World Has Produced Only One Sonja Henie

(from 1938 "Hollywood Ice Revue" program)

Little Sonja Henie (Sone-ya Hen-ie), the glamorous Nordic star of the steel blades, is one person the likes of whom the world has never seen before.

She is truly "the Pavlova of the ice," as she has been dubbed innumerable times by critics and skating experts, who have seen her skate.

In financial earnings, she has never been approached by any other woman athlete; in the artistry of steel on ice she is without peer; in that unusual combination of athletic stamina and artistic grace, the world has never produced her equal.

Truly, this petite, Nordic blonde of the ice and celluloid occupies a niche by herself in the Hall of Fame of feminine achievement.

Only thirteen years have elapsed since Miss Henie, at the tender age of twelve years, a tiny lass from her native Oslo, Norway, competed in the 1924 Olympic games in figure skating and astounded the entire world by qualifying for the finals. She placed eighth - two places short of winning a medal - in the most notable field of ice athletics ever assembled up to that time.

But her future was assured and the promises of her friends and admirers that her obscurity then would soon turn into world acclaim have since come true.

It took little Sonja three years to reach the top, but reach the top she did, in 1927. Then, at the age of fifteen - when most little girls are feeling the effects of their first love affair, or putting away their dolls for the last time - Sonja won her first world's skating championship.

For eleven successive years she won the world's figure skating championship. In 1928, 1932 and 1936, she carved her niche in the world's permanent athletic Hall of Fame by winning the Olympic Games figure skating championships without even serious competition.

Not only has there never been a great competitive ice skater, but also, there never has been one who sky-rocketed to fame at such an early age, or held the championships so many years.

Truly, little Sonja Henie deserves to be known as "The First Lady of the Ice."