Commentary : Calgary Has a Hit: Olympic Opening

In 1984, 10 minutes before the start of the Los Angeles Olympic Games, a representative of L.A. Police Chief Daryl Gates rushed into my control booth at the Coliseum to say, “We think there’s a bomb in the torch. You can’t light it.” Fortunately, it turned out to be a false alarm, but enough of a jolt to panic me and my staff.

Paddy Sampson, executive producer of Saturday’s opening ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, had no such scare. However, in a telephone conversation with Sampson five minutes after the completion of the 2 1/2-hour show, he told me about problems of another sort. Because of extremely high winds, the opening set was torn away and a fleet of hot-air balloons couldn’t be used. On the spur, Sampson had to open with his second-scheduled number.

Fortunately for the producer, he had given the stadium a beautiful visual look by having his audience wear colorful ponchos whose colors were designed to form Olympic, Canadian and other symbols. The look was so inspiring that the viewer thought the panning of the television cameras was part of the opening. Sampson had gone one step further with his audience than we had four years ago when we used colored placards held by the audience to form the flags of the world. Sampson used ponchos.

Congratulations, then, to Paddy Sampson for getting through his ordeal. But the celebration won’t last long because in two weeks he has to do it again at the closing ceremonies.

Just as every Olympic opening ceremony is designed to celebrate the attractions of the locale, Calgary’s presentation was themed to the city’s Western history, featuring Indians, square dancers, Canadian Mounties and elements of the Calgary Stampede. The more than 7,200 volunteer performers at McMahon Stadium at the University of Calgary provided a constant blaze of color, despite the performers occasionally being dwarfed by the size of the field.

Unlike past opening presentations, when all of the athletes (this time from 57 countries) were assembled, this group of athletes was placed in specially designed bleachers at one end. To my taste, the assembling of the costumed athletes on the field would have added more spectacle to the presentations.

Because the teams entered in 16-degree weather, athletes were covered with winter clothing. Nevertheless, there was a spectacular look in the costuming, especially those from Argentina, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand and West Germany. Of particular note were the Soviet Union’s athletes, bedecked in rich-looking fur coats while the team from the capitalist United States wore cloth.

The opening production numbers, utilizing the citizens of Calgary, were well produced, although I had some reservations about the programming. The emotional moments when the Olympic flag was brought in and the torch was lighted were surrounded by entertainment segments. It is hard to go back to entertainment, good as it may be, after the crowning moment of the torch lighting, particularly in this instance when 12-year-old Robyn Perry, a Calgary figure skater, lit the torch.

It was an emotional moment and might have been better served if, instead of going to a square dance, the show had moved immediately into the soaring finale, a presentation of composer David Foster’s Calgary Olympics theme song, “Can’t You Feel It?” while nine Canadian Air Force snowbirds trailed Olympic smoke streams above.

Of the participants in this production, only about 30 were professionals, including two Canadian ballet companies and singers Ian Tyson and Gordon Lightfoot. But the amateurs amazed me. I marveled at how they could work so closely and look so professional. I was particularly impressed with the 1,056 youngsters who formed the sports symbols of the Winter Olympics in a pattern Busby Berkeley would have appreciated.

I have been to six Olympic Games yet I never fail to be moved when the Olympic flag is presented and the theme played. Traditionally, Winter Olympics do not have the scale and production of Summer games, but Calgary’s ceremonies were colorful and classy.

As I talked with producer Sampson I sensed the same “high” I had felt in Los Angeles. Practically at the same time we mentioned another associate, the late Tommy Walker, who had been such an important part of the L.A. ceremonies and other Olympic games.

“I hope he liked the show,” Sampson said.

I hope so, too.