[14] Figure skating writer and historian Ellyn Kestnbaum credits Henie with transforming figure skating into what she calls "a spectacle of the skater's body" and for "shifting [the sport's] meanings firmly in the direction of femininity". Skater Sonja Henie 'Put A Dollar Sign' Behind The Gold In addition to her film career at Fox from 1936 to 1943, Henie formed a business arrangement with Arthur Wirtz, who produced her touring ice shows under the name of "Hollywood Ice Revue". Zanuck first cast Henie in One in a Million (1936), which also starred Don Ameche, Adolphe Menjou, and the Ritz Brothers. Sonja's marriage to Winthrop ended in 1956. Paris and London were mentioned, but only Hello London (1958) was made with her own backing, co-starring Michael Wilding and special guest star Stanley Holloway. . Encyclopedia of World Biography. Sonja Henie, blonde Norwegian figure skater who dominated the rink for a decade and then skated her way to a second fabulous career in films, died Sunday of leukemia. 12 Oct 1969 (aged 57) Oslo, Oslo kommune, Oslo fylke, Norway. and easily eclipsed the earnings of any other star athlete, male or female. She remembered in the Sporting News how Henie had screamed at her after the 1933 World Championship competition, saying she was an unworthy opponent. While we were in Paris she suddenly became much worse and she was examined by a doctor, he said. "She went after me in every which way from that point on," said Hulten. Henie opened up opportunities for figure skaters to use their skills to earn a living. Sandvika, Brum kommune, Akershus fylke, Norway Show Map. While Irina Slutskaya of Russia has held the record for most European titles among ladies' skaters since 2006, Henie still retains the record of most consecutive titles, sharing it with Katarina Witt of Eastern Germany/Germany (19831988). An excellent book that devotes much attention to Henie in the context of the development of skating is Nigel Brown, Ice-Skating: A History (1959). American figure skater Olympics and came in eighth place. [citation needed], Henie is credited with being the first figure skater to use dance choreography, to adopt the short skirt in figure skating, and to wear white boots,[12] which deemphasized the heaviness of skates and produced a lighter and longer appearance of the skater's legs that was "a focal point for judges' and spectators' gaze". Sonja Henie was born on April 8, 1912 and died on October 12, 1969. She managed to tie together the elements in her routine in way that had not been done before. A 1930 New York Times article dubbed Henie a "Pavlova on Ice" and stressed her athletic prowess. She appeared on several television shows in the next few years, including a one- hour special of her own. When Henie began her program, her ballet training was evident in the flourishes she made with her head and legs. She was showcased in the Hollywood Ice Revue, which began in 1938 and continued for twelve years in cities across the United States. Her mother was willing to travel all across Europe with her to find coaches and outdoor ice rinks. She finished in last place. Her name and appearance was shown in episode 285 of MASH 4077. Sonja Henie - IMDb But Henie stopped producing shows after an accident in 1952 prior to a performance. Her talent was evident from a very early age. How old was Sonja Henie when she died? - TimesMojo . Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. At the time, figure skating and ice shows were not yet an established form of entertainment in the United States. By today's standards, Henie's routines were almost ridiculously simple, her jumps far from spectacular. It is her effect on the sport of figure skating that is unrivaled. She nevertheless had negotiated an impressive contract and was an immediate hit with audiences. Barbara Ann Scott, who became a Canadian heroine at 19 when she won figure skating gold at the 1948 Winter Olympics, succeeding Norway's Sonja Henie as the premier women's skater in a sport . "Henie, Sonja She grew up in Norway and was a dominant presence on the ice for . ." Henie was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the mid-1960s. As a child, Henie enjoyed advantages that greatly contributed to her success as a skater. Nora and her uncle get railroaded into spending the night at a broken-down hotel in Canada. Of the films in general, he decided, "The best of them hold up as unmatched combinations of romantic comedy, catchy songs, and dazzling skating routines." [citation needed] The Royal Family were very mindful of whom they supported after the war[11] and Norwegians looked to them as role models in that respect. Skating, a feat she would repeat in 1932 and 1936. "Gee-Whizzer." 