S
GIANTS OF SPORT
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1958.
No. 2
GOLDEN GIRL
CONJA HENIE is the Golden Girl of sport. No sports woman has so completely dominated her own parti cular feld. No sportswoman has so successfully cashed in on her talent.
It is twenty-one years since she retired from the amateur ice-skating rinks, yet her record remains un- equalled by man or woman. She was the first woman ever to win three Olympic gold medals. She is the only woman to have won the world figure skating championship ten times in succession.
Miss Henle's supremo artistry BOVEIL has also brought her
European tilles, 1,500 medals, cupe and other trophies, and several million dollars. She hing become one of the richest women in the world,
showed not terest.
the slighteni in- grond tiara, arrived on a baby
elephant,
In this way, Sonja Henle, tho entertainer, has almost eclipsed the memory of Broken Sonja, remains one of the great athletes the sportswoman. And yet sho of our time.
So, with typical single mindedness
of purpose, she wood. A fat nim contruct was singed on lee-show. In Holly- delivered almost immediately, And, three years Inter, the A professor ok physical
biggest box-office attraction
pula In Into a single performance is the Vaited Statee. Shirley greater than that expended by u
placed Sonja Henie as the third the amount of effort. she national 8lm exhibitors poll education has estimated that
By John Cottrell
royalty
of Belgium, Britain, Temple came first; Clark Gable Norway and Sweden.
whose first film
second.
heavyweight champion going the full fifteen rounds. And, remember, Miss Honio has beeri touring with her ice-shows for nearly a quarter of a century.
It isems incredible that she has been able to keep up the pace so long. But she loves skating above all else find han sald that shc
will not retire
until it has stop- Friends fun.
being decided
Her success story began in the While Christmas of 1921 who Mr Wilhelm Henle, an
Oalo fur merchant, that a pair of ice-skates would be just the right gift for his eight-year-old daughter. The present proved to be a gold-
4 year, his chubby, dimple-checked daughter had become the Oslo junior figure-, skating chaplan. At 14, she was champion of the world. At 16, she was Olymple cham-
plon.
In 1930, at the age of 23, she Miss Henie, Fained the world file for the was called "One in a MiRion", pet tenth year in succession and has gone on to make a fortune say she will die with her skates won her third Olympie
show business. Always in- on. kola li
aho vesting her money Berlin, where
wisely, she medal at
of has become known as the six- first love, Miss Henle's örst two Chiefly because skating is her received # personal word
figure skater. praise from Adolf Hitler,
Her six-year marriage marriagea
unsuccessful. Then, at inst
satisfied with her am
amateur achievements, the
plate heir Dun Topping ended queen of the ce undisputed
in 1948. Three years later sho abdicated
married Winthrop Gardiner, an fessional.
arreft company executive and
test pilot.
and turned pro-
"She owns a skyscraper, Jorge blocks of dols, a big export and import business, and scores of American lec-rinks.
former
were
to tin-
SONJA ... the six figure, skater
carcer-
Sonja Henle has had one big worry throughout her spectacu-
Icar lar
that she might suffer a perious injury while speeding and whirling on the ice at 35 miles per hour and
more.
She has bullt "up'a magni- Beent collection
of precious The date King Haakon mark stones; it is said she could match cd the end of her amateur her weight in her own diomonds
At the tinie, Miss Henle said: Skimming and gliding over carcer by investing her with and jewellery. Her private cul- "I have all the money I shall the ice, little Sonja became the the decoration of Knight First icction of furs has been called ever need and I just want to be toast of Europe, a favourite of Clans of the Order of St Olay, the nest in America.
will my husband." But the
She has her legs, insured for kings, queens and princes, She was the first woman to
In recent years Sonja Henie stay-at-home mood did not last She was
the greatest idol in receive this honour, the highest hea emerged
All 03 fabulous long, so much did her feet itch thousands of pounds.
