Abstract
John H. Harris knew he was on to something in the late 1930s when he saw the hockey crowd at Duquesne Gardens’ enthusiastic response to the figure skater he hired to perform between periods. No stranger to the entertainment industry, Harris was the son of Pittsburgh theater and entertainment pioneer John P. Harris, who in 1905 had opened the first theater devoted solely to motion pictures (the Nickelodeon) in downtown Pittsburgh. From this simple idea came the Ice Capades, which debuted in 1940. It was not the first of its kind, but it became the most lauded and long-lasting traveling ice show, enduring for half a century.
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