Peppe In Her Step: The Audrey Peppe Story

The daughter of Frank and Alice (Loughran) Peppe, Audrey Frances Peppe was born October 12, 1917 in New York City. She grew up in Manhattan - and later, Hempstead Town in Nassau - with her younger brothers Kenneth and Allen. Her father was a very successful real estate broker in Washington Square, bringing in sixty five thousand dollars a year during The Great Depression. Her paternal grandparents were Italian immigrants.

Audrey Peppe and Robin Lee in 1931

Brown haired and freckled Audrey was educated at Friends Seminary Day School, the Gardner School For Girls and Long Beach High School. In 1939 she recalled, "I started in ballet dancing when I was four years old. After I had acquired some confidence in that line, and after having heard so much about skating, it was only natural to transfer my affections to the ice." She started skating at the age of six at the Skating Club Of New York and was taught the basics by her aunt Bea Loughran, who would go on to become the only American in history to win three Olympic medals in figure skating. Later, Bea would accompany her to competitions though her primary coach was Willy Böckl.

Appearing in her first club carnival at the age of ten, Audrey was on the ice at six in the morning every day. Her little free time was spent swimming, golfing, playing tennis and attending dance classes. Though European skaters like Sonja Henie, Belita Jepson-Turner and Melitta Brunner complemented their skating with off-ice dance, Audrey was one of the first American skaters of note to do so.

Audrey Peppe with Ollie Haupt Jr. (left) and Robin Lee (right)

Audrey made her national debut in 1930, losing the junior women's title to Dr. Hulda Berger but winning "the hearts of spectators with a remarkable performance" in the free skating. The following year, she won the Skating Club of New York's junior women's 'Class A' competition for the third time, gaining permanent possession of the winner's cup presented by Gertrude Cheever Porter. She also won the Waltz at that event, skating with female partner Nancy Church. In the years that followed, she amassed top six finishes at four U.S. Championships and the 1933 North American Championships.

The judging system in place at the time which placed so much of the emphasis on school figures hurt Audrey greatly, particularly so early in her career. Many of her competitors were excellent at figures and she - suffice it to say - was not. She finished dead last in figures in many of the events she entered but was in the top three in free skating practically every time. She had an Axel and a Lutz in her repertoire and newspapers raved of her "lightning fast" speed. Maribel Vinson Owen recalled her fine crossfoot spin. One account of her performance at the 1934 U.S. Championships from "The Philadelphia Inquirer" raved, "Audrey skated like wildfire and looked like a comet as she spun around on her skates. Her egg shell colored velvet costume blended with crimson accoutrements tended to heighten her daring leaps, jumps and twists." She placed only fourth at that event.

Audrey's first break came in 1936 at the age of eighteen, when she won the bronze medal at the U.S. Championships and earned the right to represent America at the Olympics and World Championships. In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, she placed twelfth but defeated several better known skaters in free skating. In Paris at the Worlds, she placed an unlucky thirteenth.

In 1937, Audrey went to London to train under Howard Nicholson, one-time coach to Sonja Henie. A membership with the National Skating Association allowed her to compete in the European Championships in Prague, where she placed eleventh. At the World Championships in London that followed, she placed dead last despite the Polish judge having her tied for third in the free skate. In both instances, it was again the figures that did her in.

Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine

Perhaps most famously, Audrey ever so narrowly lost the 1938 U.S. women's title to Joan Tozzer. Egbery Cary, Jr., a judge from Philadelphia, placed her third behind Tozzer and Jane Vaughn, sealing her fate at that event. "TIME" magazine recalled, "To the tune of the Hungarian Rhapsody, she delighted the crowd with flaring spins, jumps and dance steps. But Joan Tozzer so impressed the judges with the simplicity and smoothness of her free-skating repertory that they gave her performance almost as many points as Miss Peppe's. When the two-day totals were tallied, Joan Tozzer was awarded the crown by the slim margin of one-tenth of a point." The result really ticked off the 'powers that be' at the Skating Club Of New York, adding fuel to the decades long rivalry between the old Eastern Seaboard clubs - Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Later that year,
Audrey headlined her club's carnival at Madison Square Garden with Felix Kaspar, making history as the first 'leading lady' in the production not shipped over from Europe.

After finishing second to Joan Tozzer again at the 1939 U.S. Championships, Audrey was named to the 1940 Winter Olympic team. When those Games were cancelled in September of that year due to the outbreak of World War II, she decided to call it a day.

Audrey turned professional, signing with the Skating Artists Agency of Chicago and touring with the U.S. with the "Hello America!" European Ice Revue. In 1940, she married David Benner, the assistant manager of the tourist lodge at Sun Valley and became the 'skating instructress in charge of ice revues' at the resort. Sonja Henie's hit film "Sun Valley Serenade" came out in 1941 but it was Audrey - not Sonja - who starred in the first ice summer revues in Sun Valley during the second World War. She also appeared in the second edition of "Stars On Ice" at the Center Theatre at Rockefeller Center in New York, which Sonja produced with Arthur M. Wirtz. Through their mutual work with Howard Nicholson, the two were acquainted and Sonja only had very nice things to say about Audrey in the press.

