John Harris , the slick and successful heir to his don ’s multi - tiered entertainment business , thought he know what would pad his hockey business during the Great Depression . Between catamenia during pro games being played at his Pittsburgh arena , Harris would invite Olympic figure skater Sonja Henie to the icing . Henie would perform flawless skating tactical maneuver , giving the impoverished crowd more for their money .
By 1940 , Harris had extend on the idea : Instead of filling time between periods , he launch a plan to have skaters like Henieoccupy the arenaduring the entire ice hockey off - season , wow crowds with on - methamphetamine tale , juggling , music , and expressive routines . Together with nine other arena managers , Harris formed the Ice Capades . Over the next six decades , the review would tour the state , popularize ice skating , and make Harris a very rich man . It would even strike a deal with Disney to outfit the company ’s library of characters with skates — a move that would eventually bear witness to be the offset of the oddment .
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yield in 1898 , Harris had slowlypeeled himself awayfrom his father ’s fiscal interest in movie theatersand other attractions to focus almost exclusively on Duquesne Gardens , the Pittsburgh - field orbit where he held rodeos , hockey games , box peer , and other spectator event . When he saw the winner of his halftime skate show , he quickly began arranging for a touring company to take the estimate to the next grade .
Installing Olympic trainer Rosemary Stewart to counsel recruits , Harris enlisted 150 performers . There were some curious mandates : Harrisinsistedthat no cleaning woman be under 5 - foot-1 or over 5 - foot-5 ; the skaters would live and locomote under the counselling of chaperones and a nanny ; they ’d be paid $ 65 a calendar week , but would be responsible for maintaining their costume , which could cost $ 450 . ( A skater was once dock a workweek ’s pay for dare to sit down in her elaborate getup . )
The Ice Capades call on a paltry $ 174 profit in 1940 , but Holy Writ spread and the tour caught on . Harris muster in act like Trixie the Juggler , whocould skatewithout dropping a ballock , to bring together his even stable of performers . There were adaptations of Broadway plays and elaborate skating numbers . Harris want the issue to feel like a Broadway show - stopper , only on skates . By the 1950s , the show was so democratic that it drag on portable ice makers to baseball stadiums and other skating rink - less space for make a skating surface on which to do .
Donna Atwood , who was just 15 years sure-enough when she joined the show in 1942 , promptly became the Ice Capades’sbiggest star(and finally Harris ’s wife ) . She tour with the show for 17 years , becoming such a famous person that newspapers were capable to account the pending birth of her child by writing only that “ Donna ” was expecting . No last name was needed . Atwood evenmodeledfor Disney animators for the succession in 1942’sBambiwhere Bambi and Thumper tumble on a frozen lake .
Disney ’s official link to the Ice Capades began several twelvemonth afterwards , in 1949 , when the two troupe agreed to have licensed Disney characters and floor in Ice Capades shows . With costumes shaped more for practicality on the ice than faithfulness to their likenesses , characters like Mickey Mouse could sometimes be hard to recognize , but the kinship was a succeeder . Disneyfeaturedin Ice Capades shows through 1966 . ( In 1969 , when Disney set up its own degree tour , critic sardonically dubbed it “ Disney on Wood . ” )
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By that full point , Harris had already sold his interest in the review for $ 5.5 million . progressively , the Ice Capades had turned to the accomplishment and fame of Olympian figure skaters face for a second act follow medal win in competition . Dorothy Hamill , the breakout star of the 1976 Winter Olympics , bless with them ; Peggy Fleming opted to join up with the Ice Follies , a rival show . Owing to nervousness , Hamill fall doubly during her Ice Capades first appearance .
“ It was worse than the Olympics , ” Hamilltold the press , citing anxiousness over her performance as the understanding for her fall . But Hamill became as closely describe with the show as Atwood once had been , and the Ice Capades make a locus for athletes to parlay their Olympic notoriety into something more .
Although Hamill was no longer in her athletic flush , she still matte up she had plenty to offer the microscope stage show . In 1993 , she , her hubby , and a business partnerboughtthe Ice Capades and pull it from the verge of failure . Hamill ’s intention was to evolve from the anthology - way revue of onetime to tell complete floor . Cinderellawould be her first product . It would also be one of her last .
In less than a year , Hamill — who suffered abroken ribin 1994 when her Prince grab her too powerfully in a waltz — soldthe floundering company to televangelist Pat Robertson ’s International Family Entertainment . By 1997 , funding had dry out up and two circuit werecanceled . In an era of cable television and the real - life skating dramatic play of the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding feud , the public appetence for professional figure skating had diminished beyond repair . What was left was take by Disney , which could put up everything from the California Raisins to Donald Duck gliding across the ice .
“ I try not to think of the Disney demo as competition , " Hamill said in 1994 , just before the sale . " They ’re different from us . We do n’t have skaters in big cause . Besides , the Walt Disney people have been very nice to us . When we were out in Anaheim to perform at The Pond , they gave me the Florida key to Toontown . "
