Skating to Stardom—It Was Everything to Me
AS A child I wanted to be a ballet dancer, possibly even become a star. My Jewish parents had me start learning ballet at an early age. For ten years I studied in such famous schools as Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Fokine Ballet Company and the American Ballet Theater. However, because of arch problems, my feet were not perfectly suited to ballet so I decided to try jazz dancing in Broadway shows.
While on the road with a New York-based company in the show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, I met some very interesting people from the Ice Capades skating show. They invited me to watch their rehearsals. Truly gifted skaters combined the fine lines of ballet with skating techniques, and it was so beautiful. Ice Capades agents thought they could train me to be an acrobatic pair skater since I was already a dancer. I therefore quit the Broadway show that took me so long to get into and started traveling with the skaters. It was the beginning of a challenging new career.
The Hard Road to Stardom
With much practice we combined acrobatics and ballet style with the skating flow and freedom of the ice. Success also depends largely on suitable partners, their personality, physical appearance and compatibility. It is something like a marriage, and teamwork is a must.
In the course of the years I have had several partners. Once, in a spin with a former partner, we fell and I broke my back. After the removal of a disk from my spine and a period of one year’s convalescence, I returned to the ice.
Another of my partners suddenly decided to quit while we were performing in South Africa. He had been on drugs. He was very depressed and thought he could better himself financially somewhere else. Without consideration for the company or for me, he just took off—with all my money. It seemed as if the bottom had fallen out of my career, so I too started taking amphetamines. It was a terrible period for me. I just wanted to end my life.
Eventually I went to Germany to work for a skating school run by the U.S. Army. The pay was small, so my diet was mostly bread and cheese. After trying various partners, I found one with whom I could work well. We became an international success and stayed together for seven years.
Our reputation did not come without a great deal of hard work, rehearsals and problems. The struggle to be a star was so important to me that I wanted nothing to go wrong. If a small mistake was made during a performance, I blamed my partner, argued about it and fiercely defended myself. Each of us had to be “right.” It was a “life and death” business. Once we were fined $25 each for arguing so loudly backstage that the audience in the front rows could hear us. It became well known that more interesting scenes took place between us backstage than on the ice. Stardom was worth fighting for, I thought. Yet for some reason it did not bring me personal happiness or a sense of stability and well-being in life.
Nevertheless, the challenge I accepted was met. I became a star and performed in some of the world’s best night spots. But where was all the happiness that I was supposed to feel? I just felt terribly lonely. Old age would eventually catch up with me and, although I was financially secure, life would be pretty empty if this was all there was to living. What did I really have to look forward to? Death, like everyone else.
Why Do People Go Into Show Business?
Well, speaking for myself and from what I have seen, many artists grow up with an inferiority complex. They develop a desire to change into someone better through the world of theater. The putting on of makeup and costumes seems to help to this end. Many people are also in dire need of love, and it is a common belief that in show business one has lots of friends and admirers. Some believe that the applause of the audience satisfies their craving and that it will result in happiness. In reality this is seldom what happens.
I know there are many in show business who feel the same as I did. They succeed and get to the top. Then, realizing they are still not genuinely loved and feeling incomplete, they turn to drugs or other false pleasures. They involve themselves in constant parties and nightlife to pass away the lonely hours and insecurity. But this is a superficial happiness, just playing games with one another. Real love is seldom involved.
Could Religion Help Me?
An incident happened that weighed heavily on my mind. A young and beautiful skater I knew was tragically killed. She had been driving after a party. I knew that girl and how unhappy she was, although a star. Her death made no sense. I was obsessed with its state of nothingness.
While in Germany I reached a crisis in my life. I felt lost, despondent and so very sad. Alone in my hotel room, I burst into tears and cried for help. Though knowing little or nothing about God and not considering myself religious, I sincerely prayed, “If there is a God, please do something to help. This world seems so sick and life is so pointless.”
I did not really expect ever to receive an answer to that prayer as I never knew a God. No religion of any sort ever satisfied me, not even my own Jewish faith. I studied the Jewish Talmud and I looked into Zen Buddhism. I also read up on psychology and even dabbled in the occult and the use of the Ouija board. None of these had answers to the simple questions about the purpose of life and death and the course to happiness.
My Prayer Answered?
Arriving back home in California I contacted my girl friend, Trish, a former Las Vegas dancer, and asked if I could come and visit her for “two or three days.” After discussing how we would spend our time together, she told me she would be going to a meeting the next day.
“But,” she said, “you are very welcome to come along.”
“What sort of meeting is this?” I asked.
“Oh,” she said, “I am now one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and we have regular Bible meetings each week.”
I absolutely froze. Whatever had I got myself into? I imagined emotion-charged meetings like those of the Holy Rollers and Billy Graham, and I felt scared. Nevertheless, I agreed to go with her.
When we got to the Kingdom Hall we were welcomed, and the program soon started. I do not remember much about the subject material discussed, but gradually I began to feel at ease, not uncomfortable. There were no images, no crosses, no dark rooms. The men who spoke from the platform seemed to be ordinary, natural, intelligent humans. Everyone had a Bible, and all shared in studying it. To my surprise, there was no extreme emotionalism. It was nothing like what I had imagined!
Then something made a tremendous impact on me. There seemed to be a marvelous quality of love among these people. Husbands and wives were sitting together in genuine compassion and respect. I know phoniness when I see it. I have seen plenty of it in the theater, where I have never seen a truly happy marriage. Now, here in this hall, I remember seeing a gentleman caringly put a coat on his wife’s shoulders because she was cold. That gesture really touched me.
