Throwback Thursday! Toller Cranston Olympic SP 1976

[TontoK]

With his recent passing, I've noticed Toller being mentioned in quite a few posts lately. He was such an innovator and artist.

I chose to highlight his 1976 Olympic Short Program for three reasons:

* He won this phase of the competition. An often forgotten fact - Toller Cranston defeated John Curry in the short program.

* There are interesting and novel spin positions that became standard in later years. For example, we see broken-leg sit spins all the time... but the origins of that variation are not recent.

* Classic Dick Button commentary. I like Dick Button very much.

His figures derailed any chance he had to win. He finished a distant 7th in figures. But he did win the SP and finished second in the LP. It helped him eek out the bronze medal.

Enjoy his SP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD5VNcWh79Q

Edited for clarification.

 

[el henry]

With his recent passing, I've noticed Toller being mentioned in quite a few posts recently. He was such an innovator and artist.

I chose to highlight his 1976 Olympic Short Program for three reasons:

* He won this phase of the competition. An often forgotten fact - Toller Cranston defeated John Curry in the short program.

* There are interesting and novel spin positions that became standard in later years. For example, we see broken-leg sit spins all the time... but the origins of that variation are not recent.

* Classic Dick Button commentary. I like Dick Button very much.

His figures derailed any chance he had to win. He finished a distant 7th. But he did win the SP and finished second in the LP. It helped him eek out the bronze medal.

Enjoy his SP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD5VNcWh79Q

The one, the only. Without Toller, there was no John Curry.

And Graduation Ball. Although the Skate Canada vid of Graduation Ball is better quality, I also love Dick's commentary. "So exotic, so bizarre"; said with total love.

Loving throwback Thursdays.

 

[Interspectator]

I love the flair he puts on his last spin. That was great.

 

[TontoK]

I love the flair he puts on his last spin. That was great.

You mean the running flying camel with the arm movements? That was great, wasn't it. Choreographed well to the music, too.

We just didn't see that type of thing back then... the arm thing... not even from the women... that I recall.

 

[Interspectator]

You mean the running flying camel with the arm movements? That was great, wasn't it. Choreographed well to the music, too.

We just didn't see that type of thing back then... the arm thing... not even from the women... that I recall.

Yes, that's what I meant. Really cool.

 

[dorispulaski]

A long time favorite of mine

Another classic was his Pagliacci exhibition at 1975 Worlds! The drama Not to mention the Three (3) encores!

http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=/#/watch?v=N0sVE9SZiTw

a wonderful performance

 

[TontoK]

Doris, thank you!

How had I never seen that before?

That was spectacular. It looked like he was improvising during parts of the encores, which is even more impressive!

I guess he ran out of music and just did some amazing Russian splits... which did little to settle the crowd down, even without music. I got the impression they could have watched him for hours.

 

[dorispulaski]

It is a fond memory of mine. I thank floskate for uploading it to youtube. More than any other performance, that one epitomizes to me the absolutely extraordinary performer that Toller Cranston was.

They aired a tv version of Toller's totally bizarre "Strawberry Ice" program. Here it is in its entirety:
http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=/#/watch?v=fpbnfL0CKdM

 

[dorispulaski]

And poking around in youtube, I found this ex from 1973, "Too Beautiful To Last," that I hadn't seen before:
http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=/#/watch?v=3KhKRjZ6x6o

 

[skatesindreams]

This series of Exhibitions is also extraordinary.
Toller's greatness on full display:

1975 Skate Canada Gala
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eG30izLTX8