Ice Follies

Ice Follies was a touring ice show featuring elaborate production numbers, similar in concept to Ice Capades. The show was founded in 1937 by Eddie Shipstad, Roy Shipstad, and Oscar Johnson, who also skated in the show. In later years, Olympic skaters such as Donald Jackson, Peggy Fleming, and Janet Lynn were in the cast.
Starting in August 1974, the Ice Follies began including 20-minute acts featuring skaters in full-body costumes of the Sesame Street Muppets. The original act featured Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Cookie Monster, Grover, Betty Lou, Oscar the Grouch, and the Count, with the addition of Small Bird in 1976. The tour visited dozens of cities across the United States, as well as Puerto Rico and Mexico.
The 1974 season's Sesame Street segment was for the most part song-oriented. Although songs played a part in all Sesame segments, subsequent years featured more dialogue. For that season, Ernie's character appeared in a bathtub for the entire time, and sang "Rubber Duckie". Oscar only briefly appeared, in a trash can, to sing "I Love Trash".
The 1975 season featured, in addition to a full-body Ernie, numerous Anything Muppets joining the cast regulars for "What's the Name of That Song?". After the Anything Muppets finished and left the ice, Mr. Snuffleupagus came out and sang "Nobody" in his only appearance of the series.
For the 1976 season (the third with Sesame characters), Ice Follies added new character Small Bird to the skating cast. Part of this segment included a bit about Cookie Monster running for President.
In 1977, in addition to a regular Sesame segment, there was a brief "Sesame Street Presents Numbers" segment about counting, with prop numbers almost as tall as the characters. During this segment, one of Ernie's gags was to demonstrate, with a pair of fold-out wings, how to convert the number "1" into the letter "T", which did not amuse the Count.
Ice Follies merged with "Holiday on Ice" in 1979, and the Sesame Street characters began appearing in Holiday on Ice shows.
As early as season six of Sesame Street, a series of sketches using the Ice Follies versions of the characters out on the rink were produced.
The opening of the 1978 TV special Christmas Eve on Sesame Street featured a lengthy skating sequence also featuring the characters from the Ice Follies show. Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Oscar and the Count all appeared in full-body ice skating form in the special, with voice overs for the characters provided by Frank Oz (Bert and Cookie Monster), Caroll Spinney (Oscar), Jerry Nelson (The Count) and Jim Henson (Ernie). At the end of the sequence, the characters play "snap the whip", which ends with Oscar being tossed high into the air, down the stairs and out into the street, where he returns to his familiar hand-puppet form.
File:Icefollies1975.jpg|1975 program
File:IceFollies76-printad.jpg|1976 print ad
File:holiday on ice 1977 program.jpg|1977 program
File:IceFollies1978ProgramCover.jpg|1978 program
File:holiday on ice 1979 program.jpg|1979 program
File:Holidayonice.jpg|1979 poster
File:1979 ice follies poster.jpg|1979 poster
File:IceFollies1974Program.jpg|from the 1974 program
File:IceFollies1975Program-skatercredits.jpg|from the 1975 program, crediting the suit performers of the Muppets
File:IceFollies1975Program-MuppetPhotos.jpg|from the 1975 program
File:IceFollies1976Program.jpg|from 1976 program
File:IceFollies1976program-SSjewelry.jpg|an offer for Sesame Street Ice Follies jewelry from the 1976 program
File:IceFollies1976Program-JMathieu.jpg|an illustration by Joe Mathieu for the back cover of the 1976 program; it would be recycled for promotion in later programs as well
File:IceFollies77Program-skaters.jpg|from the 1977 program, crediting the suit performers of the Muppets
File:IceFollies77Program-Muppets.jpg|from the 1977 program
File:IceFollies77Program-Numbers.jpg|from the 1977 program
File:IceFollies77Program-credits.jpg|credits from the 1977 program, acknowledging the contributions from the Muppet Workshop and the Muppet performers
File:holiday on ice 1978 program 3.jpg|from the 1978 program
File:from 1978 program.jpg|from 1978 program
File:1979IFProgram-rundown.jpg|from the 1979 program
File:1979IFProgram-SSSpread.jpg|page from the 1979 program (note that both the full-body and hand puppet versions of Ernie are pictured here)
File:from 1979 program.jpg|back cover, 1979 program
File:SSIceFollies-1980ProgramSpread.jpg|from the 1980 program
File:Jillshipstadbigbird1978.jpg|Jill Shipstad, 1978
File:Jillshipstadgrover1978.jpg|Jill Shipstad, 1978
File:Kenjohnsoncookiemonster1979.jpg|Ken Johnson, 1979
File:Mrfrickbigbird1979.jpg|Mr. Frick, 1979
File:don jackson and sesame.jpg|Don Jackson with Big Bird, Ernie and Bert
File:Bigbird1979.jpg
File:Icefolliescast.JPG
File:bert ernie skating.jpg
File:Icefolliesportlandoreg.png
File:Snuffyoscaricefollies.jpg
File:Berternieicefolliesholiday.jpg
File:IceFollies-AMs.jpg|Anything Muppets from the 1975 Ice Follies show
File:holiday on ice 1979 poster bert ernie.jpg|Bert & Ernie poster, 1979
File:holiday on ice 1979 poster betty lu.jpg|"Betty Lu" [sic] poster, 1979
File:holiday on ice 1979 poster big bird.jpg|Big Bird poster, 1979
File:holiday on ice 1979 poster cookie monster.jpg|Cookie Monster poster, 1979
==Merchandise==
===Buttons===
File:Icefolliesoscar.jpg
File:Holidayonicemonster.jpg
File:ice follies button cookie monster.jpg
File:Holidayonicepin.jpg
File:Holiday_on_ice_oscar_button.jpg
File:holiday on ice pin big bird.jpg
===Pennants===
SSLOscarPennant-original.jpg
SSL-CookieBanner-original.jpg
SSIceFollies-GroverBanner-original.jpg
SSIceFollies-GroverBanner.jpg
SSIceFollies-ErniePennant.jpg
SSIceFollies-BertPennant.jpg
SSIceFollies-CountPennant.jpg
SSIceFollies-HolidayComboPennant.jpg
==See also==
* Ice Follies sketches
==External links==
* Holiday on Ice: Official site
* 1980 video of the show
* Jim's Red Book - 4/10/1974 -Go to Providence with Bonnie and Dave Connell to see Ice Follies
__NOWYSIWYG__
Category:Sesame Street Stage Shows