Many of the snowball stands in Southern Louisiana are run independently, but many of them share an important ingredient: SnoWizard Ice Shavers.
While the New Orleans-born hardware wasn’t the first of its kind, it popularized the snowball concept and quickly spread from the Crescent City through Louisiana and eventually the entire country and even overseas.
Ronnie Sciortino, head of SnoWizard, explained how his uncle, George J. Ortolano, eventually founded the company after inventing an ice shaver that trimmed block ice into a fine, fluffy, snowlike consistency in the early 20th century.
“At the time, block ice was readily available because people had the old-time ice boxes,” Sciortino explained. “The size of the machine then and today is determined by the size of the ice that would fit in an ice box.”
The soft texture allowed for the name snowball because unlike the crunchy coarseness of snow cones, this ice could be shaped into a ball, Sciortino said.
Ortalano built his first ice shaving machine in 1936 and began using it in his Magazine St. grocery store in 1937. While he welded ships during World War II, Ortalano went to work manufacturing more machines in 1945 and began marketing them in 1948.
Sciortino said while others produced similar machines before his uncle, his marketing and footwork primarily made his the first mass produced snowball machine in Louisiana.
“He marketed the product by going into neighborhoods and sorrounding areas, and that’s how it became popularized,” Sciortino said. “You can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, you won’t sell any.”
He sold snowballs at school fairs and lent some to his other Italian relatives to use in their grocery stores as well. He eventually began using stands to sell snowballs throughout the entire city.
“If you were to put all of these on the map, you would see Magazine [Street], the French Quarter, Elysian Fields, Jefferson Highway,” he listed. “Now you have a half dozen snowball businesses in every area of the city. This is how people started to change from knowing the product in New Orleans from a snow cone to a snowball.”
After his machine achieved notoriety, Ortalano decided on its name, Snow-Wizard.
“When he saw that snow coming out of the nozzle, it really just looked like magic the way it turned ice into fluffy snow,” Sciortino said. “It produced balls of snow, and you could put a cup underneath the shoot and form a ball on top.”
One result of SnoWizard’s popularity and larger production scale was Ortalano’s decision to shorten his products names from “Snow-Wizard” to “SnoWizard” and “snowball” to “SnoBall.” “Snoball” became a common spelling for those using Ortalano’s machines.
“There are many other snoballs out there but SnoBall is the brand name given by my uncle,” Sciortino explained.
Since Sciortino took responsibility of SnoWizard in 1981, he’s seen continuous development in the company and the industry. SnoWizard regularly updates technologies and materials to stay with the times, frequently adding new flavors, which began upon Sciortino’s arrival in 1981.
“When I got into biz in 1981, I think we had about 40 different flavors, today we have 150,” he said. “Today we’re very creative in developing new flavors – customers look for that every year.”
Sciortino has also seen what efforts create a consistent, profitable snowball stand. While some owners only open in warmer times of year, Sciortino said a consistently well run and patronized stand can stay open until mid-October. In fact, stands in areas like California or Florida can sometimes stay open year-round.
“Someone going into it to operate the business as a main source of income can make anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 a year,” he said.
While location often proves important, Sciortino emphasized professionalism for a snowball stand’s success.
“To be a successful business, it has to be run like a business,” he explained. “It has to have quality product all the time, great customer service, regular hours – those people in a very short time can build up a clientele.”
 
____ Contact Austen Kratnz at [email protected]