"NJNESOTA I

,MONTH OFEATLESS MONDAYS

TER GETAWAY

JANUARY 201:

$3.95

PSTADS E POLL ES

x'Suft,

[ PHOTO COURTESY OF

ICE FOLLIES 75TH ARCHIVE ]

was anything but the"foolish act" implied by its title. Humorousskating skits were certainly a big part ofthe performances, but this first-ever touringice show, which originated in Minnesotain 1936, was a class act and successfulbusiness venture that attracted almost70 million people to its shows in the U.S.and Canada.

Follies cast members traveled together11 months of the year, and this closenesscreated a family-like camaraderie that isstill going strong today. More than 400people gathered in San Francisco lastOctober for the Ice Follies Diamond Jubilee75th Anniversary Reunion to celebrateand honor the history of this iconic skatingorganization and the founding families.San Francisco was a central location forthe show three months of the year, but theroots of the Ice Follies stretch back to theearly 1900s and three Minnesota boysnamed Eddie, Roy and Oscar.

LAKE C O M O RINK RATSEddie Shipstad was born Feb. 16, 1907,at his family's St. Paul home on CharlesStreet. He clamped on his first pair of iceskates at age eight so he could glide on theice like his father, Frank, who enjoyed thiswinter activity that was popular in hishome country of Sweden. By the time hewas 12, Eddie's main interest was skating.

Lake Como attracted hundreds of skaterson winter Sunday afternoons. Eddie wasa rink rat, and this is where he becamefriends with Oscar Johnson, anotherskating enthusiast. The two boys — Eddiewith his "fancy" skating and Oscar with histricks, turns and jumps — clearly stood outfrom the crowd. In his book Eddie ShipstadIce Follies Star, L.E. Leipold said, "So muchattention did [Oscar] attract on the lakethat the police became alarmed for fearthat the ice would give way under the massweight of the group and [he] was warned notto continue his activities there. He complied— by speeding over to another spot on thelake where he went on with his antics."

>012 TONKATIMES.COM

[ PHOTO COURTESY

OF ICE FOLLIES 75TH ARCHIVE ]

TAKING THEIR SHOWS TO ARENASEddie and Oscar each had opportunities toperform individually at the Hippodrome onthe state fairgrounds. In January 1924,they performed together, putting on the"Spike McDougall and Gas House Annie"Bowery act they had perfected on LakeComo. Oscar was decked out in fancyclothes and a top hat, and Eddieimpersonated a woman, wearing a dressand wig. The crowd loved it. In themeantime, Eddie's younger brother Roywas becoming a serious skater. At age 16,Roy placed third in the junior competitionof a national tournament.

By the next year, Oscar and Eddie were

TONKATIMES.COM

paid $5 and sometimes $10 to performtheir act between periods of hockey gamesin St. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth. Theirfirst big break came in 1926 when theywere hired to perform at Madison SquareGarden between periods of Ranger hockeygames. Compensation was in the three-figure range, but they had to pay their owntransportation and lodging and likely cameout with little, if any, profit. On a separateoccasion, Roy was also invited to performat this famous New York arena. He madehis own costume, which was covered witha bedazzling 16,000 hand-stitched sequins.

THE FORMATION OF ICE FOLLIESAround 1934, Eddie, Roy and Oscar put

together a top-notch team of performers,including one of the most famous skatersof the time, Evelyn Chandler, the well-known Simpson Sisters, and a nationally-known musician, Lou Breeze, and hisorchestra. Their first show was slated forMinneapolis, but circumstances turnedunfavorable. Bank failures sent thegovernment scrambling to preventeconomic disaster. Two days before theshow, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared anationwide bank holiday associated withthe Emergency Banking Act of 1933. EddieShipstad said, "We took anything that byany stretch of the imagination could becalled negotiable ... We even accepted acouple of live chickens from one customer."

In 1935, Shipstads and Johnson accepteda contract with the Hotel Sherman inChicago that started out as a 4-week showand was eventually extended to 16months. This commitment required somedifficult decisions about chasing theirskating dreams. Oscar's wife, Carrie,wanted to settle in St. Paul, and he wasnervous about taking an extended leavefrom his stable 17-year job as a chemistat Koppers Company, a coke foundry in St.Paul. And Eddie had to take an extendedleave from his job selling typewriters.

