The Land Of The Midnight Sun

On January 6, 1930, cultures collided on the ice in the most magnificent of ways. The backdrop was New York City's majestic Madison Square Garden. Sponsored by the USFSA and the Skating Club Of New York, the event was "The Land Of The Midnight Sun" carnival (alternately titled "A Night In St. Moritz") and the undisputed star (in her first North American appearance) was none other than the reigning Olympic Gold Medallist, Sonja Henie of Norway. Fourteen thousand people attended that sold out-show which was" described as "New York's outstanding social event of the year." 

Despite the success of a similarly large-scale show in the Garden in 1928, "The Land Of The Midnight Sun" was originally slated for the smaller upstairs rink in Madison Square Garden. Mary Louise Adams, in her outstanding 2011 book "Artistic Impressions: Figure Skating, Masculinity, and the Limits of Sport" noted that Papa Henie agreed to seventeen-year-old Sonja's participation "on the condition that the show be moved to the main arena. The club agreed to the upgrade only after Wilhelm Henie offered to rent the arena himself and to keep for his family any profits from the show. Club officials declined his offer, but inspired by his confidence, moved the show downstairs. Father Henie then went out to work drumming up an audience among the large Norwegian community in New York. Twelve thousand tickets were bought the first day they went on sale. The show easily sold out the Gardens." Rinkside boxes went for two hundred and fifty dollars with individual tickets going for twenty-five dollars apiece. With inflation today, that's approximately three hundred and fifty dollars a ticket. This was not a social event or skating show for the average working New York citizen. In addition to those hefty ticket costs, attendees on that chilly winter day were sold coffee, sandwiches, candy and cigarettes for the charity of choice, the New York Music Week Association.

The list of attendees at that show, many decked out in jewels and ermine, read like a who's who of New York high society. Honorary guests were the Norwegian Minister to the United States, Mr. Harvard H. Bachke, the Norwegian Consul General, Mayor James J. Walker and then New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Also in attendance were industrialist Myron Charles Taylor, Brooke Astor, the socialite wife of Vincent Astor (the son of Titanic victim John Jacob Astor) and eccentric millionaire Anthony Drexel Biddle I, a boxer and writer who raised alligators as pets.

The theme of the show was tailored around its Norwegian star. The January 12, 1930 issue of "The Pittsburgh Press" noted, "There was nothing about Madison Square Garden to remind one of the prize-fights and the howling hoi polloi. A bit of Norway with rockbound coasts and frozen fjord, the scene of revelry was one gorgeous display of icy splendor. That radiant display known as the 400 gleamed and glittered... as others from the gilded arc skimmed and scintillated over miniature ice fields... Lila Agnew Stewart, famed executive of society's charitable events, corralled every maid, matron and beau on the island who could skate and used them to add color to the carnival and pageant which was adapted from an ancient Viking legend of affection, passion and hate." The lighting was designed by Johann Kliegl, the famous German-born stage light inventor.

Irving Brokaw

Sonja Henie wasn't the only skater of historical significance in the show. The account from "The Pittsburgh Press" explained, "Irving Brokaw, a leading high-hatter and one who cuts a mean figure on the ice, both literally and figuratively, entered with all pomp and splendor as king of the carnival. Followed a feast and dances for his delectation. Mrs. Blanchard and Nathaniel W. Niles, pairs champions, led off with an intricate terpichorean fantasy which straightway gained the royal favor. They gave way to a gypsy quadrille costumed in colorful array by Charles LeMaire... The most beautiful dance of the night was the 'veiling of the sun', a scarf and balloon dance, to the old waltz tune, 'Blue Danube'. Mr. Ole Windingstad led the orchestra and a chorus of 350 voices." The lighting effects for this scarf and balloon dance were described as being like The Northern Lights and this act in particular proved so captivating that representatives from the Minto Skating Club in attendance invited the Skating Club Of New York to later exhibit it at the Minto Follies show later that winter. Maribel Vinson, Beatrix Loughran, Willy Böckl, Cecil Smith and her sister Maude, Melville Rogers and his wife Isobel, Norval Baptie and Gladys Lamb... they were all in the show too.

As impressive as these other acts were, Sonja Henie stole the show. She appeared first briefly in a duet with future U.S. and North American Medallist Gail Borden III. The act was inspired by Norse mythology, with Borden playing Prince Sigurd and Henie a Norse maiden. The Pittsburgh Press described this dramatic duet thusly: "[Sigurd] engages in a duel with Atle, the villain, and is victorious. Atle is borne off dying to his ship, which, according to the old Norwegian tradition, is sent out to the sea in flames. Believe it or not, the fire was real and made a unique appearance against the shivering background." Sonja returned for a solo performance which was described as "beautiful, graceful [and] skillful... Dressed like a golden swallow, in her skating costume of cloth of gold, she flitted here and there and completely captivated her audience." Her final appearance in the show, described in Goodfellow's book, was "a Viking scene in which Norway's 'Golden Girl' was the central figure. Before she came to America Miss Henie was called 'Our Sonja' throughout Scandinavia; her appearance in this Carnival made her everybody's Sonja." I don't know about you, but the "Our Sonja" and "Everyone's Sonja" references instantly made me think of Cecilia Colledge drawing out "My Sonja" in an imitation of Papa Henie when interviewed for the nineties documentary "Reflections On Ice".

