was an artist; he a student and German interpreter.

During World War II, Herbert enlisted as a Flight Lieutenant with the Royal Air Force. He spent close to a year in the North African and Mediterranean Theater of Operations, working with the 381 Wireless Unit in Tunisia and Italy, which intercepted and decoded German and Italian messages. A feature in "Skating World" magazine recalled that he "ended his service career at BAFO Air Headquarters, Buckeberg, where his linguistic ability brought him the uneasy job of Officer [in charge of] German civilian labour." He was twice being mentioned in dispatches, and was awarded the M.B.E. for his service. 

Less than a year after the War ended, he married Marion Schreiber. Soon came a son, Peter. Early in the War, Marion worked as Wilfrid Israel's secretary at Bloomsbury House, typing hundreds of letters to the Home Office advocating for 'enemy aliens' in England. Wilfrid Israel was a wealthy Jewish philanthropist who played an important role in Kindertransport, a pre-War rescue effort which saved the lives of thousands of Jewish children. Later Marion acted as as a interpreter for the Allied forces. Through her war work, Marion first became acquainted with Howard Bass, the well-known British sportswriter who penned several books on figure skating. The Alward's and Bass developed a friendship that lasted after the War.

In the post-War years, Herbert became an NSA Gold Medallist and turned professional, appearing in
Tom Arnold's British touring production "Ice Follies" with Olive Robinson, Armand Perren and Raymonde du Bief, the production "Féerie De La Glace" in Belgium and as the leading man in "Ice Rhapsody" at the S.S. Brighton alongside Cecilia Colledge. In 1949 and 1950, he won the World and British Open Professional Championships. 

Herbert went to serve as the senior instructor and stage director for some of Tom Arnold's ice pantomimes at the S.S. Brighton and taught at the Empire Pool, Wembley and Queen's Ice Rink. The school he operated at Brighton in the fifties, in particular, was quite revolutionary for the time in England as it had a ballet teacher on staff and focused more on improving a skater who already had sound technique's presentation through a series of graded classes.

When the S.S. Brighton rink was demolished in the sixties, Herbert retired from coaching and got involved in the wine trade. He passed away in Walton-on-Thames on November 17, 1994 at the age of seventy-eight. Skating historian Dennis L. Bird, who was once Herbert's student, recalled, "He had learned his skating in the famous 'Vienna school' and was firmly convinced that skating should be an artistic and not merely an athletic pursuit." 

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

Failure To Launch

There is nothing more natural than putting a pen to paper. It is what happens next, after the book is already written, edited and formatted, that can be a little overwhelming.

Contrary to popular belief, a good book doesn't sell itself. You have to put as much (if not more) work into spreading the word as you did into creating it in the first place.

When I published my first book "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", there was a long list of things I felt terribly yucky about doing: going on the Tiktok and Instagram, making awkward videos, talking about the book for too long or too much, patting myself on the back for the successes, opening up publicly about the struggles... and guess what? I still don't love those things.

When I published my first books, I really had no clue what I was doing in terms of design or marketing. There was a huge to-do list of things that I didn't even know I had to do long before I clicked publish: finding ARC readers, securing editorial reviews, paid advertising and pitching my book to libraries. Despite many rookie mistakes, the book did surprisingly well in terms of sales. However, the one thing I kept getting told was that I couldn't expect to sell books unless I had more than one of them.

I powered away quickly, adapting two new projects to book form - "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating". I knew "Technical Merit" was far superior to the other two books and that the Bibliography book would have a much more limited audience, so I focused my attention on "Technical Merit" and ran several free promotions on "A Bibliography of Figure Skating" solely to try to bring in reviews. I ultimately did the same thing with "Technical Merit" as well, when I realized more people were interested in "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating" than the other two. The free promotions were both a complete failure - tons of downloads and no reviews. 

Data from an eBook giveaway promotion for "A Bibliography of Figure Skating" on Reddit. 73 downloads, which resulted in 0 reviews.

Both books got buried... and I took the whole experience quite hard. I took comfort from the words of another author who went through a similarly frustrating experience: "I was convinced that I had taken my failure too harshly, that I had identified my faults, and that I could do better. I certainly could, and I certainly shouldn't." 

