Maribel Vinson Owen and Laurence Owen | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Maribel Vinson Owen and Laurence Owen

Sam_Boni

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CHECK IN HERE FOR MORE MARIBEL VINSON OWEN / LAURENCE OWEN BIOGRAPHICAL UPDATES. FEEDBACK MOST WELCOME.>

This post about Maribel Vinson Owen concerns the prodigy Maribel, growing up in Winchester MA, with veteran skater parents Thomas and Gertrude. The following is from the Winchester Star newspaper of February 23, 1923. While young Maribel may come across as a bit prudish, she certainly wasn't in later years, know as an astounding raconteur and conversationalist who enjoyed a sherry or two after dinner.

I will supply more background detail about her youth--but right now, here's this choice profile of a saucy child prodigy...

Little Maribel “was found in the dressing shed at the Cambridge Skating Club, a private place next to Longfellow Park...Maribel’s mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Vinson of High Street [Winchester] are fancy skaters. Mr. Vinson has gained honors and Mrs. Vinson has done fancy skating for fun, although she has never been in competition…

...when Maribel was old enough to walk they brought her along [to the Rink], first with double-runner skates. They gave her her first real skates when she was 4 years old. From the first, Maribel didn’t have to take ahold of anybody’s hand. She was skating in imitation of her parents before they realized she could get along at all. Maribel is now 11 years old.

For her skating she has been awarded four cups, three plates, one bowl, seven badges and two medals. Last year she began taking professional instruction. Now she is skating with “Willie” Frick, exhibition skater at the [Boston] Arena….

Maribel is an unusual little girl in a good many ways. She has disliked dolls from babyhood. Her pleasures have been of the outdoors., although she had dabbled sometimes in making pies and can make them well, also cakes and candy…

Along with the activities of the child has grown an immense capacity for ideas. She has ideas on most everything and on fashions she has ideas “decidedly.”

‘I think powder and rouge are sins and I think long skirts [with] panels, hanging down from them, are horrid. And I think that knickers are not the thing for skating—absolutely.. They’re not disgraceful. I’ve got knickers, but I wouldn’t wear them skating.

O, I like other things than skating. I like to climb trees and I like to swim, and run and jump and ride horseback.’ (Maribel rode in a horse show a month after she was put on a horse).

I like Latin best of all my studies. I’m taking history, geography, mathematics and physiology. I’m going to be a doctor. A brain specialist.’

Maribel is a darting, flashing, graceful little thing. As she flashes over the ice every movement is like a fancy dance. She lives pictures—obviously not a set of poses taught her, but poetic motion due to an innate sense of rhythm.
 
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Sam_Boni

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Fancy skating was a term used in earlier times to denote skaters who could perform the intricate patterns and routines as Tom and Gertrude Vinson could, as opposed to just recreational skating.

As to the knickers question--that would take some serious research. I'm assuming it wasn't just like British knickers nowadays; that would've been pretty scandalous!
 

Sam_Boni

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Is the RISE movie available anywhere to watch online or DVD? I remember hearing about it when it was released and wanted to see it very badly.

YouTube doesn't have it. Amazon sells the DVD for an outrageous $246 ($118 Prime).

But I did find a DVD copy on my local online public library catalog. Try yours.
 

yelyoh

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YouTube doesn't have it. Amazon sells the DVD for an outrageous $246 ($118 Prime).

But I did find a DVD copy on my local online public library catalog. Try yours.

I did in NYC and they didn't have it. I also tried the screening service Kanopy through the NYPL and same result. I would love to see Rise. But Amazon you are rapacious!!!
 

Sam_Boni

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I did in NYC and they didn't have it. I also tried the screening service Kanopy through the NYPL and same result. I would love to see Rise. But Amazon you are rapacious!!!

Actually, Amazon lists a number of used (in good condition, etc.) DVD copies of RISE from other distributors. Check them out.
 

moonvine

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YouTube doesn't have it. Amazon sells the DVD for an outrageous $246 ($118 Prime).

But I did find a DVD copy on my local online public library catalog. Try yours.

It's so odd it can't be purchased for a reasonable amount. I went and watched the premiere; it was quite tragic. I was under the impression the proceeds were going to US Figure Skating, so you'd think they'd have it for sale.
I'd rather buy it from them than buy a pirated copy from somewhere.
 

