How they met: My grandparents were professional ice skaters in the 1940s, hired by Sonja Henie

The job that started my family: On Sept 12, 1943, my grandmother signed a contract with a producer named Arthur M. Wirtz, who hired her to perform as an an ice skater in the Hollywood Ice Revue starring Sonja Henie, a very accomplished figure skater who became a film star.

That was cool.

Because another skater working for that show just happened to be my grandfather, so her signing that contract not only changed her life dramatically, it soon started the life of my mother, then eventually the lives of my sister and me. 

But that's not the only reason why I love the contract, which my grandmother kept for 70 years. I particularly enjoy reading all the details explaining exactly what the producers of the show would, and wouldn't, pay for, with a special page dedicated to the train tickets that would take her from California to Chicago.

The contract states that she will be paid $65 a week, only $30 of which was actual salary. The other $35 was for “living expenses, including board and lodging, but excluding railroad or other transportation costs.”

The railroad costs were excluded because a separate page of the agreement is dedicated to the details of the train tickets:

“In connection with the Employment agreement… I agree to furnish your railroad transportation ticket and berth to the point of origin of the Hollywood Ice Revue, that is to say, Chicago, Illinois, from your place of residence, which you represent to be Los Angeles, and back to said residence… at the termination of said show. It is expressly understood that the railroad tickets and berth furnished herunder are purchased under a special rate arrangement with the railroad and are not transferable and are not subject to cash refund or credit in the event they are unused in whole or part, or unused within the time limit designated on said tickets.”

Grandma covering her pregnant belly.

Just a couple of months after signing the contract, my grandmother became pregnant. The show was scheduled to run until June of 1944, but I have to imagine that my grandmother stopped skating long before that. I am very curious about what happened next, but she kept nothing that provides any answer to my questions, such as: “Did she quit voluntarily, or did they fire her for ‘gaining weight?’” 

(Though I will likely never know for sure, I have to imagine that my grandmother found a way to quit ice skating long before her pregnancy began to show, given how our society would have viewed an unwed mother in the 1940s.)

I’m also very disappointed that I could not find any photos of either one of my grandparents skating, and found only one photo of them together. Since my grandparents never married and to my knowledge were only civil after their work “fling” when necessary for my mother’s sake, the only photo I have of them standing next to each other (posted above) is one taken by my mother in the early 1960s. My grandfather has cameras around his neck because he was taking photos of my mother, I believe in honor of her high school graduation.

Read more on my grandfather, who stayed true to his Michigan roots even as he traveled the world, here: https://thatwascooladdress.blogspot.com/2021/12/my-grandfather-world-traveler-who.html