I knew I could and I knew I shouldn't but I took time before I was ready to coax myself back to the drawing board. I knew that if I wanted to succeed with book number four, I needed to go about things very differently. I took a course in book marketing and applied what I learned, coming up very comprehensive marketing plan after finishing "Jackson Haines: The Skating King". I plugged away behind the scenes every single day before or after work this past summer. I put a lot of effort into creating good marketing copy and getting editorial reviews. I even went out of my comfort zone and joined some new social media channels to get the word out.

I resisted joining Instagram and TikTok for a long time, but decided to put my reservations aside and give them the old college try. I had a good following on Facebook and Twitter/X, but I had a heck of time gaining traction on Instagram. 

Data from an Instagram post that went viral not long before my book launch

Two weeks before my launch, a reel I posted went viral. As of the time I wrote this blog, the viral post reached 209,929 accounts and had 446,902 watches and 15,952 likes. My follower count, though still sadly modest, jumped from 237 to 1,096. When I posted a gorgeous photograph promoting my book on November 13, Instagram showed that post to exactly 24 accounts.

Data from an Instagram post promoting my book two weeks after my launch

I knew from the get-go TikTok wasn't my thing, nor was the younger demographic that use the app my target audience. There is a sizeable community on there called BookTok though and I hoped I might be able to tap into both the skating community on there and the smaller corner of BookTok that enjoyed reading about historical fiction. It took me an entire summer of posting clickbait videos to even reach 40 followers. As an experiment, I tried posting the same viral reel that got over 15,000 likes on Instagram on TikTok. It got less than 15.

Data from TikTok about the exact same video that went viral on Instagram showing that the video was only shown to 318 people, getting 7 likes

During the summer, Meta released its new app Threads - designed as an alternative to Twitter/X, which is becoming increasingly unpopular. There's actually a great community of fellow writers on the app, but the skating community is not particularly engaged as compared to Twitter/X. My best performing post on there got a grand total of 4 likes. Threads was like yelling into the void. 

Less than a week before "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" launched, I found out that Amazon (who is the seller for hard cover copies of the book) had an issue at one of its printing facility impacting distribution in a big way and causing delays of upwards of 4-5 weeks. I had the option of pulling hard cover edition altogether and redoing over 100 marketing materials or going ahead and hoping that people would read the eBook or paperback editions, which are available through dozens of retailers. Despite my best efforts and the fact I've done everything right, things simply haven't gone well at all in terms of sales. 

Some very telling stats. On the top are the ages and genders of Skate Guard readers, on the bottom are the skating lovers who engaged a highly targeted advertisement I ran on Facebook and Instagram on November 13. Not a single click from anyone under 44. 22 clicks, 0 sales.

Despite the struggles, I'm extremely proud of what I accomplished with "Jackson Haines: The Skating King". It's been double and triple fact-checked and annotated enough to satisfy those with academic leanings. It is readable enough to appeal to those who just want to read an interesting story about a founding father of the sport they may have only heard of in passing. It has appeal to figure skating lovers, readers of both historical nonfiction and fiction and history and biography buffs alike. What I'm perhaps proudest of is that it's the kind of book I wanted to write... nerdy, nuanced, factual and fascinating. 

I really do want you to read it and that's why I have been posting about it on social media and talking to people about it a lot over the last two months. I'm not going to apologize for doing that often and I'm not going to apologize for charging money for something that I think is worthy of a place on any skating fan's book shelf. 

No one loves writing for the joy of it more than I do, but we pay to go see plays, films and musicians... Books are entertainment too and as unnatural as it may seem for many artists to double as business people, if you're going the indie route you have to - and you can't apologize for doing it.

I'm not apologizing about asking you to go on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Goodreads and leave an honest review.

I'm not apologizing about asking you to go to your local library's website and fill out a Suggest a Purchase form.

I'm not apologizing about writing a book about a skater who died over a hundred years ago instead of a book about figure skating today to appeal to the masses.

I'm not apologizing for not giving up on a project I worked very hard on that hasn't been selling well.

The only thing I'm apologizing for is not writing the kind of book I wanted to write sooner.

Despite the fact the launch of the book didn't go as planned, I'm looking forward to 2024 with a really positive attitude and starting the long process of working on a fifth book. I don't plan on being finished anytime soon... and I'm very much okay with that!

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