The Convention Hall Ice Palace

"If the immortal G. Washington could enter the city he first laid out into town lots, and should see the way genius has baffled nature and an ice skating rink now coquets with frolicking skaters whether old Bareas comes with his chilly whiz or the gentle zephyrs from the Southland bring palmetto odors almost to our gates, he would doubtless twitch nervously in his tomb and inquire what the world is coming to." - "The Morning Times", January 19, 1896

During the late Victorian era, interest in skating flourished in many of North America and Europe's capitals with the construction of lavish new covered rinks. It might surprise you to know that one of the largest indoor rinks of this period opened in Washington, D.C. - a city without a particularly rich skating tradition.

The Convention Hall Ice Palace opened its doors on January 6, 1896, on the top floor of a massive market house with a thousand stalls for vendors. The Convention Hall took up an entire block between K and L and 5th and 6th Streets in what is now known as the Mount Vernon Triangle neighbourhood. At the time, it was hailed as "the largest rink ever built". It was also one of the quickest rinks ever constructed. 

Less than a week before Christmas of 1895, the city's Choral Society had held a Messiah concert in the space. Sixteen miles of piping distributed ammonia over the three-inch ice floor, which measured two hundred and five by one hundred and fifteen feet. The January 5, 1896 issue of "The Morning Times" noted, "The ice surface is the largest of any similar place of amusement in the world... The fittings of the reception rooms, retiring rooms, smoking rooms, and cafe are such as to excite the admiration and wonder of everyone who has inspected the rink. The large general reception room is situated in the front of the building on L Street. The reception room and retiring room for ladies are located on the right hand side of the hall while those for gentlemen are placed on the opposite side of the structure. A smoking room has also been provided for the gentlemen. These rooms are all furnished in Oriental style with hangings of Persian goods. The effect thus made is gorgeous and elegant beyond description. Thousands of incandescent lights will illuminate the rooms and furnish just the right quality of light to fit the surroundings. Everything for comfort, convenience and pleasure will be found here and the management has spared no expense to make this part of the ice palace go ahead of any in the world. The cafe will be located in the gallery of the hall and here the patrons of the rink may eat an excellent meal and be regaled mentally as well as physically by the music which will be rendered by the orchestra... The hall will present a most attractive appearance on the opening night. The roof as usual will be studded with thousands of lights but the addition will be in the glistening ice surface, which will reflect the light and make it even more brilliant than ever. Around the ice basin have been placed several rows of seats for those who do not wish to join in the skating but who like to come and see others enjoy themselves. A promenade will be made of the space which comes in between the ice basin and the doors leading to the hall proper. Inside the railing and just outside the ice surface is a strip on which the skaters may stand while putting on their skates."

Over two thousand skaters and spectators attended the Convention Hall Ice Palace's opening night. For the admission price of twenty-five cents, patrons could rent a pair of skates and marvel at exhibitions by visiting skaters from Baltimore and Canada - that is, if you were white. A crew of twenty-five young men of colour was relegated to the menial task of tying the patron's skates.

The Convention Hall Ice Palace was run by theatrical manager David Towers and actor Lee Hutchins. Hutchins was the son of Stilson Hutchins, the founder of "The Washington Past". It was owned by the newly incorporated Purity Ice Co., which manufactured and distributed ice for cold storage.

The Convention Hall Ice Palace was open six days a week and offered two sessions a day. The first session was for women only and on Saturday children had the rink to themselves. A group of instructors, the first being E.T. Leonard, was hired to give free lessons to those who had never skated before.

To attract patrons, the Convention Hall Ice Palace spared no expense. They brought in hockey teams from Quebec and staged a speed skating race, which was won by World Champion Joe Donoghue of Manhattan. Harry Park was invited to give displays of bicycle riding on ice. As D.C. had "few, if any, expert skaters", Canadian skaters were invited to give exhibitions of fancy skating. Among those who wowed crowds were Mabel and Fanny Davidson and George Meagher. The management organized a series of Souvenir Days, where women who attended an afternoon session were gifted a pair of Barney and Berry skates. At a fancy dress carnival held in March of 1897, those wearing "the handsomest costumes" were gifted with a gold watch.

In the height of its popularity in 1897, the Convention Ice Palace closed its doors for the season... and for good. Several factors contributed to its demise. The rink's management spent more money than it took in and the Purity Ice Co. which owned the rink faced serious financial difficulties. Two months after the Ice Palace's closure, they were placing ads to sell off ice-making apparatuses in the newspapers and over the next two years, they were in and out of court over solvency issues. On top of all this, one of the Ice Palace's managers, David Towers, was seriously injured in a bicycle accident.