TAKING ICE FOLLIES ON THE ROADWhile in Chicago, Eddie, Roy and Oscarformed a vision of a touring ice show,perhaps influenced by the concept oftraveling circuses, which were a big partof Americana at the time. On Nov. 3, 1936,two months after their Chicago contractended, the vision became a reality.Shipstads & Johnson Ice Follies hit theroad in a Greyhound bus loaded with 26skaters and $500 in homemade costumes.

Once again, circumstances were anythingbut favorable for their first officialperformance in Tulsa, Oklahoma, onNov. 7, 1936. According to Leipold, "Whatthey did not know was that several casesof infantile paralysis had just at that timeappeared in Tulsa and all schools, churches

/^ J

and theaters had been closed to the public... Few indeed were the people that nightwho ignored the health department'swarning to avoid public gatherings." AfterOscar peeked through the curtains andsaw the small crowd, he said to theperformers: "Don't worry, kids. We've got'em outnumbered."

Despite the small audience, they stillhonored their second night commitment.When they reached the next stop in KansasCity, a blizzard kept crowds small again.It was here that someone came up with theidea to paint the ice. That creative touchhad never been done before, and it becamean outstanding feature of Ice Follies.

By the time the show moved on toPhiladelphia, Shipstads & Johnson weredesperately in need of larger audiences tomake their business venture a success. Itwas expensive taking so many employeeson the road, and the public healthwarnings and blizzards were wreakinghavoc on their revenue stream. The arenamanager had heard of their dire straits,and since he believed in the quality of theshow, he advertised aggressively. Agentsfrom Madison Square Garden and BostonGardens came to check out the show, andafter seeing the enthusiastic response fromthe large crowd, they rushed to thedressing rooms to secure bookings for their

arenas. Ice Follies had found the lift itneeded, and the show was now bookedthrough the remainder of the season andinto the next.

THEATER ON ICEThirty years after Philadelphia, 167 IceFollies skaters performed before capacitycrowds at Madison Square Garden. It wasa logistical feat to manage these grandshows - in essence, theater performanceson ice featuring 24 different numbers. Withmore than 400 costume changes in a singleperformance, someone had to organize3,000 separate wardrobe items and havethem ready for quick access. Others hadto design and make the elaboratecostumes, compose and orchestrate themusic, and design the choreography forelegant ice dances, stunts and humorousskits. The 20 spotlights needed at MadisonSquare Gardens required enough electricityto brighten more than 3,000 average homesat the time. All of the props and cargo filledup 24 semi-trailers to get to the trainstation, and a 16-car train was used tomove the cast and crew to the next city.

The fast-paced show was filled withcrowd-pleasing skits. An original favoritewas Oscar and Eddie's "Spark Plug" horseact. Eddie, who took up the rear, once said,"There were times when I really felt theindignity of it all. Spark Plug had a > > >

TONKATIMES.COM

COURTESY OF JEAN AND JOAN PASTOR ]

propensity for sitting down. Of course, thiscouldn't be done without my becoming theone sat upon. It wasn't easy!"

One of the most popular acts was Mr.Debonair, originally performed by Roywearing a top hat and tails and flanked bysix glamorous females. Fourteen-year-oldRichard Dwyer, with braces on his teeth,took over the act, renamed as "The YoungDebonair and the Dwyer Girls," and hebecame one of the most popularpersonalities in skating show history. Othermemorable acts were Frick and Frack andthe perfectly synchronized Ice Folliettes.The show always had a set of twins on theice, and at least three were from Minnesota:Mary and Jane Thomas, Joyce and JoanneScotvold, and Jean and Joan Pastor.

Another Ice Follies star was St. Paul nativeBetty Schalow, known as one of the world'sfinest skaters in the early 1950s. In 1973,five-time U.S. National Champion JanetLynn signed a three-year $1.4 millioncontract with Ice Follies, making her thehighest paid professional female athleteat the time, and helping the Ice Follies gaincompetitive advantage against their rival,Ice Capades.

