In the depression year of 1932, John leased the Duquesne Gardens arena and began offering a variety of entertainments. Like other arenas, these included skating, ice hockey, rodeo, boxing, bicycle racing, and more. The venture was successful, pulling the family company out of debt. In 1936, Harris founded the Pittsburgh Hornets, an American Hockey League team that was to play in Pittsburgh for 26 years. Harris brought in Olympic figure skater Sonja Henie to entertain the audience between periods of hockey games. On March 31, 1936, she created a local sensation when she performed at a playoff game between the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets and the Atlantic City Seagulls. This event strengthened Harris' notion that ice skating could be a good spectator event, and he began to implement his plans for an ice spectacular.
