The Baltimore Armoury Accident

Just over ten years prior to the grisly Hallowe'en Holocaust that claimed dozens of lives at a Holiday On Ice show in Indiana in 1963, a similarly gruesome accident occurred at an ice show that starred none other than three time Olympic Gold Medallist and ten time World Champion Sonja Henie.

The date was Thursday, March 6, 1952 and a crowd of seven thousand had amassed in Baltimore, Maryland for the Sonja Henie Ice Revue. The skaters were backstage, ready to take the ice, when five minutes before the 8:30 PM show was set to begin, a section of hastily constructed bleachers in Baltimore's fifth regiment armoury came crashing to the ground, spectators and all. The March 7, 1952 edition of the "Milwaukee Journal" reported, "The heavy beams and planks went down with a roar, pinning men, women and children under a mass of heavy splinters. Men tore at the tangled beams to rescue screaming children and crying women. There was no panic among others in the crowd, and the rescue operation carried on by police, firemen and national guardsmen was completed within thirty minutes." A staggering two hundred and seventy seven people were injured in the accident, sent to ten different hospitals in the area. As of the next day, thirty two of those victims were in serious condition.

The cause of the accident was determined to be shoddy craftsmanship. The makeshift bleachers were reportedly not even nailed down properly. To top it all off, the armoury had been exempt from even requiring a building permit because it was 'state property'. The tour had applied for one anyway and been refused by building inspector Paul Cohen because the stands weren't even finished when the application was put in only hours before the accident. Cohen confirmed that a permit would not have been issued as the stands were "of temporary construction and not even nailed down."

An eyewitness account from Kenny Lamb, one of the skaters in Henie's tour (submitted to "Lucidcafé" in the nineties) reads: "While we were rehearsing for the show we watched a work crew erecting some extra bleacher seats. We noticed they were working very clumsily and didn't look very skilled but figured they knew what they were doing. Were we ever wrong! As the [overture] for the show began, we heard a strange screeching sound and then a roar. The roar was the sound of a thousand seats, filled with people, crashing eighteen feet to the floor! They were sitting in the bleachers that had been hastily built during our rehearsal! The screeching was the nails being pulled out of the wood! Since we were playing in an armoury there was immediate first aid provided by National Guard personnel. The guardsmen had to break down doors from the outside to help the victims who were trapped down in what was now a pit-like area. Sonja had the orchestra play quietly until the people involved were taken out for first aid and to hospitals. At about 9:30 the stage manager came up to Sonja and said 'shall we start the show now?' Sonja just looked at him and said two words, 'You're fired!' She then stayed up all night visiting the injured victims that were hospitalized over night, about fifty in all. There were about two hundred injured but thankfully no deaths. She delayed starting the show for three days, doing everything possible to help the victims. She was like that, and we loved her for it."

Keeping in mind that other stories that we've explored about Sonja Henie on the blog haven't exactly highlighted her 'good side', her reaction to this horrific situation definitely is more humanizing than many 'Sonja Henie stories' and paints her in a more compassionate light. Taking further ownership of the accident (for which she definitely shared responsibility, as this was one of her self-produced tours) all tickets were either refunded or honoured for the eventual show days later. According to Edvard Hambro's 1995 documentary "Sonja Henie: Queen Of The Ice", Henie blamed her brother Leif for the accident.

Henie's concern and well wishes were all well and good, but the people of Maryland were appalled. Governor Theodore R. McKeldin attended the armoury shortly after the accident, referring to the tragedy as "an outrage" and demanded that Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro organize a thorough inquiry into what caused the accident. Quoted in the March 7, 1952 edition of the "Spokane Daily Chronicle", Mayor D'Alesandro said the city would work with state groups and go through the wreckage "timber by timber and joint by joint." The investigation revealed that the shoddy stands were constructed by a contracting firm from Westfield, New Jersey owned by a Mr. Ed Coronati, whose background was in constructing seating for circuses, fairs and other events. He'd even designed bleachers at the same armoury before.

Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. Used with permission.

Henie, according to Hambro, was "unable to meet the million dollar bond for her next show in New York... [and] was forced to cancel - paying off employees and refunding money to ticketholders." Her legal case first ended up in courts two months later with four hundred lawsuits for damages totalling more than five million dollars on the table. City engineer Samuel Mortimer, who inspected the stands that HAD been completed the morning of the day of the accident, testified to a jury that inadequate connections and too few nails were the cause of the collapse. The June 19, 1953 edition of the "Milwaukee Journal" stated that "Judge John T. Tucker, setting aside a jury verdict, Thursday ruled that the Sonja Henie Ice Revue Co. was liable for damages suffered in the 1952 collapse of bleachers. However, Tucker upheld the jury ruling that the blond skating star was not personally liable for the mishap at the 5th regiment armoury here in which about 275 spectators were injured. Tucker ruled that the ice show, New Jersey seating contractor Edwin J. Coronati and his company were liable for a total of about five million dollars in damages arising out of some 400 suits. A jury earlier had held that Coronati and his company were solely responsible." The largest settlement went to a Baltimore woman named Janet Harryman who suffered a broken back in the accident. She received thirty thousand dollars. The smallest, incidentally, was a claim for ten dollars for a minor injury.

