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Created in 2013, Skate Guard Blog explores the overlooked, forgotten, and underappreciated corners of figure skating history - from little-known stories to fresh perspectives on famous skaters, eras, and events. There’s always something new to discover, so grab a cup of coffee and glide into the rich, fascinating history of the world’s most beloved winter sport.
Ernst Oppacher was born October 8, 1892, in Merano, a historic resort city in South Tyrol that was then under the jurisdiction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but is today part of Italy. He was raised as a Roman Catholic. His father passed away when he was quite young, and his mother Marie turned to his uncle Ernest Wlatnigg for support. Ernest was the Gränzinspector of the Südbahn-Telegraphen (Austrian Southern Railway), a respected inventor and an enthusiastic member of the SC Wörthersee who served as a judge at several Austrian figure skating competitions during the Edwardian era.
Ernst and his older brother Josef were all-around athletes who excelled in swimming and boating. Ernst won a swimming contest at the Ronacher's Kurhotel Annenheim am Ossiacher See in his youth. The brothers Oppacher took up figure skating at the SC Wörthersee as boys and devoted much of their free time to the sport while studying at the Staats-Obergymnasiums in Klagenfurt. The brothers earned prizes at numerous figure skating competitions for boys in the late Edwardian era and by 1909, Ernst had placed second to Austrian Champion Anton Steiner in the Internationale Herren-Kunstlaufen class at a competition in Vienna, two places ahead of his schoolmate Willy Böckl. Ernst and Willy's rivalry began when they first started competing. From 1907 to 1909, Willy was only able to beat Ernst once in a youth pairs skating event in 1908. Willy, of course, went on to win four World titles in the roaring twenties. Ernst's skating career was nearly as impressive.
Ernst Oppacher, Fritz Kachler and Willy Böckl
After missing the 1911 Austrian Championships due to an inner ear infection, Ernst earned his first of three consecutive silver medals at the event in 1912. That same year, he placed third in the contest for the Dr. Karl von Korper-Preis in Vienna. By this time, he was representing the Wiener Eislaufverein. In 1913, Ernst placed fifth in his debut at the World Championships and won international competitions held in Klagenfurt and Troppau. In 1914, he was fourth at both at the European and World Championships, but placed first in the Internationales Kunstlaufen um den Preis des Wiener Eislaufverein, held in conjunction with that year's Europeans. Then came the Great War.
Ernst served as an aviator during the Great War, reaching the rank of Oberleutnant. He and his brother were aces with the K.u.K. Luftfahrtruppen, flying single-seat biplane aircraft in missions over Europe. Ernst managed to escape the War relatively unscathed, but Josef died of his injuries when his plane crashed during an air battle in the Southern Theater Of War in August of 1918. That same year, he mourned the loss of his beloved grandmother, the family matriarch.
Otto Preißecker, Ludwig Wrede, Fritz Kachler, Georges Gautschi, Josef Slíva, Willy Böckl and Ernst Oppacher at the 1925 World Championships in Vienna. Photo courtesy Wiener Eislaufverein.
Ernst was one of a small handful of Austrian figure skaters who achieved success internationally in the pre-war years and returned to competition when ISU Championships resumed in 1922. He earned the bronze medal at that year's European Championships, defeating the reigning Olympic Bronze Medallist Martin Stixrud in the process. In 1923, he placed fourth at the World Championships in Vienna. In 1924, he earned the bronze medal at the World Championships in Manchester, defeating British Champion Jack Ferguson Page in his home city. Ernst earned fourth-place finishes at his two final ISU Championships, the 1925 World Championships and 1927 European Championships, reclaimed the Internationales Kunstlaufen um den Preis des Wiener Eislaufverein and won two Austrian senior men's titles during this period. Had other pre-war Champions like Fritz Kachler and Gösta Sandahl not also staged post-war comebacks, his successes might have been even greater.
Throughout his competitive career, Ernst was regarded as being competent though at times shaky at figures and having smaller tracings than some of his competitors. He was far stronger at free skating, though, as one writer from the "Wiener Montagblatt" put it, "His presentation and attitude left something to be desired." He was second in free skating at the 1914 World Championships and two judges had him first in free skating at the 1922 European Championships and 1923 World Championships. His greatest contribution to the sport was arguably his invention of the one-foot Axel, later popularized by Cecilia Colledge in the thirties. For many years, it was known in Austria as the Oppacher jump.
In the early thirties, Ernst moved to Düsseldorf, Germany. In December of 1934, he married his wife Margarete and in 1940, he became an authorized officer and power of attorney for Böhler & Co Aktiengesellschaft. In the fifties, he served as a director of the company's stainless steel mill in Kapfenburg. Little is known about his later life and his successes in the skating world have gone largely unnoticed for decades.
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.
During the Restoration, on December 8, 1660, one Mrs. Hughes (no, not the housekeeper on "Downton Abbey") made history as the first woman in England to take the stage in a Shakespearian play. The historic performance of "Othello" in question took place at a playhouse at Gibbon's Tennis Court in what is now the site of the famous Peacock Theatre in Kingsway, London. A theatre has stood on that spot between Sardinia and Portugal Streets since the seventeenth century. The Royal Opera House, later known as the Stoll Picture Theatre, opened there in the autumn of 1911 and in the days of penny-pinching and rationing just after World War II, the venue played an important role in British figure skating history during its short run as the Stoll Ice Theatre - England's first dedicated ice theatre.
Australian-born theatre impresario Sir Oswald Stoll's fascination with figure skating started in the summer of 1930. Klammek's Ice Ballet, an obscure touring group from the Continent, gave performances at two of his theatres - the London Coliseum and the Stoll. The ice ballet was featured in a variety show featuring a tramp cyclist, musicians, a balancing act and a magician. On June 6, 1930, the "Acton Gazette" reporter, "Skating on artificial ice the sports craze of the moment, its votaries being even more enthusiastic than the followers of greyhound and dirt-trick racing. Nothing could be timelier, therefore, than the appearance of this new ice skating show, in which all the movements of a traditional stage ballet - pirouettes, arabesques, entrechats and so forth - and performed on artificial ice by a skating danseur and five ballerinas. The attraction has been very successful in Paris and Berlin, where enthusiastic audiences have been enraptured by the beauty and grace and acrobatic agility of the skating dancers, led by the prima ballerina, Gertrude Ehrich and the premieur danseur, Bob Laenge."
