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20 Years of Stars on Ice: Introduction
The Stars on Ice tour was founded in 1986 by Scott Hamilton, starting
with an initial five cities in the US, but soon expanding across the
country. In 1991, the tour had grown enough to establish a Canadian
branch. In that year, a young 3-time World and Canadian champion
named Kurt Browning joined the newly established Canadian tour as a
special guest star. When he turned pro in 1994, he joined the US cast
full-time, doing both tours for the next 9 years (except for 1999,
when he took the year off the US tour to be with his family). Even
after he stopped touring full-time with the US tour, he continued to
guest-star in over a dozen shows for the next four years. He's toured
with the show in Europe and Asia, as well, over the years. Throughout
all this time, Kurt continued to anchor the Canadian tour, reliably
headlining the show year after year, to the point where people started
assuming the tour was *his* tour. Kurt Browning and Stars on Ice have
become virtually synonymous to many in Canada.
In 2010, the Canadian Stars on Ice tour celebrates its 20th
anniversary, and with it, Kurt embarks into his 20th year with the
show. To celebrate this milestone, the Kurt Files has put together a
special project, dedicated to looking back on Kurt's 20 years with
Stars on Ice. Over the course of the Canadian tour, which begins April
22 in Halifax, and ends May 14 in Vancouver, the Kurt Files will be
putting up something new each day from Kurt's twenty years on both the
US and Canadian tours. Look for photos, video downloads, memories,
and stories from both fans and those who have worked with Kurt on
Stars on Ice over the years.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed to this project,
including all the photographers who gave me their photos for the Kurt
Files' scrapbook for Kurt in 2006 (many of which are used here), fans,
skaters, and behind-the-scenes folks who took the time to write up
their favorite Kurt memories and contact others on my behalf, Jennifer
for her amazing patience and perserverance in helping me fill the gaps
in my video collection (most of which originally came from FSVids), and Debi, Ally, and Sharilyn
for their support and sanity.
I will be updating this page as I add more pages each day. For day 1
of the Canadian tour, let's visit your favorite Kurt Browning programs
and group numbers from Stars on Ice, as a dip into what is to
come. Each day after that, we will visit another year or set of
memories, so keep checking back.
* I got permission to use many of the photos in this retrospective 4
years ago when creating the scrapbook celebrating Kurt's
induction into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, 40th birthday,
and 10th wedding anniversary. However, I've since lost track of
many of the photo credits. I'd like to give proper credit - if any
of these are your photos, please email me and let me
know.
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