Audrey Peppe and Oscar L. Richard posing at the Playland rink in Nye, New York. Photo courtesy Westchester County Archives.

In 1944, Audrey divorced her first husband and married Robert Rapée, the son of famed symphonic conductor Ernö Rapée. She returned to New York and taught skating for many years at the Rye Skating Club and Skating Club Of New York. Sadly, she passed away on April 1, 1992 in Flushing, Queens at the age of seventy four. Her only child passed away of multiple sclerosis two months after she did.

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.

Wading Through The Mail

It's once again time to unpack the mail bag, answer some of your questions and share some of the interesting e-mails and social media messages that have come my way over the last few months. I'm going to try to do this quarterly from now on so things don't pile up. As always, if you have a question you'd like me to tackle or feedback on a blog please reach out via e-mail.

READER QUESTIONS

From Mark (via e-mail): "When were the U.S. Championships first aired on TV?"

A: Great question, Mark! The first U.S. Championships to be televised were the 1961 U.S. Championships at the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs. Hosted by Dick Button and Bud Palmer, the ABC telecast featured performances by the skaters who tragically went on to perish shortly thereafter in the Sabena Crash. These videos are still floating around today.

By 1961, the Nationals had already been filmed by the USFSA for over a decade. This started in 1949, when the executive committee voted to spend five hundred dollars (no paltry sum in those days!) to film that year's U.S. Championships, which were also in Colorado Springs. The man they hired to get the job done, Howard Craker, went on to do the USFSA's films for several decades. These films were rented out to skating clubs for a nominal fee as a way of raising funds.

From @bmbrman85 (via Twitter): "Why did they stop the North American Championships?"

A: There's a blog in the Skate Guard archive from 2017 that answers that very question.

From Lori (via e-mail): "Today the ladies are the strongest discipline in Russia, but they never used to be. Why do you think that is?"

A: Thanks for the excellent question, Lori! So, if you look back to the eighties there was actually a different Soviet woman on the podium at the World Championships three years in a row - Elena Vodorezova in '83, Anna Kondrashova in '84 and Kira Ivanova in '85. Then there was a decade long lull where there wasn't a Russian woman on the podium at the World Championships. There were definitely a few different factors in that - the fact that a lot of the top Soviet women were better at figures than free skating and figures got eliminated during that decade, the tremendous talent of the other top skaters during that time, training and economic conditions and the fact that many top Soviet female skaters got filtered into pairs and dance. And even though there were some wonderful Russian women in the nineties-early 2000's - Irina Slutskaya, Maria Butyrskaya, Olga Markova, etc. there was another lull after Irina Slutskaya retired. Over the last decade or so, there's obviously been a huge focus on building up Russian women's skating, and whether you like 'what's going on' or not, I think it's important to recognize two things: 1) that in the grand scheme of skating history, this 'stable' of super young Russian women's skating talent is a pretty recent phenomenon and 2) the Russian women of decades past were crazy talented too... even if they weren't bringing home as many medals.

Nam Nguyen at the 2015 Canadian Championships. Photo courtesy Danielle Earl.

From @QuadAxel3Toe (via Twitter): "I have one question if you don't mind. Who are the youngest Canadian National champions in each discipline? I tried to Google this but got an incorrect response. Thank you!"

A: I can't do pairs and dance for you because there are about half a dozen winners I don't have birth dates for, but I went all the way back to 1905 to check ages for you and can give you definite answers for men's and women's. Two men won the Canadian senior men's title at the age of sixteen: Michael Kirby in 1942 and Nam Nguyen in 2015. Nam was almost exactly two months younger than Michael when he won, making him the youngest in history.

Tracey Wainman was just a few months shy of her fourteenth birthday when she won the Canadian senior women's title in Halifax in 1981, making her the youngest in history... but Canada has actually had a handful of skaters who were sixteen or under when they won the title. Barbara Ann Scott was fifteen when she first became Canadian Champion in 1944, and repeat winners Wendy Griner, Karen Magnussen and Cynthia Phaneuf were all fifteen as well when they won their first titles. Constance Wilson, who won a record nine Canadian women's titles in the twenties and thirties, had just celebrated her sixteenth birthday when she won her first title in 1924 and Barbara Gratton, who won in 1953 and 1954, was sixteen when she won her first title also.

POLITICIANS, DIPLOMATS AND SKATING

From Alice (via e-mail): "FYI, The US Presidential retreat, Camp David during the Kennedy administration had an outdoor ice rink on the skeet range.
https://aboutcampdavid.blogspot.com/2012/03/ice-skating-at-camp-david.html

And, former US Secretary of Skate, Condi Rice was a competitive pairs figure skater when she was growing up in Denver, Colorado. A link with a photo of her skating and lots of details of her roll to end the Cold War.  She was recently named the head of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
https://erenow.net/biographies/condi-the-condoleezza-rice-story/8.php."

