The Ice Capades was a traveling entertainment show featuring theatrical performances involving ice skating. Shows often featured former Olympic and National Champion figure skaters who had retired from amateur competition.

Started in 1940, Ice Capades grew rapidly and prospered for fifty years. A decline in popularity ensued, and the show went out of business around 1995. There have been several attempts to revive the show and its name.

Similar traditional ice-skating entertainment shows included the Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice.

[edit] History

Ice Capades was founded in February, 1940 in Hershey, Pennsylvania by nine men who called themselves the Arena Managers Association. They met to discuss forming an ice show to play in their arenas during the 1940-1941 entertainment season. The arenas represented were all well-known venues of the day:^[1]

• Boston Garden, represented by Walter A. Brown
• Rhode Island Auditorium (Louis Pieri)
• Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (Louis Jacobs)
• Hershey Sports Arena (John Sollenberger)
• Cleveland Arena (Al Sutphin)
• Springfield Coliseum (Eddie Shore)
• Philadelphia Arena (Peter A. Tyrrell)
• New Haven Arena (Nathan Podoloff)
• Pittsburgh Gardens (John Harris)

Harris had noted the popularity of ice skating displays during the intermissions between periods of hockey games.^{[citation needed]}

The arena managers chose the name Ice Capades, and formed a group of skaters.

[edit] Early years

Ice Capades program from 1945. Note the many production numbers, the large size of the cast, etc. Single-themed shows had not yet been developed.

The group's first performance was a mere four months after its founding, on June 16, 1940 at New Orleans Municipal Auditorium. The show closed there on June 29 and moved to Atlantic City Convention Hall, where it played nightly from July 19 through September 2. Famous skaters in the large cast included Belita, Robin Lee, and Vera Hruba. The group's first touring season under the Ice Capades name covered 24 cities between November, 1940 and May, 1941.^[1]

The show's success spawned two films from Republic Pictures, "Ice-Capades" in 1941,^[2][3] and "Ice Capades Revue" in 1942.^[4][5] The films featured actors and entertainers of the day such as James Ellison, Ellen Drew, Jerry Colonna and Phil Silvers, as well as the Ice Capades skaters. They were not considered to be films of quality, and the first one was panned by The New York Times^[6]

In 1942, the show featured world champion skater Megan Taylor, new talent Donna Atwood, and an acrobatic team from Boston. The next year U.S. figure skating champion Bobby Specht joined the show. He would be actively involved with Ice Capades for the next 31 years. 1943 also introduced the "Old Smoothies," Orrin Markhus, 51, and his partner Irma Thomas, 44, plus Trixie, the skating juggler. The production number "Toys for Sale" was the first story on ice with original words and music.^[1]

[edit] Later on

In the early days, Ice Capades shows were highly theatrical, with vaudeville elements, including scantily-clad showgirls.

Ice Capades shows were extremely popular for several decades—virtually a household name—although criticized by some as kitsch.^[7]

Harris sold the company in 1963 for $5.5 million; in 1986 then-owner Metromedia sold Ice Capades and the Harlem Globetrotters as a package to International Broadcasting Corporation for $30 million. However, a decline in popularity began in the 1980s and the parent company went bankrupt in 1991. In 1993 Dorothy Hamill bought Ice Capades assets in a bankruptcy sale and attempted to revive the company with the critically acclaimed Frozen in Time: Cinderella on Ice, but attendance figures remained stagnant. In February 1995 she sold the company for $10 million to television evangelist Pat Robertson's International Family Entertainment Inc., but they announced plans to sell in August 1995, and Ice Capades went out of business a short time later.^[8]

Throughout their existence, licensed characters and properties used in productions included "A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein" (1961), "A Flintstone Fantasy" (1967), "Hey Kids, Meet The Snorks!" (1985), "The Ewoks" (1986), and "From The World of Nintendo" and "Barbie Talent Search" (both 1989).

