The Legg-Comb Egg Beater Claw of Death

While (virtually) thumbing through the January 1950 issue of Popular Mechanics this morning, this caught my eye:
 

After reading the article of course I now wanted to see the "Egg Beater" in action (I imagined it looking something like the transporter machine in Contact) so I did a little searching and came up with this 1983 video.

I don't know when the thing was resurrected but there it was, over 30 years later, being used by skater David Comb in the Ice Capades. According to the video's caption, the device was originally built for Harris Legg by David Comb's father in 1947. Elsewhere I read that the Egg Beater had been built of parts reapportioned from a Boeing B-17.

Somewhere along the way the "Egg Beater" had been rechristened "Death Claw", the happy circus paint scheme had been removed, the steel polished and giant teeth-like protrusions added to the spinning blades. It was re-retired after 1983, to be hauled out again in 2012 for Holiday On Ice: SPEED. Holiday on Ice skater/Will Ferrell stunt double Forrest McKinnon can be seen jumping through the Egg Beater/Death Claw in this YouTube video.

McKinnon was trained by both Harris Legg and David Comb so he's a natural in the Egg Claw Beater of Death line of succession.

Where is the EB/DC today. Will it rise again? Hard to say.

PS. In case you're confused, as I was, about the various ice-based entertainment franchises, here is a cobbled timeline of early ice show history:

1936 Ice Follies founded by Eddie and Roy Shipstad, and Oscar Johnson in Minnesota

1938 Hollywood Ice Revue featuring Sonja Henie founded by Sonja and Arthur Wirtz

1940 Ice Capades founded by nine men, the Arena Managers Association, in Pennsylvania

1942 Holiday on Ice founded by Emery Gilbert of Toledo, OH

1946 Ice Follies and Ice Capades begin co-producing Ice Cycles show

1949 Ice Follies leaves Ice Cycles in the hands of Ice Capades

1949 Ice Capades starts adding Disney character segment to their performances

1951 Sonja Henie's Ice Revue begun when Sonja dissolves partnership with Arthur Wirtz 

1953 Sonja Henie joins Holiday on Ice

1956 Ice Cycles name is dropped in favor of Ice Capades

The subsequent history of ice spectacles is interesting but not all happy. The Wikipedia entry for Ice Capades wraps up with this analysis:

Analysts believe the increasing popularity of the sport of figure skating meant that more sophisticated audiences came to prefer straightforward Olympic-style ice-skating competitions, or skating shows for adults (i.e., without cartoon characters), such as Stars on Ice. At the same time, shows such as Disney on Ice (featuring Disney cartoon characters) successfully competed for the child audience.