What's Old Is New Again: New Articles Re: Figure Skating History

[SkateGuard]

Thank you so much, Ryan.
I've always been sorry that Ronnie Robertson didn't have even one World title to show for his great skill and contributions to the sport.

You're most welcome! Ronnie definitely had a special talent, and although he never managed to win a World title he stole the show in the free skating in practically every event he entered. Definitely a star!

The latest Skate Guard, Patineuse Of Paris: The Gaby Barbey Story, explores the story of the leading lady of French figure skating during much of the Sonja Henie era:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/11/patineuse-of-paris-gaby-barbey-story.html

 

[skatesindreams]

My goodness!
What a fascinating career.

I regret having never heard of her, until now

 

[Bellanca]

The second of this week's trio of Skate Guard blogs looks back at The First Tom Collins Tour in 1969:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/11/the-first-tom-collins-tour.html

Ah, nice!!

 

[SkateGuard]

My goodness!
What a fascinating career.

I regret having never heard of her, until now

Competing against your own parents/coach was a new one for me!

Ah, nice!!

Glad you enjoyed reading!

The latest Skate Guard blog is the final edition of the monthly #Unearthed series for 2017. Check out "Only A Pair Of Skates", a tale of nineteenth century skating in Canada with a holiday flavour:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/11/unearthed-only-pair-of-skates.html

I'd also love to recommend Greg Fox's new "Figure Skating Competition Handbook". It's a wonderful compendium of results from the late nineteenth century to present, peppered with historical info and photos. You can find it on the Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Skati...683_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512076304&sr=1-8

 

[SkateGuard]

The latest Skate Guard blog looks back at The 1972 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, held forty five years ago in Long Beach, California:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-1972-us-figure-skating-championships.html

 

[Maximillian]

The latest Skate Guard blog looks back at The 1972 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, held forty five years ago in Long Beach, California:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-1972-us-figure-skating-championships.html

Terrific report! Forgot that Ken Shelley won both pairs and men's singles, very impressive.

 

[SkateGuard]

Terrific report! Forgot that Ken Shelley won both pairs and men's singles, very impressive.

Certainly was... especially so in an Olympic year!

The latest two Skate Guard blogs take a look at the unique stories of Fumio Igarashi, a 4X Japanese Champion & The 1978 Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Victoria, B.C.:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/a-talent-from-tokyo-fumio-igarashi-story.html

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-1978-canadian-figure-skating.html

 

[SkateGuard]

The latest Skate Guard blog explores the contributions to skating of 4X World Champion & 5X European Champion Courtney Jones:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/choctaws-costumes-and-charisma-courtney.html

 

[SkateGuard]

The latest Skate Guard blog takes a brief look at the story of The Kermond Brothers, a duo of fearless ice acrobats from Australia:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-brothers-kermond-pioneers-in-ice.html

 

[SkateGuard]

The 1932 World Figure Skating Championships were the very first Worlds held on Canadian soil. The latest Skate Guard blog takes a look back at how this fascinating event played out:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-1932-world-figure-skating.html

 

[skatesindreams]

Thanks for all of the fascinating "background" information.
There is always so much that we can't appreciate about every competition unless an "insider" shares!

 

[SkateGuard]

Thanks for all of the fascinating "background" information.
There is always so much that we can't appreciate about every competition unless an "insider" shares!

Glad you enjoyed reading... it is always interesting to learn more about competitions from as many angles as possible! Two skaters sometimes have completely different recollections of how events played out, just as media from different countries can have different perceptions/slants as well.

The latest Skate Guard blog is up and explores the story of Montagu Monier-Williams, a Victorian era doctor whose books on the English Style influenced skating's development:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/montagu-monier-williams-doctor-who.html

There are still six more Skate Guard blogs left in 2017, including Christmas and New Year's 'editions'.

 

[SkateGuard]

The latest Skate Guard blog, Get Buck In Here: The Angelika And Erich Buck Story, explores the career of the only ice team from Germany to win a European title:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/get-buck-in-here-angelika-and-erich.html

 

[floskate]

I had no idea that Erich Buch had married Charlotte Walter! She was a very graceful skater with beautiful extension and spirals but who just could not jump! I have a lot of the Buch's programs on DVD. Any requests @N_Halifax ?

 

[SkateGuard]

I had no idea that Erich Buch had married Charlotte Walter! She was a very graceful skater with beautiful extension and spirals but who just could not jump! I have a lot of the Buch's programs on DVD. Any requests @N_Halifax ?

The name rings a bell, but Charlotte Walter isn't a skater I'm familiar with. Judging by your description, she definitely sounds like my cup of tea. The more videos of the Bucks the merrier but I'd in particular love to see their free dances from the 1971 Europeans and 1972 Worlds.

 

[floskate]

The name rings a bell, but Charlotte Walter isn't a skater I'm familiar with. Judging by your description, she definitely sounds like my cup of tea. The more videos of the Bucks the merrier but I'd in particular love to see their free dances from the 1971 Europeans and 1972 Worlds.

