CANADA: Rank on the Rink

Ever since she won the Olympic figure-skating championship in 1948 and turned professional, Ottawa-born Barbara Ann Scott has seen her career dogged by a delicate but unanswered question: Is she as good an exhibition skater as Sonja Henie? Last week it looked as though the question might soon be answered. Entrepreneur Arthur M. Wirtz dropped Sonja from his Hollywood Ice Revue and signed up Barbara Ann instead.

In Chicago, Wirtz said he replaced Sonja, who had been on his payroll for 15 years, because she repeatedly delayed signing a new contract. Barbara Ann, Canada’s favorite, will open this season’s tour early in November—after a ten-day engagement at Zurich—at a take of about $100,000 a year. Said Wirtz: “I’ve never seen Barbara Ann, but everyone tells me she’s the coming skater of this era . . . Will she be able to match the Henie hula? That’s something we’ll have to explore.”

In New York, Sonja announced that she planned to launch an ice show of her own. In London, where she is appearing in the ice show, Rose Marie, Barbara Ann demurely declined to unsheathe the first claw, but her pressagent let go a swipe: “Barbara Ann is following in Sonja’s footsteps with a vengeance. She has such pretty legs compared with Sonja’s.”