SkateHistory.Ca

Ice Follies

Sheldon and Murray declined their first offer to join the Ice Follies in 1939, but reconsidered after the Junior Championships and joined the cast in May of 1940. Meryl and Neil followed soon thereafter into the New York Ice Revue at Center Theater and worked in the chorus, while developing a comedy routine called "The Rookies". Skippy joined New York Revue as a lead performer.

At first, none of the boys skated in the shows, but practiced the routines during the rehearsals. Sheldon and Murray worked on a version of a "synchronized" skating pair that, in the early stages was a variation of Sheldon's solo. They had first started skating as a pair when they had been asked to work up a number for the opening of the Grace Breweries Ice Rink in Santa Rosa, California. It had been very well received, was considered very athletic, and was what had originally brought them to the attention of the Ice Follies.

In late August of 1940, after having learned the chorus numbers and perfected their own featured pair number, Sheldon and Murray were invited to skate in several shows prior to the opening of the following year's tour, which was to be held in Los Angeles.

This was a time of great learning for Sheldon, in addition to learning about the discipline of a professional show, where you simply continued to do something over and over until you got it right, he learned about music and choreography, and putting together a complete "package". There were so many wonderful resource people that the Galbraiths had access to in Ice Follies. A well-known stage, show and ballroom dance choreographer/producer, Miss Fanchon (Hollywood, Ca), was brought in to do the planning and choreography for the Ice Follies; new show.

She was assisted by skating choreographer Fran Claudet (Ottawa, Canada) who would then interpret these Ice Follies shot numbers and ideas for the ice. When working out new ideas or concepts for their pair, they would present them to the choreographers for their approval. At this time, they were working on developing their musical expression, and what they were trying to express creatively through their skating.

One of their costumes was a champagne like satin top with maroon pants made by MacIntosh of Hollywood. MacIntosh made all the men's costumes for Ice Follies of the best materials. There was no production built around the Galbraith Brothers, for they were an unknown quantity. Sheldon and Murray did strengthen the chorus numbers in which they performed so this was a plus.

Counting music was new to Sheldon and he was still counting by mouthing the counts. On the first tour performing in Los Angles during a performance Murray happend to fall down. Part of the routine came to a skid stop at the end of the rink close to the audience and the people near by started smiling and laughing at Sheldon's counts as if he were counting Murray out in a boxing match.

Sheldon recalls: "Show business does not play around, you don't need to have your music played to rehearse, you hear it in your head and you know it so intimately that every step intertwines with the next to lead to the conclusion successfully for the delivery of a good performance."

Skating in the Ice Follies in the 1940s was a glamorous proposition, and there was lots of fun and parties in addition to the hard work .