BELITA JEPSON-TURNER

From Vincent (via e-mail): "Thank you so much for the wonderful informative biography of Belita. I am not a skater, and until discovering her wonderful performances in Suspense held no interest in skating. Belita's performances changed that. I really feel the need to write just to thank you for being able to fill in the many gaps surrounding the great lady's life. One small thing that I should also love to add that you might want to include footage and a brief descriptive of her wonderful performance to the song Cabildo (Miguelito Valdes with both orchestras Casino de la Playa And Machito and his Afro Cubans as well as the Suspense soundtrack version), In fact it was whilst searching for performance footage of Miguelito that I first discovered Belita and promptly became a fan. To further tell the truth, when reading your wonderful article I was rather hoping to stumble on some juicy snippet of gossip between Belita and Miguelito during filming ... hahaha .. but you can’t have  everything can you? Anyhow really. It’s great the work you undertook and I can only thank you once more. I am very happy and must reread the article several times to fully take in the scope and depth of information you cover."

JACKSON HAINES ON INDOOR RINKS

Mrs. Ellen Burka's daughter Astra sent me this fascinating clipping from the "Toronto Globe", dated March 24, 1863 and signed Jackson Haines, 'Prof. Of Skating'. I'll save your eyes the trouble and reprint his letter to the editor:

"Before leaving you beautiful city, I have thought that it would be nothing less than my duty to give your citizens my experience with regard to the manner of keeping their skating 'rinks' or ponds, in the most healthy and beneficial condition. I have no doubt that skating will be the rage next winter to a greater extent than it has been this.

I have been told that the proprietors of some of the ponds intend covering them, to avoid the effects of the sun and the... snow. This will be found very injurious to health, particularly of children, whose lungs are more active and require more ventilation and fresh air than adults. The experiment has been tried in New York and abandoned. The ice on an open rink, when exposed to all the effects of nature, is found to be much more pleasant to skate upon, and no matter how well the house may be ventilated a certain degree of dampness will be retained under the cover, that has been found exceedingly injurious to persons of tender years. Skating is a violent exercise, and a person when under such excitement needs all the pure, healthful air that it is possible to have. Hoping that this may not be unacceptable to your readers. I remain the well wisher of Toronto."

A CUP OF HISTORY

From Kenny (via e-mail): "I have had the attached (pics) in my possession for 2 years now. It is a 'Tudric' pewter Tankard made by Liberty. I often buy these things in passing and try to track down those to whom they may mean more. I am looking to pass it on to someone who may want to make an offer for it - someone for whom it means a lot. It is engraved GM Hogg, 1937... I currently have 2 military ones also - it is a hobby of mine. I am a career nurse. Whilst I am selling it, the history and proper ownership outweighs monetary value. I hope you can help."

If anyone is interested in purchasing this tankard that once belonged to Miss Gladys Hogg, please e-mail me and I will pass on your message to Kenny.

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: Why I Ever Bend Over Backwards

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.

Today's gem is an article from the 1946 edition of "The National Ice Skating Guide", penned by Werner Groebli - one half of the famous Swiss skating duo Frick and Frack. In this piece, he shares a fantastically tall tale about early history of the cantilever back bend that reminds us we probably shouldn't believe everything we read.

Photo courtesy "The National Ice Skating Guide"

"WHY I BEND OVER BACKWARDS" (WERNER GROEBLI)

I have been asked time and time again how I came to originate my 'back-bend' turn but here for the first time is the true story.

It happened many years ago while I was skating on Lake Retakes near Basel in my native Switzerland. I had been visiting my friend Frack who lived about three miles down and on the other side of the Lake. It had been a very pleasant evening and I stayed later than I had intended. It was nearly midnight when I laced on my skates and started for home.

The night was crisp and not unpleasant although the half moon threw eerie shadows from the banks onto the ice. I skated nearer the center of the Lake which was about two miles wide.

Then, when I was about halfway across I heard a sound which sent a cold chill running up my back. It was the whinnying of horses and the excited barking of tied-up dogs, in the distance. There could only be one reason for the uproar... Wolves! And they must be between me and home! Then as I hesitated, a dark shadow leaped from the darkness and streaked between me and the direction from which I had just come. I wheeled and raced back and not a minute too soon for the whole pack was after me now.

I skated as fast as I could, drawing deep breaths and putting every bit of power I could into each stroke. But I could hear the wolves getting closer and closer. I could hear the leaders panting now - and my skin began to creep. I knew death in gruesome form was drawing closer and closer. If I slowed for an instant I'd be ripped and slashed to shreds by the fiends from hell. Then in desperation I tried a sharp turn. By digging my heels deep in the ice and turning at an angle of forty-five degrees I made a complete turn. They skidded past, heads lowered, eyes blazing for perhaps fifty yards before they could stop themselves, turn and come after me again. This gave me a good lead again. This strategem saved me time after time. But as the wolves skidded me past me each time I made a sharp turn their fury seemed to increase. Their ferocity seemed whetted. And every turn I made I had to make wider for the wolves were increasing the length of their front. I knew only too well that I was but postponing the inevitable. I thought of stories my father had told me - that in less than six minutes a pack of wolves could strip a full grown moose and leave nothing but white polished bones.

