Photo courtesy Hennepin County Library
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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