Pamela Prior with a group of chorus skaters in St. Moritz at the London Coliseum
Seven summers later, Sir Oswald Stoll commissioned Claude Langdon to produce the three-act ice spectacle "St. Moritz" at the London Coliseum. The production, which starred Pamela Prior, Erich Erdös, Sidney Charlton, Eva Keats and Erik van der Weyden and Hermann Scheinschaden, was a smash hit. Claude Langdon recalled, "After my presentation of 'Marina' a representative of Sir Oswald Stoll came to me with the proposition that I should put on a similar show at the London Coliseum, owned by Stoll. I was more than surprised when I knew that Stoll was interested, for despite my modest success with 'Marina' I still did not think I had sufficient stagecraft to present productions of a London Coliseum nature. Also there was an apparently insuperable structural difficulty in constructing a portable ice rink suitable for a theatre stage. With some regret, therefore, I told Sir Oswald that I would have to turn down the suggestion of an ice show for the Coliseum. It just did not seem possible. Stoll, wise showman that he was, did not take No for an answer... The ice show 'St. Moritz' was devised which was a terrific success and enjoyed a record run."
In December of 1937, Sir Oswald Stoll presented "The Merry Doll" at the Stoll Theatre, based on the famous Eisballet performed years prior by Charlotte Oelschlägel at the Admiralspalast in Germany. The forty five minute pantomime on ice was performed four times daily in the weeks leading up to Christmas on an ice stage measuring forty-four feet wide and forty-two feet long. The production had a cast of sixty - many of which had performed in "St. Moritz" - and featured a visit from Father Christmas.
Sir Oswald Stoll died in 1942, leaving almost ninety thousand pounds to his employees. A few years later near the end of World War II, plans were already in motion to transform the Stoll Theatre to a venue dedicated specifically to ice shows. Howard Bass recalled, "During my demobilization leave I met Bob Giddens, editor of 'Ice Hockey World', Britain's weekly newspaper covering that sport, and began free-lance writing for him, editing a special page mainly about theatrical skating... I soon... found myself at the office of a certain Major Gerald Palmer, who, like me, had not long discarded his uniform and was just beginning to grasp who was who on skates. 'What on earth do you want to see me for?' was his greeting. I told him that, in six months' time, the Stoll Theatre would be transformed into an ice theatre and that he would produce skating shows there for Tom Arnold. He laughed at my cheek, gave me an exclusive story, and we have been the best of friends from that day to this."
In 1946, less than a year after the armistice, the newly transformed Stoll Ice Theatre presented its first skating production, Tom Arnold's Ice Revue. Produced by Armand Perren and directed and staged by Gerald Palmer under the supervision of Tom Arnold, the show was choreographed by Beatrice Livesey. Hans Witte, who designed the rink, acted as technical adviser. The show's stars were Perren, World Champion Cecilia Colledge and Olive Robinson.
Other acts in the 1946 show included a nod to America's Wild West with a pony supplied by Chipperfield's Circus and a grand nineteenth-century Viennese ball. "Tom Arnold's Ice Revue, like almost all of the Stoll Ice Theatre's productions, went on tour to rinks and theatres throughout England and Scotland after its run in London.
Scene from Stars On Ice at the Stoll Ice Theatre
The following year came the second big Stoll skating spectacle, Tom Arnold's Stars On Ice. Daphne Walker replaced Cecilia Colledge as the leading lady and American ice acrobat Adele Inge was brought in to wow Londoners with her daring backflip and 'Acro Ice Trics'.
Reginald Swinney's Stoll Theatre Orchestra and the Maria Des Anges' vocal sextet provided the music for the lavish show, which included a game of badminton on ice, a nod to London's frost fairs of The Thames and a Spanish-themed ice ballet.
Tom Arnold and Gerald Palmer stepped things up a notch in 1949, with Ice Cascades, billed as England's first 'aqua ice show' and a director named William Manluk was brought in to stage water scenes in a small swimming pool alongside the ice. This time, American Carol Lynne, Terry Brent and Phil Romayne had top billing, with ice comedian Heinie Brock and trick skater Red McCarthy prominently featured.
Ice Cascades acts included a dark number called 'The Furies' featuring witches, vampires, gorgons, sorcerers, sprites and McCarthy as a bat, covered head to toe in silver body paint, and an adaptation of Rodgers and Hart's ballet "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue" from the Broadway musical "On Your Toes". The "Croydon Advertiser" called it "a brilliant show... astonishing and exciting... generously seasoned with comedy."
In 1949, the Stoll Ice Theatre presented Ice Vogues, perhaps the flashiest production of them all. Swords, veiled dancers and a warrior prince mesmerized the audience in 'An Enchantment In Kurdistan'. Cecilia Colledge, the show's star, skated no less than four solos and comedian Richard Hearne brought his famous 'Mr. Pastry' act to the ice. Howard Bass recalled, "On final dress-rehearsal night Dicky Hearne invited me to watch him prepare the famous 'Mr. Pastry' make-up, for which, as millions of televiewers have seen for themselves, no wig is ever used, his own hair being actually whitened for every performance. 'Has Cecilia been teaching you?' I asked him that night, knowing the show required him to skate round with her in the guise of a shaky beginner in true Pastry tradition. 'No,' he replied. 'I've never skated before and I've made a special point of not having any lessons or even trying it out in rehearsals, because my falling about will look much more realistic that way.' Well, the price was many tender sports in embarrassing places after opening night, but how typical was that philosophy of this great trouper who, like so many successful comedians, takes his work very seriously in order to provoke such rib-tickling merriment as he unquestionably has."
