Halifax is abuzz with the news that the 50th anniversary of Skate Canada International will be hosted in the city this fall. When people talk about major skating events alternating between cities in the "West" and the "East", the "East" always stops in Ontario and Quebec. Nova Scotia has only hosted Skate Canada three times in the event's fifty-year history. This upcoming event is expected to have a significant impact on figure skating in the Maritimes, and the anticipation and enthusiasm are palpable. That energy and excitement could absolutely be felt on the opening night of this year's Stars on Ice tour.
Last year's Stars on Ice tour was an emotional one, with Kurt Browning performing for the final time. It's natural for some to struggle with the idea of a tour without Kurt. However, this year's tour managed to capture the essence of Kurt in such a way that his presence was felt in every aspect, despite his absence on the ice.
The recurring theme of the show was the science of skating, as studied by the Skating Observation Institute - SOI for short. Throughout the show, the cast members would come out in small groups to conduct various experiments. The concept was clever and it was pulled off very effectively.
Keegan Messing attempted to break the world record for the longest backflip. The Quad God, Ilia Malinin demonstrated a single, double, triple and quadruple Axel. A long scroll of skating elements was unfurled for "Choreography 101". Satoko Miyahara performed every element on the scroll in fast succession. All was well and good until Paul Poirier and Madeline Schizas got into a fight over one of the elements on the list. Was it called a half-loop or an Euler? Amusing Easter eggs like this were interspersed throughout the show, presented in such a way that they were delightful treats for knowledgeable fans and entertaining moments for those who didn't know a Lutz from a layback spin.
The Skating Observation Institute's theme really pushed the skaters out of their comfort zones, and I was genuinely surprised and impressed by how well they all adjusted to the whimsical world of prop comedy.
The highlights of the first half of the show were Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier's stunning performance to Annie Lennox's haunting rendition of "A Whiter Shade of Pale", Patrick Chan's stunning performance to selections from the film "La La Land" and Satoko Miyahara's thoughtful interpretive piece to David Darling's "Minor Blue". I asked my dear friend Craig, who is not a skating person whatsoever, who his favourite performer in the show was and he immediately said Satoko.
The energy surged in the second half of the show. After a fall on a throw in their first number to the strains of Adele, World Champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps came out and delivered an absolutely fabulous performance to Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It For The Boy" that was a huge hit with the audience. There were definitely many Deanna and Max fans in the crowd!
The first standing ovation of the evening was given to Patrick Chan for his farewell performance to "Send in the Clowns" by Frank Sinatra. The audience was so entranced that you could hear a pin drop while he performed. It was evident that everyone knew they were witnessing a truly special moment. Patrick will be greatly missed, and it was a privilege to witness his final tour live.
The standing O's continued with Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier's fabulous performance to Morgan Harper-Jones and Whitney Houston's interpretations of "I Wanna Dance with Somebody". This program had #TheSk80s written all over it and the choreography really showed Piper and Paul's fun side.
Elvis Stojko came out with a mic-stand for his second program, to AC/DC's "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" and "Thunderstruck". Elvis had the crowd in the palm of his hand and was in amazing shape, nailing triple toe-loops and double Axels in this year's show. The electricity of Elvis' performance carried over to the finale to Crowbar's "Oh, What A Feeling", which was a high-energy, feel-good time.
If you're at all on the fence about going to this year's show, don't be! The performances were top-notch, and watching a new generation of talented individuals breathe life into Kurt Browning's imaginative choreography was an absolute joy. You will love the show.
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 "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" and pre-ordering "Sequins, Scandals & Salchows: Figure Skating in the 1980s", which will be released this fall where books are sold: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
"What we used to call 'carry lifts,' so spectacular today, were adagio skating, done only in professional shows. I could do all the lifts we were permitted on one foot and sneak in a few the others weren't yet doing." - Peter Kennedy, "The Seattle Times", February 25, 1994
The children of Michael and Clarice Kennedy, Michael Edward Kennedy III and Karol Estelle Kennedy were born on September 4, 1927 and Valentine's Day of 1932 - he in Olympia and she in Shelton, Washington. They grew up on East 17th Street in Olympia. Their Wisconsin-born father ran a photography studio and was a very successful dentist who gave clinics with the American Dental Association. At this christening, a relative took one look at the younger Michael and said, "That's Peter!" and the name stuck. Soon, Peter and Karol would earn another new name - The Kennedy Kids.
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
Seven-year-old Karol and twelve-year-old Peter first took up figure skating in 1939 at the Olympia Skating Rink, which was located in an old legion hall. Peter, who was then a Boy Scout usher for the nearby Seattle Skating Club's carnival, encouraged his family to attend the show. They loved it so much that the whole family bought ice skates. Karol, who had been interested in dancing, hung up her ballet shoes and Peter soon gave up his favourite childhood sport, tumbling.
Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine
When the Olympia Skating Rink was threatened by closure, Karol and Peter's father bought it - giving the young upstarts their very own ice rink to train. Though their father had no formal background in figure skating, he decided to make a pairs team out of them and acted as their coach and manager. Their mother sewed their costumes and got them ready to be at the rink every morning by four o'clock, so they could skate for four hours before going to school. Their father also regularly drove them to nearby Seattle for lessons from experienced instructors. He sold a home, mortgaged a yacht and downsized his dental practice to keep his children in skates and lessons. Members of the Washington Athletic Club stepped in to make generous financial contributions to the talented young pair's skating career.
Photo courtesy Washington Athletic Club
The Kennedy family moved to Seattle in 1943, the year after Karol and Peter won their first medal at the U.S. Championships, a bronze in junior pairs. They moved up to second in 1944. In 1946, they took the silver medal in the senior pairs category behind Donna Jean Pospisil and Jean-Pierre Brunet. In 1947, they were again runners-up at Nationals - this time to Yvonne Sherman and Robert Swenning - but made history at the first post-War World Championships in Stockholm by claiming the silver medal. It was the first silver medal ever won in pairs skating by an American team and the first American medal at the World Championships since Beatrix Loughran and Sherwin Badger's bronzes in 1930 and 1932. Karol and Peter also won the bronze medal at the North American Championships that season.
At the ages of fifteen and twenty, Karol and Peter won their first of five consecutive U.S. titles in 1948 and earned a spot on the Olympic and World team. Though they placed a creditable sixth in St. Moritz and fourth in Davos, their experiences in Switzerland weren't exactly pleasant ones. Karol had injured her back while climbing on vacation in Scandinavia and was suffering from severe pain that radiated from her back down her leg, causing some loss of muscle control. When she later had a disc injury which left her with numbness in her left leg and a long scar, doctors were amazed that she had been able to walk, much less compete. To make matters worse, Peter later recalled, their record was ruined in St. Moritz and they had to skate their entire program in silence because they didn't have a back-up.
A contributing factor to Karol and Peter's early successes was their work with several Canadian and American coaches, among them Sheldon Galbraith, Clarence and Fayette Hislop, Eugene Turner and Mary Rose Thacker Temple.
Hank Beatty with Peter and Karol Kennedy at the 1948 U.S. Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.
In 1949, Karol and Peter rebounded to finish second at the World Championships in Paris and win their first of two North American titles... with Karol's back heavily taped due to her injury. At that season's U.S. Championships, Peter struck gold in a pair of borrowed trousers. Walter 'Red' Bainbridge, who had attended school in Seattle during World War II, loaned him the 'lucky pants' that had already won gold in the Gold Dance and junior pairs events. It wasn't the first time that clothing had played an important role in the team's skating career. Years later, Peter recollected, "We were later told we didn't win [the 1947 U.S. title] because I was in a costume instead of a tux. I went back to the tux and won with it in 1950 when the other men had gone to costumes."
Top: Peter and Karol Kennedy, Ája Vrzáňová and Dick Button. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine. Bottom: Karol and Peter Kennedy, Jennifer and John Nicks and Marianne and László Nagy - the trio of sibling pairs that swept the podium at the 1950 World Championships.
In London in 1950, Karol and Peter made history as the first American pair ever to win the World title. Their victory that year at the Wembley Arena was especially impressive in that they managed to defeat the British pair Jennifer and John Nicks on their home turf, by a wide margin. The 1950 World Championships marked the first and only time a trio of sibling pairs swept the podium.
By this time, Karol and Peter were training at the Broadmoor Skating Club under the tutelage of Edi Scholdan. They were Edi's first World Champions and their success paved the way for three other sibling pairs from the state of Washington - the Hadleys, Fotheringills and Kauffmans. This trio of teams all went on to medal at the U.S. Championships in the sixties.
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
In Milan in 1951, Karol and Peter lost their World title to World Roller Pair Champions Ria Baran and Paul Falk by three-tenths of a point. Their father was infuriated that Harold G. Storke, the American judge, gave high marks of 5.7 and 5.8 to the German pair. Benjamin T. Wright later recalled, "The Kennedys had arrived late on the scene, due to carnival commitments in the United Skates and had to skate almost immediately upon arrival, so perhaps 'propeller lag' (there being no jet aircraft yet) got to them."
Bottom photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine
For the 1952 Olympic season, Karol and Peter enlisted the help of World Champion Cecilia Colledge, who helped develop a new program for them to music by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg - a fitting choice as the Games were to be held in Oslo. They also signed up for modern dance classes, hoping to improve the lines of their skating and use their five-inch height difference to their advantage. In Norway, they were closely monitored by Eastern bloc security officials, who thought they'd helped a Hungarian pair defect at the 1950 World Championships in London. The distraction didn't affect their performance but they were again unable to best Baran and Falk. When they again performed well and were again placed second at the World Championships that followed the Olympics, emotions were running high... and disaster struck.