Five million dollars is a huge amount of money these days obviously, but if you put that amount in the context of the early fifties, it's really no shocker that by the next year, Henie was moving onto a new venture with Morris Chalfen and Holiday On Ice in Europe. You also have to remember that by this point, in addition to Ice Capades and Ice Follies as well as many hotel shows all over the U.S., Henie was at that point in direct competition with the next big star in North America, Barbara Ann Scott. It's almost unbelievable to think though that not a single person died as the result of that completely avoidable accident. The moral of the story? Sometimes being a spectator at a skating show can be even more dangerous than being a performer.

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.

Tango-Tango: John And JoJo's Gladsome Gem

John Curry and JoJo Starbuck. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

"Jalousie Tango",or "Tango-Tango" as it came to be known, was first created by Peter Martins of the New York City Ballet for a June 1978 benefit for John Curry's School Of Skating in New York. The audience for its first performance included Mikhail Baryshnikov, Lauren Bacall, Dick Cavett, Liv Ullmann, Princess Lee Radziwill (sister of Jackie O) and Diana Vreeland.

John Curry's "Ice Dancing" opened in November of that year for a sold out two-week run at Madison Square Gardens and reopened on Broadway in December of that year and "Tango-Tango" was one of the highlights of the show. Bill Jones, in his book "Alone: The Triumph and Tragedy of John Curry" described what made the number so unique for Curry: "Few of Curry's works were quite so shameless as 'Tango-Tango'. Wearing a tight matador's suit and slicked down hair, Curry vamped alone before JoJo swept in... to lock eyes and arms with her lover. As the music built, the ghosts of Fred and Ginger stirred. On the ice, the couple seemed propelled by genuine yearning. Together, they glided, they waltzed and they spun, and after JoJo's climactic jump she beckoned her man meaningfully off stage."

For the most part, dance critics adored the piece. In a December 24, 1978 review in the "Lawrence Journal-World", the program set to the music of Igor Stravinsky and Jacob Thune Hansen Gade was recounted as a "high-spirited spoof of every Valentino tango you've ever seen on screen. Gliding onto the ice of the Minskoff Theater in an outrageous purple satin dress lined in red, a black Spanish shawl tossed casually over one shoulder, Miss Starbuck proceeds to flounce, slink, sulk and pout with a haughty, head-tossing disdain, while her partner, Curry, sweeps her around the floor." Another critic called it simply "a masterpiece". However, not everyone loved it. New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff dimissed it as a "mock tango" and remarked that "its only moment of truth came, not when the dancers were in a clinch, but when they glided past one another in circles. And missed each other."

The number resurfaced repeatedly in many of Curry's productions and became an audience favourite... but not every performance went smoothly. In my April 2014 interview with Lorna Brown, she discussed one such occasion, when a tiff with Curry over her solo death spiral led to an unexpected climax: "One memory from John's shows that will always stand out is skating 'Tango-Tango' with him. Jojo wasn't there at that show. I wore a different costume than her and I was very different to JoJo. We were each other's understudies. The beginning was amazing and then he took me down into the death spiral and he let go and I lost the death spiral. I remember leaving the ice and I was so upset with him. I asked him 'why? Why would you do that?' and he looked at me and said 'I thought you could do it by yourself'. There I was with these black tears and bright red lips. It never happened again."

Twyla Tharp's "After All" and Norman Maen's "Afternoon of a Faun" come to mind instantly as two of the works from "Ice Dancing" that are best remembered and given their fair due to this very day. As much as I adore both of those masterpieces as well, "Tango-Tango" is one of my favourites from John Curry's vast repertoire. It's simply magical!

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 1955 North American Figure Skating Championships

Tenley Albright

When the 1955 North American Championships were awarded to the Wascana Skating Club at the Canadian Figure Skating Association's annual meeting in late October 1953, I don't think anyone any of the men (and they were all men) on that year's executive had taken into account Mother Nature's wrath.

Skaters travelling by air from the United States and other regions of Canada were grounded by an unforgiving March blizzard in the Prairies that left them forced to continue their trip to Regina, Saskatchewan by train. After the blizzard ended, the temperature plummeted outside to almost minus twenty nine degrees Celsius. That's minus twenty Fahrenheit to those of you who aren't hip with the metric system and whatever way you spin it, absolutely freezing. Although the weather outside was frightful, luckily the rink the event was held in was heated and the competition was able to continue without a hitch once everyone arrived.

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

The pairs competition was won by twenty five year old Frances Dafoe and twenty eight year old Norris Bowden, with unanimous first place marks from all six judges. The marking for pairs at that time was out of 10.0 and not 6.0 and their lowest mark for content was a 9.4. For manner of performance, their marks ranged from 8.6 to 9.5. Second place finishers were Americans Carole Ann Ormaca and Robin Greiner, while Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul claimed the bronze. The March 16, 1955 issue of the "Ottawa Citizen" noted, "Dafoe and Bowden, both of Toronto, put on a dazzling display of split jumps, stag lifts, spread eagles and [Axel] jumps, adding the variations which earned them their second world title at Vienna last month." Americans Lucille Ash and Sully Kothman and Canadians Audrey Downie and Brian Power rounded out the five team field.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Capitalizing on a strong lead in the school figures, nineteen year old Tenley Albright, representing the Skating Club Of Boston, fended off a formidable challenge in the free skate from her younger American teammate Carol Heiss to take the title. Albright's win in Regina wasn't without controversy either; she fell twice and still received first place marks in free skating from all six judges. A disappointing last place finish in the school figures (which counted for sixty percent of the total score) left seventeen year old Carole Jane Pachl too far behind to be able to make up ground in the free skate and a third American, Patricia Firth, claimed the bronze in the first U.S. sweep of the women's event in the history of the North American Championships.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