Photo courtesy "The Skater" magazine
Though there hadn't been any loss of interest, the shows just couldn't compete with the size and pageantry of the lavish ice pantomimes that would take England by storm in the early fifties. The 1950 production of "Rose Marie On Ice" at Harringay Arena, starring Barbara Ann Scott and Michael Kirby, ushered in a new age of full-length pantomimes and musicals on ice at the Empress Hall, Earl's Court and the Empire Pool, Wembley. From a financial standpoint, it didn't help that both Empress Hall and the Empire Pool could accommodate almost ten thousand audience members to the Stoll's five thousand.
Two passersby reading the large sign posted outside the Stoll Theatre when it closed
The Stoll's management turned its attention to presenting plays and films. By 1957, the theatre closed its doors for good, with a large sign posted outside by manager Prince Littler claiming the 'crippling' entertainment tax was the reason for its demise. It was demolished the following year.
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.
Nestled in the Bavarian Alps, the Casa Carioca nightclub was located in the recreation area of the USAFEUR (United States Air Force In Europe) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany right next to the stadium that hosted the 1936 Winter Olympic Games where Sonja Henie won her third Olympic gold medal. Created by Frank Gammache and managed in its early years by former U.S. infantry officer Jimmy Lynch, the club was built by General George Patton Jr.'s Third Army engineers in August of 1946. The construction of the Casa Carioca was an expensive endeavor. The space featured a sliding festooned roof that was rolled back in the summer and little expense was spared on the Casa's lavish interior.
In his book "The Life And Times Of A Cold War Serviceman: August 1928-30 November 1969", Maurice F. Mercure described the venue as being "in the shape (form) of a large horseshoe, with an ice rink in the center, where ice shows were performed. The dining area consisted of three tiers of tables surrounding the ice rink. This arrangement allowed the people entering dinner to observe the ice show without anyone blocking their view." The club's 30 X 40 foot ice rink was under a retractable dance floor which allowed patrons to get their groove on before and after the lavish skating productions which were without question the club's main attraction.
In the Casa Carioca's early years, the ice shows were directed by Walter Hofer and performed mostly by a cast of West German 'Casa Carousel' skaters. The December 26, 1947 issue of "The Milwaukee Journal" reported on what life was like for the skaters who performed in the second year the club was open: "The girls in the ice ballet wear dresses... made from parachutes. Their pay is small, but they get one hot meal a day and they live the way they want to, just skating. They practice from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. In the evening they put on a one-hour show."
Peter Voss performing at the Casa Carioca
In 1949, Terry Rudolph was hired to direct and produce the shows at the Casa Carioca. The cast remained largely European at first. Performers included Lydia Veicht, West German junior champions Gabriele Weidert and Inge Jell and adagio skaters Helga Neff and Peter Voss, who went on to later star in ice shows at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago. However, there was a regular influx of skating talent from abroad. American skaters serving in the military and stationed in Europe, like Dudley Richards and Jimmy Grogan, became star attractions. Australia's Margaret Godfrey was cast by Rudolph the day she arrived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to audition. In 1967, she recalled, "I think the director selected me because I was thin and she likes to have thin skaters in her show." A talented Bavarian local named Cathy Steele - yes, Cathy Steele of Romayne and Steele - also got her start at the Casa when she was just sixteen. In an interview with Randy Gardner and Susan Austin for the Pro Skating Historical Foundation, she recalled, "I was underage and really should not have been in the club. Terry took me in to replace another girl. I started my pair skating there with Blair Heimbach." Olympic Medallist Hans-Jürgen Bäumler's mother worked as a seamstress for the show and as a boy, he practiced on the club's ice when it wasn't needed for the show. Traveling companies like the Wiener Eisrevue visited in the fifties and Belita even briefly appeared at the Casa Carioca in the late forties, while on a USO tour when she was under contract with Monogram and living and working in America.
The Casa Carioca was the delightful Roy Blakey's first introduction to professional skating. He joined the club's skating cast after serving two years in the U.S. Army and stayed for eighteen months. In his September 2012 interview with Allison Manley on The Manleywoman SkateCast, he recalled, "The ice was 15 feet wide and 17 feet deep. You could get enough space to do jumps and the adagio teams could do their lifts and spins, but it was a very unusual configuration... We were slightly above the eye level of the people who sat in front." Among those front-row patrons were a who's who of American celebrities. Everyone from Jeanette MacDonald and Peter Lorre to Errol Flynn and Elizabeth Taylor visited at one point or another. Skaters performed to live music performed by a seventeen-piece orchestra. While serving in the military, Burt Bacharach himself was an accompanist to the club's ice shows.
British professional skater Jock McConnell learned of the Casa Carioca from a skater from Bournemouth who was on holiday from Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier's Eisrevue in Germany. He recalled, "I traveled to Garmisch on the conclusion of the summer run in Bournemouth to find myself housed up the mountain in a hotel called the [Riessersee] Hotel, where only U.S. Army Officers were billeted. What luxury for an ice skater... and for the next six months it was 'something special.' The first three weeks, I sat in the nightclub watching the show which was a tribute to Cole Porter and titled 'Let's Do It' and certainly every skater who went out there to skate certainly did it! The music was provided by Andre and his twenty-two piece Orchestra from Budapest and was located high above ice level. There were two vocalists for the show, and this was a new innovation for the skaters... On Saturday of the third week, we had Officer's night at the club, and there was an emergency call for me, as the skater who did the part of the 'devil' in a Heaven & Hell scene had fallen sick and was unable to perform his part in the show. I was summoned to the club at short notice and tried on the 'red tights' which went with the costume. It was a fiasco, to say the least, as the skater was much taller than me, but this being the only tights on hand they had to be put on and that was that! Having forgotten my jockstrap did not help the situation, but no matter what, Jock was skating the part of the devil which meant that I chased the two Austrian stars into Hell, around the ice in other words, to the music of 'Too Darn Hot'. When I appeared in the light with the costume and my bandy legs in these red tights, there was a 'howl' from the audience, especially when I jumped with the music with the pitch-fork in my hand, needless to say, I was an instant success, and it was not produced as a comedy part, and here I was making it just that, and the rest was easy! On the conclusion of my two-minute debut, the Colonel of the U.S. Army post who was in the audience raced backstage with a large glass of whiskey for me, and congratulated me on being such a fine substitute on short notice, and from that moment on, I knew things would work out and that I had etched my name in the programme and the show as the devil in the Heaven & Hell scene. Joy Aston and her partner starred in this show and we had numerous German skaters who were worthy of stardom anywhere, in any ice show, such was the talent at Terry Rudolph's disposal."