The February 28, 1952 issue of "The Seattle Daily Times" reported, "Dr. Michael Kennedy of Seattle and his son were involved in a fist fight with a French news cameraman tonight at the World Figure Skating Championship and were separated by police. The incident came as Peter and his sister, Karol, had left the ice after finishing their pair-skating routine. As they left the ice, Karol stepped to the side of the rink and sat down to catch her breath. Dr. Kennedy said he asked the photographer not to take her picture because she was crying, but the picture was made anyway. In the melee that followed, the doctor's glasses were broken and the cameraman received a bloody nose. The police stepped in. The Kennedys hurried from the Sports Palace by a rear door and were taken to their hotel. Peter and Karol didn't wait to change to their street clothes."
In the months that followed, the ISU had its Congress and the USFSA its Annual General Meeting. It came out that in addition to the incident in Paris, Karol and Peter had also skated an exhibition without a proper sanction in Garmisch-Partenkirchen following the World Championships. The incident in question was a performance for American G.I.'s during a Bavarian skating competition, arranged by the U.S. military. Their father believed the German sponsors had applied for a sanction from the ISU, but they hadn't. Newspapers reported the exhibition as being the reason for their suspension, but the USFSA and ISU also acknowledged the incident in Paris.
Photo courtesy University Of Washington Archives
Though Karol and Peter's father had told the press that they intended to skate professionally, after the suspension Peter applied to his local draft board for induction to go fight in the Korean War. He was rejected because he had asthma. He had previously been given a deferment because he was a student at the University of Washington. He got a job at the First National Bank, married Sally Moffitt in 1957, became a father of two and settled in Mercer Island. When the Sabena Crash occurred in 1961, he worked for Boeing. He later shared his own theory about the tragedy: "It never officially came out, but Boeing claimed the pilot was shot in the head, and that someone from the Belgian Congo took the plane down. This information came right down from the guys who went and checked out the crash, but the FBI didn't want them talking." Monty Hoyt's mother, whose well-connected husband was the editor of the "Denver Post", shared a similar story.
Peter also developed a passion for skiing and competed in the 1956 U.S. Olympic trials, just missing a spot on the team. He went on to work as a consultant for several skiing firms and later founded his own company, Peter Kennedy Inc. He invented and manufactured the first aluminum ski poles, the first all-aluminum skis and the first foam-filled ski boot. His interest in windsurfing and water skiing led him to develop the banana water ski. He also acted as a representative for San Marco boots, Sport Obermayer and Yorex tennis racquets.
Karol and her husband with their first child. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.
Karol, who had graduated from St. Nicholas School in Seattle in 1950 and attended both Colorado College and the University Of Washington, married Robert Charles Kucher in December of 1953. The couple had met when she was boating at the Seattle Yacht Club with her parents. Her husband had served in the Korean War before taking a job as a manager at the Olympic Foundry Company. Karol and Robert had six children and divided their time between Seattle and a summer home in Sayulita, Mexico. She enjoyed entertaining, travelling, taking care of animals and playing bridge. In 1994, she opened The Original Children's Shop, a children's clothing store. She devoted countless hours to the care of her oldest son, who was paralyzed in an accident.
Photo courtesy World Figure Skating Hall Of Fame
Karol and Peter were inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 1991, alongside fellow American World Champions Dorothy Hamill, Charlie Tickner, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner. Though they were Olympic Medallists and World Champions, they have yet to be acknowledged by the Washington Sports Hall Of Fame. Only one figure skater from the state, Rosalynn Sumners, has been so honoured.
Peter Kennedy. Photo courtesy "Mercer Island Reporter" Archive.
Sadly, Karol passed away from emphysema on June 24, 2004, in Seattle at the age of seventy-two. She had been a heavy smoker all her life. At the time of her death, her daughter Kathryn told a reporter from the "Seattle Times" that her mother rarely talked about her skating days. "Occasionally, if we asked her a bunch of questions we'd get something," she said. "Skating was one chapter of her life. She got married and started a new one."
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.
"Mr. Wilkie was without a doubt one of the greatest authorities on skating and the title 'Mr. Ice Dancing' was surely his. His vast knowledge was deeply respected, and he gave freely of his time to help beginner and champion alike." - Lawrence Demmy
Born in 1907 in the London borough of Wandsworth, Reginald Joseph Wilkie grew up in Clapham, North Yorkshire. Instead of gravitating to the ice in his youth, he studied the violin and without a doubt, his early musical education helped him once he took up the sport in 1930 at the age of twenty-three at the Hammersmith Ice Drome. While other skaters focused on singles and pairs skating, ice dancing was Reginald's first love. It was at Hammersmith that he met his first ice dance partner, Daphne (Wallis) Ward and invited her to be his partner, saying, "There is quite a lot in this dancing business. I think we could really make something of it if we try."
