Fast Figures

The fifth annual Ice Carnival of the Skating Club of New York last week gave the U. S. its first look at the world's figure-skating champion, 22-year-old Felix Kaspar. To followers of skating this was more important than all the other events of that pretentious show--a "George Washington Ball"; a ballet set to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake; a "reproduction" of the Currier & Ives skating print; the appearances of Toronto's Louise Bertram & Stewart Reburn (the Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers of skating), of Comedian Eric Wait with his absurd walking stunt, of 83-year-old Skater Oscar L. Richard, who can still cut a Grade A outer edge.

Little Felix Kaspar won the world's championship in 1937, succeeding his fellow Viennese Karl Schaefer, who had held the title seven years running. Something of a blade, Kaspar often wears trousers rather than tights, always wears a grin on his dimpled pink face. His greatest accomplishment, however, is jumping. He is only 5 ft. 5 in. tall, yet one of his Axel Paulsen jumps has been measured as over 4 ft. 6 in. high, 18 ft. 6 in. long. In last week's Carnival, for which his billings were changed (for diplomatic reasons) from "Champion of Austria" to "Champion of Vienna," he went through a routine of spurts, leaps, loops and spread-eagles that left his audience as pink as he with excitement.

Kaspar has none of the bashfulness of a Milquetoast. When he is complimented on speaking English well, he explains: "I picked it up on my travels." His English had its stiffest test when, on his way back from an Australian tour, he was asked to explain skating to a Ceylon reporter who had never seen ice except in highballs.

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