Sonja Henie Program – 1940

Description

This is a program from “Hollywood Ice Productions Chicago Presents the Incomparable Sonja Henie.” The program contains 24 pages and measures approximately 9 x 12.25 inches. The covers are heavy stock and the pages are coated. There are many, many, many black & white photos of Henie in the booklet.
Sonja Henie (April 8, 1912-October 12, 1969) was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. She was a three-time Olympic champion (1928, 1932, 1936) in women's singles, a 10-time World champion (1927-1936) and a six-time European champion (1931-1936). Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies' figure skater. At the height of her acting career, she was one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood and starred in a series of box-office hits, including Thin Ice (1937), Happy Landing and My Lucky Star (1938), Second Fiddle (1939) and Sun Valley Serenade (1941).
In addition to her film career at Fox from 1936 to 1943, Henie formed a business arrangement with Arthur Wirtz, who produced her touring ice shows under the name of "Hollywood Ice Revue." At the time, figure skating and ice shows were not yet an established form of entertainment in the United States. Henie's popularity as a film actress attracted many new fans and instituted skating shows as a popular new entertainment. Throughout the 1940s, Henie and Wirtz produced lavish musical ice skating extravaganzas at Rockefeller Center's Center Theatre attracting millions of ticket buyers.
At the height of her fame, Henie brought as much as million per year from her shows and touring activities. She also had numerous lucrative endorsement contracts, and deals to market skates, clothing, jewelry, dolls, and other merchandise branded with her name. These activities made her one of the wealthiest self-made women in the world in her time.