Sam_Boni

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It's so odd it can't be purchased for a reasonable amount. I went and watched the premiere; it was quite tragic. I was under the impression the proceeds were going to US Figure Skating, so you'd think they'd have it for sale.
I'd rather buy it from them than buy a pirated copy from somewhere.

There are other distributors on Amazon who have slightly used copies of RISE for cheaper prices. I doubt that those are pirated copies
 

Sam_Boni

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Coming Up Shortly In This Thread....

The fierce rivalry between two figure
skating giants: Maribel Vinson Owen and Sonja Henie>
[/B]
 

moonvine

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There are other distributors on Amazon who have slightly used copies of RISE for cheaper prices. I doubt that those are pirated copies

No, those are not pirated copies. But I would not pay what they're asking for them. And US Figure Skating is not making any money for the used copies.
 

Sam_Boni

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More posts about Maribel Vinson Owen untimely delayed by urgent family matters.

Will be posting more by this coming weekend.

Thanks for your patience!
 

Sam_Boni

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Further posting of this topic delayed by administrative censorship.

Hope to get this resolved ASAP.

Thank you.
 

LiamForeman

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Watching her USN winning performance, she definitely had an "It" quality. But it makes me wonder just how awful Stephanie Westerfield must have skated to lose to Laurence's program.
 

Sam_Boni

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Maribel Vinson Owen vs. Sonja Henie. - The Fierce Rivalry (Part 1).

(These aren't detailed accounts of Maribel Vinson and her greatest rival Sonja Henie - those can be found elsewhere. Here I give thumbnail accounts of their rivalry).

Norwegian Sonja Henie (1911-1969) was a brilliant amateur figure skater and a dazzling performer, with a flashing countenance that charmed all who beheld her. But Maribel Vinson was no slouch either, who charmed audiences equally with her own brilliant technique and form. Both were given to arduous hours of practice to perfect their routines.

Sonja was blessed with well-to-do parents to bolster her endeavors, while Maribel struggled to maintain her own finances, what with a father who was a financial failure. But her parents passed on their own adept skills in skating to her.

Sonja was a three-time Olympic Champion (1928, 1932, 1936) in Ladies Singles, a ten-times World Champion (1927-1936) and a six-time European Champion (1931-1936).

After her amateur reign, Sonja went on to star in highly-popular Hollywood skating films under the aegis of 20th-Century Fox mogul Darryl Zanuck, like One In A Million (1936), Second Fiddle (1939) and Sun Valley Serenade (1941). Ever money conscious, Sonja demanded more salary and control over her pictures, which became astoundingly popular with American audiences. She frequently squabbled with Zanuck, who struggled to contain production costs. Sonja howled to Zanuck to “get his a-- off the polo ponies and meet me on the set. I show that SOB he don’t fool with Sonja!” (Brother Leif).

Controversy followed Sonja whenever she went, be it her salute (and friendship) to Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, or her torrid Hollywood affairs with her leading men, particularly Tyrone Power. Sonja was surely a force of nature.

In March of 1928, Maribel and Sonja, both 16, gave command performances before King George and Queen Mary in London, England at the London Ice Club, prior to competing the Women's World Figure Skating Championship.

Maribel “pirouetted and whirled as lightly as in a ballet dance and skimmed over the ice in intricate convolutions with the speed and grace of a bird.” (New York Times, March 6, 1928). She had previously placed fourth in the Olympic figure skating in St. Moritz a fortnight earlier.

As world’s champion, Sonja performed first, but “fell twice in executing difficult figures with spinning jumps,” and “went back to her mother and father in tears...it was evident she was nervous in her impromptu performance.” (Ibid)

Maribel also fell, “at the end of a figure in which she pirouetted like a ballerina, but over balanced and sat plump on the ice. She poised her arms and smiled, just as if she intended to do it, and their majesties and the crowd joined in the laughter.” (Ibid).

Sonja won the Women’s World Championship, beating Maribel by 86 points. Maribel “faced a difficult task against [Sonja], but she smiled as she met it...she was greeted with great applause.”(Ibid).

