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The Show Is On----And
He Can Go To Sleep
When the first act of the Ice Follie 1950 went on
last night at His Majesty's Theatre there was 700gal.
or water, comprising 2 ½ in.
of ice on the theatre stage.
The preparation of this rink
has been a long and weary
process for the company's
Swiss engineer Pierre Fran-
chini (28), who will get to bed
tonight for the first time since
Friday.
Work on the ice floor began
at 2 a.m. on Sunday after the
local production, Sally, vacated
the theatre.
The floor had to be levelled
and a tarpaulin laid down be-
fore the two miles of pipe
could be set up.
On top of the pipes went
four tons of crushed ice which
had to be frozen into one
block. From then on the rink
had to be scraped often and
sprayed with water every 15
minutes to make the surface
smooth.
It was ready for a practice
spin at 4 p.m. yesterday and
when the show opened there
were 12 tons of solid ice on
the stage of the theatre.
The engineer's job was not
finished even then. He had to
remain at the theatre after the
show, checking temperatures
and testing the durability of
the ice.
Every three days Jin. is
scraped off the rink. It is
sprayed just before a perform-
ance to give the surface speed
and gloss.
When the season closes in
six weeks time there will be
about 6in. of ice on top of the
pipes.
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