Ear on Chicago; Winter Wonderland

That's the sound of a toboggan slide at Soldier Field in Chicago and this is Hugh Hill speaking from Winter Wonderland. A scene before our eyes out here today was one which I didn't think I'd ever see in a huge city like Chicago and a huge bowl which holds a capacity of over 100 ,000 people to see a toboggan slide coming down the slope. Here's another one coming down down. Coming down the slope of the stands on the south side of Soldier Field. Over on the west side of Soldier Field are two ski slides and enormous hill built right onto the seats. And here is Oscar Brotman who is the man behind this entire production. Oscar, first of all, you and I have talked before. And I mentioned that it was a miracle the change that has been brought out here to see over there on the east side of the west side of Soldier Field those stands. And right here in front of us, as we're talking, we're looking up to the top of the toboggan that the toboggan is built on the south side. And here comes another one. Before we talk to Oscar, let's hear it.

So one toboggan right after another coming down, one, two, three, four slides. Oscar, this is something. Thank you, Hugh. We started here about December 7th. Most of the children you see here are from about four or five Catholic parishes here. They're here with their teachers and the fathers have brought them over in special buses. The weather is rather mild today. And so in order to make the toboggan slides more interesting, we've brought snow over from our ski hills that you see over on the west side. Now, you mentioned no weather being mild and that certainly has been the case as everybody knows in the Chicago area. This has been one of the mildest sweaters that we've had in a number of years. Now, Oscar mentioned over there on the west side of the field he's bringing snow over to fill the toboggan slides. And there is snow still over there on the ski slides, but no snow on the field. Which means, of course, that this snow has been made by the Winter Wonderland production staff. And it's all artificial, except when they

get some real snow. And I guess that's what you pray for all the time, isn't it? Well, not exactly, Hugh. We really don't care whether it's snow or not. All we'd like to have is about one or two days with the temperature about 25 or 27 or possibly a little lower. We don't want it to get too cold because then the people in Chicago won't like it. Well, anyway, this is one ski resort where you don't have to worry whether it's snow or not. All you need is that cold weather. That's right, with one exception. If we can get at least one or two days with a temperature of 27 degrees or less, we can build probably two feet or possibly three feet of snow, which will last us all winter. But unfortunately, it's been mild every day with exception of two or three days and we had a little chilly snap. And then the next day it warmed up and rained. And so we haven't been able to stockpile it. And yesterday we finally managed to put on a complete base of snow on the western stands. And then it got mild again. And today it's thought out a little bit.

Well, I want to talk about that snow -making machine. I want to visit your ski shop and your toboggan shop in just a few moments. But first of all, it's complete our discussion here about the toboggan slides. As I said, there are four of them reaching from ground level to the top of the south end of soldier field. How high is that? Well, I'd say it's about 10 stories, Hugh. And the diagonal run on the shoots themselves are a little over 200 feet. And when we get enough snow on the field, it will go approximately 1200 feet all the way to the administration building on the north. That's probably one of the longest toboggan runs in the middle of western I know of. Now four slides, here comes some more boys by. Four slides carrying these toboggan's probably enables the crowd out here. No matter how large it gets to have a good number of slides during the day. That's right. There's very rarely over a 10 minute wait. By the time they get up to the top, they're ready to go. And if you notice, Hugh, at the top of each slide, we have one attendant.

He makes certain that nobody is allowed to leave that shoot up there until their legs are tucked in and they observe all the rules. And you'll notice also that all of those toboggans are waxed, which gives a little more thrilling ride and a smoother ride. And now speaking about the toboggans, Oscar, I think it's about time that we went over to the toboggan shop and talked more specifically about the toboggans and how you brought them here. I think it's a very interesting story. So let's go over to the toboggan shop now. All right, Hugh. Oscar and I have now come to the toboggan shop just behind me are hundreds and hundreds of toboggans. And I want to talk to them and talk about them in just a moment. First of all, there is a group of children. I don't know what their age just looks like about maybe 12, 13 years old. Boys standing right in front of me. Oscar, I wonder if they're having a good time. Let's ask them. Are you boys having a good time? Yes! Well, I guess that tells the story pretty much of what you have out here,

