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Oklahoma Kid - Dreaming in the Dustbowl As a kid in Oklahoma in the 1940s I was excited by the joy and spectacle of all the glorious Technicolor movie musicals of that era. I couldn’t wait to see the newest film with Gene Kelly’s exuberant dancing, Esther Williams’ lavish swimming extravaganzas, or Carmen Miranda’s wild and wacky costumes. Surprisingly, the one that changed my life was in stark black and white - an unforgettable scene of skaters in gleaming white costumes magically swirling and dancing around the great star Sonja Henie, all stunningly reflected in a stage of mirror-like black ice. Awestruck, I knew that that was something I had to do. I began collecting magazine and newspaper articles about ice shows and wrote to famous skaters for autographed photos. Luckily there was a lot to collect. Theatrical skating was in a golden age sparked by the enormous popularity of Henie’s films and personal appearances in her own touring ice show –plus the many other shows, large and small, that were being created to satisfy a growing audience suddenly eager for entertainment on ice. Over a period of sixty some years - fifteen of which I spent happily performing around the world in ice shows - my still-growing collection has developed into The IceStage Archive which is dedicated to preserving and documenting the world-wide history of skating as theatre. Here is a synopsis of that fascinating story illustrated with a few items from the collection. Welcome to The IceStage Archive! |
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