Minnesota has a long history of celebrating winter, which, for many, is the longest and darkest time of the year, from Winter Carnival and elaborate ice castles, to the annual Pond Hockey Tournament and City of Lakes Loppet. With the more seasonably-appropriate temps (if not snow conditions), my mind turns to outdoor rinks and ice skating, a pastime that’s occupied Minnesotans since before being legally recognized as a state. For obvious reasons, the state has several figures who have contributed in notable ways to both skating as an industry, and as a sport.
Shipstads and Johnson Ice Follies
Sometime during the 1920s, three boys, brothers Eddie and Roy Shipstad and Oscar Johnson, began entertaining family, friends and neighbors on a pond near their home. Eddie and Oscar had begun their skating career in St. Paul: Not having any opportunity to compete in the Saint Paul Winter Carnival, the brothers turned to exhibition skating, soon developing the routine that would become the famous slapstick "A Bicycle Built for Two." In 1937, the trio founded Shipstads and Johnson Ice Follies, which performed an annual show, and traveled the country until 1979, when the troupe merged with Holiday on Ice.
The film, The Ice Follies of 1939, was loosely based on the Shipstads and Johnson show.
In his New York Times obituary, the genius of the Ice Follies was described this way:
There were ice shows before Eddie Shipstad came along with his comic skating partner, Oscar Johnson, and his top-hatted little brother, Roy Shipstad, but until the three put their show on the road in 1936, ice shows tended to be small one-shot amateur charity productions, entertainment between periods at hockey games or occasional nightclub engagements.
Today, the tradition lives on in similar traveling shows like Disney on Ice, and Stars on Ice, featuring Olympic Champions.
Strauss Ice Skates
Made by hand in St. Paul for nearly 100 years, the Strauss name has been synonymous with quality ice skates for the duration of the company’s existence—still operating today in Maplewood, just a few miles from the shop’s original downtown St. Paul location.
John Strauss Sr. immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1881; originally landing in Chicago, he soon moved to St. Paul to set up shop in the family business, as a locksmith. Because this business didn’t completely fill his time, Strauss began to repair bicycles for customers who raced them during the warmer seasons, and ice-skated in winter to stay in shape. Eventually, his clients convinced Strauss to utilize his metalworking skills to create quality skate blades and, over the years, Strauss perfected a method that consistently resulted in a high-quality product, which became popular with professional and amateur skaters in the US and abroad.
Skating in St. Paul, 1896
Strauss began by hand-cutting the blade from a sheet of custom high-carbon steel (imported from England to Reading, Pennsylvania, then transported to St. Paul). The the blades were treated with a hardening process involving heat Strauss had learned working in a Naples, Italy arsenal, the secret to which he only ever shared with family members.
Strauss made his first pair of figure skates in 1888 for local athlete Harley Davidson; in 1889, he created a pair for racer Axel Paulsen, inventor of the "axel" skating jump. Hockey skates followed some years after that, with the company now coming full circle, once again embracing bicycle sales and repair—though not locksmithing.
Angela Anderson, 612-396-3654
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Licensed Associate Working with Sharlene Hensrud of RE/MAX Results, and HomesMSP — Sharlene, John, Angela
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