Fun Finds: 1970 Ice Follies Program

Hello there, my loves. No, I haven't been kidnapped by a UFO nor placed in suspended animation. Just can't get that time together to post at ol' P.U. the way I wish I could. Recently, on one of my weekend scavenges, I stumbled upon today's Fun Find. This program from a 1970 edition of the touring Ice Follies had been carefully tucked away someplace for 56 years (!) until being set out for sale at an antique show for the kingly sum of $1.00...! It was a no-brainer. I know this is not going to appeal to every single one of my readers, but it's campy enough to warrant a glance. As the program was all in full-color and not terribly long, I've scanned the whole dang thing. Now lace up and "Let's go!"

On the inside cover, we find the founders of Ice Follies. The Shipstad Brothers and their pal Oscar Johnson began performing stunts on ice during hockey game half-times before establishing the more elaborate tour in 1936.

The trio as they appeared back in the day. 

One of the most famous key acts of the early days of Ice Follies was the comic/stunt duo known as Frick & Frack. The term "Frick & Frack" entered the lexicon as a nickname for any two pals who seem inseparable. It lives on to this day! If you are, like me, unfortunately drawn to watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta, you'll recall two of them, Porsha and Phaedra, being repeatedly referred to as "Frick & Frack."

The cover is a three-part fold-out... I was already stunned to see that the gal on the end, in a primo spot, looks bored as hell while most of her buddies are attempting a smile, even if frozen or forced...! 

...still going....

...and the end! Presenting, The Cockettes, er, I mean The Ice Folliettes! There are 32 of them in all. 

Knowing how much you wanted to see them in all their glory, I snapped a pic of the fold-out folded-out. And now to the other participants.

The show has a variety of segments, performers and interludes. The first big segment was called "Showtime 70" and was a blend of yesterday and tomorrow and a lot in-between. I don't know if I would have mentioned the word "rim" when discussing Clementine the Donkey, which contained two men hunkered together inside, with one behind the other! LOLOL  

"Showtime 70," where there's a lot going on! You have to admire the extraordinary costuming and all the incredible workmanship which went into it. 

Prior to the omnipresent (and often suspect!) online encyclopedia, we had to go to a set of books, find the one with the subject we prayed was in there and read up on what we wanted to know. 

Next segment is "Sea-World of the Sub-Metropolis." Gee, for a kid-oriented presentation, that's quite a mouthful! Ricky is kinda cute, though! You can imagine, in the days prior to digital photography, what it was like to try to capture these skaters in mid-air and hope that you "got the shot" without blur, closed eyes, etc... before moving on!

Apparently, two "lucky" kids from the audience got to wander around in a sled-like contraption during this segment. The one furthest left looks either bored or scared shitless. But you know neither one was going to be able to head to school after this and remember, "Hey, y'all! I was picked to be in the 'Sea-World of the Sub-Metropolis' show!"  

By now, another generation had come along, so Jill Shipstad, daughter of one of the Shipstad brothers, had found a place to land. 

The "Brasillia" segment. At first glance, I was getting more Irish St. Patrick's Day than Rio out of this. But, wow, those clothes! 

These skaters had their own little moments in the show, apart from the theme-oriented segments depicted here and there in the program. Ron and Cindy Kauffman were a brother and sister team who were US Pairs champs four times between 1966 and 1969 and who also competed in two Olympics. 

In the programs middle, we find a detailed listing of the whole Follies' run-down. 

Shoot! Now you've caught a sneak-preview of all that's still to come....!

That index of the show's contents is book-ended by the pics shown up above and here, making that almost detachable as it's own mini pamphlet.  

I found it truly remarkable that in 1970, one half of Frick and Frack was still taking part in the Ice Follies! Werner "Frick" Groebli stayed on after Frack was forced (due to bone inflammation) to retire in 1953; Hans "Frack" Mauch passing away in 1979 at age 60. Frick kept skating in the show until an accident caused him to depart in 1980. And he lived until 2008 when he passed away at 92! He was about 55 at this time.  

So far as I can tell, someone's been padding Susan Berens' resume. No "captured" two national championships. She was part of a pairs team which took silver twice... Her partner switched to a new one (who he later married!), but still never placed above second. Said ex-partner was Roy Wagelein. He and his wife joined Ice Capades themselves for several years after their competitive years were over. 

"Scene of Vienna"

Get ready to clutch those pearls...! I give you "The Legend of the Cherokee." In the next caption, I will relay the screaming text from above that is partially obscured.

"There's nary a buckboard nor a Conestoga wagon to be seen in this 20th century romp in the land of the purple sage. Pretty squaws prefer Thunderbirds to tepees, and so long as gushers keep popping on the reservation they get 'em." Holy war paint, Batman!! 

This act looked to me like every drag queen's dream!

