XPost: alt.fan.tonya-harding

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The Portlandian, the Internet's premier source of Tonya News

August 1, 2024 Edition - PARIS OLYMPICS EDITION
(C) 2024 Portland Ice Skating Society
http://www.pdxiss.org *****************************************************************

Welcome to the first edition of "The Portlandian" for 2024. We
must apologize for the lack of issues so far this year - but the
upside is that just means that this one is going to be extra
large to make up for it! We'll be reviewing a special 30th
anniversary publication, reporting on the sale of a piece of
Tonya history, continuing our tour of "I, Tonya" posters around
the world, and exploring Tonya's link to one of the most infamous
sports promotions in history. Plus, it just wouldn't be an
Olympics edition if we didn't indulge in one of our favorite
pastimes, namely ripping into the hypocrisy of the sports
establishment when it comes to Tonya.


SPECIAL DUTIES SECTION UPDATE

Our annual April Fool's Day post on the Reinstate Tonya Harding
Facebook group featured the supposed discovery of a long-lost
"Tonya & Nancy Holiday Special" from November 1994:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/169663980317930/posts/1467494460534869/

In addition to the obvious reference to the Star Wars holiday
special of 1978, there are a couple of other clues that should be
a giveaway: the name "Alana Smithee" is a feminine version of
"Alan Smithee", a fake name used by directors who want to disown
a film or suchlike that has been tampered with by studio
executives. The original 1981 version of "Thanksgiving" never
existed - it was just a phony trailer that featured in the 2007
film "Grindhouse" and was only made into a real movie last year.
The "publicity still" is in fact a photoshopped composite that
was done by New York Newsday back in February 1994 - at the time
this was quite controversial in the same way as AI is today.
Finally, the link to the "clip" is a RickRoll.

What's interesting is that although absurd, it's not that far
away from what DID air as "Breaking The Ice" a few years later in
1998.


December saw the release of the 2023 PDXISS Special Duties
Section Tonya Christmas card, which you can download from this
link:

https://pdxiss.org/cards/xmascards.htm

The theme for the card could only be the two things that
everybody has been talking about in 2023 - namely AI and
Barbenheimer. The pictures are all AI-generated images of Tonya
doing a triple axel - the good, the bad, and the absolutely
bizarre. But we can assure you that the poetry is all ours,
because the only thing worse than Special Duties Section poetry
is computer-generated poetry.


TONYA SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE

Tonya has also released her annual Christmas photo, and a special
skating video for her fans:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1S3yKHv3dh/

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1C-sCRSEBJ/

There's also a couple of other videos of her doing some spins and
jumps:

Combo spin - https://www.instagram.com/p/Czrx-DBPl4W/

Double Lutz - https://www.instagram.com/p/C0fJGbTycxw/

We all know Tonya loved her dad, so she's uploaded a photo of him
for Fathers Day!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C8SuwQ8yDkp/

You can't get more American than Tonya - here's a couple for
Independence Day. As you can see, she's slimmed down a lot:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9A1HAvSMqw/

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9Az4jlSShH/


CHARLES MAIN

In previous editions of "The Portlandian" we have noted the loss
of two prominent members of the Tonya fan community, Joe Haran
and Mike Amowitz. Unfortunately we have the sad duty to report
the passing of another long-time Tonyaphile. We recently learned
of the death of Charlie Main of Phippsburg, Maine at the age of
83, who ran one of the first Tonya Harding fan sites on the
internet, as part of his charliesweb site, and was one of the
earliest subscribers to "The Portlandian" back in the late '90s.

It was through this mutual interest that I came to know him and
we swapped Christmas cards over the years. I am glad that he was
able to see Tonya's rehabilitation in the public's eye thanks to
the movie "I, Tonya", and that he also played a part in that.

In addition to supporting Tonya, he also had a passion for horse
racing and was an active member of the US Trotting Association:

https://ustrottingnews.com/charles-main-83-dies/

His site is no longer on line, but you can view it here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190311041025/http://www.charliesweb.com/tonya/tonya.html


THIRTY YEARS ON

With this year being the 30th anniversary of you-know-what, we
were bracing ourselves for an expected flood of the usual
rehashes to cash in on the occasion, as happened in 2014 when we
got "The Price of Gold" and "Nancy & Tonya".