And I was tiring. Oh for some providence to help me! Why couldn't the dogs break loose? If I could only stop and light a bonfire. But where would I find wood? And where could I get time? And I didn't smoke so I had no matches! But a flash of inspiration came to me.

Each time that I had dug my skates into the slippery ice for the sharp turns I noticed that a long train of sparks flew out from the runners of my skates. I was going at such a speed that the sudden increased weight at the turns created a friction which almost turned my blades red-hot. I was carrying an old fashioned pair of wooden scabbards made from soft pine. If I could only hold the guards close enough to the sparks to set them on fire! But how? The sparks were behind me! I tried turning sideways but in a moment the wolves gained on me for I had to slow up. Then I realized that there was only one solution. And only one. That was to lean backwards as I was making the turns. Then I could hold the wooden guards directly in the path of the sparks and they would catch on fire. Then I put on a tremendous burst of speed. My lungs ached with the effort. Then I dug my skates in for the turn and as I wheeled around I leaned over backwards just as I far as I could without falling. When parallel with the ice I held the guards in the path of the train of sparks which flew from my skates. In a moment they glowed and then burst into flames. Then I straightened up and skated straight into the wolf pack with the two flaming torches in my hands. The mad wolves broke away in crazed fear of the fire. And I raced towards home with the torches blazing in the wind.

Victory had been snatched from the very jaws of death. I gained the safety of the shore and scurried up the slope and unleashed the wolf hounds. Well, that's the story of the origination of the 'back-bend'.

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.

Forestry And Forward Outside Eights: The Egbert S. Cary Jr. Story

Photo courtesy Cornell University Archives

In the thirties and forties, singles skaters from the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society were major players on the American skating scene. Dick Button represented the club when he won the 'grand slam' of novice, junior and senior U.S. titles in consecutive years. Siblings Jane and Arthur 'Buddy' Vaughn made history during World War II as the first skaters from the Club to win U.S. senior titles. Talented young skaters like Eileen Seigh, Marcia Zieget, Barbara Jones and William Grimditch Jr. all won U.S. novice and junior titles during the forties as well. However, it was the success of another talented young skater during the roaring twenties that 'got the ball rolling'.

The son of Elizabeth (Allen) and Egbert Snell Cary Sr., Egbert 'Bert' Snell Cary Jr. was born April 28, 1907 in Westtown, Pennsylvania. His parents were Quakers and his father taught at the Westtown School, a co-educational Quaker boarding school not far from Paoli when he was an infant. The Cary family moved to Moorestown, New Jersey in 1911 when Egbert Cary Sr. took a job as the superintendent of the Pocono Lakes Preserve, but spent their winters in Philadelphia.

Photo courtesy Penn Charter School Archive

Egbert Sr. became enchanted with figure skating after reading an article about the sport in a local newspaper and soon he, Egbert Jr. and his sister joined the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society. While attending the William Penn Charter School, Egbert Jr. began taking lessons from a then relatively unknown young skating instructor named Gustave Lussi. In 1924, Mr. Lussi's first 'star pupil' claimed the junior men's title on home ice at the U.S. Championships in Philadelphia.

Egbert S. Cary Jr. (front row, second from left) on the 1930 Cornell soccer team. Photo courtesy Cornell University Archives.

Egbert went on to study forestry at Cornell University, where he was a member of the soccer team and a keen amateur ornithologist. He graduated in 1930 and married Sara Carr that fall. The couple had two children and both became members of the Atlantic City Skating Club in New Jersey. Though he followed in his father's footsteps and worked at the Pocono Lakes Preserve, Egbert remained very active in the skating community, serving on the USFSA's Standards and Test Committee and judging at the national level for several years. In 1938, he was the swing judge responsible for Joan Tozzer's upset victory at the U.S. Championships. He skated in local carnivals throughout the thirties and forties and his comedy drag act as the tall, lanky 'Fraulein Ileepa Lott' was a perennial favourite with audiences. He sadly passed away of a heart attack at the age of fifty six on August 25, 1963 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

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 1935 North American Figure Skating Championships

You might not have known it was The Great Depression. In the weeks leading up to February 21 and 22, 1935, people scrounged together their coins to go see Barbara Stanwyck star in the film "The Lady In Red". They amused themselves with the brand new Parker Brothers board game "Monopoly" and tapped their toes to Cole Porter's hit "I Get A Kick Out Of You". Perhaps most importantly, they queued up by the thousands in Montreal, Quebec when the biggest names in both Canadian and American figure skating squared off at the North American Figure Skating Championships.

A who's who of figure skating at the 1935 North American Championships. Left to right: (top row) Roger Turner, Polly Blodgett, Robin Lee, Veronica Clarke, Osborne Colson, Ardella Kloss, Joseph K. Savage; (second row) Roy Hunt, Donald B. Cruikshank, Estelle and Louise Weigel, Wingate Snaith, Louise Bertram; (third row) Nettie Prantel, William Bruns, Suzanne Davis, Frederick Goodridge; (fourth row) George E.B. Hill, Maribel Vinson, Mrs. William Bruns, Mrs. Margaret Davis, Frances Claudet, James Lester Madden, Grace Madden, Stewart Reburn; (bottom row) Prudence Holbrook, Melville Rogers, Guy Owen, Constance Wilson-Samuel and Bud Wilson. Photo courtesy "Skating Through The Years".