4
skaters in' her Norway since Ibsen.
icc shows are the King of No subjeol.
on bestow con
personality
In the true Holly- for the ice again. How does one explain
forbidden upon a civilian
wood tradition.
to wear hale pine Two years ago,
should foll meteoric rise of this diminutive
threw The Skating Pavlova started shi
out and extravagant Onstad, a an
Norwegian shipping Norwegian blonde, who eclipsed as A professional With a party at which a live, hippopo- magnate, whom she had known all other figure-skaters for barnstorming tour of the United tamus and a steam organ were since she wrs little girl. an entire decade ant retired States. But to her surprise and among the attractions, Miss Fortunately, he takes a keen, undefeated at the age of only disappointment, the film world Henie, wearing a £35,000 dia- interest in her lee-skating.
237
IKE all
Will
the
giants of sport, Sonja Henie had more than more akili. Sho had that extra something which is tho hall- mark of every great champion
a tremendous will to win.
Such sentiments
مطا"
gomo's the thing" and "sport for sport'a sako” would b wasted on Sonja. She just hated
to_j09.
When she donnexi ice-skates for the first time she waa obsessed with an ambition to be better than her brother Lief When she was better than Lief. she wanted to be the best in Oslo.
And so it went on. Eyen as a fumous star of ice-shows, bated to have any rivals.
she
In
her
1940, after announcing retirement, she rushed back to the Ice as soon as Barbara Ann Scotl slurred In a successful Ico-show.
Sheer hard work is the other key to Miss Henie's fune and fortune. In 1924, at the age of 11, she gained third place for figure-skating LIL
first her Winter Olymples. She was so that she dropped disappointed
out of all further competitions and started to practice seven hours every
day
in
duys those
had she permaneat trainer anel
was bed every governess. It
LOT
Last year she married Niels
lest one cause an accident.
Considering the thousands of hours she has spent on the lee, the number of accidents bas
boen small. She suffered con- cussion in a fall while Diming "Happy Landing"; another time, she broke a rib.
She was shocked at Baltimore in 1952 when a grand-stand collapsed at one of her ice-shows wards, she was sued-unsucc and injured 400 people. After- fully-for thousands of pounds.
But the mishop she members best damaged nothing more than her dignity. At a royal perforshance sho esme to curtsy before King George V and Queen Mary--and fell flat on the ice.
DAME NINETTE
Dame Ninetto do Valois talks to David Blair and Svetlana Borisova, Her dancers have ⚫ healthy respect for her opinions on their performances,
by MARY MCALPINE
So Edra Stannur had to city coldly indifferent to học change her name to Ninette de work, Dame Ninetto has shown Valois; Alice Marks to Allela remarkable courage and honesty, | Markovu; 'Pat - Kay) to Anton She has pover, glooped), to im
Dolin.
porting foreign stars dr intro ducing publicity-gaining novel- ties.
are
Today, British dancera called Beryl Grey, Parelo May, Moira Shearer, Michael Somes. And they spell big box office business.
Sho has kopt to two principles: her company would work
Da
a unit; they woulà dînce in the classical tradition. The latter, Today, the Royal Ballet
Incidentally, is suprising. The every scat in the enormous two years Ninette de Valois Royal Opera House at Covent danced with Dinghelov were was born 58 years ago in a small a teacher of ballet and vaguely Garden for nine months a year, two of his most
remembered as a dancer with and plays before packed houses Diagheley's famed ballet village not far from Dublin.
cou in foreign capitals for the other Miss Lillen three months. pany, approached Bayliss, the power behind the Old Vic Theatre,
SHE
Sho was christened Edris one of the most brilliant bust- ness brains in Britain. Her talk Stanmus.
is rapid and precise. You To-
world's
of
Dame Ninette is said to be as. ruthless a boss as her own one- time boss, Diagheley, But she is ruthless with a purpose.
years.
·
experimental
And she has never allowed her xtare to be treated as "cele. brities."
