"Ice Castles"

Do you remember the 1978 movie "Ice Castles", which paired Lynn-Holly Johnson and Robby Benson in a tearjerker romantic story about "Lexie", a young skater from Iowa who came out of nowhere to become a would-be champion skater, and right after winning the Midwest Sectional title, lost her eyesight in a freak skating accident? (sorry about the long sentence!)

Lexie was noticed by a reknowned coach when she competed at the regional competition. The coach pursued her to her home and asked her if she would allow her to coach her. Lexie moved to Colorado Springs and quickly developed into a media darling and future champion.

I loved the soundtrack for the movie, especially Melissa Manchester's rendition of "In the Eyes of Love".

The story of a complete unknown rising to the fore intriques me.
Does anyone out there think that such a scenario is possible in North America? We have the example of Oksana Baiul, who rose to a World title from out of nowhere (seemingly), but could that happen in Canada or the United States? Can you imagine the shock if a complete unknown came into US Nationals and won the title over Kwan, Cohen, and the rest?

I think it could happen. Both Naomi Nari Nam in 1999 and Sasha Cohen in 2000 came out of nowhere to give Michelle a run for her money and finish second. Like Oksana, they were not very well known to the general U.S. skating public at the time.

If Beatrisa Liang makes major strides this year, a lot of casual fans might be saying, where did she come from?

Mathman

In 1988 at the Calgary Olympics, Elizabeth Manley came out of "nowhere" and upstaged both Katarina Witt and Debbi Thomas. Nobody expected little Liz to skate away with the silver. There is an "Ice Castles" finish for you!

This is a little off topic, so forgive me. You mention "Ice Castles", but does anyone remember the made for TV movie with Jimm McNichol called "Champions, A Love Story"? This is my favorite skating movie...it's has a similar story as Cutting Edge, but it was much better from what I remember.

SKATEFAN:
My coach and I watched this with another friend of ours that skates just last night! It is so outdated...we giggled all the way through at the dialog, but the story is good. I love watching skating shows with people that actually skate...we commentry all the way through.

NANSINGER: I am going to try to find that show...it sounds good. Cutting Edge is one of my favorite movies. Although I wish that they had skated more. Toepick!

I am not that familiar with Canadian lady skaters (singles), but in the USA it is not unlikely to see someone come from nowhere and win a title or come in second.

Oksana Baiul just happened to be from an Eastern European country. She could have been from any country. What she did in her first worlds is simply incredible. It is considered very difficult to medal in the first appearance at worlds. She actually won the championship. G&G came out of nowhere in their first world championship when they won the gold.

Vash

I love that movie. The kicker was that Lexie was "too old" to train (I think she was either 15 or 16). I wonder if that senerio would apply today. Lexie wasn't just an "unknown", she wasn't professionally trained, but still had all the talent needed to succeed. The underlying theme was that coaches want potential "winners" to train, not just kids with the talent or the drive to learn..........42

I think that genre of movie has been forthcoming since the beginning of films, and in stories from the beginning of homo sapiens. The last one I saw was Rocky. It was enough.

What about a movie where the Oly champ is kidnapped for ransom?

Joe

OFF TOPIC - Just had to say that when I was a kid, I skated with Lynn-Holly. She was a year or two younger than me, but had been skating since she was 4 (I was 7). Her mom and mine had gone to high school together, so there was sort of a built-in friendship (or at least friendly acquaintance). I forget the year, but I think the movie was from around 1978, so Lynn-Holly would have been about 20 years old. We were on the phone, all giggly over her having worked with Robby Benson. Also, there was an irony in her having to (somewhat) train to "get back" (at the age of 20) her skating skills enough to have them cut and paste the skating parts together.

OK, sorry to be "off topic," but it was fun to reminisce for a minute.

Cinder: That's so cool. I actually like Lynn-Holly more playing the um, shall we say "eager" and bratty skater who went after Roger Moore's James Bond in one of the Bond films (I can't recall the name). She was a total hoot, going after Bond like a major hussy!

LYNN-HOLLY

So where is she now?

Mathman-Yeah, I agree with you about Beatrisa Liang, she took me by surprise this year at Nationals, so did Ye Bin Mok! Have any of you seen "The Cutting Edge"? That's another skating movie!

Of course it happened in the US - it was called Tara Lipinski. She had an agent bought for her for her birthday and he created enough hoopla for her that the USFSA had to take notice. Otherwise she'd have been held back for a bit longer.

Tara not only had a PR man long before anyone had heard of her except some roller fans, old man Lipinski hired a top PR man for her who had Diane Sawyer interrupt a news program to announce her triple jumps at such a young age.

Her story is hardly a rags to riches story.

Joe

Tara and Oksana weren't really unknowns in the same sense as the character in "Ice Castles." The Tara hype began when she won the Olympic Festival at age 12. After that, she was on TV all the time and her family's story was discussed in Joan Ryan's "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" as well as in Christine Brennan's books.