Photo courtesy BIS Archives, Daphne Ward Collection
Daphne and Reginald's partnership was a success from the start. A feature in "Skating World" magazine in 1951 noted, "In March, 1931, they won he first competition they entered, and went on to win no less than fourteen dance events off the reel in the following season. In 1932, they joined the Ice Club, Westminster and Park Lane Ice Club (Grosvenor House). Their success continued - in 1935 they took up pair skating - and by the time war came they had more than eighty firsts to their credit, including the following challenge cups won outright after three or more consecutive first places - Vivian Cup, Courtauld Trophy, Argenti Cups, Brilliant Cup, Ice Club Dance Cups, also "Skating Times" Cup (twice), Count de la Feld Trophy, Cannan Prize, Lillywhite Cups (four times), Manchester Ice Dance Trophy (four times), Queen's "End Of Season" Cup, Nicholson Rhumba Cups and many others."
Photo courtesy BIS Archives, Daphne Ward Collection
In November 1934, Reginald and Daphne Wallis were the first to take (and pass) the Association's Third Class Dance Test. Two years later, Reginald and Daphne again made history as the first to take (and pass) the Association's Second Class Dance Test. After both of these tests, Reginald judged the next candidates in line. Reginald also had the unique distinction of judging the first First Class Dance Test in 1939.
After diagramming dances for Skating magazine's book "Ice Dances" in 1936, Reginald and Daphne entered the first British Ice Dance Championships in Richmond in April 1937 and won. They repeated their feat the following two years at Westminster and in addition, held the British pairs silver medal behind Violet and Leslie Cliff those three years as well. BIS historian Elaine Hooper clarified, "This was because there were more pairs competitions than dance and the dancers all skated in pairs as well. I am told they did not skate different programmes for the two."
Facing great opposition from 'the powers that be' at the National Skating Association, Reginald, judge John Blaver a group of ice dancers led a movement aimed at influencing the Association to officially recognize the discipline by introducing a testing system. Reginald and his like-minded friends were successful and went on to form the first National Skating Association Dance Committee in 1933. Reginald served on this very committee in one capacity or another continuously for the rest of his life.
Photo courtesy BIS Archives, Daphne Ward Collection
Reginald and Daphne's most significant contribution to the sport during their competitive career was their invention of three compulsory dances at the British New Dance Competition in 1938 at Westminster. The dances, as we've mentioned before on the blog, were the Argentine Tango, Paso Doble and Quickstep... so if you didn't know before who to thank/blame for those Argentine twizzles, you now have your man. He was the person who came up with the word twizzle in the first place. Anecdotally speaking of one of his creations, Reginald noted that the Paso is "quite an easy dance to do badly".
Photo courtesy BIS Archives, Daphne Ward Collection
Although Reginald and Daphne received many invitations to exhibit their dances in other countries in the late thirties, the onset of World War II kept the duo's skates firmly planted on British ice. The Van den Bergh trophies they won in 1939 would remain in their name for almost a decade, as another British Dance Championship wouldn't be held until the War; they were undefeated until Pauline Barrajo and Albert 'Sonny' Edmonds claimed the title in 1947. During the War, Reginald helped keep the passion for ice dance alive in England and by 1940, all three of Reginald and Daphne's new dances had been added to the finalized structure of the National Skating Association's Gold Dance Test.
Reginald Wilkie and Daphne Wallis in Celerina, Switzerland in 1939
After World War II, Reginald teamed up with Muriel Kay and continued to compete in smaller competitions for a time, until a serious fall that resulted in a skull fracture at the Manchester Skating Club forced him to the sidelines. When the International Skating Union formed an ad hoc committee to standardize the forms of ice dancing being practiced in Europe and North America at its first post-war Congress in Oslo in 1947, Reginald's attention turned primarily to organizational work. He was appointed to this committee with American Bill O. Hickok IV and Belgian Marcel Nicaise and arranged an ice dance exhibition at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. That same year, he married Elsie Summers in Manchester. The couple had two daughters, Vanessa and Stephanie. With his on-ice partner Muriel Kay, he hosted a week-long International Ice Dance Conference at Wembley where - according to her 1958 book "The Key To Rhythmic Ice Dancing" - American and European skaters convened "to seek international agreement on ice dancing". Off the ice, he worked as a bank manager.
Photo courtesy BIS Archives, Daphne Ward Collection
In May 1949, Reginald, Bill Hickok and Marcel Nicaise gave a presentation with a proposed competitive structure for ice dancing to the delegates at the twenty-third ISU Congress in Paris. In her book "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice", Lynn Copley-Graves noted that "their proposal included the standard descriptions and diagrams for the 12 chosen international dances (later increased to 18) and complete rules for conducting international competitions and tests. In a sweeping move, the Congress voted to accept their proposal without amendment and agreed to try out the rules at an international dance competition in London under the direct auspices of the ISU. These three men had drafted such comprehensive rules that ice dancing could at least achieve a separate identity on par with the established branches of competitive skating." T.D. Richardson believed that it was "entirely owing to [Reginald's] study, knowledge, and persistence that ice dancing [came] to be recognized by the International Skating Union." As a result of that meeting, the three men were appointed to the ISU's first official Technical Committee for ice dance, chaired by Marcel Nicaise until 1953, when Reginald took over.