In the men's event, twenty one year old Hayes Alan Jenkins (who like Albright was skating to defend his North American crown from two years earlier) took a formidable lead in the school figures and coasted to a unanimous victory ahead of his younger brother David and eighteen year old Canadian Champion Charles Snelling of Toronto with near perfect marks from all six judges in the free skate. Hugh Graham of Boston finished fourth. Graham was a substitute for an ill Ronnie Robertson.

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Carmel and Edward Bodel

Lynn Copley-Graves' fantastic book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice" tells us that "only five couples contested Dance, so the referees cancelled the First Round of compulsories. The Bodels lead after fluidly skating the Three-Lobe Waltz, Quickstep, Argentine Tango and Viennese Waltz. Crowd pleasers Joan Zamboni and Roland Junso stayed on their heels. Virginia Hoyns, now with Bill Kipp, substituted for [Phyllis and Martin Forney] to round out third. Their effervescent free dance had novel, surprising sequences, but borrowed many moves from pair skating to the judges' dismay. Lindy and Jeff Johnson slipped above [Geraldine Fenton and Gordon Crosland] who could easily have gained higher marks with a more relaxed style." Although the win for the married couple from Orinda, California would be the fifth in a row for American ice dance teams, it wasn't with unanimous first marks and it would prove to be the last North American title a U.S. ice dance team would win until 1965.

In his book "A Nobody's Dream... Came True", Gordon Crosland recalled, Our second ranked placement meant we were on the National Team to go to the Worlds and the North American Championships. North Americans were to be held in Regina in mid-January, during a below zero blizzard. Yes, it was cold. So cold in fact that the natural ice in the Wascana Skating Club, which was hosting the event, was cracking in all directions, leaving long splits running through the entire surface. We were supposed to practice there, but didn’t as the ice was just too dangerous. Jumping over ice cracks isn't conducive with dance patterns and specific footwork. Each country had three teams and we came in fifth. My fault! I drew a total blank on the straight-line footwork sequence, or I think we might have been second or third... The Fentons were even less impressed [than they were at Canadians]. My ice dance career was over!"

Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine

The 1955 event would mark an important first in figure skating history for it was the initial time that any international figure skating competition would be held in the province of Saskatchewan. Despite the cruelty of Mother Nature, the show went on.

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

Revisiting Charlotte Oelschlägel In War-Torn Germany

Charlotte Oelschlägel survived two World Wars, created a sensation in Berlin with her Eisballets and took Broadway by storm with her performances at the Hippodrome Theatre in the early twentieth century. In 1939, she returned to Germany to attend her mother's funeral and found herself trapped there when her passport. Her glory years behind her, Charlotte faded into relative obscurity... until she attempted to stage a comeback amidst the rubble at the end of the War.

In my digging, I came across a gem of a newspaper article from April 29, 1948 edition of "The Milwaukee Journal" that explained, "Charlotte, deprived of an ice rink by the lack of chemicals in war depleted Germany, hasn't forgotten how to skate. Today, she and her partner-husband, Carl Neumann, are hard at work on new routines - this time on roller skates... After Charlotte left the United States, she and her husband skated in Germany, England and Italy until World War II, when they were no longer permitted to give skating performances since they refused to appear in propaganda shows for Nazi Germany. Now 46, Charlotte and her husband occupy a two room apartment in the American sector of Berlin. Last fall they began developing a roller skating routine to take the place of their ice ballet. After months of training, the ballet is ready for a showing. Charlotte and her husband hope to appear on the stage again with their own roller skating ballet in the near future. Charlotte is still going strong. 'People can add up the years,' she says, but she doesn't feel too old for skating." I went digging in the German newspaper archives but sadly, I wasn't able to find any mention of a roller skating revue starring Charlotte in the late forties. I'd reached a dead end... or so I thought.

I then came across another anecdote that proved to be even more intriguing. In her book "Thin Ice", Jacqueline du Bief shared this tale from 1948 that proved even more compelling: "It happened in 1948 and the show that Mr. Nickling (Nick to his friends) was directing was the first ice show to be performed in Berlin since the war. One afternoon, while he was watching the company rehearse, Nick saw coming towards him a rather elderly lady, in a leather coat, with hair cut short like a boy's and her face innocent of any make-up. 'Forgive me, but there is no ice anywhere in Berlin and I should so much like to skate for a few minutes. Will you allow me to use your rink?' 'But it is not for the public and - the insurance-' 'Oh, don’t worry about that. I know how to skate. Nothing will happen to me.' Her personality and her tone intrigued Nick, who hazarded: 'You have been a skater?' 'Yes.' 'Might I know-'..." We're left to imagine the former star lacing up her skates and wowing Mr. Nickling with the legendary Charlotte back spiral and Axels she'd wowed audiences at the Hippodrome with some three decades prior.

