1920: Zorro 

The Mark of Zorro is released and turns Douglas Fairbanks Sr. into Hollywood's first great swashbuckler.

1921:     

1922:    

1923: R. J. Herrcke  

The AFLA included the groin as a valid target in foil for the first time. 

In point of fact, in 1923, the AFLA finally reconciled their rules of fencing with those in Europe. Target areas and scoring systems were, at last, in agreement. 

Charles E. Osborne was now the Physical Director of the Dallas YMCA and that organization was making another run at organizing a fencing course. The plan was for the class to open with about fifty students in mid-February, with two classes being held weekly. 

It would seem an impediment developed, because in late March, the local news media noted, "Physical Director Charles E. Osborne of the YMCA announces that arrangements have been completed for a fencing class. Equipment has arrived and the committee has secured the services of R. J. Herrcke, University of Illinois, Big Ten Conference Champion in foils and broadsword to teach the class. 

"The opening session of the class will be at 7:30 PM, Monday, April 7. It is planned to have a course of twenty lessons with two sessions each week. It will not be possible to handle a large class. Those desiring instructions are getting their names in early."

1924: Melvin Williamson    

In 1924, women were finally allowed participation in Olympic fencing competitions with the introduction of women's foil to the games. As with men's foil, women's foil bouts were to five touches. Unlike men's foil, however, the groin was not considered target. 

At this same Paris Olympics was a 30-year-old first time Olympian named Harold Van Buskirk. He was a member of the U. S. Men's Sabre Team. He was, unfortunately, eliminated in round one, with a final score of 11-14. 

At Paris, four Italians made the final of the Sabre (out of 12 finalists). The rules required them to fence off first. Oreste Puliti won the three matches easily, and the Hungarians protested that the other Italians had given away their matches. Puliti was disqualified and the other Italians withdrew in protest. Puliti would later punch the head judge (the Hungarian Pal Kovacs) and fight a duel with him. 

In Texas, 1924 may be significant for the appearance of scholar on the University of Texas campus in Austin named Melvin Williamson. Originally from San Antonio, he was an avid thespian in the UT Curtain Club and he brought fencing to that college.

Back in Dallas, R. J. Herrcke, the former Big Ten foil and broad sword Conference champion, continued to teach fencing at the YMCA.

1925: Omega Delta    

On the West Coast, the Pacific Coast Section, the first AFLA "section" to be organized, held its first Sectional Championship. 

At Baylor College, Anne S. Duggan organized an experimental women's fencing class over the summer. 

Fencing went beyond mere popularity at the University of Texas. In addition to fencing classes held within the Physical Education Department, the fencers had organized an honorary fencing fraternity, Omega Delta. 

At Baylor College, Anne Duggan added soccer, hockey, archery and fencing to the regular physical education curriculum.

1926: A Fencing Initiation  

Peter Tiboldi, former assistant to the Italian Ambassador and one-time fencing master to the Galveston YMCA passed away on January 20 following a short illness.

George W. Buisson traveled to Houston, Texas and joined the U.S. Army in 1926. A fencer, himself, he was the son of one George W. Buisson of Philadelphia who listed his occupation simply as, "fencing master." It is unknown if his father was the same man who had been involved in the incidents in New Orleans of 1892.  

February of 1926 saw Melvin Williamson, the UT men's fencing instructor, marrying modern technology in the service of the ancient craft in Austin. He constructed Photostatic copies of pictures showing positions used in fencing, for use in classes there. The copies were 15 x 22 feet in size and were placed on the walls of the gymnasium. The thought was that, when a student took an incorrect position, attention could be called to the chart portraying the right one. 

Another news item, dated February 15, noted, "Omega Delta, honorary fencing fraternity at the University of Texas, has announced the election of five new members, according to Melvin Williamson of San Antonio, president. They are Earl B. Craig of San Antonio, E. P. McKinney of Nacogdoches, George W. Nibling of San Angelo, Trueman Edgar O'Quinn of Beaumont and W. S. Stone of Taft. On the day of their initiation the new members of the organization are required to wear short swords to their classes and challenge and fight any other pledges they meet, Williamson said." 

An interesting aside regarding Mr. O'Quinn is that his family did not hail from the Emerald Isle. In point of the fact they were of French descent via Louisiana and East Texas. The Celtic surname O'Quinn being a mutation of the French family name, Aucoin. 

