From California to Brant - the coolest machine on ice was once made in Paris, Ontario

Frank J. Zamboni Jr. didn’t set out to be a machine builder. He was a ninthgrade dropout but a born engineer. He and his brother Lawrence first opened an electric service shop in Paramount, California, in 1922. Soon after, they saw the need in those prerefrigeration days for blocks of ice for the local dairies and for rail shipping of the area’s produce, so they built an ice plant and made 300pound ice blocks. The arrival of refrigeration in the 1930s slowly eroded that business In 1940 the brothers saw a popular new trend in post war recreation had become ice skating and they decided to use their skills and chilling systems as the basis for an ice rink. (Paramount Iceland is still in operation today, just down the road from the main Zamboni manufacturing plant.)

It was a hit, but the downtime caused by the need to manually resurface the ice sheet was a problem. Frank felt there had to be a better way to resurface the ice that didn’t require 5 men up to 90 minutes of manual labour After many attempts, he was finally able to create a machine operated by one person that replaced the old process and took about 15 minutes. That machine was the Model A ice resurfacer, built from surplus WWII vehicle parts in 1949 Its basic operations have remained unchanged for over 70 years. Aside from refinements, there are three primary functions that have stayed constant There’s the blade, which shaves off a thin layer of ice. Then there’s the system that moves the shaved ice to a storage tank, And finally, there’s a system to lay down fresh hot water, which freezes and creates a better layer of ice. Frank’s invention replaced the manual labor of several workers and a variety of other lesssuccessful contraptions, saving both time and money. The story could have ended here, but Frank wasn’t satisfied. His two-wheel-drive prototype didn’t have the traction he wanted So, he built a second machine, which was really a Jeep with all the ice resurfacer parts added, the Model B. He sold it to the Pasadena Winter Garden in 1950, and along the way established a new company

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Then Sonja Henie showed up. Henie was a Norwegian Olympian figure skater who’d gone on to star in her own travelling ice show. She made a stop at Paramount Iceland to practice, saw the Model A, and immediately wanted an ice resurfacer to take with her on the road Frank delivered literally After he built the resurfacer, he placed all the machine parts in a trailer and proceeded to drive the Jeep pulling the trailer to Chicago. In fact, he’d gone to Chicago by way of St Louis, where Henie had been scheduled to perform but where her show had been cancelled. Frank’s dogged pursuit of the show became a catalyst for his success, though, because Henie’s subsequent travel with her own Model B became a free national marketing campaign for Zamboni and eventually an international campaign when the show bought a second machine for its overseas performances Soon the rival Ice Capades show became a customer as well, and business really took off.

With Zamboni having picked up the official endorsement of the National Hockey League and having had a presence at most Winter Olympic Games since 1960. Eventually demand for the machines outside America led Zamboni to establish an international presence A friend had introduced Frank to Paris, Ontario which was well known for its manufacturing labour and Zamboni set-up its second ever factory on Scott Ave in 1969 in the former Paris Sash and Aluminum Door factory. Paris would continue to manufacture Zamboni machines for 10 years but managing the factory from California proved difficult for the company’s new president, the founder’s son, Richard Zamboni decided to contract the manufacturing out and SMI Industries of Montreal became licensed to make the Canadian Zambonis. When SMI dissolved Zamboni found itself without a 2nd factory to serve its largest market In 1983 Richard’s 27-year-old son also named Frank, decided he would move to Brantford and run the factory himself. Today, he is the executive vice president of Zamboni Company Ltd , which operates a 48,000 square foot factory at 38 Morton Ave East in Brantford, Ontario. The two factories combined deliver about 200 Zambonis per year worldwide and have made in excess of 10,000 Zambonis for ice rinks all over the world.

Through the 1950s, Frank continued to refine his designs The 1956 Model F was the first built on a stripped Jeep frame, took on the basic appearance that most people think of today when they think of the brand. That was the company’s 37th machine, since ice rinks around the U S had been buying them steadily. That trend would only accelerate in subsequent decades.