page_title: Ice Follies
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ice Follies / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Ice Follies at 1962 Worlds Fair (Century 21 Exposition, Seattle, Washington, USA).Item 77825, Jim Skinner Photograph Collection (Record Series 9975-01), Seattle Municipal Archives.
context_page_description: The Ice Follies, formerly known as the Shipstads & Johnson Ice Follies, is a touring ice show featuring elaborate production numbers, similar in concept to Ice Capades. It was founded in 1936 by Eddie and Roy Shipstad, and Oscar Johnson. 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 production company is now called Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice, Inc., a subsidiary of Feld Entertainment which produces the shows under the Disney on Ice and "... on Ice" titles. Feld formed the new subsidiary from the Ice Follies and U.S. Holiday on Ice touring companies.
  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.
context_section_description: Son of Swedish parents who had migrant to St. Paul, Minnesota, typewriter salesman Eddie Skeppstedts (later Shipstads) became friends with chemist Oscar Johnson skating at local lakes. They practiced skating stunts together and were hired as halftime entertainment for the local professional hockey team and the for the New York Rangers. Eddie's brother Roy - himself a successful amateur skater - would later join them to perform charity shows and eventually as the Shipstads & Johnson Ice Follies.
  Ice Follies produced the first large scale, professional touring show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on November 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 Follies began co-producing Ice Cycles 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) by August 1971. After lawsuits filed by HoI's Chaffen and Arthur Wirtz were resolved in August 1971 and February 1976 respectively, 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.
caption: Ice Follies at 1962 Worlds Fair 02
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