The upper floor of the Convention Hall where the Ice Palace was housed was converted into a bicycle track and later, a bowling alley. In March of 1946, the roof and bowling alley at the Hall were badly damaged in a serious fire. After extensive repairs, the market on the Hall's bottom floor re-opened in 1955, only to close less than a decade later. The National Historical Wax Museum was housed there from 1965 to 1974. The building sat unused for over a decade and was demolished in 1985.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Bluesky, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of five fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating:

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The 1961 Canadian Figure Skating Championships

Members of the Canadian World team enroute to the 1961 World Championships in Prague

South of the border, John F. Kennedy had just been sworn in as the thirty-fifth President of the United States. Canada's Prime Minister was John Diefenbaker. Canadians who could afford the hefty price tag of a new RCA colour television set cackled at the antics of Fred Flinstone and those who couldn't hummed along to the Connie Francis' hit "Where The Boys Are" on their record players. The year was 1961. 

With the loss of the entire U.S. figure skating team along with coaches, judges and family members in Sabena Flight 548 on February 15, 1961, the year 1961 is rightfully remembered as the darkest one figure skating has ever seen. However, less than a month before the tragedy, the future couldn't have seemed brighter for the seventy-four competitors at the 1961 Canadian Figure Skating Championships. Yet, the three-day event, held from January 25 to 27, 1961 at the Lachine Arena and Montreal Forum, was linked to a disaster of its own. 

Exactly one month after Canada's best figure skaters catapulted themselves over the ice in the Québec city of Montreal, the ice fell from the sky in what was dubbed the Ice Storm Of '61. Power and telephone lines were down for almost a week and many homes went without heat, lights, water and cooking facilities for nearly a week in the dead of winter. 

Only a month before the ice storm struck residents of Lachine and Montreal were sitting in the freezing cold by choice, entranced by the phenomenal figure skating being performed in their very own backyard. Let's take a trip back in time to 1961 and see what all of the talk was about!

THE JUNIOR EVENTS

Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine

To the disappointment of the sparse crowd hoping for a Québec win (only four hundred of the two thousand seats were filled for the earliest events) all four of the junior titles went to skaters from Ontario. The event with the fewest competitors was the junior men's event, won by Donald Knight of the Dundas Figure Skating Club. The shortest of the three contestants at 4'9", Knight was described in the January 27, 1961 issue of "The Ottawa Citizen" as "a freckle-faced 13-year old who likes to read detective stories". He outskated Bill Neale of the Stamford Skating Club and Nelson Belmore of the Burlington Figure Skating Club for the title. Four teams competed in the junior pairs event. Seventeen-year-old Elinor Flack and sixteen-year-old Philip McCordic of Toronto emerged the victors, defeating Wendy Warne and Jim Watters, Susan Herriott and Michael Hart and Linda Ann Ward and Neil Carpenter. Ten teams started the junior dance event; four skated in the final round. The winners hailed from the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club, seventeen-year-old Paulette Doan and eighteen-year-old Ken Ormsby. They soundly defeated fifteen-year-old Marilyn Crawford and sixteen-year-old Blair Armitage of the Minto Skating Club, as well as Carole Holliday and Brian Baillie and Linda Pallett and Gregory Folk with polished compulsory dances, a credit to their coach Geraldine Fenton. In contrast to the low numbers in the junior men's and pairs events, over a dozen young Canadians vied for the junior women's title. Fifteen-year-old Norma Sedlar of Vancouver won the school figures, but in the free skate, a young upstart from Toronto you may have heard of named Petra Burka turned the tide and earned the gold medal with her athletic performance. Sedlar settled for silver ahead of Winnipeg's Darlene Turk and Fort William's Jennifer Jean Wilkin.

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Virginia Thompson and Bill McLachlan

Already the defending Canadian Champions and World Silver Medallists at fifteen and twenty-two, Virginia Thompson and Bill McLachlan were considered shoe-ins to defend their national title in 1961. However, a sibling team from the Connaught Skating Club, Donna Lee and John (J.D.) Mitchell was nipping at their heels.

Donna Lee and J.D. Mitchell. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

The Mitchells were coached by four-time World Champion Jean Westwood, who had previously coached Thompson and his former partner Geraldine Fenton, who was coaching Paulette Doan and Ken Ormsby, junior champions 'skating up' in the senior ranks. Confused yet? Drink your juice, Shelby. In the compulsories, to no one's surprise Thompson and McLachlan took a healthy lead. However, when Doan and Ormsby managed to outskate the Mitchells it became clear that the silver medal was going to be a two-team race. In front of a packed crowd at the Forum, Thompson and McLachlan defended their national title with an effortless, rhythmic free dance and the Mitchells rebounded to claim the silver medal over Doan and Ormsby in an extremely close contest, with more ordinals but fewer points.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Wendy Griner

At sixteen, Wendy Griner was already the defending Canadian Champion, an Olympian and ranked seventh in the world. Both Toronto's Sonia Snelling and Vancouver's Shirra Kenworthy had gained valuable experience from competing in the 1960 World Championships in Vancouver, but it was clear to many that barring a meltdown, Griner was quite likely to defend her title... and that's exactly what she did!

