Tuscan Title

The half dozen or so first-class women fencers in the U. S. are not famed, but they are exceedingly well known to each other. For the past several months they have been following with surprise and concern the career of the latest addition to their minute number--Mrs. Bela de Tuscan of Detroit. Married to Detroit's best fencing master, trained as a dancer until her husband persuaded her to take up foils three years ago, Mrs. de Tuscan made sensational headway in the Olympic tryouts that have been going on all winter. Her colleagues could hardly wait to see what her final rating would be in these and how she would fare in the national championship.

Because the national tournament counted as the last event on the Olympic tryout schedule, Mrs. de Tuscan was able to answer both questions at once on the green linoleum strip of Manhattan's Fencers Club last week. So pretty that with a foil in her hand she inevitably creates a brief illusion of being an actress learning how to handle the weapon for purposes of some romantic musical comedy, Mrs. de Tuscan won seven of her eight bouts, fencing with superb aggressiveness. Marion Lloyd, one of the two ex-champions in the round robin, beat her, but Mrs. de Tuscan beat the other, Dorothy Locke. When Miss Lloyd, who had lost to Miss Locke, lost again to a comparative newcomer named Carol Alessandroni, the tournament was over and Mrs. de Tuscan had the title. Miss Locke, No. 1 U. S. swordswoman since 1932, was first, however, in the Olympic rating, with a total of 126 points, based on three years of competition. Mrs. de Tuscan, with 123, tied Miss Lloyd for second place.

Fencing is currently the fastest growing form of indoor athletics in the U. S. In the past year, equipment sales have jumped 50%. Women like fencing because they think it improves their posture. At U. S. Salles d'Armes feminine enrollment has also jumped 50% over a year ago. Victory of a Detroiter in a tournament which, except when it was won by German Helene Mayer, has always been won by Easterners, was one indication of fencing's spreading vogue. An even more spectacular one has been provided this winter by the presence in New York of Aldo Nadi. Aldo Nadi is a sleek, suave and almost incredibly elegant young man from Livorno, Italy, who makes no secret of the fact that he is the best fencer in the world.

Livorno, in Tuscany, is the home of leghorn hats and the fencing school where Aide's father, Beppe, has been coaching Italian swordsmen for half a century. Beppe Nadi was the best teacher of his time. Aldo's older brother, Nedo, who visited the U. S. in 1930, was considered the finest fencer in the world when he retired two years ago. Reaching his peak after 25 years of vigorous training, Aldo Nadi inherited the family title at 34. Fencing experts agree that he is not only the equal of his brother but conceivably the most effective swrordsman who ever lived.

When, in Paris, where his deluxe fencing school was on the Rue de Crenelle, swordsman Nadi heard about the fencing boom in the U. S., he pricked up his ears. In addition to promising rich dividends for teaching, it would take him closer to Hollywood. Darkly handsome, 6 ft. tall and so slim (135 Ib.) that he offers opponents a discouragingly narrow target, Swordsman Nadi, who once acted in a French film, has always wanted to go there.

When he arrived in Manhattan, Swordsman Nadi's first appearance was in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Plaza at $5 a ticket. On that occasion he displayed his superiority over two of the foremost U. S. masters in foil and sabre with cosummate ease. Having thus made it clear that the country could afford no serious competition, he resumed his customary mode of treating fencing as an art rather than a sport by giving fencing exhibitions in a deluxe supper club. He then established a Salle d'Armes in the Hotel Savoy-Plaza and is currently negotiating for contracts to teach patrons of Elizabeth Arden's beauty salon, students at the fashionable Finch School.

Until recently, the conventional attire of male fencers was something which looked like a canvas, ankle-length union suit grown shapeless from long wear. This did not suit Aldo Nadi. He wears black velvet skiing trousers, a formal white jacket. For pauses between bouts, he has a coat with astrakhan collar. U. S. fencing tailors now regard him as their model. He does no training, spends his evenings at expensive night clubs. Delighted with the U. S. as a fertile field for his self-expression, Aldo Nadi finds his principal handicap in the fact that so many people still insist on confusing fencing with dueling. The most dangerous swordsman in the world, he has fought only one duel, against an impudent newshawk in Milan. Aldo Nadi pinked him gently.

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