In 1952, Charlotte was featured as the star of the short-lived "Eisballet Charlotte" at the Gridley Circus. She later turned to coaching for a time and passed away in November of 1984 in a retirement home in Barbarossastraße, West Berlin. In a October 1, 1967 letter to Dick Button, she wrote, "Nice to have heard from you and that you were thinking of us as we are both not well as Curt had a little collapse and I a bit of a breakdown due to seizures as we have so much trouble with getting something of all we have lost and as all our fortune and goods... [I am] 77 years [old]... but I am still skating." Charlotte's passion for skating, despite what certainly doesn't appear to have been an easy go of it later in life, serves as a reminder that the ice is always there for us when the going gets rough.

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.

Nadja Franck, The First Queen Of Finnish Figure Skating

Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France

"I have never seen a lady skate with such ease and so gracefully; her toe spins were charming to witness, and she had the good taste not to skate figures that were not graceful." - Douglas Adams, "Skating", 1892

Born April 15, 1867 in Helsinki, Finland, Nadja Franck (Nadeschda Antipin) was the daughter of Wasili and Maria Antipin. The Antipin family were believed to have originally come to Scandinavia from Kiev but by the time of Nadja's birth both of her parents were Finnish citizens and her father was a successful merchant. Young Nadja and her sister (also named Maria) were among the eighty female members of the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb. In its early days, the club was better known for its speed skaters than its figure skaters but Nadja soon proved to be one of the club's most proficient at the latter. As a teenager, she received training from John Catani and Rudolf Sundgren, two of Scandinavia's most decorated figure skaters.

Top: Nadja Franck. Bottom: Nadja Franck, Rudolf Sundgren and an unidentified skater. Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive.

Eleven years after the Wiener Eislaufverein in Vienna held one of the first known competitions for female skaters, Nadja's club followed suit and the teenage trailblazer entered and won. The following year, she married a merchant named Johan Gustaf (Gösta) Franck. Sadly, only five years later her husband died at the age of twenty eight. Rather than give up, the tragedy only spurred the young widow's resolve to excel in 'a gentleman's sport' even more.

Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France

She taught skating to other young women in Finland and travelled to France in 1895 and 1897 to give exhibitions and teach skating with her sister Maria at the Pôle Nord artificial ice rink. In January 1898 - less than a month before the World Championships were held in London for the first time - she gave an exhibition at the National Skating Palace at Hengler's Circus. The January 29, 1898 issue of "The Wheelwoman" raved about her skating (and outfit) thusly: "Nadja Franck's skating is a perfect treat. I have never seen such a graceful performance in my life - I gazed and gazed and never got beyond her feet. Jack told me afterwards he never took his eyes off her pretty face under the simple little black Astrakhan cap, and someone else described most graphically her lovely French gown of soft grey embroidered with white, so between us all you can picture a bewitching tout ensemble!" Her exhibitions were even accompanied by a live band playing a waltz. This was obviously well before Lili Kronberger popularized the concept of interpreting music at the 1911 World Championships.

Here's where things get really interesting. In 1899, the Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb in Sweden included a contest for women in a massive competition that included both figure and speed skating events. A who's who of Scandinavian skating took part in the affair, including Catani, Sundgren, Norway's Alfred Naess and Stockholm's Ivar Hult. Three members of The Skating Club in London - Algeron Grosvenor, W.F. Adams and Douglas Adams - even made the trip to study skating in the Swedish Style and gave donned their top hats, cast an orange on the ice and gave an exhibition of combined figures in the English Style.

Top: Alfred Naess and Nadja Franck in 1899. Photo courtesy Norsk Folkemuseum. Bottom: Nadja Franck teaching skaters in Finland.

After watching her coaches Sundgren and Catani place first and third in the men's event, Nadja nervously took to the ice. The first woman from Finland to ever compete internationally then went on to decisively trounce three talented women from Stockholm and Gothenburg... on their own home turf. With one hundred and eighty two points to Anna Weibull's one hundred and fifty three, Nadja earned herself gold jewelry and the club's gold medal and became the first woman to win an international figure skating competition in Scandinavia.

Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France

A turn of the century history of Stockholms Allmänna Skridskoklubb noted that her performance was of a quality that it had never been seen "before or since" and that she "has done something so beautiful and elegant in her skating. In her skating she avoided carefully all the movements and figures that do not harmonize with female pleasure. You never saw her do daring jumps or crisp bends in the free leg. She was soft and comfortable... Her program consisted chiefly of spirals... a tasteful polka-mazurka that earned her major acclaim and splendid carriage." The interesting part? Sundgren, Catani and our leading lady had all given both exhibitions and lessons in skating. As amateurism was serious business at the time, there was debate as to whether or not the lessons Nadja had given others were for monetary gain. The March 7, 1899 edition of the Finnish newspaper "Pori" defended her, stating that she "exercised the sport for her own pleasure and was an amateur in the true sense of the word." Right after her amateur status was questioned, Nadja remarried to a bank teller named Väinö Hjalmar Rafael Sandqvist, bid adieu to competitive skating and embarked on a turn of the century 'tour' giving exhibitions in Helsinki, Turku, Satakunta, Vyborg, Tampere and even Russia. In one 1905 exhibition in Porvoo, she even teamed up with Sakari Ilmanen to give a demonstration of pairs skating.