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

In her book "Wings On My Feet", Sonja Henie recalled, "Standing in the skaters' entrance to the Madison Square Garden ice the opening night of the Ice Carnival, waiting for my cue, I looked into the dark beyond the spotlights and saw the dim faces of 17,000 people rising row above row to the rafters. It was an awesome sensation... My part in the tremendous 'Land of the Midnight Sun' pageant was fatiguing, but excellent practice for the championship to be held on the same spot two weeks later. Long, sober, and rather pompous, the carnival involved some hundred skaters and lasted four hours. My number was the finale, and waiting through all the preceding program, keeping myself keyed up to do my best long after midnight, was pretty much of a strain. The late and irregular hours we had to keep throughout the run of the carnival were bad for training, but the compensation of becoming acclimated to the Garden ice and for me, to the American crowd, more than made up for it."

If you're going to make a grand entrance, I'd say selling out Madison Square Garden with a burning Viking ship and a future U.S. President in the audience is probably one way to go. With not only a who's who of high society in attendance but key figures from both the American and Canadian skating communities there as well, it's safe to say that North America certainly knew the name 'Sonja Henie' well a month before she claimed that year's World Championships in that very city. In fact, her performance in "Land Of The Midnight Sun" directly contributed to the impressive ticket sales at that competition. Long before she claimed two more Olympic medals, before the tours, before the movies, the name Sonja Henie was on everyone's lips.

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.

Four Decades Of Asian American Figure Skating Pioneers

A young Kristi Yamaguchi. Photo courtesy Don Willis.

In 1991, Kristi Yamaguchi and Natasha Kuchiki made history at the World Championships in Germany. It was the first time two Asian American skaters had won medals at the same major ISU  Championship. The following year, Yamaguchi became the first Asian American skater to win an Olympic gold medal. In the decades that followed, skaters like Michelle Kwan, Nathan Chen, Mirai Nagasu, Kyoko Ina and Maia and Alex Shibutani have amazed us with their incredibly special talents on the ice. Decades before their successes, several lesser-celebrated Asian American skaters paved the way for future generations. In today's blog, we'll explore some of their stories.

Ed and Carmel Bodel with Barbara Jean Stein and Ray Sato. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

In 1955, Raymond 'Ray' Sato made history as the first Asian American skater to win a U.S. title, when he took the Silver Dance title with partner Barbara Jean 'Bobby' Stein. Ray was a thirty-two year old Californian who roller skated in his spare time and supported his skating with a job as a sales clerk at a supermarket. He continued to ice dance competitively for almost two decades, amassing an impressive collection of cups and medals at Pacific Coast and summer competitions. In the late fifties, he partnered two future (consecutive) U.S. Champions -  Diane Sherbloom and Yvonne Littlefield. Over a decade after winning the U.S. Silver Dance title, he won the senior dance event at the first Arctic Blades Invitational Championships in 1969 with Eleanor Curtis. Ray was a member of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club for thirty-seven years and served on the club's board for fifteen of those years. He turned professional in 1973 to coach young skaters and sadly passed away in 1990. 

Mitsuko Funakoshi. Photo courtesy City Of Vancouver Archives.

In 1964, nineteen-year-old Joanne Mitsuko Funakoshi made her professional debut as a featured soloist at the Ice Capades of 1964's show in Honolulu, Hawaii, skating to Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2". George Eby, President of the Ice Capades told reporters, "I have been in the ice show business for nearly 25 years and I believe Mitsuko is one of the most exciting young skating stars I have ever seen. She has the grace, beauty and talent to thrill every audience."

The Sansei daughter of Japanese immigrants Willie and Kinu Funakoshi, Mitsuko was born in Chicago. She moved to Los Angeles when she was two and started skating at the age of eleven at the Culver City ice rink. Her family would shuttle her back and forth from Pacific Palisades to Hollywood so she could train four to six hours a day until the commuting became too much and they moved to Hollywood. Studying under Peter Betts and Bob Turk, she earned the USFSA's silver medal in 1963. That same year, she became a certified USFSA judge - the youngest in the country at the time. She enjoyed knitting and collecting gold charms from each city she visited on tour and was one of the first Asian American women in history to be featured as a soloist with the Ice Capades.