2023 . To allow for a rigorous training schedule, Henie's parents took her out of school, hired a private tutor, and gave her ballet lessons in London during the summer. Thin Ice, My Lucky Star, and and Sun Valley Serenade. After she complained to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, the guard was summoned to apologize for the incident. She did not die from her leukemia; but she died of a hemorrhage caused by change in air pressure in the jet flying from Paris to Oslo. These activities made her one of the wealthiest self-made women in the world in her time. Sonja Henie Biography, Age, Height, Husband, Net Worth, Family Henie was not judged to be responsible for the incident, but she decided not to hold any more arena-style shows. Henie is credited with many "firsts," including being the first international sports star, the first superstar among figure skaters, and the firstand still onlywoman to win three Olympic gold medals in figure skating. [1], Henie began skating at the age of 5. At the same time, Henie studied ballet in Oslo. Her final two Hollywood films, released in 1945 by RKO and in 1948 by Universal, no longer enthralled postwar audiences, who preferred more sophisticated scripts. She won the children's figure skating championship of Oslo when she was 8, and two years later, in 1923, she won the figure skating championship of Norway. The daughter of a fur wholesaler in Norway, Sonja Henie received her Only when she learns the real author of the notes does Trudi realize that her heart has been bent, not broken. She died a year later at age fifty-seven. Released on 22 December 1939, it was banned in Nazi Germany. John Axe, Collectible Sonja Henie (1979), includes covers and programs of some of the revues, in addition to brief text and photographs of dolls and skates. Her mother accompanied her on all of her travels and her father would eventually leave his fur business responsibilities to his son in order to manage Henie's career. A 2002 article in the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reflected Henie's impact in these shows, an accomplishment undimmed by the passing of sixty-four years. When Geoffrey and Ken track Norden to a small village in the Swiss Alps, they soon find themselves competing over the affections of beautiful Louise (Henie), who has a deeper connection to the missing Nobel laureate than the reporters realize. On his advice, I arranged an ambulance plane to take her home to Oslo. Complaints by Austrian skaters would result in new rules allowing only one judge per country for each event. How did Sonja Henie die? | Homework.Study.com She married Onstad that same yearby which time her film career was largely behind herand embarked on an avocation of art collecting which resulted in one of the finest collections of paintings in Hollywood. Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/henie-sonja. The young Norwegian was profoundly influenced by Pavlova's artistry, and she tried to incorporate ballet-style choreography into her skating routines. champion in 1927 and the following year she won an Olympic gold medal. She had no children. "Sonja Henie Four thoughts about Sonja Henie " I skated with Sonja, and wrote the first biography after her death. In addition to traveling to train and compete, she was much in demand as a performer at figure skating exhibitions in both Europe and North America. Notable Sports Figures. Encyclopedia.com. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). But the fourteen-year-old Henie was too small to wear such heavy garb; it tended to act like a sail and tangle in her legs. https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/henie-sonja, Scott, Paula Pyzik "Henie, Sonja At the age of eighty-two, Hulten still had plenty of venom for Henie. After Nora falls for the handsome owner, she convinces her uncle to invest in the inn and modernize it. Louis, and Van Johnson. It set the pattern for the films to follow as a light musical comedy that included songs and skating. 10 time World Champion Women's Figure Skating according to A&E She was made a Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olaf by King Haakon of Norway, becoming the youngest person to receive this honor. . From Wikipedia: Sonja Henie (8 April 1912 - 12 October 1969) was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. Honorary Colonel and Godmother of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, For a time, Sonja Henie's picture adorned the tail of a, This page was last edited on 23 April 2023, at 13:57. Hans was himself very athletic; among his diverse pursuits, he was a former world champion in bicycling. . In addition to appearing in Hollywood films, she toured North America with her own professional shows, thus amassing a great deal of personal wealth and by popularizing the ice show, opened up professional skating opportunities for other lesser-known figure skaters.[5]. The Three Faces of Sonja Henie: Competitor, Performer, Movie Star It was also noted in Queen of Ice, Queen of Shadows that before the war started the Henies had visited with Adolf Hitler and that during a 1936 show in Berlin she had given him the Nazi salute and said "Heil, Hitler.". Henie Onstad Kunstsenter Grounds. In 1951 Wirtz and Henie were unable to agree on a contract and parted ways. Olympic ice queen Sonja Henie became a Hollywood star and Hitler Years later, a fairer, staggered draw was adopted to counteract this situation".