While practicing in 1909, Nadja collided with speed skater Oscar Mathisen while he was training for a five thousand meter race. She suffered a broken arm and was badly bruised and decided it was time for her to put her performing days behind her. Opening a skating school in Helsinki with Thyra Brandt, she passed on her knowledge to a whole new generation of Finnish skaters. Nadja passed away on January 7, 1932 in Helsinki, the same city where she took her first steps on the ice.

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

#Unearthed: The Petra Burka Edition

When you dig through skating history, you never know what you will unearth. In the spirit of cataloguing fascinating tales from skating history, #Unearthed is a once a month 'special occasion' on Skate Guard where fascinating writings by others that are of interest to skating history buffs are excavated, dusted off and shared for your reading pleasure. From forgotten fiction to long lost interviews to tales that have never been shared publicly, each #Unearthed is a fascinating journey through time. This month's #Unearthed comes to you from the twenty seventh issue of "Weekend Magazine" in 1965. This content has been reproduced with the permission of the Royal Society of Canada. The original author was the late Constance Mungall and her interview subjects include Mrs. Ellen Burka and Petra Burka. Although some of the sentiments shared may seem dated, I think you'll really enjoy this glimpse of Petra's mindset in the height of her competitive career!

"PETRA BURKA, CANADA'S NEW SPORTS SWEETHEART" (CONSTANCE MUNGALL, SHARED WITH PERMISSION OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA)

Petra Burka is Canada's new sports sweetheart. She's champion woman skater of the world. She's pretty, and shows a delightful figure and smile as well as dazzling technique on the ice.

It's happened so fast that a few Canadians don't know it yet, and Petra Burka herself hasn't quite caught on. Nevertheless, the Toronto schoolgirl now has the place Barbara Ann Scott and Marilyn Bell filled before they disappeared from public life.

Petra came up fast. She won her three championships last winter, when she was 18. Within a month, from early February to March, she was declared champion in the Canadian trials at Calgary and the North American at Rochester, N.Y. Then, she won the world championship at Colorado Springs.

When she defends her Canadian title at Peterborough next February, it will be her third bid for the senior women's championship, and it should be her third win. When her world championship goes up for trial at Davos, Switzerland, a few weeks later, it will be her fifth world competition.

The people who hang around rinks because they're in the business, or because they love to see good skaters, had spotted Petra in practice before she had entered a competition.

"I saw her when she was 14," said Stafford Smythe, president of Toronto Maple Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens. "I've seen them all from Sonja Henie down, and Petra's the most talented female skater of them all. You can spot talent at that age, just the same as with a hockey player. The basics are the same."

Sheldon Galbraith, the veteran Toronto skating coach who trained Canadian champions Barbara Wagner, Bob Paul and Don Jackson as well as Barbara Ann Scott, watched Petra skate a year before she won the Canadian junior championship in 1961. She was 13 and had been skating for seven years.

"She was quite small, but a hard worker," said Galbraith. "Already I could see her tremendous strength." He has called Petra the strongest free skater in 20 years of international competition.

Petra is dark and prettier than she looks in photographs. She was born in Amsterdam in 1946, came to Canada with her parents and sister in 1950.

"School figures bore me," she says, though she spends 4 1/2 hours of her seven-hour skating day practicing the endless variations on the figure eight. Her mother is always at the rink, but coaching rather than watching. Ellen Burka, herself women's champion of Holland in 1945-46, is coach at three Toronto skating clubs. She trains other competitive skaters besides Petra. She and her husband Jan, an artist, were divorced and she has raised her daughters Petra and Astra, 16, since 1956.

It is in free skating that Petra's skill shows and her effervescent personality bubbles out. In her first world competition, in Prague in 1962, she came second in free skating, and held the place in 1964 in both world competitions and winter Olympics.

Size is a factor in the high-speed rotation at which Petra excels. She is only five-feet, 1 1/2 inches, but is big-boned. "She's not a body design that looks as if she can get away with what she does," says coach Sheldon Galbraith. "But she overcomes resistance with tremendous physical strength."

Off the ice, Petra seems shy. She has nothing to say to reporters trying to catch a quick interview. But in a longer interview, combined with leaping and spinning for Weekend Magazine photographs, she displayed some of the warmth and humour her friends know. "I'm a private person," she said. "But everyone seems to know me now. I walk into a store and the clerks say, 'Look, there's Petra Burka.' I feel uncomfortable and walk out."

Though professional exhibitions are a long way off (" I want to stay amateur until the 1968 Olympics in France"), Petra has already had a dose of the glamour and grind the touring exhibitions require. The month after she won her world title she travelled with other winning skaters, first to U.S. and Canadian cities and then to Europe. She has returned to Europe twice since for briefer appearances.

"In Europe figure skaters are treated like movie stars," she said. "They have their pictures on magazine covers. In Paris the French pairs champions sing Hit Parade songs. It doesn't matter if they can't sing; they're famous."

"I was surprised. In North America the skaters wait for the audience. In Europe the audience waits for the skaters."

"Of course I skate better for a good audience," and she added loyally, "they treat me best in Canada."

The travel, the exhibitions, the sight-seeing are the rewards. What are the drawbacks?