Tom Scallen was a Minneapolis mover and shaker who bought Ice Follies in the mid-1960s. He later owned the NHL Vancouver Canucks hockey team from 1970-1974, but was ousted from that organizaiton not long after being arrested and found guilty of securities fraud. The list of skaters at the bottom affords folks the ability to see if any of their own hometown offspring were in the show. 

This was not one of the more scintillating ads in the program, but Hertz (despite some serious rough patches in recent years) is still in business well over a hundred years later. A few years after this, O. J. Simpson became the face of their advertising and was so until the early-1990s when he was dropped following his alleged criminal behavior. 

I don't even want to think about how much work went into choreographing a show of this size and complexity. And the other areas would also not have been a breeze. If the name of the costumer Helen Colvig seems at all familiar, she, having gotten a start supervising clothes in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), went on to a career as a movie and TV costume designer. Her credits include The Night Walker (1964), Coogan's Bluff (1968), The Andromeda Strain (1971) and Play Misty for Me (1971) as well as many others. 

I included this dull page for two reasons. One, the fact that someone either decided or had it decided for them that Hertz' name be reprinted in their logo font (!) and, two, the list of cities so that you can see if this ever skidded into where you lived in 1970/71.

I had completely forgotten that peanut butter once came in glass jars with metal lids. But I can practically guarantee that Skippy, or any other brand, tasted better then than now! And I can actually hear the sound of those lids being screwed on after portioning some out. 

I wonder how many of you heard this phrase as a young'n. It was aimed at me plenty by my dad and step-father! LOL  "You don't know shit from Shinola!" Well, now you can see what Shinola was. (The aforementioned online encyclopedia has this polish being discontinued in 1960, but clearly someone was marketing it in 1970!)

:::: BONUS PICS ::::

 

Some of you might be a little more familiar with Ice Follies due to this lady... It's Miss Joan Crawford, strapped into skates, practicing for one of her upcoming movies.

Ice Follies of 1939 (1939) had JC and costars James Stewart and Lew Ayres figure-eighting their way across the rink along with members of the real Ice Follies of that time, including the founders Roy Shipstad, Eddie Shipstad and Oscar Johnson. 

There was even a story point which had Stewart and Ayres as the two halves of a horse on ice! Similar to the aforementioned donkey Clementine with the 1970 show. 

This was far from a feather in Miss Crawford's cap, but it was notable for one thing at least. It offered cinemagoers their very first glimpse of the popular MGM leading lady on the big screen in color. The finale was shown in Technicolor. (This was also the movie in which her character chose to wear her hair like Hedy Lamarr, a look that was not exactly stunning, inspiring a little poem that made the rounds at that time.)  

On the subject of Joan, this month is a monumental one for fans of the stellar movie queen. Following a one-hundred year (!) battle over copyright, infringement lawsuits, appeals and so forth, one of Miss Crawford's seminal films is being made available for viewing again at last! This movie, Letty Lynton (1932), is one which seemed to herald a new direction for the one-time jazz-baby. Her famed lipstick smear was introduced and the wildly creative designer Adrian concocted costumes, notably the one depicted above, which exaggerated her already wide shoulders to dynamic effect. This particular dress caused a nationwide sensation.

Notable as that gown is, it's not even my own favorite costume from the picture! This over-the-top one is positively jaw-dropping. It would've been far harder to replicate and/or knock off in 1932 department stores, however.

Lynton could be seen by desperate fans in a highly-blurry, faded bootleg, but finally the movie has been restored in 4K and was recently shown at the TCM Classic Film Festival (with over a hundred attendees being turned away for lack of room) and will be released on home video this month. I adore JC's hair this way, sleek and simple, versus some of the fluffier 'dos which she sported. It will be a joy to rediscover this movie in its original splendor. 

Finally, we cannot let the moment pass, when touching upon famous Joans and statement gowns, without mentioning another Joan (one named after Crawford as it happens) who just created an international sensation. Dame Joan Collins, one of the patron saints of Poseidon's Underworld, recently took the Cannes Film Festival red carpet by storm. 

A dream project of Miss Collins, which was initially promoted as "The Bitter End," concerned the reclusive final period in the life of Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor.

Since renamed My Duchess (2026) and costarring Isabella Rossellini, Miranda Richardson, Charles Dance and Laurent Lafitte, the movie was promoted by several of its stars at the 2026 festival. A London premiere is forthcoming. In these days of "stars" popping up at events with their dresses held on by nipple rings and their questionable assets hanging out of various and sundry openings in whatever it is they may be wearing, our Joan stepped onto the red carpet in a haute couture gown by French designer Stéphane Rolland.

The orchid-inspired creation caused an immediate reaction which soon went viral worldwide. It was a "moment;" one of countless others in the legendary life and career of a show business and glamour institution. 

Until next time, darlings!