Sadly, the Casa Carioca was destroyed by fire on November 4, 1970. To this day, the rumour mill churns and the court of popular opinion speculate on the circumstances surrounding the club's demise. We do know from proceedings of the United States Congress House Committee on Armed Services in 1972 that Frank Gammache, who had been directly responsible for the Casa Carioca's record-keeping, files and negotiating all contracts with employees of the ice show since 1949, was convicted of fraud under the German criminal code while managing the club... something that came out in the wash in investigations following the fire that burned down the club. Many held out hope that the club would be rebuilt, but all that remains of this legendary venue are fond and fleeting memories.
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.
Ice rink in The National Gardens Of Athens, Christmas 2005. Photo courtesy Robert Wallace.
"Old things become new with the passage of time." - Nicostratus
Known for its hot summers and mild winters, Greece was home to one of the oldest civilizations in Europe. The ancient Greeks were renowned for their advances in art, science and culture more than two thousand years ago. It was also in Greece that the Olympic movement was born.
Owing to Greece's climate, ice skating didn't catch on in the same way it did in other European countries. Though there were ice factories in Athens, Salonika, Patras, Corfu, Cephalonia, Missolonghi, Zante (Zakynthos), Volo, Tripoli, Kalamata, Syra and Larissa during The Great War, they only operated for about half the year and mainly served the purpose of manufacturing ice to cool beer and pack sherbets.
Before the first ice rink in Greece was even built, the country had already made inroads into the figure skating world. Jimmy Demogines, the 1969 U.S. Junior Silver Medallist, earned the nickname "Zorba The Greek" because of his family background. Britons Diane Towler and Bernard Ford performed an Sirtaki-inspired free dance to great effect, winning no less than four World titles during the sixties.
"Fantasy On Ice", a smaller-scale touring production starring Simone Grigorescu and Lenel and Kirk van den Berg, made its way to Greece in 1985. The show was set under a tent, in a white marble amphitheatre in the port city of Piraeus, near Attica overlooking the Acropolis. Both Toller Cranston and Robin Cousins had (as it turned out, luckily) turned down starring roles in the production. Not long after arriving, the event's promoter bolted for an airport with the money, leaving the skaters stranded. The city denied the organizers access to the rink, and the ice rink and set were kept under lock and key for weeks.
Coincidentally, The Stadio Eirinis kai Filias (Peace and Friendship Stadium) in Piraeus was the first big Greek stadium to install an ice rink. It also opened in 1985 and was designed by the architectural firm Thymios Papagiannis and Associates. The Stadium hosted the first Greek Ice Hockey Championship in 1989. By the early nineties, the skating rink fell by the wayside as the Stadium was needed for other sports like basketball and track and field. As is often the case, when one rink closes, another one opens, and Greece was actually fortunate enough to have two ice rinks until 2001 when the rink in Moschato closed its doors. Two years later, the second rink in Athens was demolished and Greek skaters found themselves rinkless. While many skaters trained abroad, others had to put their skates on a shelf. Things were so dire in 2008 that a group of skaters from Marousi were training for the National Championships in a temporary rink covered by a tent in a parking lot. The situation has improved somewhat today, with rinks operating in both Athens and Oraiokastro, Thessaloniki.
For many years, skating in Greece was governed by the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation, which was founded in June 1986. It became a provisional ISU member in 1987 and a full member in 1991. In October 2011, long-time President and founder of the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation Christos Chatziathanassiou died suddenly. At the time of his death, a representative from the [Pegasus Kypseli] Athletic Club stated, "He left with the big complaint of the state's long-standing unjust behavior towards the Hellenic Ice Skating Federation and its activities, yet thanks to his great personal love for ice skating and his great personal sacrifices he was able to keep up the bar in the activities of the Federation, having of course the support of his faithful associates. It is a characteristic fact that the State has had a negative impact on its financial contribution to the Federation's sporting activities, such as the Pan-Hellenic Championships, National Teams, etc., which caused it a great deal of sadness." It was later claimed that the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation operated illegally for many years, mismanaging approximately three million dollars in state subsidies. The ISU dropped Greece like a hot potato for a time, before allowing the Hellenic Winter Sports Federation, Greece's reworked governing body for figure and speed skating, curling, ice hockey, skiing, luge, bobsled and skeleton to (re)join in 2015.
As for Greek coaches, there are a few important names to note. Katerina Papafotiou won the Greek women's title three consecutive times in the early nineties. She went on to serve as the National Coach of the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation for many years. Her coach was World Champion Vladimir Kovalev, who for many years worked with Greek skaters. Fellow Soviet Olympians Nina Zhuk and Konstantin Kokora also worked with Greek skaters.
Greece's first representative at the World Junior Championships was Vasya Houpis, who placed second to last in 1990. At the 1992 World Championships in Oakland, Elaine Asanakis and Mark Naylor made history as Greece's first entry at a senior ISU Championship. Naylor grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania; Asanakis in Brooklyn, New York. Asanakis and Naylor trained at the University Of Delaware under Ron Ludington. Asanakis, the daughter of Greek immigrants, later represented Greece internationally with Joel McKeever and Alcuin Schulten. Interestingly, she and McKeever had once competed internationally together as fours skaters, representing America but skating with different partners. Unfortunately, Asanakis and McKeever failed to qualify for the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, missing a berth at the qualifying competition in Vienna the autumn prior by just two spots.