Oscar. Okay, kids, thanks so many. I know you want to get out there to the toboggan slides. So you run along. Now, Oscar, you and I want to are going to talk for just a minute about the toboggans themselves. First of all, there's a few here over here on the floor that have been stacked up. And then over the counter in the toboggan shop, there are row after row of toboggan stacked up, standing up on their ends. How many do you have? We have 265 here. These are all brand new toboggans that we brought in from St. Paul, Minnesota. They're made by the famous Northland company. They're probably America's oldest manufacturers of outdoor sports equipment. Well, now the kids are, whoever comes out here to go to boggans, to go on to toboggan slides. First of all, come in here from the office. Is that it to get their toboggan? That's right. They walk in the gate one and they walk in here. If they have their own toboggans, they use it. If they don't, why they can rent a toboggan here, incidentally,

four children or four adults may use one toboggan, and we charge them $1. This is a little bit different than the Colwell Woods and Pellis Park, where they charge $1 an hour for toboggan. We charge just $1 for the whole day. By the way, incidentally, how much does it cost to get in? $1. So it's a dollar to get in and a dollar for a toboggan fork and ride on it. Actually, four people could come in here for $5. That's right and stay all day. Well, that's certainly a fair price indeed. Now, some of the boys working behind the counter. Do they work on the toboggans, wax them, as you said they were waxed? Well, what they do is this. As you notice, you, this young man back here is wiping off the toboggans, getting the snow and so forth off. And then, during his slow hours, he uses a wax that is melted and it's painted in the back of the toboggan. That gives them a smoother ride. It's also warm in here, so therefore, if you get cold out there, you can come in and warm up. You're looking at the scene of many a train for many a tirahue. This is one of the four famous locker rooms

that are used here by the All -Stars and the professional team each year when they have the famous All -Star game in August. This room now is converted. You'll notice that we have benches here for the boys and girls and what's the rest. And there's restrooms over there. And back here, we have all of the toboggans. And the children seem to be having a wonderful time. It's my theory if you keep a kid busy with excitement, exercise. He's too busy to get in mischief. Well, I'm Oscar. You and I have been talking for a very nearly half of the program on toboggans, but there certainly is a very important other part to Winter Wonderland. And that's skiing. Now, we just barely mentioned that we stood down by the south end of the stands and looked over to the west and saw the ski slides. But we haven't gone over there. Nor have we talked about the ski room. You have a place like that for the skis, I suppose. Yes, I'm very proud to say you that we have, in my opinion, one of the most outstanding ski shops in the country. We imported 500

pair of double boots from Switzerland. And we brought in 500 pair of brand new skis from the Gregor Minnesota and 500 pair of poles. So no matter what size a person is, we've got a pair of boots to fill them. Let's go over and take a look. Fine, let's go over. Although the ski shop is quiet today because there is no skiing, simply because there isn't enough snow, the temperatures haven't been cold enough for Oscar to manufacture the artificial snow, there is no activity in the ski shop. But we've set up John Buckstaff, who is the producer of this program as a customer, to show you how it works. Now, Oscar is going to act as the clerk here, and John is coming into ski. Oscar, you take over from there. How do you do, sir? What size are you? Size 9 shoe. Size 9? All right. Now, if you'll put your stockings in these paper shoes and give us your shoes, we'll give you some boots. Now, what size of boot will he take? Well, he's in 9, he'll probably take an 8. Why is that?

Well, these are made a little bit large to accommodate your heavy stockings, and if you'll notice this is a double boot. Well, John is taking off his own shoes, you tell me about the boot itself. The purpose of a double boot is to protect your ankle and hold your foot firmer in place so that it doesn't waver when you're in the ski. Looks like one boot right inside of the other. That's right, it's practically two shoes in one, and if you'll notice these come from Switzerland. That's right, made in Switzerland. They're sanitized, and they're about as good a boot as you'd want for a beginner. These boots retail for probably $25 or $30. I'll drop one of them, you can hear it. Yeah, they're good and heavy. Okay, John Buckstaff is back with his shoes, and now what? Now, I notice that John's probably about 5 feet 9, right? All right. So we'll give you a pair of skis, here they are. Now, these skis are 6 feet 6.

