In the days before Sonja Henie, no crowd would pay good money to see a woman do fancy skating. But Evelyn Chandler, a pretty redhead who had been national junior champion, needed money. Five years earlier, at 17, she had married and had a couple of kids. One night in 1929, she waited nervously in the wings at Madison Square Garden while the crowd howled at a blood-&-thunder hockey game. Hockey crowds were always rough on the entertainers between periods. But Evelyn wowed them. After that, Ev was their pet. As she came spinning near the boards, they would yell, "Hiya,...
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