Panagiotis Markouizos
In Prague in 1993, Harris Haita made history as the first singles skater from Greece to compete at the World Championships. The following year in Japan, Lefki Terzaki became the first Greek woman to compete at Worlds. At the 1998 World Championships in Lausanne, Ubavka Novakovic-Kytinoy became the first Greek judge at a major ISU Championship. She went on to become involved as an official in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Athens' Panagiotis Markouizos was one of the first Greek skaters to perform more than one triple jump consistently. Georgina Papavasiliou was the first Greek singles skater to make it past the qualifying rounds at Worlds. Papavasiliou, who was born in Scotland but had ties to Corfu, finished twenty-ninth in 2002.
Christa-Elizabeth Goulakos and Eric Neumann-Aubichon. Photo courtesy J. Barry Mittan.
Zeus Issariotis, the son of a Toronto tavern owner who grew up in the Greek village of Isari, near Athens, took the silver at the 2005 Copenhagen Trophy - the first medal for a Greek man internationally. He trained at the Cricket Club for a time under Canadian Champion Sébastien Britten.
In 2007, Themistocles Leftheris became the first Greek American skater to win a senior medal at the U.S. Championships. The same year, Christa-Elizabeth Goulakos and Eric Neumann-Aubichon made history as the first Greek ice dancers to compete at Europeans and Worlds. They were both born in Canada but her family was from Greece. His former partner Alice Graham once skated with Andrew Poje. Goulakos and Neumann-Aubichon trained in Quebec with Chantal Lefebvre and Arseniy Markov. They weren't the only couple to represent Greece who didn't live there. From 2008 to 2010, pairs skaters Jessica Crenshaw and Chad Tsagris represented the country at the World Championships. She hailed from the United States; he from Canada. They were coached by Isabelle Brasseur and Rocky Marval.
Nikki Georgiadis, who represented Greece at the World Junior Championships with her fellow Canadian-born partner Graham Hockley, was the final torch bearer in Greece for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. She had the honour to lighting the cauldron at the historic marble Panathenaic Stadium in Athens before handing the Olympic Flame to the Canadian organizers of those Games.
Over the years, many touring ice shows including the Russian All Stars and Disney On Ice have entertained Greek audiences. In 2011 and 2012, ANT1 even aired a Greek version of Torvill and Dean's "Dancing On Ice" competition. Unfortunately, the series was an unprecedented flop, with complaints about everything from the low-budget production to the fact that none of the judges or host really had much of a skating background.
Anna Chatziathanassiou and Maria Mastrogiannopoulou. Photos courtesy J. Barry Mittan.
Though Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron represented France in international competition, Papadakis' father hails from Korydallos, a suburb of Athens. This, of course, makes Papadakis the first figure skater of Greek heritage to win both an Olympic medal and a World title.
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, "Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and nothing stays fixed." Though the history of Greek figure skating is relatively recent, who knows what the future will hold?
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.
Manuela Mager and Uwe Bewerstorff. Photo courtesy Eileen Mortimer.
"Out on an immaculate white area people moved with grace, amazing and strange to humans." - Robert D. Stevenson, Skating, April 1937
In early February 1978, the Alsatian border town of Strasbourg in northeastern France was absolutely the place to be if you were one of Europe's top figure skaters at that time. The 1978 European Figure Skating Championships, held on a temporary rink in the Rhine Hall, featured a virtual who's who of late seventies figure skating royalty. There were one hundred and two competitors in the first Europeans held in France in fourteen years. Notably absent in Strasbourg were the Soviet judges, banned from participating by an ISU ruling.
I thought it would be fun today to hop in the time machine and explore some of the stories that made this competition so particularly exciting. Change into your best spandex onesie and buckle up as we go back and look at the best and the rest from this event!
THE PAIRS COMPETITION
Considering that Irina Rodnina had stood atop the medal podium at the European Championships for nine consecutive years previous to this event, it was absolutely no surprise to anyone in Strasbourg when Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev dominated in the short program, easily beating East German pairs Manuela Mager and Uwe Bewersdorff and Sabine Baeß and Tassilo Thierbach.
Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev
As for the free skate, the February 2, 1978 issue of "The Globe And Mail" reported, "Olympic gold medalists Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev of the Soviet Union skated an artistic, crowd-pleasing program in the freestyle category yesterday to clinch their sixth consecutive European pairs crown. The experienced pair, also five times world champions, earned eight 5.9's and one 6.0 for artistic expression in a five-minute performance that combined technical skill, near-perfect synchronization and calm confidence. On the first night of the European championships Tuesday, the Soviet pair had clearly demonstrated their world supremacy. They scored the only 6.0 of the evening and eight 5.9s to lead clearly into last night's final performance. Rodnina and Zaitsev had nine ordinals and 148.54 points. Second place went to another Soviet couple, Marina Cherkasova and Sergei Shakhrai, with 22 ordinals and 141.74 points. In third place were the East Germans, Manuela Mager and Uwe Bewerstorff, with 23 ordinals and 142.08 points. Following their dazzling performance, the Soviet champions waited patiently by the rink for the results of their team-mates, then dashed off to their dressing room, smiling broadly but declining to comment on their victory." In winning ten European titles, Irina Rodnina beat the previous record of nine held by Ulrich Salchow. Marina Cherkasova and Sergei Shakrai's free skate featured clean side-by-side triple toe-loops - a first at an ISU Championship.
THE MEN'S COMPETITION
Defending World Champion Vladimir Kovalev dominated the school figures, 'outracing' East Germany's Jan Hoffmann, the Soviet Union's Igor Bobrin, East Germany's Mario Liebers and Great Britain's Robin Cousins, who placed a disappointing ninth on the first figure - the rocker. Twenty-year-old Cousins won the short program with a clean triple jump combination. He received a perfect 6.0 from one judge but remained behind Hoffmann, Kovalev and Bobrin. The leaders were only separated by one ordinal placing and thirty-two tenths of a point.
Robin Cousins. Photo courtesy Eileen Mortimer.
