Snow White on Ice - The Ice Capades

Disney characters have been appearing on ice since the late 1940s starting with the Ice Capades. Founded in Hershey, Pennsylvania by John H. Harris and others, the traveling ice skating show featured theatrical performances from former Olympic and National Champion figure skaters. A wide variety of programs were produced including those "by special arrangement with Walt Disney."

1949--

The first Snow White ensemble hit the ice in 1949 with US figure skating champions Donna Atwood and Bobby Specht portraying the princess and prince. These early shows were in the days before Disney theme parks as well as the fine art of character costuming. As a result, the dwarfs were sometimes a little scary-looking.

1949 Program Front Cover

Back Cover

1954--

The show returned in 1954 with Atwood and Specht reenacting their roles.

1954 Program: Front Cover

Back Cover

1955--

Snow White was not apart of the 1955 Ice Capades lineup, but the show did appear that year in a John Harris produced off-shoot called Ice Cycles. This 1955 program booklet appears identical to the one from '54 (above) except for the name on the cover.

An 8x10 Ice Cycles publicity photo (below) shows Snow White with her forest animal friends. Donna Atwood would retire her skates the following year in 1956.

1955 8x10 via Bah's Sports Photos and Memorabilia.

The Ice Capade costumes made a rare off-ice appearance when they were used in the parade and festivities shown live on television during the grand opening of Disneyland, July 17, 1955. Disneyland's first Snow White, JoAnn Killingsworth, is seen here with the dwarfs in a practice run of the parade.

Image via The Disneyana Collector newsletter (summer 1987). Scan courtesy of TokyoMagic! at Meet the World.

Also see a sharper image at Daveland and another angle at Stuff From The Park.

1959--

The Snow White show was brought back again for the 1959 season and starred Helga Neff and Peter Voss as the royal couple.

Promotional Photos.

1959 Program Front and Back Cover

Souvenir pennants...

Blue Wool Ice Capades Pennant (approx. 30" long)

Close-up Red Pennant

Also see the souvenir pins in post below.

The Ice Capades would continue in its popularity up thru the mid-1980s and even into the early 90s, but the heyday of performances featuring Snow White characters would end long before this. There were Disney-themed shows throughout the 1960s and early 70s, but none that centered so exclusively on the Snow White storyline.

In the 60s, it was the Tom Arnold shows throughout the United Kingdom that would bring the Disney Snow White characters back to the ice.

'Disneyana Collector' Newsletter, Summer 1987

Coverage of the 50th Anniversary 'Snow White Reunion' appeared on the front cover of The Disneyana Collector newsletter, Summer 1987. The two photos show Joann Killingsworth riding in a Disneyland parade, the first from Opening Day 1955, the second fifty years later.

Additional pages from the newsletter...

Disneyland artist Charles Boyer plus Matt Mew on the Disney Dollars...

The Disneyana Collector was a service of Grolier Enterprises.

Image scans courtesy of TokyoMagic! of Meet the World.

Snow White Cast Member Reunion (50th Anniversary - 1987)

On Friday the 5th of June, 1987, a never before event occurred at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. In celebration of the film's Golden Anniversary, a reunion was held for all the past performers who had ever played Disney's first princess in the theme parks.

Disneyland Reunion - Video Screen Capture

By 1987, over one hundred women had portrayed the Snow White character.

In Orlando, 24 former princesses returned to WDW where the day included a parade down Main Street and a feast at the Crystal Palace. Officials at Tokyo Disneyland had hoped for a reunion too. The park had been open for four and half years, but unfortunately, all 17 of the former cast members were American. The affair had to be cancelled as they could not attend.

The largest reunion occurred in California The Anaheim park being the oldest, of course, drew the greatest number with around 70 royal ladies showing up. Here's a short television news piece on the Disneyland event...

Video posted by Hetchel.

One of the charming stories to come out of the reunion was that of JoAnn Killingsworth, who at age 31, was picked to portray the first Snow White at Disneyland in 1955. It was she who appeared on opening day in the 90-minute ABC television special, Dateline Disneyland. JoAnn is seen riding on a float in the Main Street parade, again during the Fantasyland opening ceremony, and finally a little later at her "Adventures" dark ride.

Parade...

JoAnn rides on the Snow White float with the Seven Dwarfs.

video excerpt

Fantasyland Grand Opening...

Snow White performs with Alice, Sleeping Beauty, and Petr Pan.

 video excerpt

Dark Ride...

A dash to the Snow White's Adventures ride.

video excerpt

The original ABC Dateline: Disneyland program can be seen on the Disneyland USA disc from the Walt Disney Treasures DVD collection.