Shirra Kenworthy. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

First, on every judge's scorecard, Griner won both the school figures and free skating, ending up with the gold medal and a total of 942.42 points. She actually had over thirty-five points more than Kenworthy and Snelling, who found themselves in an identical situation to the Mitchells and Doan and Ormsby in the ice dance event. The judging system that was in place at the time gave second place to Kenworthy with a score of 873.57 and the bronze to Snelling with a score of 875.16, the result determined by the ordinals and not only the points the skaters received. Otto Gold's daughter Frances placed fourth ahead of Winnipeg's Jocelyn Davidson, Lachine's Joy Ann Moyer, Vancouver's Maralee Rutley, Owen Sound's Rose Bilyk and Ottawa's Lorinda Farrell.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Like Thompson and McLachlan and Griner, twenty-year-old Donald Jackson was really in a class by himself at the 1961 Canadian Championships. He was already an Olympic Bronze Medallist, two-time World Champion, North American Champion and two-time Canadian Champion, and competing at the event was in many ways a mere formality before heading to Prague to compete in the 1961 World Championships. Ever humble, Jackson was quoted in "The Montreal Gazette" on January 25, 1961 thusly: "No matter what happens I still have to get by the Canadian Championships here and this fellow Don McPherson from Stratford could give me a tough time." Perhaps in the free skate, but certainly not in the school figures. Jackson won the initial phase of the event by over thirty points points and only expanded his lead in the free skate. He earned the first 6.0 of his career with his dazzling performance, executing the first crossover Axel ever attempted at the Canadian Championships and attempting the first split double Lutz, though faltering slightly on the landing. Donald McPherson finished almost seventy-five points back in second and Bradley Black of the Winter Club of St. Catharine's earned the bronze with a score that was one hundred points less than McPherson's.

THE PAIRS AND FOURS COMPETITION

Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine

With the retirement of Olympic Gold Medallists and four-time World Champions Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul, 1961 was supposed to be Maria and Otto Jelinek's year. The siblings, mired in red tape, had been promised exit Visas from Prague, but they still hadn't received a reply to their request for release from Czechoslovakian citizenship less than two weeks before leaving for the 1961 Canadian Championships. George Hasler had said that if the Reds didn't acquiesce the International Skating Union would "contact all members of the ISU and decide on a new site for the 1961 World Championship." The ISU even had sites in mind: Dortmund and Cortina d'Ampezzo. When the Jelineks arrived in Montreal, they met with the consul who provided them with documents releasing them from citizenship, signed by the Czechoslovakian Minister Of The Interior himself. Unfortunately, the Jelineks fell early in their performance in Montreal when Otto got his skate caught in the cuff of his pants. However, the rest of their performance went very well and they managed to win their first Canadian title with a score of 57.6. Gertrude Desjardins and Maurice LaFrance placed second with 51.8; Debbi Wilkes and Guy Revell third with 50.1. In her book "Ice Time", Debbi Wilkes recalled, "We went to Lachine for the Canadians, expecting to stay one lock behind the Jelineks as they moved up the ranks to become champions. But a pair from the Toronto Cricket Club, Gertie Desjardins and Maurice LaFrance, beat us to come in second. This was a little shock to the system. We suspected that some muscle-flexing by the Cricket Club was involved, seeing as how we were sure our performance was better, but we soon off to the North American Championships and we didn't think the reach of the Cricket Club could extend to Philadelphia." A fours competition was scheduled to be held, but when only one entry - Susan Herriott, Nancy Brooks, Michael Hart and Bradley Black - showed up from the Winter Club of St. Catharine's, the discipline was not officially contested.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

Sensations From St. Paul: The Oscar Johnson And Eddie Shipstad Story

Photo courtesy Hennepin County Library

Born November 13, 1898, and February 16, 1907, respectively, Oscar Fabian Johnson and Eddie Shipstad both grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, the sons of working-class Swedish immigrants with many mouths to feed. As boys, they met wearing double runners on Lake Como and became fast friends as they both taught themselves how to 'really skate' at the popular St. Paul skating spot, enduring temperatures that sometimes dipped to minus thirty below. It was on that lake, through trial and error, that they developed an act that later became known as their 'Bowery' number. So many locals flocked to the lake to watch the comedy stylings of the boys that more than once, the police showed up to disperse the crowds out of concern that the ice wouldn't bear with so many folks gathering in one area.

Photo courtesy the Minnesota Historical Society. Used with permission.