However, to our surprise, nothing much has eventuated. Even
Christine Brennan seems to be missing in action. Has the world
finally moved on from "the whack heard round the world"? Has the
January 6th attack of 2021 supplanted that of 1994 in the
public's imagination?

One of the few things that has surfaced is a one-off
commemorative magazine called "Tonya & Nancy - 30 Years Later"
from an outfit called a360media.

We have now managed to obtain a copy of this. It is 100 pages
(not 121 as some sources state), split fairly evenly between text
and images and divided into 11 chapters. Preceding these is an
introduction, entitled "what was that all about?". Chapters 1 & 2
are about the two skaters and their backgrounds, the latter one
being about Tonya, and it gives a good summary of her upbringing,
mentioning all the points you'd expect. Chapter 3 is about their
relationship, and concludes that contrary to popular belief,
there wasn't much of a rivalry.

"Reality told a more complex story. Harding was open,
unpretentious and quotable. Kerrigan was private, quiet and
dry. The media - and by extension the public - gave them
personas, not personalities."

Chapters 4 to 6 look at the details of the attack and the
subsequent investigation. Chapter 7 covers the media circus and
attempts some kind of analysis, such as why the rise of 24-hour
news channels meant it had such an impact. It's also worth noting
that the fact there was footage of, if not the assault itself,
then certainly its result, was highly unusual in an era before
cellphones and security cameras were omnipresent, and no doubt
contributed to public interest.

"The press was more aggressive with Harding, who had virtually
no-one to cling to during the maelstrom. What the world
wanted was for her to confess her guilt. That wasn't
happening, so some media members tried to elicit her rage to
generate footage... They would do all kinds of things like
flatten her tires... she would come out in cutoff shorts, and
they'd all get their pictures of her."

Chapters 8 and 9 deal with the showdown in Lillehammer and its
aftermath, such as Nancy's gaffes at Disneyworld, her marriage to
Jerry Solomon, Tonya's second marriage and career as a boxer, and
the infamous "Breaking The Ice" special:

"The two skaters also moved in different directions
financially. Business Insider reported that Kerrigan had
earned $10 million in the Olympic year from endorsements and
a national skating tour. Harding was left with scraps from
tabloid interviews...".

Chapter 10 covers the incident's lasting legacy on pop culture,
such as the rock opera, its continuing reference in various
songs, the New York-based THNK1994 museum, and in particular the
film "I, Tonya".

"The story of Tonya and Nancy has been a societal touchstone
for nearly three decades... The skaters and their association
have been referenced in all mediums, usually for laughs or
'90s nostalgia".

The final chapter is the expected "where are they now?", with
quotes from Tonya, Nancy, Gillooly, Stant and others.

The text is well-written with no obvious factual errors and seems
reasonably fair and neutral towards Tonya (one chapter is headed
"Not a Villain"). But it all appears to be just cobbled togther
from existing sources and there's little here that hard-core
Tonyaphiles don't know already. There are no fresh interviews
with the participants, for instance, and if you're looking for
some new jaw-dropping revelations after thirty years you'll be
disappointed.

Similarly, the images are of good quality, but as with the text
there's not much (at least as far as Tonya is concerned) that we
haven't already seen. It's a pity that these things always seem
to drag out the same old pictures all the time; I mean, there
must have been at least five billion photos taken by all those
photographers who were stalking Tonya back in early '94, so why
do we always get the same old stuff? Plus, in the case of
screengrabs from video, these seem to have been so overprocessed
that the people in them look like wax dummies.

The articles in Time, Sports Illustrated and other magazines at
the time go into more much more detail than this. In addition, it
fails to perhaps fully capture the whole insanity of the thing,
like just how way out some of the people involved (like Shawn
Eckardt) were.