"The hard work," she says. "And," turning away shyly, "the social life."

She means the lack of social life. Her day has no place for school sports or dating. Seven hours of it are eaten up by serious practice, another two travelling between rinks. In training, she seldom sees anyone but her mother, sister and skating colleagues. Her first three hours of practice from 7 to 10 A.M., she shares only with the cleaning staff at Maple Leaf Gardens. In the afternoon she shares the ice at her club with six or seven other competitive skaters, some of them also coached by her mother.

This is her program from Christmas through Easter, competition time. The rest of the year she may skate only a few hours a week, but then it's time to catch up on lost schooling. In spite of four months' absence from Lawrence Park Collegiate, Petra managed a B average on the four Grade 13 papers she wrote last year. This year she will write five more.

Petra's training is the focal point for the whole Burka family. They moved a year ago to a pleasant two-storey house 10 minutes' walk from the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club in North York. Jim Burton, secretary of the club, keeps track of Petra's skating and publicity engagements.

Mrs. Burka and Petra's sister Astra travel everywhere with her. Astra won the central Ontario junior women's championship in 1964, but she has not been good enough to make the Canadian team. "She just skates for fun," explains Petra, "but I like to have her along on tour."

Mrs. Burka not only coaches Petra; she also protects her. "Petra doesn't get a fraction of the phone calls or request for dinners, TV shows, exhibitions that come to her," says Mrs. Burka.

Petra knows she is sheltered. "I don't know anything about the expense involved," she says when asked how much it costs to win a championship. "You'll have to ask my mother."

"I couldn't even guess how much it costs," says Mrs. Burka. She can set no value on the long hours she spends coaching Petra. The use of Maple Leaf Gardens for practice is another factor that can't be counted in money. "I might not have made the title without it," says Petra.

Permission to use the famous arena came after president Stafford Smythe's daughters, also figure skaters, told him about Petra. "They said she needed some help and I would I let her use the ice," said Smythe. "We never rent the Gardens. None could afford it. I shudder to think what it would cost."

The Canadian Figure Skating Association, helped by government grants, has partly paid for travel to the last two world competitions - for Petra but not for her mother and sister.

As well as coaching. ice rental, academic tutoring and travel expenses, there is the equipment: boots, blades and costumes. Mrs. Burka tries to keep these costs down too.

"Things are getting out of hand when parents give champion equipment to a beginner," she says. Petra had one pair of skates until she won her first gold medal. Now she has two - one of figures, one for free skating. Each pair cost $100.

Keeping her well dressed on the ice is another expense. The simple red wool costume she wore for the school figures at the world trials at Colorado Springs cost $40.

The championship Petra won last spring is the highest a figure skater can go. The standards she met are even higher than in Olympic competition.

"But the Olympics have more glamour," Petra says. And she plans to retain her amateur standing and top place until 1968.

Where can Petra improve? "I need more grace," she answers. "Skating shouldn't just be athletic. It should be pleasant to watch as well."

There is one reason she dropped the spectacular and tricky triple Salchow (three rotations in midair after taking off backwards on the right skate, then landing, still going backwards, on the left skate) from her routine after it caught the attention of judges and audience in 1962. "I don't think girls should jump and make noises when they land on their skates," she said before the 1965 competitions. To learn to contain her athletic exuberance she will continue ballet lessons and perhaps introduce some of the movements she learns in her solo machine.

"It starts slowly. Then I show off my big, fast jumps. before I go back to slow movements to bring out what grace I have," she says modestly.

To compete in the Olympics, Petra must also maintain her amateur status. This means she must make no money, directly or indirectly, from skating. She can accept up to $50 in gift certificates - not cash - for an exhibition. She had to reject the offer of a car after winning her world title.

Petra is not a public personality. "She doesn't know it," her mother said, "but I've been approached by an ice show. I didn't even ask what they would pay her. You can see for yourself she's not the type for a show."

"Not now, maybe later," says Petra herself.

"It'll be hard enough for her to stay amateur champion the next few years," says Mrs. Burka. "She's used to coming from behind. Now she must defend her title - a new experience."

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.

Snubbed In Scandinavia: The Marcus Nikkanen Story

Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande Archive

Born January 26, 1904 in Helsinki, Finland, Marcus Rafael Nikkanen spent his youth skating with his brother Bertel at the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb. He was well educated in his youth, learning three languages - English, Finnish and German - but had little formal training on the ice. He instead looked to older, more experienced skaters like Sakari Ilmanen and Walter Jakobsson as role models and mentors. In 1917, at the age of thirteen he claimed his first of four consecutive Finnish junior men's titles.

After skating in Ilmanen's shadow in the years after World War I, Marcus won his first of an incredible ten Finnish senior men's titles in 1927. His wins at the Finnish Championships actually spanned three decades - the twenties, thirties and forties - and were largely owing to his aptitude and consistency in the school figures. In fact, more often than not he was overshadowed in the free skating by his younger brother, who won three National titles of his own in the thirties. That's not to say he wasn't a competent free skater. In her book "Advanced Figure Skating", Maribel Vinson raved about his flying sit spin: "Marcus Nikkanen, the gentlemanly champion of Finland did the best I have ever seen; he leaped straight up very high from a low [sit] position, shifting feet like lightning in mid-air and landing with a continuous dropping motion onto a low [sit] on his other foot."

