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Touring shows featuring ice skating

The Ice Capades were traveling entertainment shows featuring theatrical ice skating performances. Shows often featured former Olympic and US National Champion figure skaters who had retired from formal competition. Started in 1940, the Ice Capades grew rapidly and prospered for 50 years. A decline in popularity ensued in the 1980s, and the show went out of business around 1995. There have been several attempts to revive the show and its name. Similar traditional ice skating entertainment shows included the Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice.

The group's first performance was four months after its founding, on June 16, 1940, at New Orleans Municipal Auditorium. The show closed there on June 29 and moved to Atlantic City Convention Hall, where it played nightly from July 19 through September 2. Famous skaters in the large cast included Belita, Vera Hruba, and Robin Lee. The group's first touring season under the Ice Capades name covered 24 cities between November 1940 and May 1941. and Ice Capades Revue (1942). The films featured actors and entertainers such as James Ellison, Ellen Drew, Jerry Colonna, and Phil Silvers, as well as the Ice Capades skaters. They were not considered to be films of quality, and the first one was panned by The New York Times. In 1946 Ice Cycles, a co production, was formed with Ice Follies. In 1949, Ice Follies left the Ice Cycles show leaving it under Ice Capades' ownership. Starting in 1949, Ice Capades started adding Disney's character segment to their performances. Costumes from those shows were used at the opening of Disneyland in 1955, and some performers were hired away by Disney. Harris sold the company circa 1964 to Metromedia. By the mid 1970s, Ice Capades had grown to three different touring companies under one Ice Capades umbrella: The East Company (the original 1940 company), the West Company, and the Continental Company (formed in 1974). In this period, they owned several railroad baggage cars that were used to transport the show. In 1986, then owner Metromedia sold Ice Capades, 15 Ice Chalet skating rinks, and the Harlem Globetrotters as a package to International Broadcasting Corporation for $30 million.

A slow decline in popularity began by the end of the 1980s. The parent company went bankrupt in 1991. Olympic champion Scott Hamilton joined the show in 1984 but later left to start his own show, Stars on Ice. On June 24, 1993, Dorothy Hamill, who headlined the East Company from 1977 to 1984, bought Ice Capades' assets in a bankruptcy sale via Dorothy Hamill International company. Hamill International developed Frozen in Time: Cinderella on Ice, a theatrical style show billed as Dorothy Hamill's Ice Capades. The new company took on millions in loans to stay afloat, but attendance figures remained stagnant. In May 1994, the Shriners dropped its sponsorship of the Christmas show in favor of Disney On Ice. In February 1995, Hamill sold the company for $10 million to television evangelist Pat Robertson's company, International Family Entertainment (IFE). Hamill and her husband, Dr. Ken Forsythe, were retained as president and CEO, respectively. Ice Capades planned a tour of arenas as well as a TV special in China's Tiananmen Square but went out of business a short time later. In 1996, Ice Capades and Metro Goldwyn Mayer developed The Magic of MGM, which included Dairy Queen among its sponsors. On August 15, 1997, Del Wilber shut down operations and laid off the performers. IFE had apparently continued to fund the Ice Capades as a secured creditor. IFE was acquired by Fox Kids Worldwide, funding was halted, and two scheduled tours were canceled. However, in April 2009, the tour was canceled by its organizers, Garden Family Shows, stranding many of the performers without pay and leaving suppliers unpaid.

Former Ice Capades skaters have organized reunions, typically held every five years. The 2010 reunion, held in Las Vegas, commemorated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Ice Capades, and was attended by more than 500 people. The 75th Diamond Jubilee Celebration was held in June 2015.

In the early 1950s, the group started using portable ice rinks, called "tanks". This made it possible for them to perform in arenas that did not have their own ice surface, greatly expanding the number of venues where the show could operate. It took several days and 30 40 workers to install the tanks. In the late 1960s, Ice Capades designed and patented a new portable ice rink system that could be installed in less than 10 hours on most arena basketball floors or other surfaces. and "Dirt Capades".