CRUSHED ICE!

From the Archives!

I was flipping channels the other day and came across a figuring skating program. To me ice shows have lost the glamour of the ones of my youth. Maybe it's just me. Ice shows now seem so gay, not that there's anything wrong with that. In the old days it was all about the star. Sonja Henie was such a star. I thought about a piece I wrote many years ago. I would like to share it with you.

Crushed Ice

Love really has nothing to do with wisdom or experience or logic. It is the prevailing breeze in the land of youth.

Rudolph Block (Bruno Lessing)

We all share in the unrequited love crush experiences of adolescence that play such integral roles in our coming of age. The commonality of all of these love affairs of the mind is that they are unattainable, not noticed by the objects of these squishy feelings in our stomachs, and, thankfully, are short lived. It’s the thought that counts. A first crush represents the embryonic stirrings of sexuality that often comes before we even understand the subject. Crushes are usually directed at a teacher, an athlete, a neighbor or an older boy or girl down the block. They go with all adolescent territories. My first crush was on Sonja Henie. “Who the hell was Sonja Henie?” You ask?

Sonja Henie was an Olympic and World figure skating champion and later a popular movie star from Oslo, Norway. She was simply the best amateur figure skater of her era, dominating every major world skating championship for more than ten years. To capitalize on the charisma of her beauty and skating talent, as well as her Olympic and motion picture fame, she formed the first exhibition ice show with full extravaganza, choreographed and star-driven audience impact. She knew there was an audience waiting for an ice spectacular -- and for her. She was right; they were waiting, and their wait was rewarded by the Sonja Henie Hollywood Ice Review.

I was about twelve years old when my parents took me to see the show at the Coliseum on the State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis. I was awed and excited by everything in the show, as was the rest of the enthusiastic audience. It had a full live orchestra with strings; whirling multi-colored spot lights; spectacular costumes; comedy acts that made us laugh at their antics and pratfalls; pairs of handsome couples, gliding and dancing as one; male and female featured solo skaters; chorus lines that started in the center of the ice with two skaters skating in a small circle and then joined by other skaters one by one attaching themselves to the rotating line of skating partners, as the line got longer and longer each skater had to skate faster and faster to catch up and finally came the last skater, usually the smallest, skating as fast as she could to catch the line and the cheers of the excited crowd; and, finally, the star of the show -- the adorable, sequined, bundle of blond energy with the beautiful dimpled smile -- Miss Sonja Henie. She made dramatic spot-lit entrances in beautiful costumes with white skates flashing to beautiful music and spun and waltzed and Hulaed her way into my young boy’s heart.

I thought Sonja and the rest of the young ladies in the cast were the most beautiful females I had ever laid my eyes on in my relatively short life. Maybe it was those great, long, shapely, athletic legs and those little skirts, so short you could see their underpants (well, that’s what it looked like to a boy my age); and the splits and spins that tickled my little boy’s fantasy, not to mention other things. The show was the most spectacular and exhilarating experience I had ever had in my life.

As we were leaving the building, with the warm glow of the show still fresh in our minds, Sonja came out on a balcony above us in a full length white fur cape and a sparkling tiara taking a final spot-lit bow to once more soak up the admiration and excitement of the thoroughly captivated crowd. Everyone stopped in their tracks to cheer and applaud, Sonja Henie -- the beautiful star of the show, and she was indeed a STAR in every sense of the word. It was an electric and spectacular end to a perfect evening.

I took the souvenir program home, clasped tightly in my moist little hands. It was a first class program with a maroon velvet-like cover and gold-tasseled binding. It contained stories and pictures of the supporting stars and acts and, of course, several glamour shots of my beautiful Sonja. I slept with the program and her picture under my pillow for weeks, looking at it every night before dropping off to sleep to dream of my beloved Sonja. My heart pined for the love of Sonja Henie.

I don’t know exactly when I lost my crush on Sonja. It went the way of most crushes, I suppose, other things got in the way -- like girls my own age. However, whenever I see a figure skater in her short skirt, long muscular legs and white skates, I think of the beautiful Sonja Henie; the first; the original; the star of stars; the queen of the ice; the queen of my heart.

As you might suspect, what you see on the movie screen or on the ice was not reality. I read her biography Queen of the Ice, Queen of the Shadows after writing most of this poignant tribute to Sonja and my first crush. I was crushed. The real Sonja, although at times could be a sweet person, was, for the most part of her adult show business life, a thrice married, hard-swearing, miserable, greedy, miserly, hard-to-get along with and work with, selfish, alcoholic, bitch of a human being. Real world and real people -- but that’s not what crushes are about. I will always love you, Sonja Henie.

Have a nice day!

Sammycarl