Ah, the Lost Lenore

This blog has been inspired by my friend, Lenore, former columnist for the New York Daily News and now columnist for the New York Sun. She writes in New York. That means she's BIG TIME cuz if you can get it published there, you can get it published anywhere. Anyway, she's always been a fan of my ravings as I sometimes respond to her PROFNET queries (PROFNET is this wonderful system where reporters, freelancers, and other assorted journalists post their requests for experts, interviews, and whatever assistance we stalwarts in PR can muster) on subjects ranging from paper vs. plastic to America's fascination with just about anything performed "on ice." So the thought was I could perhaps blog about her columns and get us both some recognition so that maybe David Letterman will want us to appear on his show and someone will discover us and we'll present the award for BEST SUPPORTING TECHNICIAN IN AN ANIMATED FOREIGN FILM at next year's Oscars and we'll do an infomercial for a combination all-purpose-steak-knife-and-mop, make tons of money and retire to some beautiful beach-island-resort with white sands, cerulean blue waters, and natives that actually like Americans, but we'd have separate mansion/villas because she's married, i.e. this relationship is strictly about winning fame and making dollars...oh, and about good writing that hopefully entertains and informs, of course. So there it is. So, let's get started. Lenore published a column not long ago about ice shows on verizonsurround.com (click on newsroom). Here's what I had to say about that...

Personally, I think the answer to your question, "Why did the ice capades become so dorky," comes down to three words:

SMURFS ON ICE.

Originally--and maybe I'm wrong on this, but it's my sense of it--the "ice capades" was a way for the Olympic/world level skaters to make some dollars after they had gotten what they could out of amateur status, the Olympics being over, and so toured the world showing off all their various moves and people thought that was dandy.

Me too. I saw Katarina Witt years ago performing in Portland, Maine. I was also a big fan of Linda Frattiani, not sure I'm spelling her last name right, believe she took the silver for the U.S. in 1980. But I digress...

Anyway, as years passed, big business figured here's a way to make some money, let's put the skaters in costumes and take every beloved Disney movie ever made and toss it on the ice. So you got Dumbo and Pluto and Cinderella skating which, let's face it, is pretty ridiculous. Everyone knows flying elephants, dogs and women in glass slippers can't tread ice.

Hence the kitsch factor. It's the mixing of the beauty of ice skating with mass marketing/big business that ruined it. Not that I'm a socialist or anything, just a purist.

I do miss Linda Frattiani or however she spelled her name, though. What a beauty...