On May 4, 1926, the Omega Delta fraternity conducted what the press described as "the first ever open fencing tournament ever held in the South." W. K. Smith of Austin captured first place and Trueman O'Quinn of Beaumont came in second. The other competitors listed were Frederick Thompson of Galveston, Alex Murphree of Houston, Melvin Cohen of Houston, W. D. Thorning of Houston, Russell Augell of Houston, and Edgar P. McKinney of Nacogdoches. 

That fall, Dallas dancer Helen Doty returned from a trip to New York. Upon her return, she announced that there she studied, among other things, fencing, which she planned to teach at her School of Dance in the Circle Theater Building. 

1927: Expansion   

In 1927, Melvin Williamson, the fencing instructor at the University of Texas, was quoted in Texas newspapers praising the health benefits of fencing. He described the case of Kennedy Smith, who began fencing classes from a chair, progressed to a walker and was ultimately able to drill with the class. Fencing was riding a wave of campus popularity.

The Omega Delta fencing fraternity was active in the spring of 1927. Their president was Earl B. Craig of San Antonio. L. G. Sewall of Marlin, Texas was recorder general. The captain general was Beaumont native Trueman O'Quinn. They had already held a tournament the previous year. Now they were also getting out of state requests. One such request received came from the University of Chicago, which applied for membership. A charter was sent for ratification.

At Camp Waldemar, near Hunt in Kerr County, fencing was included in the exercise offerings. The girls of Camp Waldemar practiced foil fencing along a level stretch of shore along the riverfront.

On the national level, Harold Van Buskirk won the U. S. Men's National Epee Championship and the U. S. Men's National Outdoor Sabre Championship.

In Texas the fencing year rounded to a close with a fencing match advertised to be part of a program mounted December 16 at the Dallas Athletic Club. In addition to dance numbers, figure skating, gymnastics and human pyramid building, a fencing match was held between John M. Rotan and Calvin A. Barker.

1928: John Rotan and Col. Ekdahl  

Local news media carried an announcement on January 30 of a fencing tournament to be held in Dallas sometime, "within the next few weeks under the direction of Jean M. Rotan, master of foils at the Dallas Athletic Club. Two hundred or more contestants are expected to enter for the tilts."  This would appear to be the same individual identified as John M. Rotan in the press coverage of the December 1927 exhibition bout at the Dallas Athletic Center. 

The article also noted, "The principal trophy for the winner will be offered by Count Hans von Hubner, director of an art school at 1003 Camp Street. Three other trophies will be put up to be fought for by swordsmen." 

By April of 1927, one could learn fencing in Dallas, not only from John Rotan at the Dallas Athletic Club, but also at the YMCA or at the new Dallas Fencing Club. A number of those taking up fencing were women. Rotan's pupils included Marguerite Moreau, Elizabeth Barineau and Mrs. F. B. Mackedon, which one article described as the "woman fencing champion of Dallas." 

Rotan was, at this time, busy receiving entries for what was to be Dallas' first open fencing tournament. The Dallas Athletic Club fencing master set the tournament to be held in his studio at 1902 ½ Main Street. The first round of encounters was set to begin Monday night, April 16. 

Harold Van Buskirk returned to the Olympic in the U. S. Men's Sabre Team for the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. Other members of the sabre team are Nicholas Muray, John Huffman, Arthur Lyon, N. C. Cohn and E. S. Acel. The team placed 11^th. 

At the University of Texas, Beaumont native Trueman O'Quinn was "subsidized away by the women's P. T. department." Fencing immediately took off in Austin. At about the same time, Col. Sigurd N. Ekdahl of Sweden, known as skilled sabreur, took over the fencing instruction of the UT men. Among Col. Ekdahl's pupils was a young man from Galveston named Clement D'Albergo. 

In D'Albergo, Ekdahl had a student who already had fencing experience. Before coming to the University of Texas, D'Albergo had spent four years abroad learning at some of the better schools in Europe.

1929:   

In June of 1929, the Dallas Little Theater began looking toward increased productions. Audiences were growing, as well demand for more offerings and increasingly high standards. In an effort to provide training and provide their performers with the utmost competence, the theater began looking at plans to provide much of this training from within. The company began exploring the possibility of offering classes in diction, body movement and fencing among other courses.

A study commissioned by the Carnegie Commission reports that for American coaches, players, alumni, and fans, "the ethical bearing of intercollegiate football contests and their scholastic aspects are of secondary importance to the winning of victories and financial success."

The Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (IWFA) is organized by Bryn Mawr, New York University, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania.

