figureskaters

Ice Skaters, May and Ray, Sydney, 1927 / photographer Grace Bros. Ltd.

from State Library of New South Wales

• Esparkling said:

  Nice!!! -- Seen on your photo stream. (?)

• Pixel Wrangler said:

  Come what may, this is likely (L-R) Ray and Max. Max and Ray were described as "fancy skaters" with crowd pleasing exhibitions. They performed extensively at The Glaciarium, as well as other venues such as the Tivoli Theatre. On occasion they used the stage names of "Professor Max" and "Madame Ray" (perhaps for no other reason than to help distinguish the gender of the name? ;) While I didn't find a proper biography there is a Trove ;) of newspaper articles about them, and oddly enough, there was a captioned photograph of Max and Ray in the May 28, 1922, Sunday Times -- without any accompanying article. Piecing together various tidbits from those articles reveals that: Max was billed as a Swiss champion of the ice, now from New York. Ray hid the personality of Miss Ray Collins. Born in Sydney, Ray left the country in 1914 for America and "speedily established herself as one of the world's most graceful and charming exponents of fancy skating." She reportedly made several tours of the United States earning £15 a week as a trick and fancy skater, partnering with Max. Before leaving Australia Miss Collins was earning £2 a week making trousseaux. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] No doubt others will find additional information and photos of *Max and Ray* !