Although Vladimir Kovalev's convincing win in the compulsory figures all but assured him a place on the medal podium, Cousins was able to ultimately make up ground by winning the free skate and overcome Bobrin to win the bronze medal behind Hoffmann (who landed a triple Lutz in the free skate) and Kovalev, who celebrated his twenty-fifth birthday the day of the free skate. Cousins' effort earned him a spate of 5.9's and a 6.0 from the French judge for presentation. He won the free skating phase of the competition, landing two triple toe-loops, a triple Salchow and stepping out of a triple loop attempt.
In the book "Robin Cousins: Skating For Gold", Cousins recalled, "It was my first international championship quest since training under Carlo [Fassi] in Denver, and for the first time, I felt ready and eager well in advance. I had a rather nasty fall during one of the practices, but on the whole, the preparations went very smoothly... I did not concentrate on the first figure quite so much as I should have done. It was the left inside rocker and it went a little haywire. I did manage afterwards to put down two of my best figures - the paragraph double three and the change loop. But the judges had already awarded me bad marks for the first figure and were not going to make up much difference on the other two... In my own estimation, the long [program] was technically adequate, but the presentation I knew was better and I enjoyed it probably more than any I had previously performed. The audience and judges seemed to like it too."
THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION
Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay. Photo courtesy Eileen Mortimer.
Following the compulsory dances and the OSP, reigning European champions Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov of the Soviet Union led the pack with 12 ordinals and 120 points ahead of Hungary's Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay who had 22 ordinals and 98.50 points. In third were
Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov with 23 ordinals and 98.50 points. Controversy swirled as the Hungarian team was allowed a reskate in their Paso Doble OSP when they fell because an alleged ridge of ice tripped them. They'd also fallen on a rut in the Kilian. As a result of these falls, the ISU later passed a rule to resurface the ice more frequently.
The February 4, 1978 issue of The Globe And Mail noted that in the free dance "Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov of the Soviet Union broke with their long-standing practice of skating to classical music and easily won their second consecutive European pairs dance crown last night. They were the second Soviet couple to win gold medals in the European figure skating championships, after five-time world champions Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev, who won the pairs competition Wednesday night. Moiseeva and Minenkov danced to specially-arranged extracts from West Side Story, apparently preparing themselves to use faster-paced tempos at the world championships in Ottawa next month. The Soviet pair had some trouble one minute into their dance when Minekov slipped and his knee fell to the ice. But they recovered and found their rhythm again to complete their four-minute performance with spirited footwork, ending by sliding 30 feet on their knees in front of the judges. They scored 11 ordinals and 206.40 points. Second place also went to a Soviet pair, Natalia Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov, who performed a series of new elements in finely timed quicksteps to win 128 ordinals and 204.10 points. Hungarians [Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay] held on to third place with 26 ordinals and 201.58 points. World silver medallists Janet Thompson and [Warren] Maxwell were a disappointing fourth, despite an athletic dance to the tunes of 'Fiddler on the Roof. They scored 35 ordinals and 199.24 points."
Top: Janet Thompson and Warren Maxwell. Photo courtesy "Canadian Skater" magazine. Bottom: Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov.
In March 1978's "Skating" magazine, Howard Bass complained that in Strasbourg "too many acrobatic and pair moves infiltrated the dance event and were not penalized. The rules state a recognizable code that is frequently disregarded so it is no wonder now that more than ever lay onlookers find it difficult to differentiate between ice dancing and pair skating. Furthering to our knowledge of this event, Lynn Copley-Graves in "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice" noted that "even with no Soviet judges in Strasbourg, France, Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov skated above everyone else, performing in their cool demeanor as if on a ballet stage. In beautiful costumes and displaying obvious illegalities, their free program had little difficulty until the end... Torvill/Dean, in their first Europeans, saw less and less of Janet Sawbridge who had married and stayed at a different hotel, and relied on Janet Thompson and Warren Maxwell, he with unending humor, to show them the ropes. Jayne and Chris were pleased to break into the top ten. They took note of all the competitors' habits, such as the way András Sallay seemed to kiss Krisztina Regőczy when they entered the ice." It was in Strasbourg in fact that Torvill and Dean first connected with none other than legendary coach Betty Callaway.
Christopher Dean later recalled, "We felt so small in the dazzling company. When we got to see Moiseeva and Minenkov on the ice for real, they were not only better than we had imagined, but they seemed so strong and powerful, and so big. Everybody seemed so much bigger than us, in fact, and if in many cases it was more imagined than real, in the case of Moiseeva and Minenkov it was a fact. Minenkov must have been over six feet, which is unusually tall for a skater, and his wife... was taller than average. She had to be, otherwise they would have looked unbalanced. As it was they looked fabulous, particularly Irina, beautiful and balletic, and I couldn't have conceived that anybody in the world, let alone us, would ever beat them. We were both quite bowled over by them. We'd heard Alan Weeks raving about them on the box so often. Now we really knew why."
THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION
After the short program, defending European Champion and World Silver Medallist Anett Pötzsch of East Germany led West Germany's Dagmar Lurz and Austria's Claudia Kristofics-Binder. In "Skating" magazine, sportswriter Howard Bass noted, "A too-low level of marks continued to be awarded for the figures in both solo events. The highest mark awarded in one of the men's figures was 4.1... This seems to falsify the relative merits of figures and free, making nonsense of their respective 30 and 70 percent ratios."
Elena Vodorezova, a disastrous eighth in figures, skated brilliantly to win the short program while Pötzsch floundered on two jumps - the triple Salchow and double loop, placing sixth in that segment. Susanna Driano moved up from fourth to third with a strong performance, and Claudia Kristofics-Binder dropped to sixth. Injury forced her to withdraw before the free skate.
Left: Astrid Jansen in de Wal. Photo courtesy Eileen Mortimer. Right: Denise Biellmann.