Analysts believe that on the one hand, the increasing popularity of the sport of figure skating meant that more sophisticated audiences came to prefer straightforward Olympic-style ice-skating competitions, or skating shows for adults (i.e., without cartoon characters) such as Stars on Ice; and on the other hand, shows such as Disney on Ice (featuring Disney cartoon characters) successfully competed for the child audience.^[9]

[edit] Notable skaters

These are some of the many notable skaters who have appeared in Ice Capades shows or been involved in other aspects of the company:^[1][10]

[edit] Portable ice rinks

In the early 1950s, the group started using portable ice rinks, called "tanks." This let them perform in arenas that did not have their own ice surface, greatly expanding the number of venues where the show could operate. It took several days and 30-40 workers to install the tanks. In the late 1960s, Ice Capades designed and patented a new portable ice rink system that could be installed in less than 10 hours on most arena basketball floors or other surfaces.^[1]

[edit] Chalet skating rinks

In 1966, Ice Capades bought an ice skating rink in Topanga Plaza shopping center, Canoga Park, California. The success of this venture let to the establishment of the Ice Capades Chalet Division, which owned and operated about ten rinks, ran ice skating schools, and developed a curriculum that could develop a skater from beginner to competitive skater. Most of the Chalets were in California and Texas, with others in Georgia, Arizona and North Carolina. Hall of Fame ice skating coach John Nicks ran the Chalet division.^[1]

[edit] Revivals

In the fall of 2000, Ice Capades was resurrected by Garden Entertainment in its original format with a large cast of skaters. The new show was conceived, directed and choreographed by the former German pair skating champion Almut Lehmann Peyper. The show was not a financial success and closed in November 2000, canceling the remaining tour dates.

Another attempt to revive Ice Capades was made in the spring of 2008 with plans for a tent show production called "Mystika", billed as "Cirque Meets Ice". In mid-August 2008, auditions were held in Lake Placid, New York for the all new Ice Capades. Developed by Entertainment Holdings and Red Brick Entertainment, Ice Capades was announced for production as live skating shows, television specials, episodic series, and web content. Three-time U.S. pairs champion and two-time Olympian JoJo Starbuck was named as Artistic Director.^[11] However, in April 2009, the tour was canceled by its organizers, Garden Family Shows, stranding many of the performers without pay and leaving suppliers unpaid.^[12][13]

[edit] Ice Capades in popular culture

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Curiously, sitcom episodes with a plot involving tickets to the Ice Capades were still being written years after the demise of the company, including episodes of The Drew Carey Show, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, "Gossip Girl (TV series)" and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show has also been widely parodied, for example by cartoonist Gary Larson with comics captioned "Ice Crusades" and "Dirt Capades". In the cartoon series, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends it is spoofed as the "Ice Charades".

The Ice Capades were also lampooned in the Robot Chicken Star Wars special, appearing as the fictitious "Empire On Ice!" (June 2007)

The Ice Capades franchise was also successfully used for a while to manage ice rinks around North America, starting in Santa Monica in a converted bowing alley and in other venues such as the Galleria Mall in Houston, Texas; Costa Mesa California; Topanga Plaza (Los Angeles area) and San Diego among others.^{[citation needed]} Among the executives who ran the chalet franchise were Michael Kirby, and Ron Priestley, (both former ice show stars) and George Eby. Acclaimed U.S. Olympic trainer, John Nicks, was their National Figure Skating director.^{[citation needed]} The concept of using ice rinks in the center of shopping malls was successfully applied by Ice Capades. The rinks were developed and funded by the real estate developer with Ice Capades working on a monthly management fee plus a percentage of takings.^{[citation needed]} Ice Capades Chalets also sold the concept of professional ice rink management to a major shopping mall in Johannesburg, South Africa (Carlton Center), and trained staff. It was to be their only international franchise.^{[citation needed]} South African ice skating champion, Terry Meyer, was among those trained by Ice Capades at their Santa Monica Boulevard headquarters where costumes for the ice shows were also manufactured.^{[citation needed]} With its expertise in making ice show costumes, Ice Capades were also tasked with making costumes for some of the top entertainers such as Elvis Presley and Liberace.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Slate.com: The Ice Capades: Requiem for the ice carnival
• http://www.billcasselman.com/wintergram_archive/ice_capades.htm
• 2000 Ice Capades revival feature story
• Archived web site of 2000 Ice Capades revival
• Website of the 2008 Ice Capades revival.
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/22/09 - Ice Capades alums say thanks for the memories