1930: The Black Mask Fencing Club  

Fencing was included on a program of athletic and calisthenic events put on in Dallas by the American Sokol Union, January 26. Other events included boxing, wrestling, special songs and music,and basketball games were also exhibited.

In San Antonio a new fencing master was setting up shop. The classified ads in the San Antonio Express saw an entry that read, "Fencing, most brilliant of all sports, taught to ladies and gentlemen by Capt. Jean Maurice of New Orleans, Military Academy of St. Cyr, France." The location was given as the Army Room at the Gunther Hotel.

More than a little peripatetic, a similar June classified ad for Capt. Maurice gave the location as the Earle Cobb Studio. A moth later, a similar ad read, "Capt. Jean Maurice announces the opening of his physical culture school. Fencing and corrective gymnastics. Reducing and developing quickly and pleasantly. Children classes; inauguration enrollments half fee; coolest office in town. 227 Milam Building."

Fencing and riflery were added to the athletic program that summer at Camp Mystic in Kerrville, under the direction of Major S. N. Ekdahl from the University of Texas.

The Dallas YMCA brought about yet another revival of fencing in August 1930. The YMCA retained the services one W. Wesley Pardue, described in one newspaper as a, "star performer on the University of Florida team," to serve as instructor. Additionally, a fencing club was organized at the YMCA.

Among those first members of the Dallas YMCA fencing club were: Melvin A. Denning; Grover Whipker; Leroy Brown; L. Moskowitz; L. E. Elliston; Carmen C. Hamill: Jack West; John F. Petty; J. P. Hanks; P. F. Cosnahan; Don Maxwell; Harry Wheat; and, of course, W. Wesley Pardue.

The new club took the name the Black Mask Fencing Club and began meeting on Tuesday nights. On Wednesday, August 24, they held elections for officers. Not surprisingly their new instructor, W. Wesley Pardue was elected president. Carmen C. Hamill was elected vice president.  John Petty won the dual offices of secretary and treasurer. Melvin A. Denning was elected sergeant-at-arms.

Of at least as much significance to fencing overall inTexas, was the 1930 arrival of Jose Villardell to teach fencing at the Fort Worth YMCA. Villardell was a native of Spain and had learned the Spanish school of fencing while studying at the Royal Academy in Madrid. While in America the French school of fencing tended to predominate, with a solid cadre of support for the Italian school, as well, the Spanish school was little practiced here.

In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, however, it would exert a large influence over local fencers.

In Austin, with the fall semester, a swimming instructor named Ed Barlow took over the duties of fencing instructor at the University of Texas from S. N. Ekdahl.

Another type of fencing was coached in Dallas that September by Theodore Kosloff. The Russian dancer and film actor was at the Oak Cliff Little Theater, coaching a local cast in Hamlet. Kosloff instructed the cast in the particulars of court carriage and fencing.

On October 12, the Dallas YMCA presented another of its gymnastic exhibitions as entertainment at a reception in the central facility for new members. Among the events was a ten-minute fencing exhibition by the Black Mask Fencing Club.

1931: Fencing with Fire    

In March of 1931, W. Wesley Pardue and the Black Mask Fencing Club enthusiastically participated in a series of public fencing exhibitions. Pardue held an interclub fencing tournament at the Dallas YMCA on March 19. Members of seven athletic clubs based at the Y competed. On March 21 the Black Mask fencers provided part of the entertainment for a young audience at the Tyler Street Methodist Church. Shortly thereafter, they also provided a fencing demonstration as a diversion in the midst of  the state YMCA wrestling championship competition in Dallas. 

The spring of 1931 saw the University of Texas in Austin inaugurate what would become known as their annual "fite nite," in which various competitive sports held their finals all on the same evening and in the same gym, one after the other. 

In Fort Worth, a fencing demonstration was put on for a meeting of employees of the Frisco Line on April 2. The fencers came from the Fort Worth YMCA. They included the instructor, Jose Villardell, and fencers J. B. Petta. Clarence Bishop, and Raymond Dupree. Petta was from Sicily, but had studied under Villardell and was an active exponent of the Spanish style. 

At the Oak Cliff YMCA, R. D. Bourne was retained to coach fencing at that facility. On November 10 Pardue and Bourne gave a fencing exhibition for new members of the Downtown YMCA. 

On December 17, the young men's clubs of the Oak Cliff Y held their first big gymnastic show. A featured act was something the media variously described as "pyrotechnic fencing display" and "fencing-with-fire" by Bourne and Pardue.

