Evening star., 1939-12-17

rink, and its use was limited to a.
few extremely cold days each year.
AS for the demonstrating few
exceptionally hard" winters, it
never froze solidly enough to permit
skating under anything approaching
safe conditions.
Now, however, the situation is
changed. The Capital has two ice
Kinks, both provided with the most
modern skating facilities, and plans
for the opening Of another are well
advanced. Ice skating has a firm
grip on Washington sports lovers,
and its popularity is growing daily.
. Above the run-of-rink skating in
which approximately 10000 resi-
dents of the Capital and its vicinity
participate each week is ice hockey,
the fastest game in America. The
Eagles, Washingtons first big-time
hockey team, have done an amaz-
ingly quick job of selling the excit-
Ing Canadian game to local sports
fans. Up to November there were
probably not more than 1000 WASH
dngtonians who knew anything
about the game; but the Eagles, in
their half dozen home games, have
attracted nearly 10000 persons to
the Riverside Stadium, a place de-
signed to seat about 1000 spectators.
Old Local Adage.
There's an old sports adage about
Washington. I'VE won't have any,
thing but winner" it runs. Ycu
don't have to 60 farther than the
success of the Redskins to see how
true it is. And the Eagles, in more
modest way, are becoming the Red
skins of winter sports.
Ice hockey, in case you don't
know, is played indoors before a
limited seating capacity. There
aren't in this area any arenas ca
pable of seating many thousands of
people. Madison Square Garden, in
New York, seats around $4,000 for
Ice hockey, and around $4,000 for
prize fights. But the area in which
hockey is played takes up lot of
seating space that can be used at
prize fights.
y So far, at Washingtons other
and pioneer-ice rink, the Chevy
Chase Ice Palace, on upper Connec-
ticut avenue, big-time hockey has
not been tried. Nor has the man
.agement attempted the more elab-
orate extravaganzas on ice, such as
the glamorous and thrilling Ice Fol-
lies, staged at the Riverside Sta
dium in November. But the op-
orators of the Chevy Chase rink
plan an ice show of their own next
spring. The rink was not con-
structed with a view to such spec
tacles, and has limited seating ca
pacity. Meanwhile, the sponsors of
the Ice Follies, which showed here
before more than $4,000 people, are
planning to bring the show back on
February 18 for an eight-day return
engagement. The Follies has just
wound up a fortnight in Madison
Square Garden, where it played to
~more than 100000 admissions.
Perhaps Sonia Henie is responsible
for it all. The personable little
Scandinavian with the twinkling
feet surely put ice skating and ice
spectacles over with the public as it
never had been put over before,
through the medium of the movies
and few personal appearances in
the larger cities.
It's all very new and very hard on
the ankles, this ice skating business.
To few who grew up in the North
it is a return to the exhilaration of
their old winter pastime. But Wash
ington is filled with Southern folk
who wouldn't know an ice skate
from golf club; or beveled edge
from one of those funny new hats.
To all these, ice skating is new stuff,
and they are taking to it like the