Need info about 61 US team
Noel Breen
process have noted, that there is a veritable dearth of information
about this moving story. That is truly a shame.
In this era of the 24 hour news cycle, the story of these artists
would have been subjected to an information flood. The passage of time
since 1961, has revealed little beyond the basics of who was involved.
But thanks to a great set of stories in the Boston Globe, a portion of
memories veil has been breached. That has led me to reading many other
great postings in the archives of this newsgroup and the www. on this
subject. Sadly much of this story is obscured in fragments taking
hours to find.
I have been haunted by the photographs, and the fragments of film on
HBO's moving documentary. There are some moving stories about chance
and final encounters with the team, in Denver, in Philadelphia, in the
chance encounters that spared some lives-and doomed others. And
stories about survivors, of films of a final performance played in the
hours of a painful night. Of reels unopened because of the ineffable
pain, of mothers losing two daughters-and maintaining until the death
of a pet years later. And the loss of the art.
The story of Maribel Vinson Owen, is a forgotten classic in the
history of women in sports-not only as a competitor and coach-but as a
pioneering female sportswriter for the NYT. The rebirth of US fugure
skating-a classic in sports management. The foresight of Ritter
Shumway in establishing the Memorial Fund, and the role of TV in
materially altering the sport.. Also the counter-factual
storyline...What if?
I need help in researching these stories. There is no real tribute to
these stories-no book of memories easily reachable for those going
forward.
I need access to any anecdotal information srrounding this team, and
the years immediately preceeding 1961. I am aware of the USFSA
archives in Colorado Springs, bur have not viewed the ABC coverage of
the recent NY tribute-and am desparate to own or view the filmed
tributes referenced in written reportage. I would be greatful for any
guidance. (BTW kudos to Sandra Loosemore's writings on this
subject-after viewing tapes of the 1961 nationals.) I am in possession
of all web accesable articles and articles contemporaily published on
the tragedy. I would be greatly obliged for your input and help.
Thanks...
MarleneKoenig
>process have noted, that there is a veritable dearth of information
>about this moving story. That is truly a shame.
>
If you have not already done so, you should check the major papers of the day
.. the NY Times had excellent coverage. There were a number of 40 anny pieces
last year, not only in the Boston papers, but also done elsewhere.
The NYTimes is available on microfilm, and some libraries already have the
Historical NYTimes, which has been digitized by Proquest, which you can search
by computer.
The Associated Press would probably have original coverage -- wire copy on
microfilm. I don;t know if sports stories were indexed at the time (I was a
librarian there in the 1980s -- there is microfilm of news stories from 1937,
but keeping sports stories was a later idea). A few libraries have bought
AP's microfilm (there is no printed index.)
You can also search the major papers for the major anniversaries of the event -
five years, ten years and so forth.
The News magazines as well as sports illustrated probably also covered the
event. I have the SI issue for the week before the crash (but the cover date
is the crash date) with Laurence Owen on the cover ... nice story.
Louis Epstein
: The story of Maribel Vinson Owen, is a forgotten classic in the
: history of women in sports-not only as a competitor and coach-but as a
: pioneering female sportswriter for the NYT. The rebirth of US fugure
: skating-a classic in sports management. The foresight of Ritter
: Shumway in establishing the Memorial Fund, and the role of TV in
: materially altering the sport.. Also the counter-factual
: storyline...What if?
I kind of like the idea of Laurance Owen winning Nationals
through 1968 and then going pro...she would have broken her
mother's record for consecutive national titles,but not overall
national titles.But in her closing years Peggy Fleming would
have crowded her.(Her older sister would likely have retired
earlier).
An unbroken Boston dynasty might have changed the course
of USFSA,not had it move to Colorado Springs.
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.
Trudi Marrapodi
l...@put.com wrote:
> Noel Breen <nkb...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> : The story of Maribel Vinson Owen, is a forgotten classic in the
> : history of women in sports-not only as a competitor and coach-but as a
> : pioneering female sportswriter for the NYT. The rebirth of US fugure
> : skating-a classic in sports management. The foresight of Ritter
> : Shumway in establishing the Memorial Fund, and the role of TV in
> : materially altering the sport.. Also the counter-factual
> : storyline...What if?
>
> I kind of like the idea of Laurance Owen winning Nationals
> through 1968 and then going pro...she would have broken her
> mother's record for consecutive national titles,but not overall
> national titles.But in her closing years Peggy Fleming would
> have crowded her.(Her older sister would likely have retired
> earlier).
Yeah. What a sin that she had to go and die before she was able to
establish one of your unbroken strings of consecutive championships.
> An unbroken Boston dynasty might have changed the course
> of USFSA,not had it move to Colorado Springs.
Yeah...it might have meant that to this day, the "Beacon Hill gang" with
the money, social status and cachet would still dominate the U.S. skating
teams, rather than them becoming teams that, so to speak, "look more like
America" in terms of diversity.
I would be the last to say the Crash of '61 was a good thing, by any
means. But one indirect result of it was the establishment of the USFSA
Memorial Fund and the fact that skating became somewhat more democratized
in America as a result. Back in Carol Heiss's day, it was still rare for a
baker's daughter from Queens to reach the heights of skating. Today, it
would be no big deal, and the Memorial Fund is one of the reasons it would
be no big deal.
--
Trudi
adding the question "What do you mean?" to every post, just in case...
Amy P
> > An unbroken Boston dynasty might have changed the course
> > of USFSA,not had it move to Colorado Springs.
>
> Yeah...it might have meant that to this day, the "Beacon Hill gang" with
> the money, social status and cachet would still dominate the U.S. skating
> teams, rather than them becoming teams that, so to speak, "look more like
> America" in terms of diversity.
The Owens themselves were hardly part of the "Beacon Hill gang."
There was lots of snobbishness directed towards them.
amyp3
Trudi Marrapodi
am...@yahoo.com (Amy P) wrote:
*They* were not, but I get the impression from what Debbi Wilkes said in
one of her books that Maribel Jr. at least aspired to be, or took on the
airs...maybe because that's what teenagers do, even older teenagers, when
they feel they don't completely fit in...they try to fit in. And I don't
doubt that the Owens were surrounded by people with a whole lot more in
the way of money and social status than they had. Their social status,
such as it was, did come from the skating.
Noel Breen
Thanks to those who replied to date. I am curious to find out more
about all those involved in this story. As the kind poster above
suggested, I have culled through tons of the newsprint sources but as
you can imagine, the trail died quickly after 1961, except for the
Boston Globe series of late 2000 vintage. I am truly fascinated by the
rarefied social air surrounding the Boston club for example.
It is the amazing role of biographical lit to answer the question of
what people were like. The rub comes in determining the context of
this information in finding a sense of who they were. I would like to
understand more about all those involved, for it humanizes them more
than fleeting film clips and news photos and stories.