The 1935 North American Championships - a two-day affair held on a Thursday and Friday - was held nearly a month after that year's Canadian Championships and one week prior to the U.S. Championships, giving Canadian skaters the further advantage of being well-rested... on top of skating on home ice. School figures were contested at the Montreal Winter Club and free skating at the Montreal Forum. Charlie Morgan Rotch, Joel B. Liberman and Lillian Cramer acted as the three American judges. Canada's trio of judges were Allan E. Howard, Norman V.S. Gregory and Norman Mackie Scott. The referee was former Canadian Champion Douglas Henry Nelles. Let's take a look back at how things played out!

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Bud Wilson skated his way to his fourth consecutive North American men's title in Montreal, easily besting Robin Lee, James Lester Madden, Roger Turner, Osborne Colson, Geddy Hill, Guy Owen and Wingate Snaith. Bud's four men's titles at North Americans were a record at the time... but he went on to win another two in 1937 and 1939. In the history of the event, no other man was able to win four... let alone six!

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Bud Wilson's sister Constance also set a North American record no other woman was able to beat in 1935. She claimed her fourth consecutive North American women's title, ahead of Maribel Vinson,
Suzanne Davis, Veronica Clarke, Louise and Estelle Weigel and Frances Claudet.

Maribel skated uncharacteristically poorly in the women's event in Montreal, faltering on one of her figures and falling on a reverse jump in her free skate. Constance, on the other land, included a double jump in her winning free skate... a rarity in those days. Estelle Weigel and Frances Claudet both wore shorts for their figures, which caused quite a stir as compared to the red dress of Maribel, blue dress of Constance and brown dress and beret of Veronica.

THE PAIRS, FOURS AND ICE DANCE COMPETITIONS

Redeeming herself after her performance in the women's event, Maribel Vinson and partner Geddy Hill became the first American pair to win the North American title since Theresa Weld Blanchard and Nathaniel Niles exactly ten years prior. Constance and Bud Wilson, who had won the event the last three times, settled for silver.

Constance and Bud Wilson (left) and Maribel Vinson and Geddy Hill (right)

Louise Bertram and Stewart Reburn, Grace and James Lester Madden, Frances Claudet and Donald B. Cruikshank, Polly Blodgett and Roger Turner and Eva Schwerdt and William H. Bruns rounded out the unusually deep pairs field. The February 23, 1935 issue of "The New York Times" described Maribel and Geddy's performance thusly: "Skating almost as one, they swirled around the ice, each figure being executed with grace. A series of difficult jumps which brought rounds of applause from a crowd of 5,000 climaxed their performance."

The Minto Four (Margaret Davis, Prudence Holbrook, Melville Rogers and Guy Owen) were the clear winners in the fours event. The New York Four (Nettie Prantel, Ardelle Kloss, Joseph K. Savage and Roy Hunt) placed second and the Boston Four (Suzanne Davis, Grace Madden, Geddy Hill and Frederick Goodridge) placed third.

During the computation of the marks, there was an informal Waltzing contest. The judges selected their top four after an elimination round and the audience's applause for each couple determined the skate order in the finals. The winners were Louise Bertram and Stewart Reburn.

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.

Klizanja: A Collection Of Yugoslavian Figure Skating History

Group of friends skating at the Belgrade Cycling Club Ice Rink, January 1909. Photo courtesy Dejan Milutinovic.

Today on Skate Guard, we're going to dive into the figure skating history of Yugoslavia, a country which no longer exists. The politics of the war-torn region today may be extremely complicated to say the least. However, the history of the skating in the region is simply fascinating!

Before we hop in the time machine, I want to give full credit to my main sources for today's piece. Firstly, Croatian skating judge Dora Strabić's 2013 thesis "Povijest umjetničkog klizanja u Hrvatskoj" ("History Of Figure Skating In Croatia"). Ms. Strabić's research was impeccable and rich in primary sources from the archives of journalist and sports commentator Milka Babovic. Secondly, Dejan Milutinovic's history of ice skating in Belgrade from 1891 to 1991 was indispensable. Grab your Skate Guards and a steaming cup of Kavu. We'll be heading right from the time machine to the frigid winters of nineteenth century Zagreb!

Two men skating hand in hand at the Belgrade Cycling Club Ice Rink, 1902. Photo courtesy Dejan Milutinovic.

Prior to World War I, much of the region that later became known as Yugoslavia were territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with the exception of the independent Kingdom of Serbia. Thusly, it is widely believed that the early popularity of figure skating in Vienna and Budapest - owing largely to to the influence of Jackson Haines - had a trickle effect to other parts of the region. Written accounts from the nineteenth century assert skating was popular on the frozen Maksimir Lake in Zagreb and on the Sava River which flows through modern day Slovenia and Croatia along the northern border of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Danube in Belgrade, Serbia.

