Henri Uyttenhove
Belgian-born fencing master Henri Uyttenhove first trained at, and then assumed the directorship of, the Belgian Normal School for Fencing. He ran that program for two years before emigrating to the United States and settling in Pasadena, CA. Over his many years in Southern California, he taught at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Pasadena Athletic Club, his own private studio in Pasadena, the Hollywood Athletic Club, USC and UCLA.
An exceptional coach, he trained a great number of Pacific Coast champions and Olympians, including Ralph Faulkner, Andrew Boyd, Fred Linkmeyer and Edward Carfagno.
READ MORE...In addition, beginning in 1916, he was the first fencing master credited as a fight choreographer in the Hollywood motion picture business.Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., a student of Uyttenhove, hired him as fight director for his famous swashbucklers including “The Three Musketeers” and “The Mark of Zorro”.
Articles
The First Selection: Ted Lorber
I’m not sure of the original source for the story, but it goes like this. In the early days of the AFLA, precursor to today’s USA Fencing, the East Coast was in charge.
Image Upgrades by Happenstance
I love running across old photos of fencers. It doesn’t matter who’s in them or what condition they’re in for me to be fascinated with the discovery and the challenge of putting names to faces.
Women’s Foil, circa 1971
The 1971 US National Championships were held on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, commonly known as Cal. The locals did pretty well, too!
Time Traveling with Hans Halberstadt
A recent gift to the Archive has me dumbfounded. It’s existence was something I had speculated about in a vague way, but never dreamed of finding proof for. Much less, having the proof come directly to me as a donation to the Archive.
College Annuals vs Space
At some point I will outgrown my available storage. It’s not in any way imminent, but down the road it will be something to deal with. Storage space wasn’t a consideration when I began to purchase relatively low cost university annuals on Ebay.
An Unexpected Addition
In going about my daily Archiving routine, I’m beginning to recognize that small obsessions can take over my focus. Sometimes for days, sometimes longer.
Historical Holiday
Driving around Southern California may not seem like much of a Holiday, especially when traveling alone, but a recent weekend outmatched all my expectations. The plan was to make four different stops in hopes of collecting fencing history.
LA’s Greatest Hits, 1936
When I have the opportunity to visit someone who has fencing memorabilia that I can scan for my collection, I often don’t get a chance to thoroughly take in the significance of everything I’m working with.
The Glamorous Photos of Erich Funke d’Egnuff, Part 2
There are many ways in which the scrapbook of Erich Funke d'Egnuff is a gold mine, not least of which are the amazing variety of newspaper photos of fencers. The scrapbook covers the years 1934 to about 1942 and the fencers of that time had a style all their own. ...
Photo Gallery
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