[4]. Practicing as much as seven hours a day, she studied with teachers in Germany, England, Switzerland and Austria. Reviewers marveled that Henie was still in top form. The collapse of a section of bleachers during a show in Baltimore, Maryland in 1952 compounded the tour's legal and financial woes. Notable Sports Figures. It made the most of Henie's smiling, energetic persona and her dimpled beauty in a story about an Olympic hopeful. Her fur-trimmed costume [citation needed], Henie became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1940. (Getty Images) I saw a tweet this week from Kiira Korpi, the Finnish figure skater who won medals three times at the European Championships . A little "meowing" before Ms. Henie takes the ice. ." (April 27, 2023). Subsequently, she appeared on television several times, including her own one-hour special. This was more than a day's pay for Steve Turocy, who at age eighty-two remembered having to settle for a $3.30 seat because the others were sold out. ." Could it be Ms. Hart seems a little "chilly!" Please pardon the periodic visual/audio glitches; the source. Although Trudi does no skating in her screen test, she makes the grade. Throughout the 1940s, Henie and Wirtz produced lavish musical ice skating extravaganzas at Rockefeller Center's Center Theatre attracting millions of ticket buyers. Wirtz also acted as Henie's financial advisor. The couple decided to build a museum for their collection, and in 1968 donated 250 works to the Sonja Henie-Niels Onstad Art Center outside of Oslo. Three years later she married socialite Winthrop Gardner Jr., who divorced her in 1956. Sonja Henie died from leukemia in 1969, at the age of 57. Her husband did not trust French doctors, so he flew her unconscious body to Dr Moe in Oslo. [29], Not to be confused with American basketball player, After the war, Henie was mindful that many of her countrymen considered her to be a, 1936 European Figure Skating Championships, "Cecilia Colledge: Champion figure skater", "AFI's 100 Years 100 Stars America's Greatest Legends", "Nektet pne festspill hvis Flagstad skulle synge", "International Women's Sports Hall of Fame", "Sonja Henie Joins 508th Regt. Kestnbaum argues that the costumes Henie wore in her shows and films, which were short, revealing, full of sequins and feathers, and more reminiscent of the costumes of female entertainers than of the clothes worn in the more conservative world of competitive figure skating of the time, most likely contributed to the "showiness" that influenced the costume choices of later generations of female competitive figure skaters.[15]. She also had numerous lucrative endorsement contracts, and deals to market skates, clothing, jewelry, dolls, and other merchandise branded with her name. Through her live ice shows and a series of Hollywood movies, Henie enlarged the audience for figure skating and transformed it into a thrilling entertainment. Far from being discouraged, the youngster poured all her energies into skating. With Sonja Henie, Jack Oakie, Cesar Romero, Carole Landis. Best Answer. Another accusation that hurt Henie's image was the perception that she was a Nazi sympathizer. . The international star had managed to keep her illness a secret and was seen with her husband at an Oslo theater less than two weeks before her death. A New York Times obituary noted that she once summoned Eddie Pec, who was said to be the only person she trusted to sharpen her skates, from New York to Chicago by train to do a job that took only a few minutes. Encyclopedia.com. She was to have danced to "Lara's Theme" from Doctor Zhivago. back to Norway and opened a museum to showcase their art collection. She studied in Oslo together with Martin Stixrud and Erna Andersen who was her competitor and skate club member.[17]. Her name and likeness were mentioned and portrayed by an ice skating Donald Duck in Walt Disney's 1939 The Hockey Champ. Like many Hollywood stars, she supported the U.S. war effort through USO and otherwise. Besides, I can't quite imagine my doing the hula in the Olympics." Sonja Henie, Skating Star, Dies - The New York Times Both Hans and Selma became deeply involved in Sonja's skating career. Sonja Henie - Facts, Bio, Favorites, Info, Family | Sticky Facts Short skirts and choreography were unknown in figure skating before Henie introduced them in the late 1920s. Henie has won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies' figure skater. Henie tried to break the musical comedy mould with the anti-Nazi film Everything Happens at Night (1939) and It's a Pleasure (1945), a skating variation of the often-told A Star Is Born tale about alcoholic-star-in-decline-helps-newcomer-up. to be attended by top motion-picture stars and