1932:  

Harold Van Buskirk once again made the U. S. Sabre team at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. His teammates included John Huffman, Norman Armitage, Peter Bruder, Nickolas Muray and Ralph Faulkner. The U. S. placed forth in the team sabre event.

Around 1932 young Alvin Levy Goodstein viewed a fencing exhibition at the Dallas YMCA. He later approached one of the senior fencers and told him, "I love that sport and would love to learn it." Oskar Grunow asked the young man his age. When Goodstein, who was born in 1918, replied that he was 14, Grunow, born in 1899, gruffly replied, "I started when I was eight. You are too late to learn fencing."

Needless to say, Grunow began teaching Goodstein. "That man was like a father to me," Goodstein later reported.

1933: Fencing, Theater and the Mexican Air Corps  

By 1933, J. B. Petta had assumed the position of fencing instructor at the Dallas YMCA, with Pardue as one of the students. Petta also had a theatrical bent and taught fencing and choreographed swordplay to actors. Among other items, he choreographed the fight scenes and duels for the Oak Cliff Little Theater's March production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Louis Veda Quince.

Dallas had no lock, however, on theatrical fencing in Texas. On May 12, the Waco Little Theater mounted a production of The Romancers by Edmond Rostand. As with Rostand's better known Cyrano de Bergerac, this play calls for its share of swordplay. The task of instructing the cast in fencing fell to general director Maxwell Sholes, who had received his fencing training at the Carnegie Tech School of the Theater.

The YMCA in Dallas continued as the local capital of fencing in north Texas. On May 12, a fencing tournament was scheduled at the gymnasium of the downtown branch of the Dallas YMCA. The Dallas fencers, by J. B. Petta, were W. Wesley Pardue, Oskar Grunow, Lloyd Silberberger, G. T. Meador, Clint McWhirter and Jimmy Bryant. They arranged to fence against a team from the University of Texas.

The Southwestern School of Theater, under the direction of Louis Veda Quince, began taking enrollment for their fall session on July 31. The school was in a transition and seeking a permanent facility to call its home. Among the still-tentative faculty was J. B. Petta as fencing instructor.

Back at the YMCA in Dallas, interest in fencing was also picking up. An article by the Dallas Morning News on July 28 carried a photograph of J. B. Petta and his pupil, Oskar Grunow fencing.

Amusingly, the reporter's comfort and knowledge base for fencing (and lack thereof) was revealed in the description of the course, "With part one of fencing completed, which is the development of skill with the foils, the Y fencers this week take up a more dangerous weapon, the two edged epee. In epee work, the trick is to slash and not to prick. Both the foils and epee must be mastered before practice with the saber begins."

They did note, "Y sports fans are following with interest the series of exhibition matches arranged between the Dallas fencers and the class at the Ft. Worth YMCA taught by Jose Villardell."

Late July also marked the opening of the Southwest School of the Theater's new facility at 1720 ½ Bryan in Dallas. The Dallas YMCA's ubiquitous fencing master J. B. Petta was on hand there, as well, as fencing instructor to the aspiring actors. Classes were set to begin September 1.

On August 3, an exhibition bout was scheduled at the YMCA in Dallas. There had been two previous such events, both well received, at the Fort Worth YMCA. Facing off would be the Dallas students of J. B. Petta against their Fort Worth counterparts, taught by Jose Villardell. An announcement in a Dallas newspaper stated the Spanish style of fencing would be used. Villardell, as noted earlier, was a graduate of the Royal Academy in Madrid. Petta, a Sicilian, had been a student of Villardell. Among Villardell's current pupils was former Galveston resident John Fuhrhop.  

It may or may not have been connected to the increased fencing activity in Dallas, but after a lapse of many years, a new fencing club was formed at Texas A&M for the 1933-1934 scholastic year. 

By mid-September the Dallas YMCA announced plans to organize six clubs, each based on a different sport: gymnastics; swimming; wrestling; weight lifting; boxing and fencing. Presumably the previously organized Black Mask Fencing Club has since become defunct. 

The Southwest School of the Theater organized elections of student officals. Winning as secretary was future regional theatre maven Margaret "Margo" Jones. Of note with regard to fencing, J. B. Petta was also beginning a new private course in fencing in his studio in the school. By October Petta's class would number some forty students. 

If his cadre of fencing actors were not enough to keep him busy, Petta organized an exhibition of elementary fencing with fifteen of his students at the YMCA as part of a multi-sport event. 