In short, it's a good summary of everything for people who have
only vaguely heard of the scandal, perhaps from watching "I,
Tonya", and want to learn more about the reality behind the
movie. But overall it appears to be a missed opportunity to bring
something different to the table, especially in the form of
digging out some pictures we haven't seen before. Maybe there's
just not much new left to say after thirty years. Perhaps it's
best summed up by the opening paragraph of the final chapter:

"The ampersand symbol - better recognized as & - is correctly
used when joining two people or entities that share a closer
relationship than can be conveyed by the word 'and'. It is
appropriate when referencing Tonya & Nancy because most
people still don't think of one without them also thinking of
the other."

"Tonya & Nancy: 30 Years Later" can be purchased in both digital
and dead-tree form from various outlets such as these:

https://www.discountmags.com/magazine/tonya-and-nancy-30-years-later-digital

https://www.magazinecafestore.com/products/tonya-nancy-30-years-later

https://magazineshop.us/products/tonya-harding-and-nancy-kerrigan-30-years-later


TONYA COSTUME AUCTION

Have you ever wanted to own a piece of Tonya skating history? Or
do you just have a bizarre sexual fetish for dressing up in
Tonya's clothing? Either way, if you were a Tonyaphile with a few
bucks to spare you had a rare chance to do so when the red
costume she wore for her 1993/94 Short Program came up for
auction recently:

https://auction.lelands.com/bids/bidplace?itemid=121481

The dress was part of Leland's "Summer Classic" auction that ran
from the 9th to the 29th of June and came with a letter of
authenticity from Tonya (though she wasn't the seller). The
auction got extensive coverage in the media, particularly in
Portland:

https://www.katu.com/news/local/tonya-hardings-1994-championship-costume-hits-the-auction-block-bids-start-at-3000-nancy-kerrigan-olympics-figure-skating-championship

https://www.koin.com/news/portland/tonya-harding-costume-from-day-after-nancy-kerrigan-attack-gets-starting-bid-of-3k-06132024/

https://www.kgw.com/article/sports/tonya-harding-costume-1994-united-states-worlds-lillenhammer-olympics-auction/283-74e677b2-2560-496a-957b-e86c7d4cdbce

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2024/06/tonya-hardings-olympic-dress-is-at-auction-estimated-to-go-for-50k.html

https://www.centraloregondaily.com/sports/tonya-harding-nancy-kerrigan-figure-skating-dress-auction/article_83b433ee-29ef-11ef-a490-5f51ce4a6f0b.html

https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/tonya-harding-costume-nancy-kerrigan-attack-auction

https://www.foxbusiness.com/sports/tonya-hardings-costume-from-day-after-nancy-kerrigan-assault-could-auctioned-nearly-50000

After a slow start at 3 grand, the auction eventually closed at
$14,571.00 with 21 bids, a total of $17,485.20 including buyer's
premium.


SHORT PROGRAMS

And now, here's our section of Tonya-themed odds & ends that
don't really warrant full articles but are interesting
nevertheless:

- goldenagefigureskating - some birthday wishes - Nov 2023
https://www.instagram.com/p/CzjIHQBOpfN/

- Margot Robbie is pregnant with her first child. Apparently
14.3% of fans are picking the name "Tonya" if it's a girl:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13652173/Pregnant-Margot-Robbie-call-baby-Barbie.html

- Brace yourself - it's Tonya: Margot's braces prop from "I,
Tonya" came up for auction back in November:

https://propstoreauction.com/lot-details/index/catalog/359/lot/119839

- Who needs snakes on a plane when you can have skaters on a
plane? But wouldn't it be more appropriate to have Tonya sitting
in seat 3A?

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9YzwinJ6UM/

- Somebody has posted this original ABC news report of Tonya's
1991 triple axel - this has got to be one of the best quality
versions of this out there, even though it's not real 4K:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZLAwDf0eWc

- KATU Paparazzi Stalking & Legal Problems" *Clean Footage*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M55U_KtDLiE

A couple of pleased fans:

- Parvesh Cheena (parvey) - a satisfied customer shows off his
Tonya t-shirt that he bought on FanArch:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C5jTg8OPqDp/

- Chris Cole (miami_cole) Ilani Casino, Ridgefield, WA.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4io_PfLAfS/
"Ran into this legend backstage @therealtonyaharding you are so
beautiful thank you for being a good time".

