ent000814-038

B 51 ??jeBienUiaBulUtin PHILADELPHIA Tuesday, Sept. 30, 1969 At the Spectrum Holiday on Ice Becomes Circus on tee By WAYNE ROBINSON Of The Bulletin Staff WITH all those X movies in town, it's nice to have a clean show that can be easily recommended for the entire family. That's Holiday on Ice ?╟÷ not a movie, but a live (very) show which opened last night at the Spectrum through Sunday, Oct. 3. It is, of course, an ice show. Need any more be said to describe what an ice show is after all these years? Yes. There have beenyice shows before which have had chimps oh skates (this one does, again). But how many ice shows have you seen with live mules kicking the paying customers (presumably) in the pants? That's what happens in the next-to-closing act, "Equine Craziness," with Kossmayer's Mules. This is an imported Dutch act which beats all. It has nothing to do with skating. A kind of circus ring is put down on the ice, and members of the audience (over 21) are invited to come up* and try to ride one of Kossmayer's mules which has apparently been injected with jet fuel. Some try it by the tail, some by the ears. Some appear to be real candidates (one gave up and kicked the kicking mule). Others may be stooges ?╟÷the bald gentleman in glass es, Kossmayer himself? One boy with his arm already in a splint wanted to volunteer. Like Socrates said, people are born optimists. This is audience participation like you never saw before. ?╟≤ ?╟≤ ?╟≤ THEN ?╟÷ and this doesn't have much to do with skating either ?╟÷ there's a wonderful break-away car which rattles, bangs and blows apart in one of. the comedy acts put on by e x - p r o hockey skater Paul Andre and his partner, Johnny Leech. Look quick and you'll see Paul do a gravity defying backward cantilever, proving Mr. Frick doesn't hold the patent. The chimps are Werner Mul ler's?╟÷a good monkey act that looks even better this year than before. This sounds more like a circus write-up than an ice show revue, but there is some splendid skating in this 25th edition of the Holiday on Ice shows, the third year that it has been seen here. (Theme of the show is roughly on holidays- New Year's, Easter, Fourth of July, Christmas.) First and foremost, certainly, is the returning Ronnie Robertson, in earlier years an Ice Capades star. It's not possible that he can be spinning faster than ever, but it seems so. He is the show's real star. In the glamor department, there's Marei Langenbein, Alice Quessy, Grete Borgen among the lovelier lovelies. Principal male skaters doing well are Ray Balmer, Alfredo Mendoza and John Ladue, For family togetherness, there's Tommy Allen and perky Juniata Percelly (Mrs. Allen) as a skating pair, and the whole Cook family on" skates?╟÷mother, dad and three little Cooks. For its silver anniversary, Holiday on Ice has put plenty of spangled silver in its costumes and it has come up with some acts that are solid gold for family fare. No X rating here. Go and enjoy, like the circus.