Children and teenagers were with their parents and were actually enjoying the meeting as if they were all on the same wavelength. Their religion was not sad and scary. I was impressed. Was this what I was searching for? Something that thrived in an atmosphere of genuine love and happiness? After we got home I asked Trish if she could find one of those little books she had spoken about. Very modestly she said she would try to “dig one up” for me.
My prayer of two weeks previous was beginning to be answered. From then on I just read continuously and researched each point, delving into science, history, archaeology and medicine. Those “two or three days” turned out to be three months. Without noticing it, happiness was creeping up on me. On awakening in the morning the worries of getting older or dying were no longer there. Instead of thinking of dying, I thought of living.
I came to realize that others in show business like me had learned the Bible truth too and had made great changes in their life. Trish was one. Then I read with great interest the moving story published in the April 22, 1977, issue of Awake! of Teresa Graves (“Christie Love”), a star in the entertainment world who had chosen between two loves. Her example was a tremendous help to me.
A Smoker’s Dessert?
It was time to go back to work, so my partner and I accepted a job at La Scala nightclub, in Barcelona, Spain. By now I had made many changes in my life and it showed. My view of morals changed. I also did not fight with my partner anymore, and a new circle of friends was being added to my life. My sick and lonely feelings occurred far less frequently.
When we arrived in Spain I contacted Jehovah’s Witnesses in Barcelona, and Eric and Hazel, British missionaries, continued my Bible study and answered my many questions. They also helped me break yet another bad habit. I was a heavy smoker.
It was not easy to give up smoking. I remember asking Eric, “What can I do to break the habit?”
“Do you have cigarettes in your room, Elyn?” he asked.
“Of course,” was my reply.
“Then don’t you think you should get rid of them? How can you give up smoking if you have packs right in your room?”
I decided the break had to be sudden and drastic. I had invited a comedian friend from the theater for supper. When it came time to serve the dessert, I took all my packs of cigarettes and dropped them into a bowl. Then, to his amazement, I poured water all over them. He was intrigued and wanted to know what kind of dessert this was going to be. Then I explained to him that because of my new belief I was giving up smoking forever. He was relieved to get that explanation!
Terrorism in the Theater
Four months after my beginning work in Spain, some terrorists rushed into the theater one Sunday morning and threw Molotov cocktails, completely destroying the building. Four people were killed and 350 persons were made jobless. How fortunate that most of us were not in the building at that moment! My costumes and skates were destroyed, along with some precious books, but I still had my life.
The other artists were in a state of panic and distress. I started explaining to everyone that this was just one of the many evidences that we are truly living in what the Bible calls “the last days” and that shortly Jehovah God will introduce a new system under his Kingdom that will bring peace to the whole earth.—2 Timothy 3:1-5; 2 Peter 3:13.
Now I knew what it was to be a Witness, and this was bringing me joy. It is the happiness of giving rather than receiving. (Acts 20:35) Since we were now out of work, there was plenty of time to study the Bible with others, and I started studies with various international artists.
As a result of the fire, I had a three months’ break during which I was baptized on March 26, 1978, in Barcelona. Some of my “theater studies” came along to the baptism, and my friend Trish flew over from California. It was truly a joyous occasion, the happiest day of my life!
Is Stardom Everything?
For the last four years I have been a regular pioneer minister, spending an average of 90 hours a month preaching. I have supported myself with occasional theater engagements. After the Barcelona disaster, I found a new partner and started training all over again, which was not easy. Then when good contracts came along I had to turn them down because many times the show offered to us was of an immoral nature, and I was no longer willing to compromise in that way. It was difficult to refuse—they were often lucrative jobs, and my new partner, not a Witness, suffered the loss with me. At first he did not understand my Bible-based principles. But now we are getting good international spots to fill, and I can still preach most of the time, even when working in the theater.
Because of their unusual schedule, theater people seldom receive a direct witness. Thus when I am on the road, the theater company becomes my special witnessing “territory.” As a result, some artists have studied the Bible and attended congregation meetings with me. They have specially enjoyed seeing the worldwide brotherhood of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Wherever I happen to be—Australia, Europe, Singapore, Japan—there is much to do in the service of my God. I have found the deeper happiness of learning that there is a God who cares and that he shows unending love for his creatures. The tinsel glory of the theater is shallow in comparison. Appreciating this fact is a tremendous joy now in a sad world.—1 John 4:8.
To have a share in being part of this worldwide brotherhood of God’s people is an incredible dream come true—I have literally seen it in my travels. It is a living testimony to a living, loving God. There is nothing more beautiful, more perfect and real, than the truth. What a privilege it is that Jehovah has opened my heart! The crowning hope of living to time indefinite in an earth filled with love is what Jehovah has put into the heart of man, mine included, and I eagerly look forward to the day of its grand realization.—As told by Elyn Tia.
[Blurb on page 22]
It seemed as if the bottom had fallen out of my career. I just wanted to end my life
[Blurb on page 23]
Stardom was worth fighting for, I thought
[Blurb on page 23]
I sincerely prayed, “If there is a God, please do something to help”
[Blurb on page 24]
Instead of thinking of dying, I thought of living
[Blurb on page 24]
Some terrorists rushed into the theater and threw Molotov cocktails
[Blurb on page 25]
I have found the deeper happiness of learning that there is a God who cares