In the free skate, the real story of the day came from Switzerland's Denise Biellmann, who attempted a triple Lutz and landed it, albeit not cleanly. Her trademark Biellmann spin brought down the house and her gutsy effort earned her the distinction of being perhaps the first woman to earn a 6.0 for technical merit in a major international competition. The perfect mark was awarded by British judge Pauline Borrajo. Although she won the free skate, Biellmann's twelfth-place finish in figures kept her off the podium in fourth behind Pötzsch, Dagmar Lurz and Elena Vodorezova. Canadian-based Astrid in de Wal placed a disappointing seventeenth.
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.
Happy Canada Day to all of you! Interested in celebrating the amazing history of Canadian figure skating today? Of course you are and I've got you covered!
WATCH A DOCUMENTARY
Global Television aired "The Golden Age Of Canadian Skating" on March 14, 1984. The show was produced by Milad Bessada and hosted by newscaster Jan Tennant. David Young, who wrote the book "The Golden Age Of Canadian Figure Skating" that year, also conducted the research and writing for the special. Featuring interviews with eleven Canadian figure skating legends, including Barbara Ann Scott and Donald Jackson, this documentary is still regarded as one of the most important historical records of Canadian figure skating.
READ A BOOK
The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating is a reference book crammed with fascinating facts and figures, many of which you simply can't find online.
This compelling resource includes:
- Short biographies of hundreds of skaters, coaches, choreographers, judges and builders... including many incredible people you have never even heard of.
- Detailed records of Canadian figure skating competitions dating back to the 19th century, including complete results of the Canadian Championships from the early 20th century to present day.
- Intriguing facts and figures about the governance and growth of Canada's most exciting winter sport.
Available for purchase on where books are sold in eBook and print editions.
So many skaters from the golden age of figure skating are sadly no longer with us. I was delighted when Greg Hill reached out to me in the spring of 2024 and offered to donate several interviews he had conducted from 2001 to 2006 while researching a piece on the life of Maribel Vinson Owen.
Today's blog is an interview conducted with the late Sue Abbe, the sister of U.S. Pairs Skating Champion Dudley Richards, on February 13, 2002. Richards tragically perished in the 1961 Sabena Crash and had personal connections to The Kennedy Family.
When transcribing Hill's handwritten notes, I rearranged the order of Mrs. Abbe's interview at times to keep topics together.
I think you will agree that this oral history provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse of figure skating in the 1950s and 1960s!
ON JUDGING SCANDALS
[What happened to Salé and Pelletier at the 2002 Olympics] happened to my brother Dudley, too. He'd just won the National Novice, at twelve-years-old. The next year, he had to go up to National Junior. He excelled in the figures. This was out in California. He went out all by himself.... He gets out there, and he's winning the whole thing, and - I forget the guy's name - he'd been trying for five years to win it. He's like eighteen, and here's Dudley, fourteen. So they said, "Oh, we'll give it to this guy." Dudley lost by one tenth of a point.
Dudley was very good in school figures. In fact, his first Worlds he went to was in Milan, and my mother was on the elevator there when some judge said, "Who's this Richardson boy? He's pretty good!" Mrs. Button said, "Well, here's the mother." The judge said, "Oh! If I knew..." See, here's the politics of it. They can't let a new kid on the block beat Dick Button. I'm glad it's finally coming out [referring to the judging scandals at the 2002 Olympics]. That's one reason why Dudley said he wouldn't turn professional, cause he wanted to be a Worlds or Olympic judge... He wanted to keep his amateur standing. He wanted to straighten out [things] and you know, try to help. [The fact Dudley was on a USFSA Committee was] unusual, to be competing and be on that - I think, if I remember it right.
Dudley Richards
ON DUDLEY'S START IN SKATING
We were kids in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and we had friends that had a place just north of Pawtucket [with a] nice big pond. We'd go up there and skate on the pond on Sunday afternoons. There'd be some other people skating too - girls. You didn't have much ice time in those days, back in the 40s. These girls who happened to be on the pond with us [said] to Dudley, "Gee, you have some talent. Why don't you join the Providence Skating Club?" My folks had him do that.
My father was the manager of an iron foundry, called JS White. It was a family [run business] on my mother's side. My folks didn't actually encourage Dudley. He did it himself. They told him, "Why do you do it?" They wouldn't go along with it. My folks weren't athletic. He went to the Providence Skating Club, but he excelled so quickly. They didn't have any good professional teachers there, so they advised him to go to The Skating Club of Boston. He was around eleven or twelve at this time. Bud Wilson was his first teacher. The problem was, during the war, getting there. You'd have to get there by train.
ON DUDLEY'S ATTITUDE ABOUT COMPETITIONS
Dudley was very laid-back about his competitions in skating. My father told him, "Dudley, no matter who you are, or how good you are, tomorrow you'll be forgotten." He didn't want him to get swell-headed... In those days, the only time the [USFSA] paid [for your travel] was if you won the U.S. [title]. You had to win the whole thing. Now, they pay you. I just read in the paper today [that] anyone who gets a gold medal [gets] $25,000. Isn't that nice?
Dudley Richards
ON SKATING PAIRS WITH TENLEY ALBRIGHT
He came to pair with Tenley Albright, because they were just practicing [together] all the time, and they were young and energetic. They tried Easterns [in pairs] and they did singles. They won both and then they tried [moving up]... Then they won Eastern Senior. The next thing is Nationals, then it gets a little complicated. Tenley decided no, she wanted to work more on her own. I don't think Tenley and Dudley were ever romantically involved. She came to the house in Hyannis Port [once]. I mean, maybe a little puppy love. They were too young.
