Dick Price Collection of Ice Show and Skating Memorabilia
name: label: Donor
content: Price, Dick
label: Names
content: Henie, Sonja, 1912-1969
topic: label: Topic
content: Figure skaters
label: Topic
content: Ice skating
label: Topic
content: Ice skaters
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated by Andrea Stevens on June 17, 2010.
creator: label: Donor
content: Price, Dick
setName: label: See more items in
content: Dick Price Collection of Ice Show and Skating Memorabilia
abstract: label: Summary
content: The collection documents the life and career of ice skater Dick Price, with emphasis on the 1940s and 1950s, when he was in the prime of his career performing ice shows throughout Europe. Included are photograph albums, letters, most sent from Europe by Price to his parents describing performances and his travel adventures; programs from various ice shows; personal financial records; school report cards, and work-related permits, contracts, and insurance.
accruals: label: Accruals
content: Additional materials (.15 cubic feet) was received in 2012 from Andrea Stevens.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Richard "Dick" S. Price was born on March 27, 1928 to Mary Schweitzer Price and Alfred Price. He had one brother, Robert Ira Price. He was raised in the New York City area and attended local schools (Columbia Grammar, Junior High School 165, Pratt Institute, and Parsons School of Design) as well as a brief period at the Admiral Farragut Academy, a boarding school in New Jersey. Price took skating lessons at Lake Placid, New York, circa 1934 and dance lessons in New York City as a young boy. According to Price's  "memoirs" he was hired as a replacement skater for the Hollywood Ice Revue (regular skaters went on strike) and he convinced his father to sign the contract since he was underage. Price enlisted in the United States Coast Guard on March 19, 1946. He was a Seaman second class and served on the Cutter Pequot. Price was dishonorably discharged on October 17, 1946.

Price's first skating performances were  with Sonja Henie's ice show company in 1947. He later performed with other companies such as Holiday on Ice and Ice Vogues.  His ice skating career took off and by 1948, he was known as the "Bombshell of the Ice." Later in life he produced Las Vegas-style nightclub shows, and he translated and presented many significant Broadway musicals in the German theatre.  Price died on June 5, 2005, in a senior care facility  in Mondsee, Austria.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 3 Cubic feet (8 boxes)
phystech: label: Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
content: Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs, negatives, and slides.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1936-2002
label: Date
content: bulk 1950-1958
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1206
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
label: Type
content: Photograph albums
label: Type
content: Report cards
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Programs
label: Type
content: Letters (correspondence)
label: Type
content: Financial records
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into three series.

Series 1, Personal Materials, 1936-1999

Series 2, Programs, 1945-2002

Series 3, Photographs and Scrapbooks, circa 1940s-1990s
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Processed by Alison Oswald, archivist, 2012.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Photograph albums -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Report cards
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Programs -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Letters (correspondence) -- 20th century.
label: Genre/Form
content: Financial records -- 20th century
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection documents the life and career of ice skater Dick Price, with emphasis on the 1940s and 1950s, when he was in the prime of his career and performing ice shows throughout Europe. Included are several photograph albums featuring portraits and action shots of Price and other skaters, some autographed, highlights of his travels, his friends and family. Also included is a scrapbook containing clippings and other printed materials; letters most sent from Europe by Price to his parents describing performances and his travel adventures; printed materials, especially programs from the various ice shows; personal financial records; school report cards, and work-related permits, contracts and insurance. 

Series 1, Personal Materials,  1936-1999, consists of school report cards, personal financial materials (blank checks and passbook), work-related permits, contracts, membership cards and insurance, ephemera, newspaper clippings, publications, and correspondence.  The correspondence constitutes the bulk of the material and consists of handwritten and typescript letters, with some postcards, telegrams, and radio grams, written by Richard "Dick" Price to his parents, Alfred and Mary Price of New York City.  Some materials are written by Mary Price and Virginia and Bob Price, sister-in-law and brother to Dick Price. Other materials in this series are addressed to Peter Haener, a friend, particularly Christmas cards from the 1990s.  Price describes his ice skating performances, friendships (especially with a woman named Kim), and travels throughout Europe. Additional materials include hotel and air cargo invoices. A series of Trans World Airlines certificates issued to Mary Price, Dick Price's mother, document her travels across the Atlantic Ocean from 1953-1956. The Hawaii materials (maps, postcards, and menus) relate to a trip Price took in July 1948. Price is listed as a passenger on the S.S. Lurline.

Series 2, Programs, 1945-2002, consists of color programs and brochures for ice skating shows Price appeared in or attended. Some of the programs are autographed.   Price appears on the cover of Garmisch This Week, 1955, a publication of the United States Army Leave and Rest Center.  There are several programs for Holiday in Garmisch/Ice Revue for the Casa Carioca, a night club built by General George S. Patton.  The club was located at the U.S. Army base in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, and operated from 1945-1970. The club was an important venue for professional ice skaters. The programs are arranged alphabetically by the name of the ice skating show and then chronologically. Other programs include musical and theatrical productions that Price organized and/or produced in Austria.  All of these programs are in German.  

Series 3, Photographs and Scrapbook, 1940s-1990s, consists of black-and-white and color prints both in albums and loose.  The majority of the photographs are black-and-white. They document Price's professional ice skating career primarily in Europe and depict both images of Price and other skaters performing. Leisure time sight-seeing and touring throughout Europe is well-documented.  Many of the photographs are unidentified. The photographs are arranged chronologically. There is one scrapbook, 1948-1953, which consists of postcards, ice skating programs, newspaper and magazine articles, telegrams, Christmas cards, and hotel ephemera documenting Price's ice skating career primarily in the United States.