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MEMPHIS PRESS SCIMITAR, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, If69 a JLJ H THE FRONT ROW Nostalgic the Word For the ice Show By EDWIN HOWARD Press-Scimitar Amusements Editor NO MATTER HOW you Crack it, ice is always and invariably frozen H20, and no matter how you costume it, an ice show is an ice show is an ice show. For thousands ?╟÷ as this season's record Holiday On Ice advance sale of $67,000 will attest ?╟÷ that is probably its primary appeal. But I still believe a fortune, or at least a grate- ?√ß ful pat on the back, awaits the producer who can think of something different to do on the ice. Donn Arden, the Paris and Las Vegas ; Lido producer, doesn't qualify with this ; year's Holiday On Ice, which opened a six-day engagement last night at the Coliseum. In his first Holiday outing, Arden has | given us more of what we've gotten in the ; past ?╟÷ with a bit more baubles, bangles and beads. The theme for this 24th edition of Memphis' favorite touring show is Nostalgia, and the major production numbers range from the Little Old New York of Lillian Russell and George M. Cohan to the Top Hat, White Tie and Tails of Fred Astaire and the syncopated rhythms of old Spain, culminating in a Holiday history of Hollywood from "Silent Picture Daze" to Busby Berkeley's hey-day in ; the '30s. the Real Nostalgia BUT FOR ONE, like me, who has been auditing this particular ice show since it first miraculously laid its portable rink in the North Hall of the Auditorium 23 years ago, there is perhaps even more nostalgia in the specialty acts between the production numbers: Tiny Kim Cook skimming the ice just as tiny Joan Freisinger did these two decades gone; the audience "plant" who breaks up the adagio number; Paul Andre doing his silly sailor bit with those ice-crushing stops, just as?╟÷yep, Paul Andre?╟÷used to do; Ole Houn' Dawg (Alfredo Mendoza and Johnny Ladue), who I debuted way back when Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" was a hit, and still the favorite wag in the show. Yessir, if those were the good old days for the ice show, : they're still here. But I did find something missing in last night's perform- I ance. It was the surface polish that the Glamor-leers and Ice-Squires Used to have. (It's been five years since I last Howard s.pijom aqi aq o\ *jnj in;M 6u!iuAue j ?╟≤LISjl |BOjdOJJ o\v ?╟≤;ojJBd | ?√ßejojs juan ASH, TOO JSlUGfJ Borgen proves that skates day On Ice, which opened last jgsjast night would have given STT