@N_Halifax Well I can fulfil one of those - the 1972 Worlds remain something of a holy grail I'm afraid. (Do you have any contacts with Canadian TV and their archives by any chance?)

Anyway here's a beautiful quality film of their 1971 Europeans FD from Zurich.
https://youtu.be/7woQMJkoBOs

 

[aftershocks]

^^ Thanks so much Ryan, and I'm forever grateful to you too @floskate! Wow, did you begin taping on video in the 1970s @floskate?! How do you have such an extensive treasure trove? Thanks for all the Youtube gifts you upload.

I love seeing this one of Val & Sandra Bezic at 1971 Worlds : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgY9prYOh8c (lots of jeers at the relatively low marks after their wonderful skate, for that time)

 

[SkateGuard]

@N_Halifax Well I can fulfil one of those - the 1972 Worlds remain something of a holy grail I'm afraid. (Do you have any contacts with Canadian TV and their archives by any chance?)

Anyway here's a beautiful quality film of their 1971 Europeans FD from Zurich.
https://youtu.be/7woQMJkoBOs

Thank you so much for sharing this - it is delightful! I'll message you privately re: Canadian archives/TV.

 

[skatesindreams]

The 1972 Worlds remain something of a holy grail I'm afraid. (Do you have any contacts with Canadian TV and their archives by any chance?)

That is true for so many of us.
One of many reasons I keep searching.

 

[SkateGuard]

The latest Skate Guard blog explores the story of Demeter Diamantidi, one of the founders of the Viennese School of figure skating in the nineteenth century:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/a-bellwether-from-bezirk-demeter.html

 

[SkateGuard]

Happy holidays to you & yours! The latest Skate Guard blog looks at the story of Egley's Christmas Card:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/egleys-christmas-card.html

 

[suki]

Happy holidays to all my fellow history of skating enthusiasts. Extra presents under the tree for N_Halifax who is more than "nice" by sharing all his skating treasures with us. I can't wait to see what you have in store for us in 2018.

 

[skatesindreams]

Seconding my thanks and good wishes!

 

[aftershocks]

Thanks @N_Halifax. You're a nice Santa. Best wishes!

 

[SkateGuard]

Thanks so much for your kind words and Merry Christmas to all of you as well! Just posted a little Boxing Day present for you all, The Wondrous Tales Of McDonald, Wolfskill And Whitton:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-wondrous-tales-of-mcdonald.html

Still two more blogs coming in 2017, the latter being the annual New Year's Spectacular, which is a round-up of ten of my favourite pieces from the past year that you may have missed. Really excited to share all kinds of neat stuff with you all in 2018. I've got dozens and dozens of biographies, event recaps, quirky stories and other miscellania in the works... I think year six of this blog is going to be the most fun yet.

 

[SkateGuard]

The second to last Skate Guard blog of 2018 is a look back at The 1937 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the first U.S. Championships held west of the Allegheny Mountains:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-1937-us-figure-skating-championships.html

 

[berthesghost]

I think it’s safe to assume that the men werent time travelers, so what exactly are they wearing? This is before Lycra or nylon but their tights seem awfully snug for cotton. Silk? This was way before pantyhose so they must have had a drawer string waist in lieu of elastic, all the more surprising how fitted they are in an era where ladies still relied on garters and wore baggy by todays standards stockings. Football and track uniforms were still quite baggy then. Was this purely the influence of ballet?

 

[SkateGuard]

I think it’s safe to assume that the men werent time travelers, so what exactly are they wearing? This is before Lycra or nylon but their tights seem awfully snug for cotton. Silk? This was way before pantyhose so they must have had a drawer string waist in lieu of elastic, all the more surprising how fitted they are in an era where ladies still relied on garters and wore baggy by todays standards stockings. Football and track uniforms were still quite baggy then. Was this purely the influence of ballet?

You raise an interesting question that I don't have an easy answer to. Many of the sources I've found note that during the 30's and before, 'special skating tights' for men were sold. Men were skating in tights in the late 1800's, long before ballet widely influenced free skating. A Swedish skater named Stenberg who competed in the Championships Of America in 1904 reportedly wore "regulation skating tights and jacket, with a round military skull cap on his head."

I dug out my copy of Lois and Richard Stephenson's book on skating fashion history - which is marvellously researched (!) - and they state these tights were made of a woollen knit material. Could I find an early 20th century ad for a place that sold them? Nope... Sonja Henie reportedly got her tights in Paris.

 

[SkateGuard]

The final Skate Guard blog of 2017 looks back at 10.0 of the most interesting stories from skating history that have been covered on the blog over the past year:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-best-of-2017-skate-guard-new-years.html

Happy New Year to you all!

 

[SkateGuard]

The first Skate Guard blog of 2018, Up The Teleférico: The Search For El Dorado, explores the story of an ice rink atop a mountain in South America:

http://skateguard1.blogspot.ca/2018/01/up-teleferico-search-for-el-dorado.html