PRIESTLEY, Ron

BORN OCTOBER 30TH 1920 in London to parents Leonard and Vera, [1] he went to school in France, and at 16 danced with Rona Thaell and Belita in the ice ballets, The Brahman's Daughter and Enchanted Night. Produced by London's Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in October and November 1937, he played a British officer in the first, and the branch and skeleton characters in Enchanted Night. These extravagant productions, employing 120 skaters and a 50-piece orchestra, launched the young Belita's professional career, and Priestley's. Phil Taylor, England's trick skater and instructor at Manchester Ice Palace, was both the male lead and skating director. [5]

At 18, Priestley skated professionally in Switzerland (1939), the first big ice revue to tour Australia. Taylor and his world champion daughter, Megan, starred in the London show, then at His Majesty's in Melbourne, before touring Australia and New Zealand. A daredevil even as a youngster according to his family, Priestley soon became an accomplished stunt skater like Taylor, perhaps even his successor. A return season of the Switzerland combination followed as the Ice Follies of 1940. Among its highlights were the Rodeo Trio and Naughty Nineties segments in which Priestley paired with the acrobatic skaterina, Diana Grafton.

Enlisting in the RAAF late in 1940, he served as a Flight Lieutenant at a training unit until discharge early in 1946 from RAAF Base Williamstown, just north of Newcastle. He also enlisted as a signalman in the Army between May '41 and July '42, and perhaps it was this and his fluency in French that later led some of his family in England to the conclusion he served as a spy behind enemy lines. He married Welsh-born show skater Sheila Canton [2] in Sydney in 1941, and had a son named Tim.

Although enlisted, Priestley continued to teach skating and do solo exhibitions such as Running Around with Ron and Phantom Skater. The latter evolved into his signature routine known overseas as The Phantom. He headlined in ice shows and cabaret nights such as Swing Time at Sydney Glaciarium and Bendrodt's Ice Palais with Pat Gregory and Margaret Shortland. In 1944, he remarried to Judith Elaine Cavanagh [2] and moved into a flat at Potts Point. They had one child, but Priestley left soon after discharge, later claiming the fluff from his wife's cat, Nanki-Poo, caused him occasional illness.

With war over, he produced and starred in his own ice shows. Schooldays at the Glaciarium featured his stilt skating with partner Neville Murray and a cast that included Pat Gregory (April 1947). In May, he starred as Superman in Comic Cut Capers featuring his car jumping act, the "Slide of Death", Neville Murray as Mighty Mouse, and a large cast dressed as comic book characters. In June, Don McKnight and Fred Taylor joined him for a reprise of Schooldays, followed by Night Club Novelties, and The Gay Nineties with Pat Gregory.

In September 1947, he produced Hollywood Ice Fantasy with 170 skaters, billed as "The Show That's Aglow With Happiness", a "modern story in three acts set to the lilting melodies of today's top tunes". Au Revoir ran for 50 minutes at the Glaciarium with a cast of 25 (May 1948). Patrons invited "to say Au Revoir to Ron Priestley prior to his departure overseas to engage skating stars to appear at the Glaciarium," soon discovered he was leaving Australia permanently after a decade of professional show skating. His estranged wife Judith divorced him very publicly that year, and re-married to Roy Carroll.

In Sweden, Priestley produced the Ice Rhythm Show at Stockholm's biggest theatre in August 1951. Then followed lead roles in Tom Arnold's ice shows at the Empire Pool Wembley in Brighton England, including Dick Whittington On Ice (1951), Rose Marie On Ice (1952), and Chu Chin Chow On Ice (1953). He may have set the world record for barrel jumping during the '50s. The London press wrote:

"In the early days of the British Ice Show it was the triumph of the skaters everyone came to see. Then the emphasis was on the difficulty of it all. Turns were chosen for their skill and daring. And so people like Ron Priestley, the Australian stunt-skater from Sydney, were the stars around whom a show was built. Priestley, with his hair-raising "death dives" through hoops of knives, and the other exponents of pure thrill, are still there, dealing out vicarious scares." [3]

In January 1951, Priestley married 19 year-old Czech figure skater, Jirina Nekolova, the 1948 World Bronze medallist who placed fourth at the 1948 Winter Olympics in Switzerland. She was among the first to flee her country that year by refusing to return home after competing. This marriage also ended after a few years, [B] and late in 1954 in London he married 24 year-old Sheila Hamilton, his former Dick Whittington co-star. Sheila was a headliner in the early '50s when Ed Sullivan brought her to the USA from England on the Queen Mary. They reportedly left for New York to do Holiday On Ice (apparently he does not appear in the programs). Priestley did perform in Ice Vogues of 1955 at the new Municipal Auditorium in Pensacola, Florida.

Priestley owned the Valley Ice Skating Center on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana, [D] a residential neighborhood adjoining Encino where he lived next to film star, John Wayne. [C] Sheila often performed there while he coached. Noted for its Australian and English instructors, including Adrian Swan, Priestley offered the rink free of charge to ice shows.

President of the local Chamber of Commerce, he became an influential figure in the Ice Skating Institute of America (ISIA), and helped formulate its learn-to-skate program in 1964 with Michael Kirby and others. Kirby, a former Canadian skating champion, was one of Sonja Henie's skating partners, and the voice of Ice Capades shows. Known as the Alpha, Beta, Gamma system, it evolved to include freestyle, dance, couples and pairs testing. Priestley was also an executive for the Chalet Division of Ice Capades, a franchise begun by Kirby in 1966.

ISIA President from 1967 to 1971, he co-authored three books with three other former show skaters: Skating On Ice (1963), How to Improve Your Ice Skating (1966), and An Introduction to Ice Skating (1973).

Ron Priestley was inducted to the ISIA Hall of Fame in Texas in 1981. He is believed to have died in June 1982 at the age of 62, survived by a child from each of his first and second marriages; two children from his fouth marriage; and all four of his former wives. Sheila Ellgaard (Hamilton), by then in her fifties, was named Tarzana woman of the year in 1986 by the Chamber of Commerce. [F]

Priestly on stilts, Celebrity Ice Gala, Reel 2 (unused footage), Queens Ice Club, Bayswater, London, British Pathé, 1952. Young ice skater Yvonne Sugden. Stage actress Evelyn Laye and film actress Diane Hart standing up in the audience and acknowledging applause. Ron Priestley skating on stilts. Jeanette Altwegg in skating routine. Couples dancing in formation routine. Long shot from balcony of World Ice Dance Champions Lawrence Demmy and Jean Westwood performing their routine. Several shots of audience watching. Hamilton Brown doing comic act on the ice. Professional Ladies Figure Skating Champion of 1951 Marilyn Hoskins performing her routine on the ice.