By the twenties, Oscar and Eddie were working as a chemist's apprentice at a coke plant and typewriter salesman, taking odd jobs like cutting hot dog buns and squeezing lemons at a ballpark to earn extra money. When they weren't toiling away at their low-paying jobs, they were sweeping the ice at the local rink in exchange for time to practice their popular comedic skating acts. They gave their first performance at the St. Paul Hippodrome in 1924 and were regulars during the intermissions of Duluth and St. Paul hockey games, earning five or ten dollars a show.

Eddie's younger brother Roy - also an extremely talented skater - set off for New York City to take on a half-time hockey game skating exhibition gig of his own at Madison Square Garden. In the November 23, 1986 issue of "The Chicago Tribune", Eddie recalled, "From the reaction he got, he thought we could make a go of it with a full-scale show." 

Soon thereafter, Eddie and Oscar headed east to join him and became huge hits with their icy equestrian antics as Sparkplug, a comedic skating horse. Oscar took the head; Eddie the rear. After their five-year engagement ended, Oscar, Eddie and Roy set to work laying the foundation for their own production.

Photo courtesy the Minnesota Historical Society. Used with permission.

Photos courtesy the Minnesota Historical Society, Hennepin County Library. Used with permission.

In the winter of 1933, Eddie and Oscar staged their first production, which proved a financial flop as it was held on a bank holiday when funds were unavailable. Their next effort, the first annual Midsummer Ice Carnival at the St. Paul Auditorium, proved far more successful. In the year that followed, they successfully staged several hospital fundraisers on ice and organized a tank ice show at the College Inn at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago.

Photo courtesy the Minnesota Historical Society. Used with permission.

Soon, Eddie and Oscar developed a little tour you might have heard of... Shipstad and Johnson's Ice Follies. Although the Ice Follies went on to become one of the most recognized and celebrated skating tours in North America, its beginnings were humble at best. Including Oscar, Eddie and Roy, the initial cast only included twenty-eight skaters, including Bess Ehrhardt, Lois Dworshak, Ruth Mack and Everett McGowan and Heinie Brock.

Janet Champion, Ginger Clayton, Oscar Johnson, Roy Shipstad and Betty Schalow at the Ice Follies 20th Anniversary Party. Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society.

The costumes for the entire cast during year one of Ice Follies only cost five hundred dollars. Eddie's brother Roy made his own, stitching sequins to a pair of long underwear dyed black. On the show's opening night in Omaha in 1936, there were more cast than audience members. Eddie called the skeptical cast together for a pre-show pep talk and joked, "Don't worry! We've got 'em outnumbered!"

For over a decade, Oscar and Eddie doubled as producers and stars of the Ice Follies. Some of their routines were legendary. "A Bicycle Built For Two", "On And Off The Beat" and "The Bloody Buccaneers", with Oscar as Spike McDuff and Eddie as Gashouse Annie, set the bar for skating comedy acts to follow.

Top: Eddie Shipstad, Harris Legg and Oscar Johnson. Photo courtesy Hennepin County Library. Bottom: Eddie Shipstad and Oscar Johnson with Dorothy Lamour and Bill Howard. Photo courtesy Los Angeles Public Library.

To this day, many of the themes Eddie and Oscar and their contemporaries - Frick and Frack - developed have been liberally borrowed from. A film inspired by the tour, "Ice Follies Of 1939", featured no less a star than Mommie Dearest herself... Joan Crawford.

Eddie and Roy Shipstad with Oscar Johnson. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

After thrilling audiences from St. Paul to Seattle for decades, Oscar and Eddie hung up their skates in 1947 to focus on the management of their tour. They later sold Ice Follies for a cool three point five million dollars. Both men married. Eddie had children; Oscar didn't. They were both inducted into the Ice Skating Institute Hall Of Fame in 1965, alongside Eddie's brother Roy, Dick Button and Frank J. Zamboni.

Oscar Johnson, Eddie and Roy Shipstad. Photos courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide".

Sadly, Oscar Johnson died in Rochester, Minnesota in 1970 after an eight year battle with cancer at the age of seventy-one. Eddie's brother Roy passed away in 1975 and in 1976, both Oscar and Eddie were among the initial group of inductees to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame. Eddie Shipstad passed away at the age of ninety-one on August 20, 1998, in Los Angeles, California.

The legacy of Oscar and Eddie lives on in the incredible roles that their family members, friends and former employees have done to keep professional figure skating alive and flourishing in North America. They were - simply put - legends.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of five fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating:

https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

Veterans' Week

On November 11, 1918, the signing of the Armistice near Compiègne, France, signified an end to the gighting on the Western Front during The Great War. 

Throughout both World Wars, numerous individuals from the Canadian figure skating community devoted themselves to their country. This included Canadian and North American champions, judges, coaches, club leaders, recreational skaters, and family members of some of our most celebrated skating talents, all of whom served in the military or engaged in vital wartime efforts. 

To honour their sacrifices, Skate Guard is proud to present a special Veterans' Week page that highlights the remarkable contributions of these courageous men and women during wartime.