Dorothy Hamill skates into LV to ‘Enter the Night’

Lisa Ferguson

Wednesday, July 1, 1998 | 10:18 a.m.

It's hard to believe, but even Dorothy Hamill has bad hair days.

And they've been more frequent than not in recent years, according to the 1976 U.S. Olympic gold medal figure skater, whose famous "wedge" hairstyle started a fashion craze.

These days, her simple brown bob is sprinkled with strands of gray. "It's completely different than it used to be," Hamill says. She began a nearly two-month stint starring/skating in "Enter the Night" at the Stardust hotel-casino this week.

"I used to take my hair for granted," the 42-year-old mother of a preteen daughter says. "Now I'm just grateful that I have any, I guess."

She's also grateful for an opportunity to perform the pair of skating scenes in "Enter the Night." Summer, Hamill says, is notoriously a tough time of year for figure skaters to find steady work.

"I just thought, not only was it a good opportunity, it would be something that I have not done," she says, explaining that in the 22 years since winning the Olympic medal, she has starred in large and small skating shows. "But never in a dance ... show that has skating in it, so it's kind of fun."

But not without its challenges, namely the show's compact ice surface (15 ft. by 30 ft.). It's the smallest surface Hamill has ever skated on, and has presented some choreography obstacles.

During the first few days of rehearsals, she and her choreographer "got absolutely nothing done. We were going around in circles trying to figure out how we would do this," she says.

While she is able to perform her trademark "Hamill Camel" spin in the show, "jumping is next to impossible," she says.

"Obviously, the choreography has to be more intricate ... because you really can't glide (that short length) and, of course, that's what skating's all about," she says. "So trying to make the skating still look as though it's flowing and interesting" has been tough.

Hamill is just glad to be skating and not calling the production's shots, as was the case when she and her former husband purchased the famed "Ice Capades" touring show in the early 1990s, after it had gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

"We didn't want to see a great trademark in ice skating disappear," she explains. Though she starred in the company's productions of "Cinderella" and "Hansel and Gretel," Hamill also had a large hand in managing its operations, a task she describes as "difficult.

"And with the partners, they wanted me to do all of it and as a human being, you can't," she says. The creative end of things suffered greatly. "They didn't want to spend money on anything.

"When they started not wanting to pay for good skaters, that's when I said, 'Guys, I think you've got the wrong partner here.' I couldn't be involved with something that wasn't going to treat the skaters right." Hamill sold Ice Capades three years ago, and the company ceased operating more than a year ago.

For the past few years, Hamill, a resident of Baltimore, has done some figure skating commentating for the Fox network. She continues to tour and plans to be on the road with a pair of traveling shows next winter.

"I really try ... to choose projects that are the most fun, (require) the least time away from home and are the most creative," she says. But then, Hamill knows she can't be too choosy.

"At my age, I know that the time will come when they don't ask," she says, "so I'm thankful that anybody asks anymore."