The park organizers for the reunion especially wanted to locate this cast member who portrayed the first Snow White. Problem was...she wasn't a cast member. Her name wasn’t in the Disney personnel records so no one seemed to know who she was. Unbeknownst to JoAnn, she suddenly became the subject of a nationwide search, a quest to find the very first "first princess."

As it turns out, JoAnn, now 63 in 1987, was found only 15 miles away living in Newport Beach.

I worked for ABC, not Disneyland, so there was no record of me in the park. I didn’t know they were hunting for me until a friend read about it in the paper and told me. I really didn’t realize Disney was looking for me. If I had, I would have called somebody and said, ‘Here I am. Here’s Snow White!’

JoAnn Killingsworth at the 1987 reunion.

Blurbs about the Snow White homecoming made it into US newspapers from coast-to-coast.

Lakeland Ledger:

Clippings from June 5, 1987, Lakeland Ledger

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Los Angeles Times

Originally printed June 6, 1987, LA Times.

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Wilmington Morning Star:

 AP article, June 6, 1987, Wilmington Morning Star.

The reunion was kind of a unique occurrence in that Disney does not often encourage cast members, current or past, to publicly share their experiences of working for the Mouse. But put a bunch of Snows in the same space and they're gonna talk.

Suzanne Sinclair Crosby of Denver, Dee Sinclair Lewis of Burbank, and Christine Sinclair Romberlin of Matthews, N.C., are sisters and each portrayed Snow White at Disneyland. The Snow White reunion was their first sibling reunion in four years. Lewis recalled one 110-degree day in her velvet costume. “I fainted behind Dumbo, and one of the elephants took off his [costume] head and carried me to a rest area. It was not a great moment for Disneyland.”

Sharon Clarke Jones who lived in Honolulu was one of the Snow Whites who was a grandmother. She was a ticket taker at Disneyland in 1956 when “Walt Disney walked through the park one night and just picked me to be Snow White.”

Twin sisters Diane Abbott and Donna Housan each portrayed the princess in Florida and “love to get together and share our memories of playing Snow White.”

“No, it won’t be named Snow White or Snow Prince,” said Beth Bond-Sczempka of San Diego who married the man who played her prince when the pair greeted visitors at Disneyland in the summer of 1978. They were expecting their first child September 25. Edith Newberry, a former Snow White at Walt Disney World, also married a man who portrayed the Prince.*

* Anecdotes from published news pieces gathered together by Wade Sampson (aka Jim Korkis) in his 2009 Snow White Mouse Planet article.

1987 video screen-captures via Hetchel.

Coverage of the event also appeared in the Summer 1987 Disneyana Collector newsletter (next post).


It will be interesting to see if Disney does something similar in 2012 for the 75th Anniversary. If so, we'll get 25 more years of anecdotes and another generation of Snow Whites to look forward to.

Snow White Pressed Quarters

Elongated quarters with a dime and a nickel thrown in for some spare change:

Top: Snow White pressed quarter, first appeared at Disneyland 2001, retired 2008. Below: 2008 Snow White quarter with backstamp. Currently still available from the press machine at It's A Small World Toy Shop, Fantasyland, Disneyland.

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Snow White quarter currently available at Contemporary Resort, 4th Floor Concourse #4, WDW.

Left: Retired Dopey quarter, 25th anniversary of Walt Disney World, 1996. Right: Dopey quarter currently available at Main Street USA, Emporium, Walt Disney World.

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A Philatelic Numismatic Combination (PNC) is a combo stamp and coin usually on a First Day of Issue envelope for either the coin or stamp. This PNC was offered by Ewell Gunther's American Covers. Some envelops were signed by JoAnn Killingsworth, Disneyland's first Snow White and "First Lady" at the park opening in 1955.

Elogated dime (L) and nickel (R), 50TH ANNIVERSARY 1987, has initials of Frank Brazzell, the engraver. Coins were probably not authorized by Disney.

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The Animated Film Celebration series of elongated coins began at the beginning of 2001, commemorating various Disney animated films. The Snow White quarter was available at the Boardwalk Resort, Lobby.

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Coins from the... 

Happiest Celebration on Earth [which] began May 5, 2005 and continued through the end of 2006. This event celebrated 50 years of Disney theme parks. Even though the celebration was over at the end of 2006, the quarters did not start being replaced with generic themed quarters until about March 2008. By the end of August 2008, most of the quarters from this celebration have finally been replaced. Source: presscoins.com

Walt Disney World The Happiest Celebration on Earth quarters:

Snow White from All-Star Movies Resort, World Premiere Food Court; Grumpy from the Fantasia Gardens Arcade; Happy from Animal Kingdom, Island Mercantile; Sleepy from Animal Kingdom, Out Of The Wild.

Images and info via presscoins.com and parkpennies.com.