Between 1870 and 1872, a wholesaler named Ladislav Beluša opened two ice rinks in Zagreb but these catered only to an exclusive circle of citizens. On November 15, 1874, Zagreb's first skating club was founded by an engineer named Milan Lenuci and Beluša, who served as the club's first President. It officially opened on Christmas Eve, 1874 in what is now Mažuranić Square. At the time, the city had only thirty thousand residents and plumbing and electrical lighting were pretty much non-existent. The rink was maintained by pouring water onto the designed surface and its continued existence was reliant completely on cold temperatures. That Christmas Eve, the rink was packed with skaters who skated by the light of hundreds of oil lamps to the strains of a military band. Three years later, an organized society was forced to promote skating in the region. A second rink was opened with "sensational electric lighting" and soon masked balls in the same vein of those held in Montreal, Halifax, Vienna and Paris became all the rage. Speaking of Halifax, it wasn't until Starr Skates arrived in the region that figure skating really took off. Prior to their arrival in the region in the late nineteenth century, many skaters only had access to speed skates.

Skaters at the Belgrade Cycling Club Ice Rink, 1907. Photo courtesy Dejan Milutinovic.

In 1890, the Belgrade Skating Society was founded. Serbian skating historian Dejan Milutinovic recalled, "In January 1891, two competitions were held on the so-called Venice pond by the Sava river i.e. in the figure and speed skating. It is very interesting that the female race was held for the first time. Daily newspapers wrote about these events in details. They said that 'it looks like that whole city of Belgrade is attending this competition. [The] ground is decorated with the flags and the orchestra is playing very nice pieces'. Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of these events but do have names of all participants. Belgrade Skating Society was very active for five years. Later ice skating was popularized through several ice-skating clubs, some of them were under the patronage of Serbian King Alexander I Obrenovitch. It was very popular to have organized balls, speed skating races and other events during long winters days on several outdoor ice rinks throughout the city." Zagreb held its first figure skating competition in January 1895, which was won by a woman named Paula Privora. Her prizes were a pair of new skates and a copy of a German skating manual.

Skaters at the Belgrade Cycling Club Ice Rink, early twentieth century. Photo courtesy Dejan Milutinovic.

The first competition that was later recognized as a Yugoslav National Championships was held in 1921 and won by one P. Jarosz. In the first few years, only men competed but by 1927, women were permitted to enter. Gisela Reichmann, who represented Austria internationally and finished second at the 1923 World Championships, was the only competitor.

Sibling pair Mileta and Branka Nedic skating in the roaring twenties at the rink at Sumadija Tennis Court. Photo courtesy Dejan Milutinovic.

By the early thirties, the number of outdoor rinks in Yugoslavia had tripled. Under the direction of Hubert Souvan, the country's skating federation, the Savez Klizackih i Koturaljkaskih Jugoslavije, became a member of the International Skating Union. In February 1937, Paul Schwab and Emanuel Thuma became the first two skaters from Yugoslavia to compete at a major international competition when they entered the 1937 European Championships in Prague. They finished in the final two spots on every judge's scorecard. Two years later, Schwab returned to international competition at the 1939 European Championships in Zakopane, Poland to compete in the pairs event with partner Sylvia Palme. They placed seventh of the nine teams competing. Two weeks later at the World Championships in Budapest, they placed dead last. Palme survived the War and appeared at the 1951 World Championships in Milan, where she placed ninth in the pairs event with a new partner, Marco Lajovic. It wouldn't be until 1966 that two more Yugoslav skaters, Anci Dolenc and Mitja Sketa,  would reemerge to represent their country on the international stage.

Competitors at a figure skating competition in Belgrade held in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia. Photo courtesy "Kolo" magazine, Dejan Milutinovic.

There were several factors that slowed the progress of skating in Yugoslavia in the years following World War II. The Slovenian Press asserted that weather was right up there on the list, as it wasn't until the mid-fifties that the country built its first artificial rinks in Belgrade and Jesenice. A lack of high-level instructors in the country also played a huge factor. It's pretty hard to entice anyone to come to a country for a job where you only get paid (a pittance) for thirty seven days of the year, right? Another factor was the Yugoslavian federation's relationship with the ISU. Historian Benjamin T. Wright noted, "In 1949 [a] new association from Yugoslavia returned to membership, the former pre-War Member having been dropped in 1947. The new Member, reflecting the socialist form of government in the country, was actually a committee for skating of the Union of Physical Culture, an entity of the state, which would be the legal form of organization of the majority of the Members from Eastern Europe for the foreseeable future."

Slowly but surely, the skaters of Yugoslavia soldiered on. After Ljubljana played host to the 1967 European Championships, the country organized its first homegrown international competition under the very unoriginal name of International Championship Zagreb Figure Skating. This event, founded by Vladimir Amšel, Bozidar Čubriković, Klara Dušanović, Zlatko Gros, Radovan Lipovšćak and Ante Škrtić, later became known as the Golden Spin Of Zagreb. In its infancy, what went on to become a popular international event had some pretty serious hiccups. Lipovšćak recalled, "In 1968 during the pairs competition, [it became] suddenly foggy. The judges could not see, and the partners were lost in the fog, shouting. The competition was interrupted and continued the next day." The next year, the snow was so heavy during the school figures that coaches, judges, team leaders and skaters all had to pitch in to clear the ice during the competition. By 1972, the organizers finally decided to construct a roof over the rink and keep Mother Nature from interfering once and for all.