- This outfit in Korea has made this ultra-realistic Harley Quinn
doll. Which raises the obvious question - I wonder how difficult
it would be to turn this into an "I, Tonya" doll? Unfortunately
at over 2 grand each, it would be rather costly to find out, and
they're sold out anyway, but it's an interesting idea:

https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=295188103495586

- Another update on Lloyd Center, with obligatory Tonya mention:

https://www.wweek.com/culture/2024/06/26/dawn-of-the-undead-mall/

- "On Thin Ice: The Dark Side of Skating". Somebody has uploaded
this classic piece of Y2K-era post-Whack skatesploitation, from
the experts - Fox. It's got everything: stalkers, gruesome
injuries, eating disorders, drugs, sleazy coaches, Christine
Brennan - and, of course, Tonya.

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

This aired 2 Feb 2000. Above is the U.S. version - a slightly
different version aired in Canada at the same time as "Thin Ice
II".

- This debate from PBS NewsHour on whether Tonya should compete
at the Olympics was uploaded before as part of a longer
compilation which has since disappeared, but someone has uploaded
the debate part of it on its own. Interviewed are Ira Berkow -
sportswriter, NY Times; Filip Bondy - sportswriter, NY Daily
News; Gary Visconti - former skater; and Jill Pilgrim - sports
lawyer:

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

- Claire Ferguson, who was president of the USFSA at the time of
the Incident, has died:

https://www.providencejournal.com/story/sports/2024/01/17/claire-ferguson-former-head-of-u-s-figure-skating-has-died/72257105007/


"I, TONYA" AROUND THE WORLD - WESTERN EUROPE

Now we continue our tour of "I, Tonya" posters from around the
globe. This time, we're looking at Western Europe, the UK,
Ireland & Scandinavia:

https://pdxiss.org/it-posters.htm#western-europe

Most of these are variants on the "pouty Tonya leaning against a
wall" design that was the most common one, but there are two
other interesting versions to note here. The first is the
"defiant Tonya on a lemon yellow background" - this was the work
of the Big Picture Studio in the UK and was also used in Ireland
and various Spanish-speaking markets as well:

https://cargocollective.com/BPS2/filter/I-Tonya/I-TONYA

Secondly, ever notice how everything always seems cooler in
French than it does in English? You could whisper the phone
number of the Paris garbage dump in your loved one's ear and it
would sound romantic - that's how cool French is. And even stuff
that's pretty cool already in English looks even cooler still
when translated into French.

Case in point: the posters for "I, Tonya", called "Moi, Tonya" in
that country, which appears to be the origin of the striking
"cigarette and skate" design that was also used in Latvia,
Russia, and as we shall see later, Turkey.

If you've seen "Inglourious Basterds" you'll know that the French
admire directors, and this is reflected in one poster that gives
Craig Gillespie equal billing with the stars.

In addition, we've found posters for Finland, Sweden and Denmark
- but oddly enough, none so far for Norway, though it is possible
they used the generic English poster like Denmark and Finland.

We have also added posters for Serbia, Slovakia & Uzbekistan to
the Eastern Europe section, and some more designs for Ukraine and
Russia. There have also been quality upgrades for some of the
Polish & Russian posters.

https://pdxiss.org/it-posters.htm#eastern-europe


BURN, BABY, BURN - TONYA'S DISCO INFERNO CONNECTION

Imagine this scenario: it's the summer of 1979, and all across
America, the dominant pop music genre is disco. It's everywhere -
you can't escape it. Nightclubs are converting into discos, radio
stations are going disco. Rock acts like Kiss, Blondie and Rod
Stewart are jumping onto the bandwagon with their own disco
records. But storm clouds are forming on the horizon, and a
backlash is brewing. In one mid-west city, a courageous radio DJ
decides to take a stand on behalf of rock fans everywhere.
Together with a local baseball team, he organizes a promotion
called Disco Demolition Night - if you turn up to the game with a
disco record, you get discounted admission. Then, all the disco
records are collected, stuffed into a big bin, and taken to the
outfield during the break between the two scheduled games. There,
the DJ, dressed in military fatigues and accompanied by a
glamorous blonde woman, blows the entire lot to smithereens in a
gigantic explosion, while the hyped-up crowd chants "disco
sucks!". The field is then invaded by these fans, who have no
interest in baseball and only came for the destruction, and it
turns into a riot, with the second game eventually being aborted
out of safety concerns.

