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Legacy Oral History Online Collection

Kahn Audio Clip and Transcript

Kahn Audio Clip

Interviewer: Steve Zee

SZ: Why? You're not a skater.

SK: No.

SZ: So why on earth would they hire you to work on their shows?

SK: I don't know exactly (laughs lightly) because I had very little to do with any of the line work. In other words, Fran Claudet was one that looked me over to see if I knew anything about the show business that she didn't, having had a lot of experience with shows on the ice. So I worked with getting them into rhythmic coordination more than I did anything else.

I went with the team that Pat was working with, Pappas and Svack, that was their name. They were the Austrians. They had won competitions in Vienna. The first thing she did was say, "I don't like the way your ending goes because you just stopped, and then he plays a "G" chord, and that's the end of the act." That was before, that was when they didn't have any stage set at all, and when they built one, they built it with the orchestra to be above, and the director of the orchestra turned his back to the orchestra and watched what was going on the ice. So Pat envisioned them doing a number that included their skating routine, skating tricks, but everything fit to the music. Nothing had fit to the music up until now. She was the first one to encourage that. They rehearsed in the morning before we started at nine o'clock, and they came back after the show was over at night.

©Museum of Performance + Design

Stanley Kahn
Kahn Audio Clip and Transcript