Photo courtesy BIS Archives
That first ISU-organized international competition referred to by Copley-Graves was of course held in conjunction with the 1950 World Championships at Wembley Pool. Reginald's Paso Doble was one of the four compulsory dances skated. Wearing one of his many hats, he served as the British judge and placed silver medallists Sybil Cooke and Robert Hudson of Great Britain first and champions Lois Waring and Michael McGean of America fifth. His decision was a glaring example of national bias, as the other four judges (two from Belgium, one from the United States and one from Czechoslovakia) all had the Americans in first.
Throughout the fifties, Reginald continued his pioneering work with the ISU and National Skating Association, wrote extensively about ice dance technique for the magazine "Skating World", championed further tweaks to the rules of both compulsory dances and the free dance and served as a World and European referee and judge and judged many tests in England, including those of World Champions Jean Westwood and Lawrence Demmy. He also served as a Vice-President of the Harringay Ice Dance Club, Liverpool Skating Club and Wembley Ice Dance and Figure Club.
Reginald also advocated for skaters who were taking tests practicing more with their test partners and the importance of timing and expression in compulsory dances. Alex D.C. Gordon, who later chaired the National Skating Association's Ice Dance Committee aptly noted, "It is safe to say that every nation, directly or indirectly, has benefited in some way from Mr. Wilkie's great knowledge and experience - a knowledge he was always happy to impart to those in need." Gordon further praised Reginald in a foreword to the 1976 book "Ice Dancing: A Manual For Judges And Skaters" by saying that "the success of ice dance has been fully established and has completely justified the confidence in it by that original group of enthusiasts, perhaps the most leading one of whom was the late R.J. Wilkie, who in conjunction with his colleagues did so much to achieve for the sport the recognition it now receives."
Reginald sadly passed away on August 9, 1962, at the age of fifty-five. Lynn Copley-Graves noted, "On vacation with his wife Elsie and their two daughters in Bournemouth, Reg Wilkie went to London for an NSA Ice Dance Committee meeting. He planned to return to Bournemouth to be with his family, but after the meeting, he suffered a stroke. Reg collapsed on the street and died 11 days later after never fully regaining consciousness. Only 55, Reg had devoted his adult life to developing, standardizing, and improving ice dancing and to achieving international acceptance of this branch of skating."
Although he never lived to see his dream of ice dancing being included in the Olympic Games, Reginald was posthumously given honorary memberships to the National Skating Association and ISU in 1963 and inducted to the World Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 1976, the same year ice dance was first contested at the Winter Olympics. The dedication he showed to developing ice dancing not only in England but internationally is quite frankly mind-boggling. If you ask me, I think his former partner Daphne (Wallis) Ward said it best in 1962: "If anyone can truly be said to be the father of ice dancing, then I think it is Reg."
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
When I recently posted a picture of Sonja Henie on Skate Guard's Facebook and Instagram pages, I received comments and messages asking where you could watch her movies. I thought it might be helpful to put together a list of links to watch Sonja Henie and Belita's films online. So, if you're on the lookout for a film to enjoy on your next movie night, why not grab a bowl of popcorn and lose yourself in one of these classics?
Unavailable: Everything Happens At Night (available to order on DVD on Amazon), Wintertime
*This list of links was put together in April of 2024. If you notice that any of these videos are unavailable or find a new link to watch any of these films in their entirety for free online, don't hesitate to reach out and let me know!
*This list of links was put together in April of 2024. If you notice that any of these videos are unavailable or find a new link to watch any of these films in their entirety for free online, don't hesitate to reach out and let me know!
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
"I prefer skating over compulsory figures... In the freestyle, you can jump a lot if you want and I like to jump... A waltz is too long for me. [I prefer] a foxtrot." - Emmy Puzinger, "Tiroler Anzeiger", January 14, 1937
Emmy Puzinger was born on February 8, 1921, in Vienna, Austria. Her parents came from Hernals, a quiet district in the city's northwest, and her father Leopold was a taxi driver. At the age of four, she was taken to the doctor because she looked pale. The doctor recommended she take up skating at the nearby Engelmann rink for health and exercise and even on her first trips to the rink, it was clear that she was a natural. The rink's director Rudolf Kutzer told her, "Little one... if you take good care of what I show you, and if you practice diligently, then you will become something great."
Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria
At the age of ten, Emmy was sent to Katowice to compete in a figure skating competition for youngsters. "The little Viennese girl in a Polish national dress" didn't win, but she made a strong impression on the Silesian audience. The following year, she was entered into a figure skating competition for school children at the Engelmann rink. She placed second, sandwiched between Olly Holzmann and Hedy Stenuf. That autumn, she was one of ten thousand school children who were sent by the City School Council to the sixtieth anniversary of the Engelmann rink, where she got to see Karl Schäfer and Fritzi Burger perform. Seeing two of the greatest skating stars of the day inspired her to pursue the sport seriously.
Photos courtesy Bildarchiv Austria
In 1932, Emmy won the "newcomers" class in a skating competition held at the Engelmann rink during "uncomfortable, hurricane-like storm" conditions. The next month, she finished second in the "newcomers" class in a similar event in Innsbruck. The following year, she defeated Hedy Stenuf in a contest at the Engelmann rink and won an international competition for junior skaters in Seefeld. At her first ISU Championship as a senior, the 1935 European Championships in St. Moritz, she placed an unlucky thirteenth.
Top: Emmy Puzinger. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria. Bottom: Emmy Puzinger kicking a ball to Karl Schäfer.
Hours of practice on figures with Rudolf Kutzer and free skating with Willy Petter paid off in 1936 when Emmy won her first of two consecutive Austrian titles. She was sent to compete at the Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where she placed an impressive fourth in free skating and seventh overall. At the World Championships that followed in Paris, she placed fourth. Two judges had her second in free skating, right behind Sonja Henie. The downside of Emmy's overnight success was the considerable pressure that came with it. The talented teenager was praised by reporters for her "tremendous speed and feminine charm" and was hailed as the next 'big thing' in Austrian skating circles. If the likes of Herma Szabo, Fritzi Burger and Hilde Holovsky had given the great Sonja Henie a run for her money, surely a young Austrian skating queen would finally win with the Norwegian skating queen turning professional, sports officials figured.
Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier, Emmy Puzinger and Freddie Tomlins. Photo courtesy National Archives Of Poland.
In 1937, Emmy claimed the bronze medal at the European Championships in Prague and finished fifth at the World Championships in London. Though she performed very well in both competitions, not everyone was wowed.
Emmy Puzinger at the 1937 European Championships. Photo courtesy Národní muzeum.
Of Emmy's performance in Prague, French journalist Robert Perrier wrote, "The young Austrian Emmy Puzinger, thanks to the excellence of her imposed figures, is classified in third place. Her free skating seemed a bit bland, compared to that of Cecilia [Colledge] and Megan [Taylor]. On an easy theme - too easy - she knew how to put on a slightly cutesy dance, but made not mistakes. Emmy was able to adapt the adage: 'Do not force your talent, you will do nothing with art.' She did only what she could do and she did it well."
Top: Karl Schäfer, Erich and Ilse Pausin, Dr. Pollatschek, Emmy Puzinger and Edi Rada. Bottom: Eduard Engelmann Jr., Ilse and Erich Pausin, Hedy Stenuf, Karl Schäfer, Emmy Puzinger and Rudolf Kutzer. Photos courtesy Bildarchiv Austria.
The following year, Emmy won her first of two 'Ostmark' titles - a combined national championship for German and Austrian skaters under the Nazi regime - and again finished third at the European Championships behind Cecilia Colledge and Megan Taylor. She was forced to withdraw after the figures at the World Championships due to illness. The rise of a new wave of young 'Ostmark' skating queens in 1939 dropped Emmy to fifth at the European Championships and sixth at the World Championships. On December 1 of that year, she married Josef 'Peppi' Wurm, a talented hockey player with the Eishockey Klub Engelmann Wien and Wiener Eissport-Gemeinschaft who represented Austria at two World Championships.
Emmy Puzinger and Josef Wurm
The outbreak of World War II and the cancellation of the 1940 Olympic Games played the backdrop to the downfall of Emmy's struggling amateur career. She lost her national title to Hanne Niernberger in 1940 and the following year, only managed to finish fourth. An invitation from Karl Schäfer to perform in his new Karl-Schäfer-Eisrevue presented itself, but there was a catch. Dr. Roman Seeliger recalled, "From the present point of view it sounds a bit strange but at the time a married woman needed her husband's consent if she wanted to work. So Emmy asked her husband to agree to her decision to become a professional skater. It went without saying that Josef, who was an ice-hockey player, agreed to Emmy's first step to become a show star on the ice. [Josef] had already had to go to War but the couple had the opportunity to write letters to one another."
