A BRIEF CORRESPONDENCE AMONG THE PROFESSIONAL ICE SKATER "CHARLOTTE", INVENTOR OF THE DEATH SPIRAL AND OLYMPIC CHAMPION DICK BUTTON, AND DR. ARTHUR N. FOXE. The collection includes several signed autograph and typed letters and related ephemera including the original program for the 1917 movie "The Frozen Warning". by (Button, Dick; Neuman, Kurt; & Charlotte). Oelschlagel, Charlotte (aka Charlotte Hayward) (1898-1984). German professional figure skater who starred on Broadway and cinema and first invented the death spiral with Kurt Neuman - [1967].

Germany, October 1967 through June 1968. [1967]., [1967].. - A brief correspondence begun on October 1, 1967 among "Charlotte", Dick Button and Dr. Arthur N. Foxe. The material includes 3 autograph letters signed by Charlotte. Also included are 2 autograph notes signed by Charlotte on the versos of real-photo portrait postcards, and 5 Typed Letters Signed by the Olympic champion figure skater and television broadcaster Dick Button, together with related material. In a 91-word Typed Letter on "Candid Productions" stationery, dated September 6, 1967, Dick Button introduces himself to Dr. Foxe and mentions having dropped in at the Tuttle Publishing Company in Rutland, Vermont where he purchased a copy of Dr. Foxe's book "Skating for Eveyone". While there, he was told about Dr. Foxe's collection of skating books. "I think it might be interesting for us to meet...." Signed "Dick". In a subsequent letter typed on September 21, 1967, Dick Button thanks Dr. Foxe for the book, "I enjoyed talking with you...." In a retained copy of a letter, Dr. Foxe recalls that Dick Button showed him 4 books he did not know about and asks if Dick could jot down their titles for him. Dick Button replies on October 30th with a letter in which he mentions enclosing a comprehensive bibliography which includes the books he showed him. In a 160-word letter dated October 1, 1967 penned in red ink on a 7-1/2 inch high by 11-1/2 inch wide light blue air letter, Charlotte replies to a letter from Dick Button, thanking him for thinking of her and her husband, her former skating partner, Kurt Neuman. "We both have not been well ... had a little collapse and I a bit of a breakdown...." Though she is now 77 years old she states that "I am still skating". Signed "Charlotte", together with an annotation in blue ink "and your 'old' Friend," signed "Kurt". Charlotte's red stamp depicting a line drawing of a figure skater is stamped at the top of the page. On November 9th, Dick Button writes to Dr. Foxe thanking him for his note about some "Harper's Weekly" prints and lets him know that he's not heard anything further from Charlotte beyond what she'd written in October. On November 15, 1967, Charlotte again writes in red ink on light blue paper. In her 150-word letter to Dick Button, Charlotte mentions putting some things together to send him: "I think you will pick out some of it that will interest you as I do not know what [?] your friend Dr. Arthur N. Foxe would like...." Signed "Charlotte". Kurt Neuman has also signed the letter in blue ink, sending his regards to Dick & to Dr. Foxe. Dr. Foxe appears to have been researching the image which appears in a poster which Dick shown him. In a retained letter dated December 1st, Dr. Foxe informs Dick that his card file tells him that Wm. H. Fuller "was born c.1833 in Boston, Mass. He was a skater of considerable repute..." He goes on to point out that there was another "Fuller" "an Englishman who flourished, as the saying goes around 1895" but that the "garb on the man of your poster is typical American...." In a brief note typed on December 12, 1967, Dick asks Dr. Foxe "Is this what we talked about...." signed "Dick Button" in blue ink. In a retained copy of a letter addressed to Charlotte, dated January 21, 1968, Dr. Foxe thanks Charlotte for the skating items she sent him. "I chose the program of The Frozen Warning", the Hippodrome Photograph and you doing the Split jump.... It seems almost unbelievable that you performed so dynamically and in so modern a way before Sonja Henie...." In an autograph letter signed, penned in red ink January 29, 1968, Charlotte responds to Dr. Foxe thanking him for his book. In this letter of approximately 180 words penned on light blue paper with her red skating stamp at top left, Charlotte writes about her accomplishments. "when I was a child in 1910 I already skated this new style and [at] 12 years I jumped already the Axel and Axel Paulsen himself saw me do