ICE FOLLIES MEMORIES JEAN ^^/JOAN PASTOR"We loved every minute of it," Jean and JoanPastor, 73, say in unison about their ice Folliesexperience. The twins had just finished theirsophomore year of high school in 1954 whenEddie, Roy, Oscar, a choreographer and the showdirector came to observe one of their skatingprograms and offered them a contract.

Joan says their first response was, "Oh, that's sonice of you, but we've just become cheerleaders."After giving the offer more thought, and listeningto their father's wise words that these types ofopportunities don't come along often, theyaccepted and soon boarded the train for Seattle.Was it hard for their parents to let them go at theage of 15? Their parents told them, "If you haven'tlearned what we've been trying to teach you by

now, you never will."

The twins apparently had a good upbringing,because they spent the next two-and-a-halfyears traveling the country and taking careof themselves. That meant handling their ownfinances and maintaining a disciplined studyschedule so that they could pass theircorrespondence classes and graduate withtheir class from Southwest High School.

Ice Follies created a new program each year,and opening nights in Los Angeles were mostmemorable for Jean and Joan. The first two rowsof the arena were filled with celebrities dressed intheir finest, and there was always an after-showparty. These were the glamour days, and Jean

and Joan wore high heels and girdles not only tothe parties, but also on their way to the ice arenasfor the shows.

The Pastor twins left the Ice Follies so that theycould go to college with the rest of their class.Joan got back into cheerleading and graduatedwith a degree in math. She worked in theinformation technology field for 27 years and nowloves her job as a flight attendant. Jean madehistory as one of the original U of M song leaders.She started her career as a flight attendant at age21 and worked in airline-related jobs until she leftthe corporate world in 2006. She laces up herskates on a regular basis as a professional coachat the Braemar Figure Skating Club. Neither sisterhas any intention of retiring or slowing down.

TONKATIMES.COM

A CLASS ACTAfter its slow start, Ice Follies experienceda long and successful run. The foundersstopped performing by the mid-1950s, butthey still produced the show after that. FeldEntertainment bought both Ice Follies andHoliday on Ice in 1980 and merged the showsinto Disney on Ice. Oscar, Roy and Eddie passedaway in 1970, 1975 and 1998, respectively.

What stands out most in Ice Follies historywas their success in organizing a close-knitteam that maintained the highest ofstandards in putting on spectacular shows."Our Follies was definitely a family type ofentertainment," Eddie said. "And we wereresolved that it was to always stay thatway. We wanted nothing offensive or evenquestionable ever to be a part of our show.Entire families came to be entertained, andwe would be ashamed to offend any ofthem by presenting anything of bad taste."

These elaborate family-friendly ice shows,created and produced by three St. Paulboys, were the embodiment of Minnesota-nice on ice. No wonder the former Ice Folliesskaters gathered from across the countryto celebrate the 75th anniversary ofthis Minnesota class act.

CHOOSE A PLAN FOR YOUR FUTUREIt is easy to see why the excitement is building around thedevelopment of Trillium Woods. Among the many distinctadvantages of living at this new 62+ senior living community,one stands apart - /.//eCare™.

Trillium Woods offers you more.As part of Trillium Woods LifeCare program, you will receiveunlimited days of care in the health center at essentially thesame monthly fee as the Trillium Woods residence you occupy.This represents a significant savings when compared with othercommunities and health care options, and assures you and yourfamily that you will receive quality care for a known cost.

Site and road work is underway and construction is planned tobegin this fall.

Call (763) 553-7600 today to learn more aboutpre-construction pricing and choice residential opportunities.

"TRIl_UILJA/VWOODS

INFORMATION CENTER33OO FERNBROOK LANE N., STE. 225PLYMOUTH, MINNESOTA 55447

763.553.76OO • WWW.TRILLIUMWOODSLCS.COM

Questions on health care reform? How about long-term care?

Need a health, dental, life or disability plan? Do you have a "plan"for retirement?

BCT Corp.BENEFITS CONSULTING TPA

TONKATIMES.COM