You always try to get a pair of skis that are about 9 inches to a foot longer than your actual height. Now, if you notice these bindings right here, these are special safety bindings that are made in Germany. The purpose of this is that if you trip or fall, and you probably will since your beginner, the boot will automatically fall right out of the ski and you won't twist your ankle. These are called the famous safety bindings. Now, I'll show you how it goes on. You already slipped the shoe right in that toe plate, and put the band in the back of it, snap it down. That's the whole deal. And here are the poles right here. The purpose of these poles, you've seen ski movies. You hold one of these in each hand, and if you get over a rough spot, or you want to climb a little bit, these poles help you. Incidentally, a lot of folks who are not skiers in the middle of the west have a false conception of skiing. There have been so many movies, especially newsreels, made of thrill

skiing that many people look upon skiing as a jumping sport. Actually, in the entire east and west, nobody thinks of skiing as jumping. It's too dangerous, and we, of course, aren't even going to think of it here. Our entire concept of skiing is gentle slopes, which people slide down. All right. Now, Oscar, if I wanted to be a skier, or if John Buckstaff here were sincere about this, and he wanted to be a skier, why wouldn't he go up to the North Woods where they have a great big long hill instead of coming out to soldier field? Well, he probably will after he gets the bug and gets good at it. But the difficulty is that if one wants to go skiing before one has equipment, it would probably cost at least $100. The fellow will need boots, shoes, and poles. And so our entire idea is to interest the newcomer, the novice, who may not like skiing or may want to try it out, and can't afford to get into

a complete outfit. In this format, the way it works is that a person can come in here, I meant the pair of these boots for $2. Excuse me, $1 .5 for the entire day. Or they can rent the pair of skis. The skis are $2 for the entire day. And they can rent the pair of poles, $0 .50. Or in other words, a complete outfit for the entire day will cost them $4. If they like skiing and they get the bug, they go out to one of the department stores here in town and buy themselves a complete set. Well, Oscar, let's look around here at these skis. Now, he pulled out one pair out of, I don't know how many, but there are a rack after rack of skis. And then over here to the left, more boots and more poles. How many skis have you got, Oscar, and where did they come from? Well, we have approximately 500 pair of skis of various sizes, which will accommodate anyone from four feet six to probably six feet six. These skis are made out of pure birch wood, laminated, and they notice

they have metal edges. These are made by the McGregor Company in McGregor, Minnesota. The metal edge is right on the bottom of the ski itself. That's right. Nice. It's a beautiful ski. We've had a lot of compliments from the people who have been to other ski areas and people who are skiers. And many different colors. Red, orange, yellow, black, blue. You notice we have our insignia, and they're also WW. It stands for Winter Wonderland. Oh, yeah. And then we imported. You'll notice row after row of spanking brand new boots. And as soon as the weatherman gives us a break and we can make some snow, you'll see all these in operation. There are approximately 500 pair of boots. We can take care of children about nine years and eight of up. And we have boots for girls and boots for fellows. Size is all the way up to, I believe, 11. Speaking now of the skis,

you haven't had too much weather out here as everybody knows. Have you had really one good day of skiing yet? Well, we started yesterday. We finally got a base made. The weather was under 27 for about a day. And we made about four or five inches of snow. And we just got going. We got the rope toes going. Everything was fine. But during the night, it warmed up to about 36. And it's been warm and sunny all day today. And so rather than have anybody disappointed, we just cut the skiing out today. What's a rope toe? Well, a rope toe, he was an elongated old -fashioned clothesline, which is a simple way of putting it. Actually, it's a complicated system of pulleys and a huge electric motor. And if you stand at the bottom of the hill on your skis and hold on to the rope, you zoom up to the top in 12 seconds. It's a very expensive contraption. You see, all the fun in skiing is going down the hill. And if you had to

walk up the hill, you'd be very happy. The entire popularity of skiing came in when rope toes assumed an importance in skiing. And so when you get down to the bottom of the hill, you really walk over to the rope toe, hold on to it, and whizz, you're up to the top in just 10, 12, 14 seconds, and you're going on again. Well, now once again, we're in a heated room. And so therefore, if you get cold out on the ski slide, while you can come in here and warm up. Besides the heat in here, they also have lockers and benches on which to sit and change your shoes. And well, I don't think you put the skis on in here, I don't suppose, do you? Yes, you could. But as a matter of fact, that's the reason we have most of the benches here. And when people rent a pair of boots, we take their shoes and check it for them. Many of the folks coming in have their boots on. No, but I mean, you don't put the skis on in this very room. You wouldn't walk around with the skis on, would you? Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry, Hugh. I thought you meant the boots. I was watching John here put those shoes on, and I came welcome to the shoes.

