Director's Cut

(soothing music) (percussive music) -

Narrator

After Charlotte and the Berlin Ice Ballet Company made this enormous success, then ice skating became a fad. And one of the results was that small, what we used to call the tank shows, a little portable ice rink about 20 feet by 20 feet would be put in a nightclub or a beautiful theater, restaurant, someplace and they would do a miniature ice show. They were always in a five star or four star hotel. The audience loved those shows, and for the hotel it was great to keep people there. (Theme music) Hi, welcome to Director's Cut. I'm Pete Schwaba and we just saw a clip from The Fabulous Ice Age, a documentary that gives us a look into the era when touring ice shows were all the rage, and the man who was doing his best to see that this time in our history is not forgotten. Joining me tonight on Director's Cut is the film's director, Keri Pickett. Keri, welcome to Director's Cut. Thank you for having me. - Great to have you here, yeah. We kind of saw a little bit there, but give us an overview of this film and what it's about. This film, The Fabulous Ice Age, covers the hundred year history of dancing on ice and one man's quest to save that history. And that man is my uncle, Roy Blakey, and he's the reason I made the film. Okay, and I need to say that we have some really cool props here that we typically do not have on our set, and these all belong to your uncle who will be along shortly as a special guest, so that's, we're excited to talk to him, as well. What was it about this era that made you say, as a documentary filmmaker, "I have to make a film about this?" 'Cause you told me before, this was eight years of your life? Yeah, my background is as a photojournalist and photographer, and I have three books published. And along the way, Roy and I decided we would have a-- He left New York City. He had been in New York City for 25 years and he came to Minneapolis. And we got a photo studio together and his collection of the history of the ice shows started to grow and grow. And skaters would come and people would make pilgrimages to come and see his collection. And I would hear these stories and I would see Roy come back from ice skating reunions hoarse from having so much fun. And so I started telling filmmaker friends, I've got this idea for a great film and it's, you know, the ice shows started in America. They dominated live entertainment for four decades before becoming Disney on Ice. And nobody would ever do the film and so I just said, "Well okay, I'm going to become a filmmaker." And so this film turned me into a filmmaker. Well there you go. That's a pretty good answer. Let's see another clip from The Fabulous Ice Age. -

Narrator

Sonja Henie was a Norwegian ice skater who broke all the records. She won 10 World Figure Skating Championships in the '20s and the '30s. She won three Olympic gold medals. Nobody has come even close to matching her incredible success. She grew up in a competition lifestyle. But she hated competition, she hated comparison, and she was just living for the day when she wouldn't have to be in the competition anymore. Arthur M. Wirtz from Chicago, he was the one that brought Sonja Henie over to skate between hockey games, and then saw her potential. Whenever she skated, they sold the building out and when she wasn't there, the place would be half-filled. So he made an arrangement with her, and started Arthur Wirtz's Sonja Henie Hollywood Ice Revue. -

Narrator

She and her family hopped on the train there in Chicago, and they went to Los Angeles, rented the Polar Palace, put on a show for two days and invited all of the celebrities in Hollywood to come. She had that show put on so the movie moguls could see her. And Darryl Zanuck of 20th Century Fox came the second night, and everybody got all excited backstage. The story goes that they came running back and said to Sonja, "Darryl Zanuck is here, "Darryl Zanuck is here! What should we do?" She said, "Sell him a ticket!" Always the businesswoman. He was one of those people that wanted to put one scene of her skating in one of his musical films, 20th Century Fox films, and she said, "no, no no no no. "I'm going to be the star of the film. "I'm going to be the actress, star actress in the film "and I'm going to do my skating, "and if you don't take that package "then we don't have a deal." Okay, I just want to say, as someone who lived in Los Angeles for years and worked in the studio system, that takes a lot of moxie to say, "No, I don't want to be in your film "unless I'm the one who carries it." She's this skater from this little country. That's incredible! I mean was her whole life like that? I guess that's how she got ahead, she just had guts and trusted herself, right? Sonja Henie is one of the skaters that a lot of people do know about. She won the 1936 Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and went on as you see to start the Sonja Henie Hollywood Ice Revue. And that was-- She was the largest star and the biggest box office draw in Hollywood in those years. She made more money than anybody else. -