But this is not what you might think it is - a left-over, unmade
script from TV's "WKRP". This was something that actually
happened. The city was Chicago, not Cincinnati. The DJ was Steve
Dahl, not Johnny Fever. The blonde was a model called Lorelei,
not Loni Anderson. The real event, which happened at Comiskey
Park forty-five years ago this July, would go down in history as
one of the worst sports & radio promotions ever. If you thought
that throwing live turkeys out of a helicopter was pretty far-
fetched, Disco Demolition Night proves that real radio station
stunts from back in that era could be just as outlandish. But
there's a little-known Tonya connection to this infamous event,
which we will now reveal.

One of the promoters of this event, Mike Veeck, later organized a
"Tonya Harding mini-bat night" for the Jacksonville Suns team in
Florida in June 2001. Thankfully, this event went a lot more
smoothly than the disco one. Tonya spent an hour and a half
signing many of the 2000 miniature baseball bats that were given
away to fans by a local TV station as a promotion, autographing
each in gold pen and punctuating her signature with her trade
mark smiley face. Then she threw out the game's first pitch and
spent the first inning in the dugout chatting with Suns players.
Over 6700 people attended, the 7th largest crowd of the team's 41
home games so far that season:

https://www.jacksonville.com/picture-gallery/sports/minors/jumbo-shrimp/2012/04/05/wild-and-wacky-promotions-at/854125007/

Linda Lewis, Tonya's godmother, was at the event with Tonya and
says "there were double lines of people in line to meet her. She
signed everyone of the small baseball bats. Everybody was so
wonderful to her. Great event!!"


DUTCH WIN GOLD MEDAL FOR HYPOCRISY

The Paris Olympics have started, but as you'd expect from that
institution there's already been some scandals - and we're not
talking about the Olympic flag being initially hung upside down
either. A Canadian football coach has been sent home after being
caught using a drone to spy on the New Zealand women's team. And
an English equestrian has been banned after a video surfaced of
her using some questionable training methods on a horse.

But one guy who is apparently quite welcome is Steven van de
Velde, a member of the Dutch volleyball team. In 2014 he flew to
Milton Keynes in the UK and raped a 12-year old girl he had
groomed on the internet. In 2016 he was given a sentence of four
years jail for the offenses, but was sent home after one year and
promptly released.

At the time, the judge described the incident as "career ending".
Boy, what a fool he was. He didn't know how the world of elite
sport works.

The IOC, with its typical gutlessness, has passed the buck to the
Dutch, saying the ball is in their court, if you'll pardon the
pun. The International Volleyball Federation has also washed its
hands of the matter, saying it is powerless to intervene.

Some have contended that "he's served his time, and should be
allowed to move on". Firstly, he didn't serve his time - he was
released early. Secondly, rape victims often can't "just move
on", and often carry the mental scars for life. Thirdly, Tonya
has served her time many years ago - yet she's still banned for
life and continues to be the butt of jokes. And Tonya was never
convicted of anything approaching the seriousness of what Van de
Velde was.

What's the difference between the treatment of Tonya, the
football coach and the equestrian on one hand and Van de Velde on
the other? Could it be that the former are all women and he's a
man?

Van de Velde hopefully may not be around much longer after his
team lost their opening match (at which he was roundly booed),
which will render the issue of his presence moot. But the stink
from the hypocrisy will remain over the Games and long
afterwards. At least one thing can be said: with a background
like his, Van de Velde will be perfectly qualified to be the next
Dutch IOC member.

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VISIT THESE GREAT TONYA WEB SITES:

PortIce - http://www.pdxiss.org
Valerie Smith - http://www.olywa.net/radu/valerie/LilHam.html
Swan Lake - http://members.tripod.com/~TonyaHarding/index.html
Blades of Gold - http://members.tripod.com/tmhfan/index.html *****************************************************************

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