You would put the skis on outside. When you got up to the top of the hill. That's right. Yeah. Well, now, you also have the lockers. I mentioned that. So what's that for? Just to put their coats in, I suppose. Well, sometimes people come with too much clothes, or they may come with a little bag with some extra equipment, so we have these lockers here, provided for them, and they want to check something. Also, there are many people who have seasoned memberships here. And so they keep their skis here all the time in their shoes. Well, now, what about the newcomers, like John here, for example, who doesn't know how to ski? Is there somebody out here that can teach them? Yes. We have six certified ski instructors. The school is headed by a well -known married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Ackley, who moved to Chicago at my request last fall from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. And they can get a lesson here, John, or anyone else. I mean, the lesson anytime they want. Excuse me. Well, Oscar, I just, while you were talking, I just picked up a horn, or at least it looks like a horn. What is it?

Well, this is called a voice gun. It's a, it looks like an old -fashioned megaphone, except it has a battery in there. And all the attendants on the field have these horns. The purpose of it is that usually most teenagers are a little spirited, sometimes a little excited. And so these horns are used by the attendants at all times, telling them to take it easy. Don't go too fast. Watch your step. Don't take chances. And so forth. Let's hear it. All right, here it is. Take it easy up there on the hill. Go a little slower. Watch your step. Okay, fellow. You have a little gun mechanism here. You just pull the trigger and start talking, is that right? That's right. Like this. Very good. Well, we better get on back outside because I want to take a look at that ski slope out there. Oscar and I have come up to what is really, as far as we're concerned today, almost a broadcasting studio because

it's so quiet up here. This is the press box at Soldier Field. We came up here because we could get a good panoramic view of the entire scene out here. Actually, we're just as high now as the top of the ski slides and the top of the toboggan slides. Off to my left is one ski slide and off to my right is the other. I'm not sure that we mentioned this Oscar, but if we have it, I'm sure that a lot of people are wondering how you're getting over the seats of Soldier Field. Now, as I can see, you put straw in between each seat. And so, therefore, you've made it practically level to begin with. And then you top that with a snow. That's right. As a matter of fact, you hit upon probably the most exasperating aspect of this entire promotional venture. We had to import 12 ,000, 12 ,000 bales of hay and straw. Now, luckily for us, our forefathers who built this beautiful stadium made the benches. These are benches, you know, not seats. They made the benches 18 inches apart. And being sort of

a semi -fomer, I remembered that bales of hay and straw are 18 inches wide. And so, we eliminated the necessity of building up 18 inches by 14 inches of snow, which is enough water snow. And so, we put in the 12 ,000 bales of hay side by side right over each bench. And that forms a sort of a basis or a floor for the hay. And then for the hay above this, which is very loose. In other words, first comes the bales of hay, then a little loose hay. And on top of that, we put the snow. And if we can ever get one or two days together, in which the temperature is 27 or less, we'll build up probably two feet of snow and we'll be able to go all winter. You also ski and have toboggan sliding out here at night, because soldier field has lights and you turn them on, is that right? That's right. As a matter of fact, when you're out in the middle of the field, it is

so bright you can actually read newspaper. Well, I'm sure that anybody that has been out here during a night, a fair football game, for example, or something of that nature, why they know how bright it can be at soldier field with the lights on. And so it could be a wonderful winter wonderland indeed to be able to come out skiing in Chicago, at the heart of the loop virtually, right on the shore of Lake Michigan, and go skiing and toboggan sliding. Today is not as pretty as I'm sure that it must be when snow covers these ski slides and the toboggan slides, because it's rather warm today and it has been for a number of days. But Oscar, you're going to get some weather, I'm sure. And when you do, you're going to have a truly winter wonderland out here. Thank you very much, Hugh. I'd like to see you out here with your family. Well, I'd certainly like to make it. And that's the story of Winter Wonderland. The producer of this program is John Buckstaff of the Illinois Institute of Technology, and this is Hugh Hill speaking.

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