Wen-An and Torrey Sun. Photo courtesy Colorado Springs "Gazette-Telegraph" Archives.

Wen-an-Sun, the thirteen-year-old daughter of a Chinese-born eye doctor from Ames, Iowa defeated Mary Lynn Gelderman - future coach of Elaine Zayak - by five ordinal places and 1.06 points to claim the novice women's title at the 1967 U.S. Championships in Omaha, Nebraska. Sun also competed in pairs with her older brother Wen-chu Torrey Sun, winning the 1966 Midwestern senior title. The Sun siblings trained in Colorado Springs.

Wen-an Sun (left) and Torrey Sun (right)

Wen-an and Torrey Sun weren't the only Asian American skaters to make an impact in the late sixties and early seventies. Portland's Christy Ito won the novice women's title at the 1967 Pacific Coast Championships in Berkeley, California. Berkeley's own Lynn Yonekura claimed the junior women's title at the same event in 1963. Debbie Takeuchi won the juvenile girls event at the 1968 Southwest Pacific Championships and took the silver in the junior women's event at the first Glacier Falls Invitational in Paramount, California in 1969. Famed fashion designer Vera Wang struck gold at the North Atlantic Figure Skating Championships and won the silver medal in junior pairs at the 1968 Eastern Championships with her partner James Stuart.

Peggy Porter, Christy Ito and Sally Berens at the 1967 Pacific Coat Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Audrey (King) Weisiger, best known for her achievements as a coach and choreographer, won a pair of bronze medals in the U.S. novice and junior events. In her March 2013 interview with Allison Manley on The Manleywoman SkateCast, she recalled, "My father grew up in Europe. I'm Chinese by background, but I’m one of those American Chinese that don’t speak very fluent Mandarin. My grandfather was an ambassador from China to several European nations, and my whole family were outdoor winter sports buffs... I skated kind of a groundbreaking program to Madame Butterfly in 1969. It was one of those moments that was unexpected, I was a first-year junior lady and I was only 14. That may seem old by today’s standards, but back in the day you had to do your figures first, so it was pretty unusual to have young kids get through all eight figure tests and get into senior before they were 15 or 16 years old. So I was the new kid on the block, and my coach, Jerry Renault, choreographed this fantastic, beautiful, sensitive piece for me that got me a standing ovation at Nationals in 1969. I think I’m remembered for that moment because people were not expecting this young girl to come out and do that."

Left: Ginger and Archie Tse. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine. Right: Ginger and Archie Tse in a lift.

In #TheSk80s, a small but extremely talented group of Asian American skaters began wracking up accolades at the Sectional and National levels. Ginger and Archie Tse won the U.S. junior pairs title in 1984.

Christina and Keith Yatsuhashi

Another sibling pair - Christina and Keith Yatsuhashi took home a bronze medal in ice dance at the World Junior Championships in 1983. David Liu and Alex Chang both competed nationally in the eighties and later went on to represent Taiwan at the World Championships. 

Suggie Oh

At the 1983 U.S. Championships in Pittsburgh, Suggie Oh struck gold in the novice women's event, moving up from fifth after figures with a superb free skate that featured three double Axels and a triple toe-loop. At the age of eleven, she was the youngest competitor in any discipline at that year's Nationals. Suggie started skating at the age of four and trained in California at the Santa Barbara Figure Skating Club with coach Terry Tonius. The year after she won the U.S. novice title, her family moved to Los Angeles, and she began training at Pickwick Ice Arena in Burbank. In 1984, she won the junior women's event at the Arctic Blades Invitational and Southwest Pacific Regionals. At the Arctic Blades event, another young Asian American skater, Loreen Koshi, won the senior pairs event with her partner Doug Williams.

Left: Winners at the 1982 Arctic Blades Invitational. Suggie Oh is second from left, next to a young Debi Thomas. Loreen Koshi and Doug Williams are in the top right. Photo courtesy Suggie Oh. Right: Suggie Oh at the 1983 U.S. Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Suggie's skating career ended prematurely in 1985 when the financial toll of the sport became too much and her parents divorced and filed for bankruptcy. It all might have gone so differently. Suggie recalled, "Post-Nationals, I was invited to visit the figure skating club in Seoul, Korea where I was offered the opportunity to represent South Korea in the future instead of the U.S. Had the judging system in those days been similar to today's ISU system, perhaps it could have been something to consider; however, under the good ol' 6.0 system, competing for a country that was unknown in the sport of figure skating at the time would have been akin to skating suicide, so it was never in question that I would represent the U.S. had my skating career progressed on the international level." Suggie never experienced any overt discrimination during her skating days. She remembered, "I think I was too young to recognize if there had been any discrimination for being one of the few Asian Americans in a predominantly white sport. I don't recall anything blatant, such as name-calling or slurs. I have no idea if my parents might have experienced anything negative, but if they did, they never mentioned it to me. Growing up in Santa Barbara, which was also predominantly white back then, I only remember the amazing support I received from members and coaches at the ice rink as well as among my friends and teachers at school. For example, during Nationals, I received many encouraging and congratulatory telegrams (remember those?) from numerous members of the Santa Barbara Figure Skating Club both before and after the results of the event. Upon winning Nationals, my school ran an article about me, the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table chose me as the 1983 Athlete of the Year, the local news station ran a TV spot, and I even received a congratulatory letter from the California Senator at the time, Gary K. Hart. I suppose back then it was big news for a relatively small city, and folks were very supportive, regardless of race/ethnicity."