Photos courtesy Bildarchiv Austria (left) and Dr. Roman Seeliger (right)
In 1943, Emmy appeared in "Der weiße Traum" - one of the highest-grossing German films of the Nazi era. The musical comedy, was classed as a 'Durchhaltefilm' or endurance film - something lighter to inspire Germans to persevere during the War. Dr. Roman Seeliger noted, "One has to point out that the story had nothing to do with the political goals and ideology of Adolf Hitler. On the contrary: In some parts of the movie music in an American style was played which was forbidden by the Nazis elsewhere. In addition to that, the choreographer Willy Petter (who was destined to become the 'creator' of the Vienna Ice Revue) was said to be 'half Jewish' (a term of the terrible regime). The Karl-Schäfer-Eisrevue may have saved Petter's life in a certain way. Some say it was difficult to persuade the officials to produce the film because skating was a sport that did not fit into the ideological background of the Nazi Regime as skating did not contribute to 'toughening up for War'. As a matter of fact 'Der weiße Traum' is said to have been the most successful German-language black and white movie of all time. Famous Austrian actors such as Lotte Lang, Olly Holzmann and Wolf Albach-Retty (Romy Schneider's father) were playing in the frame-story. On the ice, Karl Schäfer was Albach-Retty's double and Emmy Puzinger was Olly Holzmann's double. It is worth mentioning that actress Olly Holzmann was a rather good figure skater and therefore skated some parts of the vaudeville numbers in the movie by herself. But Puzinger‘s skills on the ice were necessary in the more difficult parts of the show."
After the War, Emmy toured for over a decade with the Wiener Eisrevue alongside talented skaters like Eva Pawlik, Rudi Seeliger, Dr. Hellmut May and Fernand Leemans. She also skated in several German and Austrian revue films in the fifties including "Frühling auf dem Eis", "Traumrevue", "Guten Rutsch!", "Die große Kür" and "Symphonie in Gold". She performed all over Europe and even took to the ice in the Soviet Union and Algeria. Dr. Roman Seeliger recalled, "Due to the post-war economic shortages in Austria, the Vienna Ice Revue could not organize enough lightbulbs to illuminate the frozen Grazer Hilmteich, a pond in the Styrian provincial capital city where some of the first performances took place. So the spectators were asked to deliver bulbs for the show. When Emmy Puzinger danced while it was snowing, the fascinated audience was led into a dream world of a fairy who seemed to glide weightlessly through the snowflakes. Her husband Peppi Wurm was the head of the technical workers of the Vienna Ice Revue. So Emmy had the privilege to be together with her partner in private life though touring through the world."
Emmy Puzinger and Helmut Löfke. Right photo courtesy Dr. Roman Seeliger.
Emmy was the only original member of the Wiener Eisrevue's cast remaining when the company was sold to Morris Chalfen, the owner of Holiday On Ice, in 1971. She retired not long after but remained interested in skating for the rest of her life. Dr. Roman Seeliger remembered, "Emmy loved to go skating even as an old lady. She watched the shows of Holiday on Ice but did not like the new style. She criticized that in some vaudeville numbers the attention of the spectators was not focused on one or two skaters. 'You don’t know where to look,' she said, 'At the skater, at the acrobatic pair in the air or at the dancing singer? Is it an ice show or a circus? When they all show their skills at the same time, you can’t concentrate on any of them. So you don’t realize if the skaters are able to keep the tension upright from the beginning of a vaudeville number to the end', she used to say, posing like a ballerina as if she were under the klieg lights. As far as the new international champions were concerned, however, she did not criticize them but appreciated their achievements. She only would have chosen different tunes for the free in many cases as she loved operettas and the music by Robert Stolz. The creator of many Viennese Waltzes and songs had composed nineteen ice operettas for the Vienna Ice Revue. I had the honor to celebrate Christmas with Emmy and other skaters in the last years of Emmy’s life: Erni Zlam (who had performed as an acrobatic duo together with Willy Petter's wife Edith) and Helmut Löfke (the skating partner of many outstanding stars such as European Champions Hanna Eigel, Ingrid Wendl, Regine Heitzer and Eva Pawlik) were among Emmy's dearest friends of her skating past."
Photo courtesy Dr. Roman Seeliger
Emmy passed away on June 19, 2001, at the age of eighty, twenty years after her hockey player husband. She is remembered today as one of the great queens of Austrian figure skating.
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of 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.
History had just been made, when complete proceedings from the House of Commons were nationally televised for the very first time. Margaret Atwood released the critically acclaimed short story collection "Dancing Girls and Other Stories" featuring the brilliant piece "The War in the Bathroom". Women from Cranbrook to Cornerbrook copied Farrah Fawcett's feathered hairdo. Cool cats of all ages got down to K.C. and The Sunshine Band's "Keep It Comin' Love".
The year was 1977 and from October 27 to 29, fifty-four skaters from Austria, West Germany, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland, Sweden, America, the Soviet Union, and Canada gathered at the Moncton Coliseum in New Brunswick for the first international figure skating competition ever held in the Maritimes.
