Type private subsidiary Area served Worldwide | Industry Entertainment | |
 | ||
Founders Oscar JohnsonEddie ShipstadRoy Shipstad Headquarters Feld Entertainment Studio, Ellenton, Florida, USA | ||
Ice Follies And Holiday on Ice, Inc. is ice show production subsidiary of Feld Entertainment producing them under the Disney on Ice and ".. on Ice" names. Feld formed it from the Ice Follies and U.S. Holiday on Ice touring companies. The Ice Follies were formed by Eddie Shipstad, Roy Shipstad, and Oscar Johnson in 1936.
Contents
The Ice Follies, formerly known as the Shipstads & Johnson Ice Follies, was a touring ice show featuring elaborate production numbers, similar in concept to Ice Capades. It was founded in 1936 by Eddie Shipstad, Roy Shipstad, and Oscar Johnson, who also skated in the show. In later years, Olympic skaters such as Donald Jackson, Barbara Berezowski, Peggy Fleming, and Janet Lynn were in the cast. Ice Follies also featured novelty acts such as Frick and Frack and Richard Dwyer, who was billed as "Mr. Debonair".
The show was a variety show that included a chorus line called The Ice Folliettes, which led to synchronized figure skating, that famously precisely performed a kick line and pinwheel on ice.
History
Ice Follies produced the first large scale, professional touring show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on 000000001936-11-07-0000November 7, 1936. Ice Follies was featured in the Joan Crawford film, The Ice Follies of 1939, MGM's answer to the popular Sonja Henie films of the time. Frick and Frack, the comic skating duo, joined the show in the 1939.
In 1946 Ice Cycles, a co-production was formed with Ice Capades. In 1949, Ice Follies left the Ice Cycles show leaving it under Ice Capades' ownership. In 1950, Roy Shipstad retired from performing and recruited Richard Dwyer to take over his role of "Debonair" as the "Young Debonair". By 1966, "Young" was dropped from the role title that later became "Mr. Debonair". Frack became ill in 1954 ending the duo, but Frick continued at Ice Follies with other partners.
In the mid-1960s, Thomas Scallen took an executive position with Ice Follies which he eventually bought in 1964. The Ice Follies were placed within General Ice Shows, Inc., a subsidiary of Scallen's Medical Investment Corporation. General Shows purchased Holiday on Ice (HoI) (North America) by August 000000001971-08-01-0000August 1971. After lawsuits by HoI's Chaffen and Arthur Wirtz in 1976, Wirtz gained ownership of both shows.
Mattel's Irvin & Kenneth Feld Productions purchased the Ice Follies and the Holiday on Ice from Wirtz for $12 million in 1979. The company soon approached Disney about doing a Disney-related show on ice.
Ice Follies And Holiday on Ice
Ice Follies merged with Holiday on Ice in 1980 operating as a combine show in 1980 and 1981. The first Disney's World on Ice began touring in 1981. Frick had a career ending injury in 1980.
In 1995, the company branch out from Disney's World on Ice with The Wizard of Oz on Ice, the first of the Classic Ice Spectaculars. Disney's World on Ice launched its first international tour in 1986 starting in Japan, had five different touring units by 1988 and changed its name in 1998 to "Disney on Ice". The first ice show done in conjunction with Twentieth Century Fox was Anastasia On Ice starting in 1998.
Around 1999, Ice Follies was performing Grease on Ice. Based on the Disney Channel original movie, High School Musical was launched as an ice tour in 2006 and expected only to last one year but was expanded to three years.