At the 1930 World’s Competition at Madison Square Garden in NYC, Sonja defended her title that February 4th. “Her control was superb, her figures large and well-formed, carriage erect, tracings accurate.” Maribel's performance “...electrified the audience as she swept in with a tremendous spread-eagle, which carried her completely around the arena...She got good height to her jumps, as well as high speed with her spins, which were well glued.” (Skating Magazine, March 1981). This performance won her the Bronze Medal. (Sonja's brother Leif said she was “scared to death” of Maribel in competition, despite Sonja's winning laurels).

After graduating with honors from Radcliffe in 1933, Maribel devoted a year of extensive touring throughout Europe. Upon returning, she was offered a job as sportswriter for the New York Times, with her column titled “Women In Sports.”

In January, 1934, in Czechoslovakia, Maribel again competed against Sonja in the European title tournament, where Sonja retained her title and Maribel placed third. She “gave a brilliant performance in the two-day tournament and was barely edged out for second place. by a Viennese newcomer to senior skating.” But Maribel's “entire repertoire of free skating was smoothed and polished there and reports from abroad have indicated marked improvement in her manner of skating” (New York Times, January 30, 1934).

At the following World’s Competition in Oslo, Norway on February 11, 1934, Sonja again defended her World title, “skating faultlessly.” Maribel placed fifth, having fallen during a spin. But she did open “the exhibition of free skating...at great speed, which she maintained to the end, but with a touch of recklessness which contributed to her spill.” (New York Times, Feb. 12, 1934).

Up next: Part 2: The rivalry continues, through professional careers and spats about technique....
 

Sam_Boni

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Watching her USN winning performance, she definitely had an "It" quality. But it makes me wonder just how awful Stephanie Westerfield must have skated to lose to Laurence's program.

Steffi Westerfeld "cheated" on her second jump, a double Axel. And severely "under-rotated." Her last double, a loop, "she simply didn't show any conviction [on the takeoff] by truly 'snapping' her body into the jump. The result barely looked like a single jump--she landed so severely on her toe pick that she had to hop to regain her balance." (Nikki Nichols, Frozen In Time, 2009).
 

Parsifal3363

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Mar 29, 2014
Laurence Owen was an incandescent personality on the ice, with her radiant smile, pixie haircut, and strong, athletic figure. She had the grace of someone who loves to move, a young doe gamboling across a sun-drenched meadow. It’s a pity that there are so few records of her in motion: a few minutes of her practicing with her mother and sister, with her grandmother in attendance, before the Squaw Valley Olympics, a poor quality video of the flawed performance which won her the ladies figure skating championship at Broadmoor—the eastern skaters fared poorly with the altitude in Colorado, one skater in the men’s competition suffering a heart attack—and a few seconds of her gold medal winning performance two weeks later in the North American competition in Philadelphia, which was apparently clean and much superior. But for fate or whatever forces affect our lives, she would have continued to grow in strength and ability, and would have undoubtedly been one of the favorites at the 1964 Olympics. One constant, still remembered and undiminished by death, was her joy of life, found expression in her skating.
 

Sam_Boni

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Laurence Owen was an incandescent personality on the ice, with her radiant smile, pixie haircut, and strong, athletic figure. She had the grace of someone who loves to move, a young doe gamboling across a sun-drenched meadow. It’s a pity that there are so few records of her in motion: a few minutes of her practicing with her mother and sister, with her grandmother in attendance, before the Squaw Valley Olympics, a poor quality video of the flawed performance which won her the ladies figure skating championship at Broadmoor—the eastern skaters fared poorly with the altitude in Colorado, one skater in the men’s competition suffering a heart attack—and a few seconds of her gold medal winning performance two weeks later in the North American competition in Philadelphia, which was apparently clean and much superior. But for fate or whatever forces affect our lives, she would have continued to grow in strength and ability, and would have undoubtedly been one of the favorites at the 1964 Olympics. One constant, still remembered and undiminished by death, was her joy of life, found expression in her skating.

In upcoming posts, I'll feature firsthand commentary from those who both knew--and skated with--the "Winchester Pixie"....

(Including a profile of her Winchester music teacher, who influenced her wonderful musicality)
 
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