Fine Figures

In 1930 the world's figure-skating championships were held in the U. S. for the first time. From Norway to defend her itle came dimpled 17-year-old Champion Sonja Henie, who gave an exhibition oi kating in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden the likes of which New Yorkers had never seen. In 1932 she came again--for the Winter Olympic Games--and regained for a series of charity ice carnival n a dozen U. S. cities. Every pig-ta led girl who saw her swirling in a fairy-like froth of marabou dreamed that some day she might skate like Sonja Henie

That was the beginning of a U. S. figure-skating craze that did an Axel Paulsen jump when the dimpled Norwegian girl joined Hollywood's stars and her twinkle toed maneuvers reached every movie house in the country. This year the skating craze is spinning in a dizzy whirl. Ice-skating rinks have spawned in such hitherto unheard of places as Miami, Houston, Fort Worth.

In Manhattan there are ice shows on night-club floors where once there was tap dancing. In the Midwest fancy skaters have supplanted hula-hula dancers as dinner entertainment at conventions. In Los Angeles suntanned citizens skate outdoors on artificial ice in bathing suits. And many ambitious mothers, well aware that Sonja Henie has made over $2,000,000 in the three vears since she turned professional, are making sacrifices to give their little girls expensive skating lessons.

Last week while Queen Sonja was winding up a transcontinental personal-appearance tour, which attracted 757,000 spectators and grossed $1,000,000, five little ladies-in-waiting met at St. Paul to see who is the best amateur figure skater in the U. S. Contrary to popular impression derived from the dozens of professional ice-skating shows that have been touring the country, figure skating is neither acrobatics on skates nor dancing on ice. The sport of figure skating has a set of explicit school figures, 41 in number, which must be executed with hairline precision. All 41 are seldom mastered in less than eight years.

Figure skaters compete in three classes (novice, junior and senior) according to their ability. At the national championships last week only five women, all under 21, were expert enough to compete for the women's senior title: Boston's Joan Tozzer and Polly Blodgett, Manhattan's Charlotte Walther and Audrey Peppe and Philadelphia's Jane Vaughn.

Although it was the most talented field in the history of the event, most of the 4,000 spectators were especially eager to see the performance of Joan Tozzer, 17, defending champion, and Audrey Peppe, 20, who lost the title last year by the heart-breaking margin of 1 10 of a point. Joan Tozzer, blueblood, blonde daughter of Harvard's Anthropology Professor Alfred Marston Tozzer, is a letter-perfect skater of school figures (which count two-thirds in determining a national champion). Audrey Peppe (pronounced peppy), petite vivacious niece of Beatrix Loughran, national figure-skating champion in 1925-26-27 is famed for her spectacular free skating (self-selected routines, which count one-third in determining a champion).

Again statuesque Joan Tozzer pleased the judges most in the school-figure competition and peppy Audrey Peppe pleased them most in the free skating. But Miss Tozzer who won the U. S. novice championship in 1934 and the junior championship in 1937, traced her figures so much better this year that it was impossible for her rivals to catch up with her. After seven solemn judges had finished sniffing over the contestants' tracks like bloodhounds on a scent, and the mathematicians had tabulated, computed and checked the judges' awards, the final results were announced: 2,365.78 points for Joan Tozzer, 2,339.44 for Audrey Peppe, the others trailing.

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