A low years ago, the com pany was travelling by night train from Paris to Brussels.
40 of them. Madam made the decision.
"Tho stage staff.” she said.
the
The alcopera. "will have clextriclan, carpenter and stago managers must work all next day. The stars can sleep in their hotel"
She coaxed, Miss Bayliss into Since then she has been member that she has complain allowing 3
her to put on short called “a torrifying woman,' ed that "my greatest problem is ballets before opern perfarm-
All because of a small, lithe Dight at eight. o'clock; cinemas "a miniature Pavlova," "the how to crain 36 hours' work into unces. A few months later, which woman with a dream which she They had four berths between
the sister-theatre to the Old Vic willed into reality. w.cre forbidden. At the age of Dinghcley of British ballet," 24." 15 she wrote: There must be "the power behind some of But the quality which, prob- Sadler's Wells Theatre--open- sacrifice and hard work."
the
greatest ably more than any other, has ed. Miss de Valots won herself And
more than forty dancers
endeared her to Britain and the three regular full nights year her life has been one of
world is her oxtraordinary will. bullet a week. She is Dame Ninette de Without that, she would never almost Spartan denial. Sho has never smoked cigarette or Valois, founder, director, have given us one of the world'e drunk a cocktail. Even
at choreographer, ballet mis- leading corps de ballet. the age
of 44, she
tress, administrator and almost every day and keeps in
of the year general inspirer tho strict training all round,
with special exercises, former Sadler's Wells Bul- Tossoge and dieting.
let, now the Royal Ballet.
SONJA
Ballet
Prasast
NONJA has earned her success the hard way. But she could Hot have gained it alone. Her parents made a vital con- tribution.
Her father. once #world champlon cyclist, devoted all his spare time and money-to furthering his daughter's Interest. And Mrs Henie has accompanied Sonja all over the world.
They helped most of all by Bording their daughter to bellet Bchool. It was here, rather than on the ice, that Sonja Henie developed her wonderful sence of balines and poise.
The value The
of this training was, best Hlustrated at Oslo in 1027, when she first won world's figure skating cham- plonship.
the
Six women appeared, before herall modeally dressed and all cutting figures with great precision and style. Then came Froken Sonja lionle a tiny Agure in dazzling white allk and ermine, with A short skirt
and a winning smile.
A
her
The fourteen-year-old Nor wegion girl kept her dimpled smile Intact throughout performanto and dramatised her Ozures as if for ballot by
bor- bead and swinging
her ther
This was something • quito. new and it started how fashion in low-skating. Later, Miss Hentalstudied ɓallet in London under the famous Rus gian balleriah Katsavina and became the first to interpret ballet on skalaen. She was call- od "The Pavlova of Skating"
The young Sonia coppeted and gavo exhibitions all over Eurore. She skated before tha
Dame Ninette is a small, viva- elous woman, with a pretty and feminine face. Her eyes ari!
✰★ ☆
And she has accomplished this in the fare of difficulties which, 20 years ago, were near y impossible to overcome.
Not so strange? Not today.
But in 1931 the world's most famous and sought-after dancers could only run for five weeks u year in London.
Dame Ninette sat up all night,
"Unity of style and tradition are the most important qualities of a ballet company," she said. And hard work with strict dis too. cipline are two prerequisites to
This remarkable woman has these qualities.
created such a love for ballet once wrote in Britain that a year ago A London critic In '81, those few Londoners that "like a gardener she some group waiting in an all-night who were Interested in ballet times tends to nip off today's queue to buy cheap gallery_sents believed English dancera locked buds in order that later blossoms collected £28
to buy
Dama the fire necessary for great should be more magnificent.” Ninette an 18th century clock.
They wero 400 For a woman whose task was Top subscription allowed
to build a ballet company in a shilling.
bright and piercing, reminding In 1931, Miss Ninette de ballerinas, you that she is reputed to have Valols, then 33, known only as reserved."
1070)
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