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
The 1977 event was a breakout year for Skate Canada - but not really in a good way for the event's host country. In the competition's first four years, all but one of the eight singles titles had gone to Canadian skaters. With big names like Toller Cranston, Lynn Nightingale and Ron Shaver all turning professional, the general consensus prior to the event was that, for the first time, it was highly likely that all of the gold medals would go to foreign skaters. How did it all play out? Let's hop in the time machine and take a look back! THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION
The dance event in Moncton was to have been a showdown between Janet Thompson and Warren Maxwell of Great Britain, the silver medallists at the 1977 World Championships, and Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay, the silver medallists at the 1977 European Championships. The Hungarians withdrew their entry at the last minute, paving the way for a rather easy victory for England's top dance duo.
Janet Thompson and Warren Maxwell had trained at Queen's with Miss Gladys Hogg since 1971.
Janet was a cabinet maker's daughter who worked as a sales assistant at a department store; Warren was a bookmaker's assistant who was born in New Zealand. The couple dominated the event in Moncton from start to finish, unanimously winning the compulsories, OSP and free dance. Unanimously second were the Soviet couple ranked fifth in the World, Marina Zueva and Andrei Vitman. The bronze went to Toronto's Lorna Wighton and John Dowding, who had placed tenth at the 1977 Worlds. Nova Scotia's Marie McNeil and Rob McCall finished eighth; Ontario's Joanne French and John Thomas tenth; British Columbia's Debbie and Randy Burke thirteenth and last. Following the free dance, Warren Maxwell told reporters, "It was a new program and it was the first time we did it in public so it was an unknown quantity." Though 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery', more than one team in Moncton was criticized for copying the style of Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov to an obvious degree. THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION
Robin Cousins
Northridge, California's Linda Fratianne made history in Moncton as the first reigning World Champion to ever compete at Skate Canada. It was her first competition since striking gold in Tokyo, she took a convincing lead in the school figures over Claudia Kristofics-Binder, Emi Watanabe, Lisa-Marie Allen and Heather Kemkaran.
Strong performances had Linda Fratianne, Heather Kemkaran and Lisa-Marie Allen in the top three spots in the short program but a couple of small but noticeable errors in the free skate dropped nineteen year old Kemkaran down to third overall behind the two Californians. Eighteen year-old Deborah-Lynn Paul of Edmonton dropped from seventh after figures and the short to eleventh overall. Canada's third entry, Susan MacDonald of Vancouver, had withdrawn due to injury at the eleventh hour and was not replaced by the CFSA.
Despite low marks from the Soviet judge and admitted nerves, Linda Fratianne's unanimous win was one of the most convincing in the event's history. That said, not everyone was impressed by the women's event in Moncton. Reviewing the event in "Skating" magazine, Frank Loeser complained, "The top three ladies all chose music from Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Scheherazade' for their long programs. One could evaluate the women in terms of technique quite easily, and, that is how the astute Linda Fratianne emerged as the champion. (Who can question that she is a jumping wonder?) But, in the area of 'artistic impression' there were no distinctions save perhaps for the near incidental allusion to exoticism by Fratianne's costume? That the ladies skated to the same piece of music was not objectionable - that they all displayed an equal lack of insight into this musical Arabian fantasy was. Any other sound in 4/4 or 3/4 time could have been spilling forth and it would have been as appropriate as 'Scheherazade'. I am not entirely sure how the artistic aspects of women's figure skating have reached the sorry state they are in. The emphasis on the triple jump and technical accomplishment is only part of the problem. Uninformed coaching and judging are additional significant factors. The current system selects the fabulous technicians and, for the sake of making objective decisions, the individual and the personality are sacrificed." THE MEN'S COMPETITION
In a five-four split, Littleton, Colorado's Charlie Tickner narrowly defeated Great Britain's Robin Cousins in the men's school figures. Cousins credited his move to the U.S. to work with the Fassi's for his good showing in Moncton: "Back home I always had problems getting ice. I could usually only work on my figures for a couple hours at a time and I really had to push myself. Now that I train in Denver, I can have all the ice time I want and put in as much as five hours a day on my figures. This has helped me a tremendous amount."
Twenty year old Robin Cousins won the short over Charlie Tickner, Japan's Mitsuru Matsumura and seventeen year old Calgarian Brian Pockar. Neither Cousins or Tickner had their best skate in the long, but Cousins pulled off the win over Tickner in what was his fourth trip to the event. America's Scott Cramer, who had been third in figures, took the bronze. Brian Pockar finished fifth; Coquitlam, British Columbia's Jimmy Szabo sixth and Toronto's Vern Taylor eighth.
Perhaps most notable was a valiant triple Axel attempt in the long by Mitsuru Matsumura. The Japanese skater may have missed the jump, but he didn't miss the memo - he skated to "Scheherazade" too. Following his win, Cousins told British reporters, "I'm unhappy with the way I skated. For the first time I went into a final in first place - and it felt strange. I'm going to have to learn, if it happens again, to cope with it." As we all know, that's exactly what he managed to do on the way to winning the Olympic gold medal three years later.
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.
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