Keychain from the 1974 European Championships in Zagreb

In the seventies and eighties, the popularity of figure skating in Yugoslavia took off with the construction of more and more artificial rinks, including Belgrade's Ice Hall Pionr in 1978. Zagreb played host to the 1974 and 1979 European Championships.

Sarajevo hosted the 1982 World Junior Championships and of course, the 1984 Winter Olympic Games. In 1981, Sanda Dubravčić became the very first skater from the country to win a medal in international figure skating competition when she placed second at the European Championships in Innsbruck behind Switzerland's Denise Biellmann.

In 1986 and 1989, Sarajevo's Zetra Rink again played host to the World Junior Championships. The venue was later damaged in the Siege Of Sarajevo. Anastasios Pantelopulos remarked, "It was damaged in the war and then rehabbed in the late nineties. The Sarajevo Open event in the spring happens there. Actually, there is a wonderful museum dedicated to the Sarajevo Olympics in the building - I visited it in November of 2010... If you ever get the opportunity to go Sarajevo is actually a pretty phenomenally unique city and Bosnia is ridiculously beautiful, it is very easy to see why they hosted the Winter Olympics."

In 1990, Željka Čižmešija made skating history as the final person in history to skate a compulsory figure at the World Championships. The rink was the Dartmouth Sportsplex... only a stone's throw away from the location of the Nova Scotian factory where John Forbes pumped out the very Starr Skates... the skates that gave birth to the rise in popularity in figure skating in Yugoslavia.

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 Turncoat Victory: The Duchesnay's Decision To Skate For France

"I was the last person they dealt with in Canada, which I guess I should not be proud of... It's not my best moment and obviously I failed." - David Dore, "The Globe And Mail", March 24, 1988

Even if you were at the 1978 Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Victoria, British Columbia, you probably wouldn't have noticed them. Of the eleven teams competing in the novice pairs event that year, Aylmer, Quebec's Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay finished in dead last.

Photo courtesy "Canadian Skater" magazine

Injury forced the young siblings to reassess their goals and by 1982, the Duchesnay's had reinvented themselves as ice dancers and claimed the junior silver medal at the 1982 Canadian Championships in Brandon, Manitoba behind Teri-Lyn Black and Mirko Savic of Toronto. They spent that summer at the international training camp in Oberstdorf, where they caught the eye of Czechoslovakian coach Martin Skotnický. In the autumn, they made their senior international debut in (of all places) France, finishing third at the Grand Prix St. Gervais behind their future rivals Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko and Italy's Isabella Micheli and Roberto Pelizzola. That same month, they finished second behind Klimova and Ponomarenko at the Nebelhorn Trophy in West Germany.

Three months later, the Duchesnay's were bypassed for a spot on the World Junior team. 1982 Canadian Champions in novice dance Christine Horton and Michael Farrington were sent instead, along with another novice team, Jo-Anne Borlase and Scott Chalmers, who hadn't medalled at the previous year's Nationals. Though no 'official' explanation was given, the fact that the Duchesnay's had stayed in Ottawa and turned down the CFSA's 'suggestion' to train with Bernard Ford at the National Ice Dance Centre near Toronto appeared somewhat coincidental.

Making their senior debut at the 1983 Canadian Championships in Montreal, the Duchesnay's finished fourth behind Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall, Kelly Johnson and John Thomas and Karyn and Rod Garossino in a field of seven. In her book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On The Ice", Lynn Copley-Graves aptly noted that "after placing third at St. Gervais and second in the Nebelhorn, fourth at home seemed low."

The French Canadian duo's international results during the 1983/1984 season weren't exactly stellar. In September at St. Ivel in Great Britain, they were fifth in a field of seven. Two months later at the Ennia Challenge Cup in Holland, they were seventh. At the 1984 Canadian Championships in Regina, they once again placed fourth behind the same three teams (in the same order) as the year before. In a March 22, 1984 interview from "The Ottawa Citizen" during the 1984 World Championships in Ottawa, coach Betty Callaway remarked, "They work very hard and have the potential to make the national team. They have good imagination, good presence on the ice and don't mess around on top of the ice. But they must experiment more and be more adventurous." That April, the Duchesnay's finished sixth out of the fourteen teams competing at the International Morzine Trophy in France to Johnson and Thomas' second. Their rivals from the Granite Club then left the amateur ranks, opening a door for the Duchesnay's to finally make the podium at the 1985 Canadian Championships.

In Moncton at the 1985 Canadian Championships, the Duchesnay's finally stood on the podium, but their bronze - in a five-four split with the Garossino's - kept them off the World team. Shortly thereafter, they won the Coupe Excellence at the Claude Robillard Centre, defeating ice dance teams from France and the United States. By that autumn, shit was starting to hit the proverbial fan.

