Editing Sonja Henie (section)

===Professional and film career===
[[File:Sonja Henie on Time Magazine 1939.jpg|right|thumb|Sonja Henie appeared on the cover of [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] on 17 July 1939]]

After the 1936 [[World Figure Skating Championships]], Henie gave up her amateur status and took up a career as a professional performer in acting and live shows.<ref name=sr/> While still a girl, Henie had decided that she wanted to move to [[California]] and become a movie star when her competitive days were over, without considering that her strong accent might hinder her acting ambitions.

Henie opened up opportunities for figure skaters to use their skills to earn a living. In addition to appearing in Hollywood films, she toured North America with her own professional shows, thus amassing a great deal of personal wealth and by popularizing the ice show, opened up professional skating opportunities for other lesser-known figure skaters.<ref>Kestnbaum, p. 75</ref>

In 1936, following a successful ice show in [[Los Angeles]] orchestrated by her father to launch her film career, Hollywood studio chief [[Darryl Zanuck]] signed her to a long-term contract at [[Twentieth Century Fox]], which made her one of the highest-paid actresses of the time. After the success of her first film, ''[[One in a Million (1936 film)|One in a Million]]'' (1936),<ref name="hines-xxiv">Hines, p. xxiv</ref> Henie's position was assured and she became increasingly demanding in her business dealings with Zanuck. Henie also insisted on having total control of the skating numbers in her films such as ''[[Second Fiddle (1939 film)|Second Fiddle]]'' (1939).

Henie tried to break the musical comedy mould with the anti-Nazi film ''[[Everything Happens at Night]]'' (1939) and ''[[It's a Pleasure (film)|It's a Pleasure]]'' (1945), a skating variation of the often-told ''[[A Star Is Born (1937 film)|A Star Is Born]]'' tale about alcoholic-star-in-decline-helps-newcomer-up. It was her only film shot in [[Technicolor]], but it was not as huge at the box office as her other films and also proved her limitations as a dramatic actress in her only dramatic film.

When Zanuck realized this, he cast her in more musical comedies; ''[[Sun Valley Serenade]]'' (1941) with [[Glenn Miller]], [[John Payne (actor)|John Payne]], [[The Nicholas Brothers]], and hit songs such as "[[In the Mood]]", "[[Chattanooga Choo Choo]]", "[[It Happened in Sun Valley]]", and "[[I Know Why (And So Do You)]]"; followed by ''[[Iceland (film)|Iceland]]'' (1942) with [[Jack Oakie]], Payne, and the hit song "[[There Will Never Be Another You]]"; and finally ''[[Wintertime (film)|Wintertime]]'' (1943) with [[Cesar Romero]], [[Carole Landis]], [[Cornel Wilde]], and Oakie. Sonja had by now developed a comedy flair and these films were all among the top box-office hits for [[20th Century-Fox]] the respective years. Adjusted for 2017 dollars, eight Henie movies crossed the $100 million domestic gross mark.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/sonja-henie-movies/|title=Sonja Henie Movies|website=Ultimate Movie Rankings|date=15 March 2017|access-date=19 January 2021|archive-date=15 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200115082327/http://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/sonja-henie-movies/|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Happy Landing'' (1938) was her biggest box office hit.

In her film ''[[Everything Happens at Night]]'' (1939), [[Ray Milland]] and [[Robert Cummings]] star as rival reporters hot on the trail of Hugo Norden (Maurice Moscovich). Norden, a Nobel Prize winner, was supposedly murdered by the Gestapo, but is rumoured to be in hiding and writing anonymous dispatches advocating world peace. When Geoffrey and Ken track Norden to a small village in the Swiss Alps, they soon find themselves competing over the affections of beautiful Louise (Henie), who has a deeper connection to the missing Nobel laureate than the reporters realize. When Geoffrey and Ken get so distracted by romance that they begin to neglect their assignments, it almost leads to disaster as the Gestapo sets out to silence Norden once and for all. Released on 22 December 1939, it was banned in Nazi Germany.[[File:Sonja Henie & Adolf Hitler 1936.jpg|thumb|left|Henie with Hitler in 1936]]

In addition to her film career at Fox from 1936 to 1943, Henie formed a business arrangement with [[Arthur Wirtz]], who produced her touring ice shows under the name of "Hollywood Ice Revue". Wirtz also acted as Henie's financial advisor. At the time, figure skating and ice shows were not yet an established form of entertainment in the United States. Henie's popularity as a film actress attracted many new fans and instituted skating shows as a popular new entertainment. Throughout the 1940s, Henie and Wirtz produced lavish musical ice skating extravaganzas at [[Rockefeller Center]]'s [[Center Theatre (New York, New York)|Center Theatre]] attracting millions of ticket buyers.
[[File:Sonja Henie graumans.jpg|thumb|left|Henie's handprint/signature in front of [[Grauman's Chinese Theatre]]]]

Henie broke off her arrangement with Wirtz in 1950 and for the next three seasons produced her own tours under the name "Sonja Henie Ice Revue". It was an ill-advised decision to set herself up in competition with Wirtz, whose shows now featured the new Olympic champion [[Barbara Ann Scott]]. Since Wirtz controlled the best arenas and dates, Henie was left playing smaller venues and markets already saturated by other touring ice shows such as [[Ice Capades]]. The collapse of a section of bleachers during a show in [[Baltimore, Maryland]], in 1952 compounded the tour's legal and financial woes.

In 1953, Henie formed a new partnership with [[Morris Chalfen]] to appear in his European ''[[Holiday On Ice]]'' tour, which proved to be a great success. She produced her own show at New York's [[Roxy Theatre (New York City)|Roxy Theatre]] in January 1956.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F20A1FF83459157B93C0A8178AD85F428585F9|title=Screen: 'Lieutenant Wore Skirts'|last=Crowther|first=Bosley|date=12 January 1956|work=The New York Times}}</ref> However, a subsequent South American tour in 1956 was a disaster. Henie was drinking heavily at that time and could no longer keep up with the demands of touring, and this marked her retirement from skating.

She did try to make a film series at her own expense; a series that would serve as a travelogue to several cities. Paris and London were mentioned, but only ''[[Hello London]]'' (1958) was made with her own backing, co-starring [[Michael Wilding (actor)|Michael Wilding]] and special guest star [[Stanley Holloway]]. While her ice show numbers were still worth watching, the film received few distributors and poor reviews, ending her film career.

Her autobiography ''Mitt livs eventyr'' was published in 1938. An English translation, ''Wings on My Feet'', was released in 1940 and republished in a revised edition in 1954. At the time of her death, the 57-year-old Henie was planning a comeback for a television special that would have aired in January 1970. She was to have danced to "[[Lara's Theme]]" from ''[[Doctor Zhivago (film)|Doctor Zhivago]]''.