Pete

That's incredible. - In her era. But her time, 1936 is the same time that Ice Follies was coming out of St. Paul, Minnesota. And they were the first touring group. They toured in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1936 and so they actually get the status as being the first touring show. I love the clip of Gloria Nord, too, with the champagne, and she must have spilled at some point when she was being interviewed. Mm, not a drop. - Or she's just that good. Not a drop! You have in the first clip we saw, some really incredible artwork. Were they paintings, drawings, of the old '20s, where they would skate in hotels. Talk a little bit about where you found those, how did you get those? They really add a really incredible style. Well, I think the thing that is so amazing about Roy's collection is that his collection was like a documentary filmmaker's dream. Because, I went to the National Archives in Washington. I searched for material for this film all over the country, and Roy really had the majority of it already. And so all I would have to do would be go in his IceStage Archive and say Roy, "What do you have from 1915 from the ice shows?" And so, I really-- It was a huge education for me along the way to learn the history, to learn about the different shows, Ice Follies, Ice Capades, Holiday on Ice. The film covers not only the development of those shows, but the stars, the entrepreneurs that made the shows, some of the large stars that starred in the shows. And also the film gives a cultural context for what was going on in the country at the time. I notice you interviewed Nancy Kerrigan. You did not interview Tonya Harding. Was there a reason for that, or was she unavailable. Nancy's the star. Yeah. She's all over the place, though. That's actually how I got this gig, is I chopped the knee of the other guy. Yeah, right. So we have about 30 seconds to the next clip. Talk a little bit if you would about the differences between being a photographer and making a film like this. Well, as a photojournalist you have to be able to tell the story, and you have to have an opening picture and a, you know, the picture that illustrates the story and then a closing. And I think doing a book as an author, every book has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and so I decided that a film was basically a book come to life or a reportage human interest story fleshed out and widened in scope. I had no idea that it would take me eight years. We'll talk a little bit more about that. Let's see another clip from The Fabulous Ice Age. All of this started when I was growing up in Enid, Oklahoma. There was a very lavish roller-skating show called the Skating Vanities. The star of the show was a beautiful ballerina on roller skates, Gloria Nord. And Gloria was just a superstar. I was skating in Oklahoma City, and he came to see me backstage. And you know I met a lot of people but he was so sincere and so interested in skating. In 1950, Gloria went to England and became a giant ice skating star. She was the first ice skater to appear in the Royal Command performance for the Queen of England. And she gave me her costume, the one that she's wearing in this famous photograph on England's biggest magazine. I was never going to give it away, but there's not a person that deserves it more than Roy. He'll take good care of it, better than I could do. That was the beginning. I got the bug, and it has devoured me, as you can see. (pleasant music) Welcome back to Director's Cut. That was a clip from The Fabulous Ice Age. And joining director Keri Pickett and me on the set now is Roy Blakey, who is the ice age historian, correct? This is all the stuff that is gracing our set tonight which looks so amazing, is from Roy's collection. So Roy, welcome to Director's Cut. Glad to be here. - Yeah, well this is incredible. So talk a little bit about the stuff. Which skates were Sonja Henie's? The white ones. - The white ones. She had some boats, huh? Those are big feet. (Roy laughs) Thank you, Roy. So these are actually Sonja Henie's skates. How did you, how did you acquire this stuff, Roy? Were these just your friends, they wanted you to have it, or what? No, I actually got them on eBay. Oh! Some woman in Los Angeles-- Oh no, Las Vegas was selling these, and of course I-- Get me in there-- I could have outbid you for those skates. Don't you dare. (both chuckle) So I won them on eBay, and they are certainly a highlight of my collection. Yeah that's pretty-- - But it's so hurtful to me when I meet people who don't know who she is. That just seems inconceivable to me. Well then, that's your job. - Yeah, that's my job! And Keri's as well. And tell us a little bit about that poster. That's from 1895? Well, we're going to talk about, or maybe you have talked about the early Charlotte Ice Ballet that came from Berlin, Germany and I've always told people that company in Berlin in 1911 was the first organized professional company for figure skating, for theatrical figure skating. And then of course, after I've been saying that for 10 years I found this poster that was printed in Scotland, but the seller was in Germany. And as much digging that I've done, I think this was a performance in 1895. So that's about 20 years before the German company formed itself, so I don't know as much as I'd like to know, and I'm still searching to find more. But what I really believe is the company that produced this skating thing was usually just doing shows on the boards, and this was their only ice skating project. It's incredible. It is incredible, and I can't even imagine, like you were talking about what inspired you to make this film before. Tell us how Roy's collection made your life so much easier. Well, Roy's collection spans the entire hundred years. And so when I would need to illustrate-- I think there are like 2,200 cuts in my 72-minute film. There's a lot of cuts, so there's a lot of pieces and I really wanted the film to move quickly so I wanted a lot of visuals in the film. So I would just go to Roy and I would say what do you have from this time period? And we would start to scan, and then I ended up having to look for footage from other skaters. Skippy Baxter, who was in his '90s, and is in the film, ended up providing the tremendous 16 millimeter footage of Sonja skating. And he was with Sonja in the shows and when he wasn't performing, he took out his 16 millimeter camera and filmed her. And so I just feel as a filmmaker between Roy's collection, IceStage Archive collection, and the other skaters. Now the other part of my film that was amazing is that Roy, when he was with Holiday on Ice, and maybe I'm jumping the story a little bit for him, but he was in Holiday on Ice International, and he got an eight millimeter camera. And so he did tiny little snippets of shots as he traveled around the world, 'cause he traveled in 40 different countries in his career. And so I had his eight millimeter footage, but then along the way I got footage from Ice Follies, Ice Capades, and Sonja Henie. - Excellent stuff. Let's take another look at a clip from The Fabulous Ice Age. Friendships were numerous far and wide, and you happened to be a single young lady at that time, and you wanted more than a friendship, you weren't going to find it in Ice Capades. Don't get me wrong, there were young men in the show, but they were very much sought after by both sides. Being that I was a, let's say, nervous theatrical boy crazy type, and I couldn't sing and I couldn't dance and I couldn't act, but I wanted to be in show business, and suddenly this is where I decided I'm going to run away with the ice show. American girl wanted to marry me, and an English girl, too. And they find out by girlfriends and they know that well, he is you know, he is different. That was the wonderful element of all of our young people coming from Canada, coming from California and Boston and wherever they were all coming to join. Everybody could just be themselves. The boys were just very flamboyant and nobody cared. It just looked like a very good time. There was this great like wow, you're a good looking guy, or you're a great-looking girl. You're black and you may be still unclaimed about your sexuality or whatever, but we're here for one element and that's to entertain. And what's the world of show business? A world of show business is just that, to be yourself. 'Cause if you can't, how are you going to perform in front of thousands of people? The show hit places of really renowned racism in the South, Birmingham, Knoxville, Memphis, places like that. And here I was, the first African American featured performer in that world of ice shows. It's been said that jazz is the only true American art form. Would competitive figure skating fall in there somewhere? How long did this exist before it was brought here with the ice shows? Well, it's not competitive figure skating, it's the ice shows. - Correct, right. This is a theatrical presentation of figure skating. -