Marcus attended his first of three Winter Olympic Games in 1928 at the age of twenty four, falling ill with a very high fever between the school figures and free skate but still managing an impressive sixth. After winning the bronze medal at the European Championships in Berlin behind Karl Schäfer and Otto Gold into 1930, the Finnish Skating Union handed him an ultimatum two years later. They would only submit his entry to the 1932 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York if he paid his own way. Where there was a will, there was a way and off Marcus sailed on the S.S. Paris. He placed fourth - still the best result for a Finnish singles skater in Olympic history - and three judges actually had him in the top three! He again made history the following year at the World Championships; his bronze medal in Zürich was Finland's first medal by a men's singles skater at the World Championships in history. Four years later at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games, he ended up a respectable seventh. All in all, of the eleven European and World Championships Marcus entered, he placed in the top ten in every single one. Not too shabby for anyone, let alone a skater who was primarily self-taught.

During his skating career, Marcus studied law, then worked at the American Consulate in Helsinki. He was wounded while fighting in the Winter War during World War II and left Finland in pursuit of greener pastures in North America. After a stint coaching at the Skating Club Of New York, he moved to Toronto and began teaching at the Granite Club in the early thirties. One of his most successful students was Dr. Charles Snelling, a six time Canadian Champion, two time North American Medallist and the 1957 World Bronze Medallist. He became involved with the Professional Skating Association Of Canada/Figure Skating Coaches Of Canada movement in the late sixties, an elite group that included Canadian coaching luminaries like Sheldon Galbraith, Bruce Hyland, Osborne Colson, Hellmut May and Ron Vincent. He was also a mentor to prominent Canadian pairs coach Kerry Leitch. After stints coaching in Portland, Oregon and Stamford, Connecticut, he returned to his native Finland, where in his seventies he set some serious wheels of change in motion. He discussed the establishment of a organization similar to the failed Figure Skating Coaches Of Canada system with Arja Wuorivirta and in May 1984, the Suomen Taitoluisteluvalmentajat (Finnish Figure Skating Coaches Association) was born. Less than a year later on March 28, 1985, he passed away at the age of eighty one. Not a bad life for a skater once not even deemed worth the price of a steamship ticket!

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 1914 World Figure Skating Championships

Skaters from the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb on the ice in Helsinki. Photo courtesy Helsinki City Museum.

On January 24 and 25, 1914, many of the best skaters in the world competed in St. Moritz, Switzerland at the Internationale Eislauf-Vereinigung's annual international competitions for women and pairs, later recognized as World Championships. Defeating eight other women, twenty three year old Zsófia Méray-Horváth claimed her third and final World crown.

In the pairs event, German born Ludovika Eilers and her Finnish husband Walter Jakobsson reclaimed the title that had eluded them the previous two years and set the stage for Finnish glory in the men's event which was to be held a month later on Helsinki's frozen North Harbour. That men's competition would mark the very first time in history that Finland ever played host to the World Figure Skating Championships.

Gillis Grafström, Harald Rooth, Richard Johansson and Gösta Sandahl at the 1914 World Championships

It was a highly talked up event, toted in European newspapers of the era as the biggest showdown in the history of men's figure skating. Not only was it the first time more than ten men participated in the World Championships, but six of the fourteen men entered had previously medalled at either the Winter Olympics, World or European Championships. With Olympic Gold Medallist Ulrich Salchow having at that time stepped aside, it was anybody's game. Although two Swedish judges sat on the panel, if the judging of the event was stacked in favour of any nation's skaters, it was the Russians and Finns. World Champion Walter Jakobsson acted as the Finnish judge and Olympic Gold Medallist Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin as the Russian one. The referee was Russian and as the event was held in Finland, which was then an autonomous duchy under Russian control. The fifth judge represented Hungary.

Outdoors in Helsinki weather that dipped below minus twenty degrees Celsius, fourteen men started the men's event despite protests from Finnish physicians, who claimed it was simply unsafe to compete in such dangerously low temperatures. However, the sun was shining and at least a thousand spectators braved the bitter cold to come watch the best skaters in the world compete.

Fritz Kachler

Defending two time World Champion and reigning European Champion Fritz Kachler of Vienna unanimously won the school figures by sixty points over Andor Szende of Budapest. Close behind in third - but with three second place ordinals - was a youthful Swede named Gösta Sandahl. Willy Böckl was fourth, Ivan Malinin fifth and an injured Gillis Grafström (making his world debut) was sixth. Hometown favourite Sakari Ilmanen withdrew from the competition following the figures after receiving ordinals that ranged from tenth through thirteenth.

Gösta Sandahl

Gösta Sandahl won the free skate by eight points over Austria's Ernst Oppacher, who had been seventh in figures. Böckl was third in free skate, followed by Harald Rooth of Sweden, Malinin and Richard Johansson, Szende and Grafström. Kachler placed a disastrous ninth and Swedish judge Dr. Bardy had him in a tie for tenth with Szende.

