One slick guy

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Mar 24, 2006 | by MERI-JO BORZILLERI THE GAZETTE

[CORRECTION: The ice-resurfacing machine shown in the photo on A1 is an Olympia, made by the Resurfice Corp. Correction ran 3/25/ 2006.]

Frank Zamboni had no idea. We know this because he originally wanted to call his ice-resurfacing company Paramount Engineering Co.

That name was taken, thank goodness. So Zamboni reluctantly decided to name his company after himself.

Praise the ice gods.

The ice-cleaning Zamboni is big and clunky and hums along in painfully slow circles. But we love it. Sometimes, we even cheer for it.

The Zamboni is the ultimate power tool; yet both men and women covet it. In addition to T-shirts, license-plate frames ("My other car is a Zamboni") and toy models, the machine has inspired a song, "I Want To Drive the Zamboni," by a group called the Gear Daddies.

"He was surprised it took off with that name," said Zamboni's son, Richard, scheduled to participate in ceremonies inducting his father, posthumously, into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame on Thursday night in Calgary, Alberta. The hall is located in Colorado Springs. "It's a different name. It's screwball."

Just as screwball is North America's continued love affair with the Zamboni, which has chugged along since 1949, when Frank Zamboni took a Jeep chassis and some war-surplus axles and invented an icon.

The Zamboni company and factory is based in Paramount, Calif., but the kookiness extends beyond state borders.

Leave it to the Canadians. One installed a hot tub in a Zamboni, allowing the unique opportunity for a steamy soak on ice.

Midwesterners in the U.S. converted a Zamboni into a barbecue.

"The side panels open up, and I guess you throw your cow in there," said Paula Coony, general manager for Zamboni merchandising. "Who knew?"

The company has turned down inquiries to use the Zamboni name on a Slurpee-type machine that dispensed alcoholic drinks and from Hawaiians who wanted to use the name for an ice cream flavor. (Scoop of Zamberry, anyone?)

Someone sent a photo of a bachelor-party cake shaped like the machine, and one Italian restaurant chain advertised by draping the Zamboni with a checkered tablecloth and placing an oversized plate of pasta and two wineglasses on top.

"We do hear things like that and say, 'Are you kidding me?'" said Coony.

Sometimes, when people spot Richard Zamboni's name tag, they don't believe it's real. So he plays along.

"I say, 'Our name used to be Smith, but we changed it when the Zamboni became so popular,'" he said. "It does have a nice ring."

Attribute the Zamboni's popularity in part to its mesmerizing effect.

"There are three things in life that people like to stare at: a flowing stream, a crackling fire, and a Zamboni clearing the ice," said Charlie Brown in one Peanuts strip.

Credit cartoonist Charles Schulz, who owned a Zamboni, for helping popularize it. Snoopy drove one. So did Woodstock, turning tiny ovals in his frozen birdbath.

A Zamboni's rumbling power might have something to do with the attraction. But watching a Zamboni clean the ice at intermission -- 10 minutes to resurface an average hockey rink -- gives you time for philosophical thought.

"People like it because it takes something that is imperfect and makes it perfect," said Brian Alexander, almost dreamily.

Alexander is the director of the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame, where Frank Zamboni's photo and a short biography are on display. Alexander knows the transformative power of the Zamboni. One minute, the ice sheet is gouged and snowy. The next, it's this beautiful piece of glass.

"In one moment," Alexander said, "all your problems go away."

The Zamboni isn't pretty. But Cyrano de Bergerac had his nose and a gift for prose. The typical Zamboni averages 3-5 mph, but there's magic underneath its massive hood.

Before the Zamboni, ice resurfacing took more than an hour. Workers pulled a scraper behind a tractor, then cleared away the shavings, sprayed water on the ice surface, squeegeed it and waited for the water to freeze.

Boring. And slow.

In 1940, Frank Zamboni, a high school dropout who joined his brothers in the dairy refrigeration business, built an ice rink, called Paramount Iceland, and experimented with the idea of a machine that was selfpropelled by a single operator.

In 1949, he was granted the patent. But Zamboni kept tinkering and improving. Olympic skating star Sonja Henie saw one and ordered it for her traveling show. Soon, it caught on. Chicago Blackhawks owner Arthur Wirtzbought one a year later but wasn't necessarily happy with its popularity.

"He said, 'People will stay in the stands and watch it and not go down to the concession stands,'" said Richard Zamboni in a telephone interview.

The Zamboni is so iconic, competitors aren't allowed to copy its profile. The machine's shape is a federally registered trademark, like the Coke bottle and Jeep grille.

Richard has run the business since his father died in 1988 at 87. Zambonis now run on every continent. Last year, the company sold its 8,000th, to the University of Minnesota.