ON SAILING WITH TEDDY AND BOBBY KENNEDY
I remember my father buying a boat - a [trawler] - so we could get extra gas, you know, cause of the boat. Our family had a cottage in South Hyannis and the '44 hurricane took it. So then, from there, we decided to move over to Hyannis Port, we rented for a year, and then bought an old house and fixed it up. That's how we got involved with the Kennedys. We were Republicans. Dudley and Teddy ended up rooming together at Harvard. I crewed for Teddy, cause we didn't have enough sailboats. Dudley was a sailor, too. Our oldest brother [Ross] was a sailor [Vice-Commodore of the Yacht Club]. He won that [title]. The Chappaquiddick Regattas - Ross won both of those. He was supposed to go to Teddy's inquest. Ross was the first one to see him get up [to go] swimming in the morning. There's more to it than that. Ross wanted to win the race. He didn't want to go out partying. He was out working early on his boat when Teddy got [in trouble]. Dudley was [usually] only at Hyannis Port in the month of August. He and Teddy were competitors. Ross and Bobby Kennedy were moreso competitive. Bobby was a few years older than Ross.
ON DUDLEY'S SERIOUS NECK INJURY
[One summer] Dudley broke his neck swimming. It took him five years to come back. It was after sailing [that he injured his neck]. He won the race, probably against Teddy [Kennedy], because they were competitors. [Afterwards] they were horsing around on the pier... and somebody pushed him in. [They] forgot it was low tide. When they started sailing, it was high tide.
Dudley Richards
ON DUDLEY'S EDUCATION
We were just family-oriented. Dudley was always so busy... He was just congenial. Everybody loved him. He had time for people. He just didn't have to sit, to try and fit everybody in. He was never tutored [in his studies]. I ended up not being a bad sailor cause of Ross. Dudley took a PG at Belmont Hill. He went to Providence Country Day, which is a private school. [Ross was at PCD, then ended up at Tabor] and graduated from it at seventeen [then did a post-graduate at Belmont Hill]. But, with his neck and all, and being... a younger graduate, plus the skating, [Dudley] said, "Well, that'll be nearer than the Skating Club of Boston." While he was at Belmont Hill, they had a sailing team. He was the skipper and he won the Annapolis - a competition of Eastern Prep schools. He represented Belmont Hill. [He went on to Harvard] and graduated in 1954.
ON DUDLEY'S STINT IN THE MILITARY
After Harvard, when he broke his neck, the doctor told him, "Well, one thing, Dudley, you'll never have to worry, cause the army will never take you." He tried at Harvard to get into [the] Air Force ROTC, and they caught up with him - kicked him out [for a year]. He said, "If I ever get [in], I don't want to go in [as an enlisted man]." Sure enough, he graduated from Harvard in 1954, and the Army takes him. He went to Fort Dix, and then they had him climbing telephone poles. [He was] not supposed to have... any contact because of his neck. So then, he tried to finagle [someone] to get to, you know, entertain the troops. He heard he was going to be sent overseas. He finally finagled it so he ended up skating in Garmisch [at the Casa Carioca nightclub] for two years, entertaining the troops, where he got, I think, like $50 a performance.
When Dudley was in the army in Garmisch, they taught him how to teach people how to defect, which he did. He showed one or two people how. He said he couldn't be there right at the time, but he made arrangements for them to defect.
Dudley Richards and Maribel Yerxa Owen Jr. Photo courtesy World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame.
ON DUDLEY'S PARTNERSHIP WITH MARIBEL YERXA OWEN JR.
[Around the time he was skating with Maribel Yerxa Owen Jr.], we didn't see a lot of him, at that point - but we knew he was getting involved. She was a lot younger [but] there was [a] fire going on there. I sensed it. [In terms of competitive skating] Dudley wasn't going to go any further, and I don't think she would have. She wasn't as good as Laurence.
ON PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY
When John F. Kennedy was running for President, he stopped by The Skating Club of Boston and talked to Dudley, to get votes. Knowing Dudley was Republican, he said he had a little influence. Then, when he was elected President, he invited Dudley down to Hyannis Port to be there on election night. Dudley said, "I just voted for Nixon. I couldn't resist this one, so I went down to Hyannis Port." Dudley also [attended] the opening of a Kennedy rink in Hyannis. He did a lot of charity [work].
ON SENATOR TED KENNEDY
Teddy Kennedy wanted Dudley to take a Spanish exam for him. Dudley wouldn't do it, so Teddy got somebody else to do it and got caught. Then he came to Hyannis Port and said, "Please don't tell people, cause it might get out."
ON DUDLEY'S PRIVATE LIFE
Good-looking women went for him! He told me, "Sis, I [meet] all of these beautiful women. You're more natural. You got more smarts than all the rest of 'em!"
I think maybe the family was thinking he should... you know, do something with his life other than skating. He was twenty-nine. He was kind of private, but I know that he... I know romantically he was... OK, I don't want to tell you.
Photo courtesy "Abbot Bulletin"
ON THE AFTERMATH OF THE SABENA CRASH
[I married John Abbe] in 1958, and moved to Buffalo in 1960. We kind of lost touch. Dudley was close to all those skaters, you know, in his way, not that he'd say to us, because that was his life... Nordblom... he was doing very well [there].
[Before the crash], I remember sending him a telegram, which he never got. It was [about] a wedding in Vail. He had been out there, maybe a week before. I was in Buffalo [when I heard about the crash.] My husband was travelling a lot. He'd take off for weeks. In fact, a friend called me early in the morning. I had to listen to that on the radio for ten hours [while] driving. It was unbelievable. Dudley had tickets for my mother [to attend the Worlds in Prague] but at the last minute, she decided not to go.
When the airplane crashed, his apartment was robbed because it was in the paper, and the elevator wasn't working. Isn't that awful? They only got a typewriter and a few things. He worked for Honeywell [before he worked at Nordblom]. It was right next to The Skating Club of Boston. He was supposed to be a writer for them. His major at Harvard was history. He wanted to make money. He was doing real well. Norman Woods... was a big hockey player at Harvard. He was big at Nordblom, and he was a friend of Dudley's at Harvard too. Dudley was very good at all sports... sailing, tennis... for what little time he had to spend on them. Eleven months out of the year was [for] skating. Fred Heller - a Harvard classmate - identified Dudley's body from the crash. He was in Europe at the time. Dudley was godfather to their two boys, and they gave him a St. Christopher's Medal, which he wore, and that's how Fred Heller identified Dudley's body [Dudley was Congregational].
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.
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