Gillis Grafström

Although ranked sixth overall by Panin-Kolomenkin, Gösta Sandahl won his first and only World title with first place ordinals from both Swedish judges and Jakobsson. Kachler, still ranked first by the judge from Austria-Hungary, settled for silver ahead of Böckl, Oppacher, Szende, Malinin, Grafström, Rooth and Johansson. Interestingly, 1912 European Bronze Medallist Martin Stixrud of Norway was the only skater who participated who didn't have a judge from his country on the panel. How did that work out for him? He placed eleventh.

So impressive was Sandahl's free skating performance that in the "Neues Wiener Tageblatt" in Vienna, Otto Bohatsch praised him thusly: "The young Swede Sandahl conquered... He's a smart kid of twenty years... a majestic skater with flight and speed in his program not unlike Salchow in younger days... He is considered among the best Nordic skaters today." The only Finnish entry who finished the competition, Björnsson Schauman, finished a disastrous twelfth. His result coupled with Sakari Ilmanen's in the figures proved that even in 1914 with a stacked panel, the judging in Helsinki wasn't overtly biased in favour of the hometown crowd.

Sergei Wanderfliet, Martin Stixrud, Björnsson Schauman, Gillis Grafström, Harald Rooth, Gösta Sandahl, Richard Johansson, Fritz Kachler, Andor Szende and Dr. Ernst Oppacher

 The "Fremdenblatt Sports Journal" saw things differently, claiming that Sandahl was marked generously in the school figures despite his ability being "nowhere near Kachler" and that Scandinavian judges had ganged up against Kachler in the free skate when he had an off day. Swedish skating historian Gunnar Bang, recalling the competition in his 1966 book "Konståkningens 100-åriga historia" noted Kachler's graciousness in defeat, saying that after the event, he "spoke not about the outcome, knowing the best man for the day won." Sandahl and Kachler didn't get a chance to settle their score for nine years.

The 1914 World Championships in men's figure skating were the final major international competition held before World War I, which put the amateur figure skating scene in Europe at a standstill. At the 1923 World Championships in Vienna - Kachler's hometown - Scandinavia's Sandahl finished third to Kachler's first, proving that like figure eights, all things come full circle.

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.

Finland's Forgotten Skating King: The John Catani Story

On Christmas Day, 1864 in Helsinki, Florio and Charlotte (Riecke) Catani welcomed to the world their third child, John Giovanni Battista Catani. The birth of John on Christmas Day was a particularly special gift for the Catani's, who had been working around the clock at the family confectionary business in the Pohjoisesplanadi preparing holiday sweets for the good people of Helsinki.

Photo courtesy Museo Virasto

From icing sugar to ice, young John developed a passion for skating in his teenage years. When he was nineteen, he entered a local speed skating race and finished a second to a local fisherman by the name of Liljeberg. After joining the Helsingfors Skridskoklubb, John began studying the art of figure skating and soon abandoned speed skating in favour of the practice of carving out elaborate special figures on the ice. Within no time, he was teaching fellow skaters the skills he'd just learned himself.

In 1886, John travelled to Stockholm and participated in an ice show where he was billed as "the cleverest skater the Nordic countries have to exhibit." According to the 1894 book "Tio vintrar på Nybroviken" penned by Ivar Boktryckeri, he "received the lion's share of applause" in this particular show.

Boktryckeri compared John directly to the great Jackson Haines, noting that he "loved to move in large figures and developed an elegance and agility which was admirable. He developed however an almost feminine grace which turned many against him who preferred a strong male skater. He had a boldness, tremendous strength combined with flexibility and a natural posture." John soon became renowned throughout Scandinavia for the polkas and mazurkas he translated to the ice, forward inside and outside spirals and aesthetically pleasing figure patterns.

Special figures designed by John Catani

In February 1889, John participated in an international figure skating competition in Gothenburg that featured skaters from Finland, Norway, Sweden and Great Britain. Though he placed third behind Rudolf Sundgren and Ivar Hult, British skater Douglas Adams recalled that both Sundgren and Catani "surprised us by the great power they possessed over their skates, in the most difficult movements." The following February John competed in the same 'unofficial' World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia where Canada's Louis Rubenstein made his mark. Russia's skating elite looked very favourably upon his special figures and the February 19, 1890 issue of "Finnish Wirallinen Journal" raved, "Mr. Catani is not inferior to the best ice ballet dancers". He tied for first place in the free skating competition at that event and returned to Helsinki with a silver drinking cup to show for his efforts.

Later that year, John opened a café in the same area as the family confectionary business in a huge stone house he built himself. That café, run by John and his brother, became an important social hub for the cultural elite of Helsinki for almost three decades. A famous Finnish poet named Eino Leino often frequented John's business. The first meeting of the Finnish Football Association - an organization which John himself later served as treasurer and President - was held there. In between serving Rönttönen pastry with lingonberry filling, Salmiakki, piimä and buckets of coffee to Helsinki high society, John was a devoted husband to his wife Anna Matilda Lindqvist and father to his three sons Sten, Lars and Bror and daughter Giulia Anita.

John Catani (fourth from left) with a group of Finnish conservationists. Photo courtesy Museo Virasto.

Sadly, John's café closed in 1917 due to Great War rationing and remained closed throughout the Finnish Civil War the following year. Passing away at the age of sixty six on May 13, 1931 in Helsinki, John Catani - "the cleverest skater the Nordic countries have to exhibit" - has been all but forgotten except by the most ardent followers of figure skating in Finland.

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.