Pete

That started here. - Has nothing to do with the Olympics or the competition. Roy, I've had about enough of your attitude, right now. (all laughing) I'm trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about, figure skating. No, it's true in that the ice show is I think an American-- even though the Berlin Ice Ballet came-- It was born in Berlin, or Scotland. All right, so we've got jazz and pro wrestling here is about all we have, unfortunately, okay. But the touring ice show-- Enormously popular in the '50s and '60s and '70s. Okay, that leads me to my next question, Roy. How much does Keri's film depict kind of the life you led? Does it feel like you're on a trip down memory lane? Oh yes, absolutely. Oh absolutely, and so many of my compatriots tell me, "Oh, I cry every time I see it." To remembering those incredible experiences that we had, traveling around the world and doing the thing that we loved. Now, did Roy have to help you get these interviews? Like with Gloria Nord and some of these people, or were they willing to talk anyway? I would imagine your connection through Roy-- She's such a go-getter that she didn't need my help at all and she went to many people that I would not have the contact, have the nerve to ask. But she's a trouper. She can do the job. Well, one of the things that I did as a process is that the Holiday on Ice, Ice Follies, and Ice Capades groups continue, even though the shows are not going on here. Holiday is still going on in Europe, but they continue to have reunions. And so I went with Roy to reunions for years to Las Vegas, to LA, even to-- We even traveled to Germany and traveled with Holiday on Ice in Europe for two weeks. It ended up being about a minute and a half in the film, but I just set up a studio in my hotel room and I would go down and bring up skaters and I started that way. Oh, that's a great way to do it, yeah. So okay, so what was your biggest challenge making this film then, Keri, because you've got Roy, you've got this basically museum of this entire era. Every film has its challenges though. What for you, what was the toughest part of shooting? In the show-- I mean I would say just the development of the story arc was the most difficult, because Ice Capades started in 1936. I mean, Ice Follies started in '36, Ice Capades started in '40, Holiday on Ice started in '43, Sonja Henie really started in '36. So you have a lot of concurrent shows, but you couldn't, so you couldn't really tell it in a chronological way because there was this cluster of so much that happened at once. And so I would say the development of the story arc was the most difficult thing. And also just fitting in seven shows, the entrepreneurs, the stars, the context. Geez, that is unbelievable. It really was a collaborative effort between both of you and it's neat that you sort of worked together. And you're family, too. I think that's fantastic. Let's see our final clip from The Fabulous Ice Age. I never missed, ever, anything with the Ice Capades. And at the end of that season, Dick Palmer came up to me and he said congratulations. You never missed a show, you never missed a press opportunity, you did a great job. I just really want to express to you how grateful I am that you did this great job. But, we're going through a sale. We have an investor that's bought, a private investor has bought the Ice Capades, and looking over the assets. They don't want your contract. You are... done. What am I going to do? My manager Bob Kane, he sat me down on the beach and he goes, "Do you want to start a tour?" And I go, yeah. (Chuckling) He said, Do you have an idea of what you'd like to do?" And I go, yeah. I mean your fantasies are never really supposed to be presented to you as an opportunity. And I always thought about wouldn't it be great if you took the Tom Collins model and you made it artistic? It was a great thing that Tommy had such a big cast, but to me, you know, as an audience member, I'd like to see my favorite skater more than once. And wouldn't it be cool if they skated with other favorite skaters? So our idea was it was still going to be the cavalcade of champions type of tour. And we'll make it an artistic evening, a theatrical evening. We did five cities in northeastern United States, and it had momentum. And every year we'd do a few more cities, and we just started to grow. I'm always amazed as a casual fan of figure skating, and I will admit, I pretty much usually just see it during the Olympics, but their athleticism, like gymnasts, too, the things they do. These skaters are doing that on ice. Why is it-- It's so much more difficult than shooting a basketball, kicking a soccer ball. Why aren't they more appreciated? Roy, that's for you. I have no idea. I'm with you. -

