Ralph Jackson, Aspen, photo by Toni Frissell, 1970, for Vogue,
Jackson was known as Aspen's original ski bum.
Long-gone Aspen legend Ralph Jackson still remembered
By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com
Aspen lost a legend more than four decades ago. But Ralph Jackson, the original ski bum clown prince of that locale, lives on in collected memories in town, and around the rest of world.
"In the 1960s, everyone knew the local skiing clown Ralph Jackson, who did ski ballet in a long fur coat and top hat while clenching a cigarette on a long stem in his teeth," according to a recent (2023) piece in Outside Online by Roger Marolt.
"Ralph
Jackson, the "Clown Prince of Aspen," was a legend in his own time. He
established an underground ski school and created his unique persona
after discovering an old fur coat at the city dump and embellishing it
with a top hat, bow tie, cigarette holder, and hollow binoculars filled
with wine. .." __ Aspen Shrines
The Aspen Times reported, “Perennial ski bum Ralph Jackson dies.”Aspen’s longtime clown of the ski slopes, perennial ski bum, and director of the Underground Ski School Ralph Jackson died July 29 of an apparent heart attack at the age of 73. Born in 1918, he grew up in Boston where his family had a printing and book binding business. …It was while skiing in New Hampshire in the winter of 1937 that … a terrible fall left him with a head concussion, a neck injury and a bad shoulder. … He credited his 1937 ski injury with the development of his trick skiing technique.
[In a 1977 interview with The Aspen Times], he related “It’s sort of a way of resting one leg. I didn’t have too much strength or control so I turned with one ski up in the air.”I would ski with on one leg or the other all the way down the mountain and I’d go backwards like on ice.”It was just a way of bluffing through till I got my strength back. But I stayed with it and worked it into a hot-dog-type skiing.”A natural clown, Jackson evolved a skiing costume that delighted Aspen skiers for more than 20 years. He donned a top hat, munched a cigarette holder, and dressed in a bow tie and jacket, black fur coat and Bermuda shorts.
According to 1981 obituary in that appeared in the July 30, 1981 Aspen Times newspaper, the ski injury in New Hampshire in 1937 reshaped his sporting life.
A terrible fall left him with a terrible concussion, a neck injury, and a bad shoulder.
During World War II, Jackson served with the 87th Mountain Infantry (later the Tenth Mountain Troops,) doing his ski training at Ft. Lewis, Wash.
The strain of his service, however, aggravated his physical condition and he was discharged in 1943. He was married briefly during the war.
Jackson went to Alta, where he met Friedl Pfiefer, then ice skated at the Westwood Ice Bowl near Beverly Hills.
While he was figure skating at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, he met Pfiefer again, and hearing about Aspen, came here in the winter 1946-47.
He followed a typical ski bum route. staying at the Ski More Lodge (later the Snow Chase) working odd jobs and skiing. In a 1977 interview with the Aspen Times, Jackson related that he tried working with the ski patrol and teaching skiing but he didn't have the physical endurance.
"That's how I got into underground skiing," he explained. "I couldn't hack the constant skiing so I went up and ocassionally and taught underground on my own. It got to be fun thing."
“When two worlds meet — the high-flying, hoop-jumping world of ski acrobat and artist Stein Eriksen and the deep powder underground world (of) Ralph Jackson — you end up with one Ski School head trying to convert another,” the Snowmass Villager noted Feb. 8, 1968.
Stein Eriksen, known for his smooth skiing and eponymous flips, ran the Snowmass-at-Aspen Ski School when it first opened; Ralph Jackson was known for his underground ski school, always wearing his fur coat, top hat and a cigarette in a holder.
Ralph Jackson the Clown Prince of Aspen - Pitkin County Legend - Colorado's Original Ski Bum - True Aspen Icon.
"Ralph
Jackson established an underground ski school and created his unique persona
after discovering an old fur (beaver) coat at the town dump. Along with
the coat, his skiing costume included his iconic top hat, bow tie, and
hollow binoculars. And don't forget his long cigarette holder."
A
scion of a Boston family that ran a bookbinding business, Ralph came to
Aspen during the 1946-1947 season - the first year Aspen opened to the
public through the Aspen Skiing Company.
Curtis
Wackerle, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer, goes on to explain Ralph in
more detail: "Partly in response to a terrible ski accident when he was a
younger man (1937), Jackson developed a freestyle repertoire influenced
by his figure skating background — twisting, turning and skiing
backward on one leg. He was the head of his own underground ski school
that eventually became tolerated by Aspen Skiing Co. brass. The outfit
and antics made him one of the most recognizable characters in town."
An obituary of Ralph Jackson that appeared in the July 30, 1981 Aspen Times newspaper states that he died the day before, on July 29, 1981, at the age of 73, which would mean that he was born in 1908, which apparently is a mistake. However the article also states he was born in 1918, which jibes with an earlier Sports Illustrated article.
January 13, 1958 Sports Illustrated article:
Ski instructor Ralph Jackson, a youthful 44, is self-proclaimed "King of the Ski Bums." Bums—the word has no derogatory implication among the ski set—are the skiers who take on available winter jobs at big resorts, asking only that the jobs leave plenty of time for skiing. Jackson taught at Aspen all winter, then disappeared in spring with the snow to tour country by bicycle. Jackson made long cigaret holder and the stocking cap his trademarks while at Aspen.
A poem about Ralph Jackson follows:
"King of the Ski Bums" by Stuart Kinkade.
This poem appears Kinkade's 2000 book, "Aspen Bummin'."
"Come all ye woims"
Underground ski school dared the sign outside Pinocchio.
Punched in snow to be a selling fool, Little Nell it said was where to go.
Secret ski schools operated leon, only one instructor meont the sign, smooth Ralph Jackson named a magazine reigning Ski Bum King, the poor man's Stein.
Ralph did skiing fun personify, flipped his top hat carving hotshot turns, cutaway coat tails sailed, flying high, ski flamboyance free from trite concerns
Some of us one evening went to eat, next to Trader Ed's, the chinese place.
Ralph declared me starved and shared his treat.
New to chopsticks fare, I dropped a trace.
Ralph was denned up rough on tailings rock, hard by settlers" cemetery road.
Car seats perched the railless porch to mock
Tool shed turned to nest, made his abode.
Ralph's small income came up pretty short.
Young and green, I jumped at narrowest dreams.
Strong described the hardest driving sort
Now in older eyes Ralph's plain strength gleams
Jackson taught at Aspen all winter, then disappeared in spring with the snow to tour country by bicycle. Ralph Jackson, Aspen, photo by Toni Frissell, 1970, for Vogue,
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