executives, including Twentieth CenturyFox's Darryl F. Zanuck, who signed Henie up for a first-time appearance on the American screen as a leading star. Henie was 5 years old, the story goes, when her older brother, Leif, got a pair of ice skates for his birthday. Sonja Henie Birthday and Date of Death. Born on April 8, 1912 in Oslo, Norway, her father, Hans Wilhelm Henie, was a successful fur trader and her mother, Selma Lochman Nielsen, had a fortune of her own. Sonja became the ice-skating world forced her to retire. "The World's First Ice Queen." Henie did not appear in these shows, but rather was an advisor and financial partner. She wore jewels during practice and plumes during competition.. advertisement In cooperation with promoter Wirtz, Henie honed her skills as a producer of ice shows as well as maintained her prowess as a skater. Wilhelm Henie had been a one-time World Cycling Champion and the Henie children were encouraged to take up a variety of sports at a young age. She is one of only two skaters to defend a ladies' singles Olympic title, the other being Katarina Witt, and her six European titles has only been matched by Witt. Theatergoers of the era certainly were thrilled with Henie and their introduction to figure skating. Wintertime (1943) - IMDb Less than two weeks ago she attended a theater performance in Oslo with her husband. During the latter part of her competitive career she was coached primarily by the American Howard Nicholson in London. Sports Illustrated (February 14, 1994): 18. Henie also had great spinning ability. At the time of the 1994 Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan rivalry, their altercations were compared in the press with the sparring that went on between Henie and Swedish skater Vivi-Anne Hulten many years earlier. From 1937 to 1945 she was one of the leading box-office attractions in the film industry. By 1939 she was one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. "Remembering Sonja Henie." Since Wirtz controlled the best arenas and dates, Henie was left playing smaller venues and markets already saturated by other touring ice shows such as Ice Capades. She was 57 years old. She divorced Daniel and married Winthrop Gardner, a wealthy aviator, in Became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1941. Public interest in Henie has fueled continued debate about her off-ice and off-screen behavior. Critic Roy Hemming enthused about the film when it was among seven video releases made at the time of the 1994 Olympics. In her film Everything Happens at Night (1939), Ray Milland and Robert Cummings star as rival reporters hot on the trail of Hugo Norden (Maurice Moscovich). In 1940 the pair offered the ballet-on-ice Les Sylphides, which was so successful that they began to produce reviews throughout the year at the Center Theatre in New York City. Gradually her appearances dwindled, and in 1956 she retired. Norden, a Nobel Prize winner, was supposedly murdered by the Gestapo, but is rumoured to be in hiding and writing anonymous dispatches advocating world peace. "Henie skates with speed, grace, and eye-boggling abandon through four big numbers," he noted in Entertainment Weekly. Henie was the world's first great figure skater. Her husband chartered a plane to convey her from Paris to Oslo to see her doctor, but she died onboard in her sleep. 1949. Selma had designed her daughter's above-the-knee skirt with heavy fur trim to give it fullness. She made seventeen performances in nine cities and earned phenomenal box office returns. Sonya Eddy, star of 'General Hospital,' dead at 55 | CNN Her performance, skating "at home" in Norway's Frogner Stadium, earned her the first of ten consecutive world figure skating titles (and the distinction of being the youngest world champion until Tara Lipinski edged her out in 1997 by a margin of thirty-two days). Sonja Henie: Sonja Henie was born on April 8, 1912 in Oslo, Norway. At 15 she would win the Olympic gold medal in Skating, a feat she would repeat in 1932 and 1936. Henie married Daniel Reid Topping, an American sports investor from Greenwich, Connecticut, on 4 July 1940; they divorced in 1946. She announced then that she was turning professional, and toured the United States in an ice show. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Henie would make eleven films in Hollywood, with the first six being the most successful. And most importantly, she hired the best skaters and choreographers and paid them handsomely. 1974); James Robert Parish, The Fox Girls (1971); and James Vinson, ed., The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, vol. Walsh also . She made one film each with RKO and Universal in the following years, and in 1958 appeared in Hello London, which was only released in England. afforded her greater ease of movement, and she performed some moves that were downright shocking for the time, including a jump into a sit spin.
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