In June of 1983 in Sun Valley, Idaho, Berkeley, California's George Takashi Yonekura made history as the first Asian American person to be elected as President of the USFSA. His road to the top of the largely white American skating administration was a really big deal. During World War II, he and his parents Katsuzo and Masako were among the thousands of Japanese American families interned at The Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah. It was in this 'camp' that he met and married his wife Margaret Wakayama in 1945.

George T. Yonekura. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

George first became interested in skating in 1958, when his daughter Lynn took up the sport. He was first elected to the USFSA Executive Committee nearly a decade later, after having served for many years on the board of the St. Moritz Ice Skating Club. He also served as an international judge and America's Team Leader at both the 1978 and 1979 World Championships. Off the ice, George was President of Blaco Printers, Inc. He used his connections to create and print World Team booklets as well as test and competition forms. It was during George's term as USFSA President that Tiffany Chin made history in 1985, as the first Asian American figure skater to win a U.S. senior title and a medal at the World Championships.

Tiffany Chin in 1985. Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library.

Like Suggie Oh, Tiffany Chin made the big move from her hometown (San Diego) to the Toluca Lake district of Los Angeles. Before the 1982/1983 season, her mother Marjorie had driven her to L.A. two or three times a week to train with Frank Carroll. After the move, Tiffany began training with John Nicks at Costa Mesa in Orange County. When she won her first U.S. senior medal at the 1983 U.S. Championships in Pittsburgh, "Skating" magazine praised her for making "history by being the first Oriental ever to qualify for the U.S. World figure skating team." The following year, she became the first Asian American skater to represent the U.S. at the Winter Olympics. She finished in the top three in both of the free skating events but missed a spot on the podium because of a disappointing twelfth-place showing in the school figures. The first American woman to attempt a triple Axel in practice, Tiffany was a skater far ahead of her time.

Ida Tateoka. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Tiffany Chin wasn't the only Asian American to make history at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo. Ida Tetsuko Shimizu Tateoka solemnly studied the skaters in the men's event, making history as the first Asian American judge to serve at the Olympics. Ida grew up in California but moved to Utah as a result of World War II. She had taken up skating while living in Los Angeles and was one of the founding members of the Utah Figure Skating Club in the early fifties. She took up judging in 1953 and was mentored by World judges Margaretta Spence Drake and Edith Shoemaker. It took her ten years to work her way up from a trial and low test judge to the national level, and another ten to become a World judge. While she was judging, she continued to skate three times a week in Salt Lake City. She also served on the USFSA Board Of Directors and on the Pacific Coast Judges Committee. In "Skating" magazine in 1983, she recalled, "Judging is a lot of work and there are many people working to improve their judging and climb ahead... The best rewards, however, have come from watching the young novice skaters work and improve. Scott Hamilton, Elaine Zayak, and Rosalynn Sumners I have known for many years. I have known Rosalynn since she was seven, so you really follow the skaters. In the last fifteen years, I have judged seven Nationals and watched our skaters as they fulfilled their goals."

Through a modern lens, it's not always easy to appreciate that skaters of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage haven't always been well-represented in the sport. As we sift through history, we celebrate the trailblazers who have paved the way for a sport that has become much more diverse and inclusive as the years have passed by. There's always more work to do to promote inclusivity in figure skating.  Make no mistake - that's something we all play a part in.

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.

Asian Heritage Month

May is Asian Heritage Month! Skate Guard celebrates the important history of skaters of Asian heritage with extensive timelines from Canada and the United States, photos and a required reading list of past stories featured on the blog.

You can find all of the special content for Asian Heritage Month right here:

Representation matters. To nominate skaters of Asian heritage to the Skate Canada Hall Of Fame, click here.

2024 Stars on Ice (Halifax) Review

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.

The Kennedy Kids

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

"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.

Reginald Wilkie, The Father of Modern Ice Dancing

Photo courtesy "Ice & Roller Skate" magazine

"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.