No doubt in response to J. B. Petta's very active fencing class at the Southwest School of the Theatre, the Women's Guild of the Little Theater of Dallas gave a tea on October 26 in the theater lounge. The guest of honor was one Captain Jean G. Maurice, described as a, "former coach of the United States fencing team in the Olympic Games." Before the tea was over, the Women's Guild announced that they were going to sponsor Capt. Maurice for a series of fencing classes. 

According to the Guild's press release, Maurice had been born in Louisiana of French ancestry. His family had moved to Europe when he was 5-years-old. He studied in Paris and Florence, and was pursuing the study of medicine when the World War erupted. Maurice joined the British Army, becoming a member of the Royal Flying Corp. He served at Gallipoli, Egypt, Palestine and India.

Maurice studied fencing at the French military academy at St. Cyr. He had since taught fencing at the University of Colorado, Wright Seminary and the University of Washington, serving also as a coach on the US team to the 1924 Olympic Games.

Many competitive fencers could claim a military background, as one petty criminal could attest to following a turn of event in San Antonio easily as dramatic as anything requested of Messrs. Petta and Maurice.

In the early morning hours of October 31, an intruder broke into one family's home. He, no doubt felt quite bold. When he chanced upon a young female servant he ordered her to fix him a cup of coffee. The frightened girl cried out, waking two young men who were guests of the family.

The men sprang out of bed and raced for the back of the house. There each produced a fencing saber. They cornered the felon and began to flail the hapless intruder across the back. He quickly surrendered and was transported first to Charity Hospital, there later to jail.

As it turned out the two defenders were Lietenants Ricardo Castaneda and Javier Gonzales of the Mexican Air Corps. Long-time fencers both had also been members of the fencing team sponsored by the Mexican Government to compete at the 1925 Pan-American Exposition in Guatemala.

Back in Dallas, the two theater groups fencing cadres continued to spur each other along. As Jean Maurice began his fencing classes at the Little Theater of Dallas, J. B. Petta organized the city's first "practice fencing tournament" on Sunday morning, November 5, in Reverchon Park. The entries drew from his 45 female students at the Southwest School of the Theater and 15 male pupils from the YMCA. Petta stated his intent to hold these meets once a month, throughout the season, to stimulate the fencing community.

As for the classes taught by Jean Maurice, J. B. Petta said, "It finally gives us the needed competition to keep the sport keen and alive and it would be a splendid thing for Dallas if the two schools could arrange to hold competitive tournaments at a large meet once each year."

Both the Oak Cliff YMCA and the Dallas YMCA sent committees to the state Physical Education Committee in Corsicana on Sunday, November 12. Among other things the year's schedule of interassociational competitions was to be arranged. There were representatives for each sport. Fencing at the Dallas YMCA was represented by Oskar Grunow.

On December 6, J. B. Petta's female fencers from the Southwest School of the Theater crossed blades with his YMCA fencers. Among the contingent of fencing thespians were Ruth Hunter, Elinor Meador, Prudence Ehrhardt, Louise Spencer, Rita Kennedy and Margaret "Margo" Jones.

In advance of the tournament, on December 4, the Dallas Morning News ran a photo of the six actresses listed above performing the salute. "Their fencing, according to the Spanish method is most punctilious," the caption read. Eight days later it carried a photo of Jean Maurice fencing with one of his pupils, Davilla St. Clair, and making clear the debt he owed to the French school of fencing.

Fencing had become so topical in the Dallas area, that almost any event, no matter how mundane, became newsworthy if fencing were involved. Witness the fact that on December 15 the local media actually covered the loss of a couple of foils that had been set down on the running board of the owner's car and forgotten about until after they had already driven some distance.

On December 18 J. B. Petta's students from the downtown Dallas YMCA went to Fort Worth for a practice meet with the Fort Worth YMCA students of Jose Villardell. There were to be four "spada" matches between the Cowtown fencers and Dallas fencers Oskar Grunow, Pete Clark, Lloyd Silberberger and Stanley Kerr. Petta also brought a contingent of foilists consisting of Wellington Cornell, Munrex Alcorn, Laurence Stafford, Lloyd Williams, D. R. Holt, F. M. Cowman, Van Riel and former Galvestonian John Fuhrhop.

Petta and Villardell also agreed to an exhibition bout between the two advocates of the Spanish school.

Jean Maurice attended the Dallas Country Club's annual New Year's dinner-dance on Saturday, December 30, where he gave an illustrated lecture of fencing, assisted by a pupil, Edward T. Keck Jr. The evening included special music and a floor show.