I actually was probably not that taken with Sonja's legs. She was an awfully cute girl though. When I got into my late teens and started following some figure skaters in the newspapers (such as Tenley Albright and Carol Heiss) I did notice that the figure skating girls were very pretty.
Yeah, you are probably too young to appreciate Sonja in that way.
I didn't recognise Tenley's name, but I did recognise one of the pictures when I looked her up. I am more familiar with Carol, though.
Re black and white movies: From my eighth year of schooling through my twelfth, I worked in a couple of movie theaters in my small home town. I started as an usher, then worked behind the candy counter, and finally worked as a projectionist. During those years I probably saw about 5 different movies every week with a lot in black and white. So I really have a trove of memories about old movies. I love that the Turner Classic Movie channel is on cable and shows a lot of those old movies.
Wow. I am so jealous! Working in a cinéma in that era must have been a dream! And what an achievement to work your way up to being the projectionist. I am not sure I would want the responsibility of working the machinery, though. I've seen enough scenes in films where something goes wrong with the projector, and the audience get very angry and take it out on the poor staff. I hope that never happened to you.
The UK version of Turner Classic Movies used to be great. But, now it keeps showing the same films over and over again. And they are mostly Westerns, which aren't really my thing. The channel really is a shadow of it's former self, and a shadow of the American version.
Sony launched a classic film channel a few years ago, and it was good for a while until they too started showing the same things over and over again. Sony sold all their TV channels in the British Isles last year, and at the start of this year the new owners replaced the classic film channel with a channel showing romantic made-for-TV movies.
Thank goodness we still have one classic film channel which is very high quality, Talking Pictures TV.
I have a VHS tape of "Sun Valley Serenade" which I purchased quite a while ago. My brother found the movie on YouTube which is how we watched it recently. Glenn Miller and his whole band are featured in the movie with a movie star (John Payne) taking the part of his piano player. There is a ski sequence as well as skating in the movie. I have a soft spot for Sun Valley since I first went there in 1955 with my high school band. My home town was only about 150 miles away in Idaho. The last time I went to Sun Valley was in 2011 to watch one of my favorite skaters, Mirai Nagasu
, perform.
Thank you for the tip off that it is on YouTube. I hardly ever think of looking there for films. Probably because I assume that if somebody uploads a film, there will be a copyright claim put on it straight away like there is with music.
I didn't realise that Sun Valley is actually a real place until I read your post. I'm afraid the only ski resorts in North America that I am familiar with are the ones that host rounds of the World Cup, or have hosted the Olympics. But, I suppose it is the same for many people in North America when it comes to European ski resorts. Anyway, I looked it up, and I was intrigued when I saw that it has a "Bald Mountain". Needless to say, I instantly got a certain Mussorgsky tune stuck in my head!
(Not that I am complaining!
)
I loved Mirai too. But, I do tend to have a soft spot for the Japanese and people with Japanese heritage. It must be so special to see your favourite skaters performing in real life. I have only seen one of my favourite skaters in real life, but she wasn't on the ice at the time. And she's retired now, so I won't see her performing. But. I'm so happy just to have met her.
Sorry everybody for taking the thread off track.
CaroLiza_fan
In any case, I still haven't seen a small tournament before, so I'm still looking forward to it!
.