As for Oksana, it's true that she was an unknown in the USA before she won the silver at the 1993 Euros. But at that time, she had already established herself as one of the Soviet Union's (and later Ukraine's) up-and-coming skaters. I don't know all the details about her early competitive career, but I do know that she competed at the Soviet Nationals when she was 12 or 13. (IIRC, she finished twelfth.) Although Oksana wasn't famous, the skating officials and coaches in the USSR/Ukraine certainly did know about her, just as their counterparts in the USFSA know who their talented 12 and 13-year-olds are.

Now that the Internet is widely available, it's a lot easier for diehard skating fans to learn about young, up-and-coming skaters, especially the ones from North America. For instance, I'd heard of Sasha Cohen and Yebin Mok and saw their pictures on the Internet long before I actually saw them skating on TV. Ditto for Russia's Lyudmila Nelidina and the Japanese ladies who competed at Junior Worlds. Almost every time a "new" skater appears at Nationals, Worlds, Junior Worlds, or one of the GP events, I am at least familiar with that skater's name, if not his/her face.

I think it would be possible more today than in the 70's because there are no figures now. On the other hand, triples seem to be the new figures.

Someone asked about where Lynn-Holly Johnson is now. I believe she is still a full-time mom living in Southern California. There was a "Where Are They Now" article about her in people magazine from a few years back.

There also was this quote from a "where are they now" kind of website:

Lynn-Holly Johnson, who played ice skater Bibi Dahl in "For Your Eyes Only," said her home doesn't have a lot of acreage but it's fairly close to the beach. She lives near Newport Beach in a home with a Key West, Florida, flavor. And she said she prefers her current role of a mother to any Hollywood parts. She praised Roger Moore, the 007 in that movie, for all the joy he showed in his work. "James Bond works because it's an escape. It's a ride, and they're able to keep it going. The premiere (of 'For Your Eyes Only') was tremendous, meeting Prince Charles and Lady Diana; they weren't married yet. It was one of the highlights of my career."

She recalled how much fun she and Roger Moore had on the set, especially when Moore knew her parents were visiting. Moore and the crew cracked a lot of jokes during the scene when Bibi sneaked into 007's hotel room and his bed. Fortunately, 007 isn't one to sleep with a teenager, and he told her he would take her out for ice cream. (She was playing a teenager, but Johnson actually was 22 at the time.)

CINDER:
Once again, you never cease to amaze me. She was such a sweet thing in in Ice Castles...I could never be that sweet, no matter how hard I would try.

And in the James Bond move I can still remeber hear blurting out, "CUBA?!?!?!?" when she found out that was where they were headed next.

What a fun topic!

My question is, Could an unknown supertalent come out of nowhere and win Nationals BLIND the way Lynn Holly Johnson's character did in "Ice Castles?"

Oksana and Tara were pretty hot, but could either of them beat Nancy or Michelle while they were blindfolded and Nancy and Michelle could see? That Lexi was one smokin' skater!

Seriously, a film professor I knew (now deceased) used to show "Ice Castles" in one of his freshman film courses. What???!!! you say, with so many truly great movies to survey? His rationale, in a nutshell, was that "Ice Castles" was a terrific example of how great natural acting, a talented art director, director of photography, naturalistic dialogue, and the right director can take the most ridiculous plot in the world and make the workings of the film transcend it, ie, unknown figure skater (Lexi) gets to the top; goes blind in an accident by skating at a reception,unbeknownst to anyone, to prove something to her boyfriend; boyfriend not only gets her on the ice again, but he gets her to where she wins Nationals while NOBODY knows she is actually blind until she stumbles over the flowers being thrown onto the ice. If that isn't a soap opera alien abduction anal probe moment, I don't know what is.

I think if you look at "Ice Castles" today and forget the superfast rise to stardom and the going blind part, you have the makings of a nice early '90s independent film.

But back to the question: I think perhaps when (if, lol) Michelle retires from competitive skating and the consistency of skaters is more mixed up again (unless another megaconsistent star like Michelle is 11 years old as we speak) then there might be a chance of a "Whoa! Where did s/he/they come from?!" (Could be a male, pairs, or ice dance couple.) I think the poster who said the Internet gets most of the hot names out there early is right, but for the media and the general non-Internet skating fan, a surprise could happen. I think it would be more likely, though, for someone who has been in the 5th to 10th spot to suddenly put it all together and jump to #1 than to come out of absolutely nowhere. It's basically the "A Star Is Born" story and with three versions of that movie over the last 60 or so years, and many variations thereof, ya gotta know people LOVE that story!
Rgirl
Hi all! Missed ya
Did you notice there is a "Check message length" feature?
Do you think Paula put that in just for me?
2444

Okay rgirl...you bring a very interesting point up...as my posse and I were watching this, we were commenting on exactly WHAT competition is was that she won...we thought that it was sectionals. I am pretty sure that the sign said one thing, and the announcer said something else. I think that one was the Broadmoor and the other said that is was St. Louis (on the banner in the rink)...we could not figure out why such big deal was being made about sectionals. So, what did I miss that it was Nationals? GREAT, not I am finding myself feeling the need to go put it in the dvde player....I have so much work to do today...maybe just for background ambiance?

Where is that dvd....