Pete

If you had your way, they would be, right? - Exactly, exactly. Push the other people out of the way. All those big moneymakers. Right, so let me ask you this, Roy. You started kind of late in life and you started roller skating. We had no ice in Enid, Oklahoma. So if you had started like a lot of kids do now they're three years old when they start all these sports. How good could you have been? I could've been fantastic! - I would imagine so. I did take a training in roller skating. I got on the bus every Saturday, and I went to Tulsa from Enid, and had a skating lesson. And to change over to ice is really not a big thing. It's basically the same, except you don't have eight pounds on your feet from those rollers. And those, I mean look at this beautiful silver thing that's part of the beauty of it. But I really self-taught myself ice skating from the techniques that I had learned from the roller teacher. You sound like just as much of a go-getter as Keri. How you describe, no honestly, because that's pretty incredible how you did that. Well it's true. - Yeah. So what's next for you? Can you go to another project where you don't have your uncle and his help and his collection and like he said, you're pretty tenacious when you have a subject you're passionate about, but what's next for you? Well my most recent film is called First Daughter and the Black Snake, and it follows Winona LaDuke and her pipeline fight in Minnesota going against the Enbridge Sandpiper and Line 3 pipelines. And so that is currently out on Amazon and I'm still in the festival world with that, and I have some screenings in Minnesota coming up. I'm working on a new book on photos I took in New York City in the '80s at a bar called Tin Pan Alley. And I have a couple of films I'm developing. And I'm also working on a film on Roy's photography. His life as a photographer, just a short film, something more focused on Roy. Can we expect to see some roller skates up here, Roy? The ones you used when you were learning? I don't think I even have them. - No, he doesn't have 'em. I think when I went off to Holiday on Ice, I was living in Chicago because I had worked in the Conrad Hilton Hotel ice show for five years, seven days a week, two shows a night. And I remember leaving my roller skates on the corner, and letting somebody else enjoy them. You guys were terrific guests. I'm so glad you were here today. I'm going to take these out and take a spin. See what I can do. - Not these you're not. Please come back with a future project to talk to you guys again. Thanks so much for being here. - Thank you. - Thank you so much. And thank you for watching Director's Cut. For more information on The Fabulous Ice Age, please go to wpt.org and click on Director's Cut. While you're there, send us an email or find out how to submit a film. Also don't forget to like WPT on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. And at this time, I would like to inform everyone here at Wisconsin Public Television that for future tapings, I will be holding and almost spilling a glass of champagne. Let's make it a party, right? We'll see you next time on Director's Cut. (upbeat music) The beauty of what ice skating can be, what it was like. Isn't that what theater's all about? It remains in your mind. I will be forever grateful for all of those years that I spent touring with the ice skating shows, and the experience of performing all over the world. Yes, that's better.