it.... In 1929 Mr. Neuman and I created the Death spiral...." Signed "Charlotte". Charlotte has penned brief notes in red ink on the verso of two real-photo postcards titled "Charlotte 'Queen of the Ice'". The real-photo postcard of Charlotte doing the split jump which Dr. Foxe mentions in his letter of January 21st is here included as is a photo-postcard of the Hippodrome. The collection includes a German newspaper clipping with a photograph of the 77 year old Charlotte performing a high leg raise while standing on the point of her skate. On a sheet of paper are early photocopies of two photographs. Annotated "created in 1924" in blue ink, one of the images depicts Kurt Neuman with Charlotte performing a "ONE HAND" Death Spiral. The material also includes the program which Dr. Foxe mentioned, the original 4-page program for the 1917 American film "The Frozen Warning" directed by Oscar Eagle and starring Charlotte. The cover title reads "Charlotte in The Frozen Warning" and proclaims her to be "The Greatest, Most Graceful and Most Wonderful Ice Skater in the World in a Photoplay of Great Appeal...." The 8 inch high by 5-1/4 inch program is illustrated with a portrait of Charlotte gracefully skating on the front cover page. Inside are numerous illustrations from the movie and the rear cover features an illustration of a dance troupe. The program is folded and there are a couple of tiny tears to the front edge. Apparently once mounted into a scrapbook, there are paper remnants adhering to the left edge of the rear cover with some slight damage to that edge. <p>Billed simply as "Charlotte", the German professional figure skater Charlotte Oelschlagel (1898-1984) invented and first performed the death spiral. She was also the creator of what became known as the Charlotte Spiral and Charlotte Stop. At the age of 17, while starring as the leading skater in Leo Bartuschek's spectacular ice ballet "Flirting at St. Moritz" at Berlin's Admiralspalast Arena in Berlin, in 1915, she was discovered by New York theatrical producer Charles Dillingham. Dillingham was looking for a grand finale for his sensational production at the Hippodrome which was then the largest such theatre in the world. Broadway had never seen the likes of this show called "Hip Hip Hooray". It opened on September 30th of that year and went on for a record breaking 425 performances over 300 days. Charlotte went on to perform "Hip Hip Hooray" and "Flirting at St. Moritz" on tour. She went on to choreograph and star in the 1921 shows "Get Together" and "The Red Shoes" at the Hippodrome, toured Europe and returned to the Hippodrome for a brief engagement with her partner and future husband Kurt Neuman. She became the first figure skater to perform at Madison Square Garden. The first female skater to include an Axel jump in her performances, she invented the "Charlotte Stop" and she and Kurt Neuman invented the Death Spiral. Although some sources claim that Charlotte and Kurt's Death Spiral was a "two-handed" death spiral and credit Canadians Suzanne Morrow and Wallace Diestelmeyer with developing the "one-handed" version in the 1940s, the photocopy of a photograph (included in this little archive) shows Charlotte performing a "one-handed" death spiral with Kurt Neuman. Though Dick Button has penned that this figure skating element was "created in 1924" in the photocopy and another source states that she first performed it in Budapest in 1928, Charlotte herself, in her letter of January 29, 1968, notes she created the death spiral in 1929. Whatever the case, this letter and photocopy of the photo are indisputable evidence of her first performing this one-handed version. Charlotte was the first ice-skater to star in a motion picture. The 1917 American movie "The Frozen Warning" is a secret agent drama taking place during the First World War. World Wars were to play a crucial part in Charlotte's life as, having returned to Berlin for her mother's funeral in 1939, she was trapped in Germany by the Second World War.<p>A five time World Champion and two time Olympic Champion figure skater, the television skating analyst Dick Button is credited with being the first skater to successfully land the double axel as well as the first triple jump of any kind. <p>The Freudian psychiatrist and criminologist Arthur N. Foxe was an avid skater and a collector of skating books. In addition to articles related to his psychiatric profession, Dr. Foxe was the author of "Skating for Everyone" and of a skating bibliography.