Despite being initially scheduled to compete at the Grand Prix St. Gervais, Nebelhorn Trophy and Skate America, the Duchesnay's were no-show's at all three events. The CFSA chose to instead enter the Garossino's and Canada's number five team, Jo-Anne Borlase and Scott Chalmers, at Skate Canada. When the Garossino's placed fourth at St. Ivel with a free dance that didn't go over that well, the CFSA pulled them from Skate Canada and invited the Duchesnay's to compete in London, Ontario at the last minute. Upset they'd already been 'pulled' from Skate Canada once, they didn't accept the CFSA's offer and the Garossino's were put back on the Skate Canada team. Ultimately, both the Garossino's and Borlase and Chalmers finished off the podium at that event, and frustrated with what they perceived as a lack of support from the CFSA, the Duchesnay's made a risky decision. Lynn Copley-Graves explained, "When the CFSA passed over Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay for the Skate Canada team in 1985, they gave up hopes for a berth on the Canadian World Team. Their French Canadian father had met their French mother while stationed with NATO in Metz, France, in serving the Canadian armed forces. Paul, born in Metz, and Isabelle, born in Quebec, had the option through their dual citizenship to skate for France when they realized that the CFSA would not place them high enough for international competitions. The FFSG offered to pay their expenses if they won the 1985 French Dance Championship. If they lost, their competitive days would be over."

Photo courtesy "Canadian Skater" magazine

The Duchesnay's announced their decision to skate for France in an October 25, 1985 press release, saying, "We feel we have a better opportunity in France and a better chance of meeting our goals of competing in the 1988 Olympics." Then CFSA President Bruce Miller said, "It's a real loss to Canada's national team. We regret losing this talented couple." David Dore later said, "We really had no choice but to agree and let them leave." He called the situation "very simple" and said that their third-place finish at the 1985 Canadians caused them to miss the World team and the French federation had offered them training support [the CFSA] couldn't offer. Paul and Isabelle's mother Liliane said, "Isabelle made it very clear, if they didn't win [the 1985 Canadians] this meant they weren't good enough. This would be final. They were going to try it one more time." Their father Henri, pulling no punches, told a journalist from the Montreal newspaper "La Presse" that the powers-that-be at the CFSA that included David Dore played a key role in their decision to skate for France.

Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay at their first French Championships. Photos courtesy Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. 

The Duchesnay's first trip to the French Championships wasn't all rainbows and puppies. In a March 15, 1986 article in "The Ottawa Citizen", reporter Martin Cleary recalled their chilly reception at that year in Lyon thusly: "Parachuting into Lyon three days before the French ice dance championships, the Duchesnay's knew they had to win or their careers were finished. The French officials, coaches and skaters gave them the collective cold shoulder. The Duchesnay's were exercising their dual citizenship option and the top French skaters felt cheated. The Duchesnay's weren't used to the wider rink and they erred by not training on it for several weeks. As a result, they placed second in the compulsory dances. Now, they had to win the original set pattern and the free dance, skated on the same day, to qualify for the worlds. If they didn't, they were ready to quit. They escaped, winning both, with the help of an enthusiastic and inspiring crowd of 5,000 in Lyon. The Duchesnay's, believing they were going to the Worlds, were relieved, while the second and third-place teams were restless. The silver and bronze medallists made their feelings well known, wearing T-shirts reading 'Merci, La France' over their outfits during the medal presentations. A couple of weeks before the European figure skating championships in Copenhagen, the Duchesnay's were told by the French federation they had to place in the top eight or the silver medallists from the French Nationals would go to the worlds." Talk about a warm welcome!

At the 1986 European Championships in Denmark, the Duchesnay's accepted the French federation's ultimatum and placed eighth of the eighteen couples competing: exactly what they needed to do to survive the chopping block. However, their free dance made such an impression on their peers that they were given a standing ovation at the athlete's banquet that followed the competition. Isabelle, in a telephone interview from their training base in Oberstdorf, told Cleary, "Someone from the French federation called me before the Europeans and said we'd finish eighth, I asked him how he knew and he told me 'my little finger told me.' I asked him what he meant and he told me don't ask. That shocked us. I asked him what we'll do at the Worlds and he said we'll probably finish 10th." That little French birdie ultimately wasn't correct in their 'prediction', but they weren't far off. At the 1986 World Championships in Geneva, the Duchesnay's placed twelfth to the Garossino's ninth. That autumn, they won their second French title and firmly established themselves as their new country's number one ice dance team. By the 1987 World Championships in Cincinnati, they were ninth to the Garossino's tenth. Borlase and Chalmers, the other team who was offered a spot at that controversial Skate Canada in 1985, were seventh.

Aside from Tracy Wilson and Rob McCall in 1988, the Duchesnay's were never beat by a Canadian ice dance team again. In 1991, they made history as the first ice dance team from France to win the World Championships and in 1992, they claimed France's first Olympic medal in ice dance. Their risky turncoat gamble in 1985 was one of the first high-profile examples of an ice dance team switching countries mid-career - to their benefit.

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.