CHARLOTTE - Broadway's Skating Superstar

 New York theatrical producer Charles Dillingham searched far and wide for a sensational finale for “Hip Hip Hooray” his big new 1915 show at the 5,200 seat Hippodrome Theatre, the largest in the world. After all, audiences there had already gasped at the elephant parades, wild west extravaganzas, and the sea battles and swimming mermaids in an enormous water tank on a hydraulic lift. But finally he found what he needed in Berlin – Herr Bartuschek’s spectacular ice ballet titled “Flirting at St. Moritz.”

It truly was the hoped-for sensation on opening night. After two acts of astonishingly opulent stage tableaux that included dancing scenes, Milton's Blue Ribbon Horses, comedy skits, and John Phillip Sousa's Band the third act opened to reveal a magical expanse of glistening ice and magnificently costumed skaters whose exciting movements enacted a fabulous musical story. Broadway had never seen anything like it.

The leading skater, a 17 year-old billed simply as Charlotte, shot to stardom overnight. Her name went up in lights, songs were written about her, she made the first ice skating film, and the public fell in love not only with Charlotte but also with skating. The show was a hit and had a record-breaking run of 425 performances in 300 days.

The subsequent 1916/17 Hippodrome superproduction titled “The Big Show” had a magnificent new skating grand finale “The Merry Doll.”

Meanwhile Charlotte and the “Hip Hip Hooray” show toured to U.S. cities that had theatres large enough to house the gigantic show and ice ballet. She returned in 1921 for the Hippodrome show “Get Together” as star and choreographer of “The Red Shoes” ice ballet. After taking her own show to Cuba, Mexico, and Europe Charlotte triumphantly returned to the Hippodrome in 1925 with partner Kurt Neuman and a small skating corps de ballet to skate in a vaudeville format show.

 

 

 

Charlotte was the first female skater to include an Axel jump in her performances, and she and Kurt Neuman invented the Death Spiral.

But her signature move was the Charlotte Stop, a backward gliding arabesque with the free leg stretched straight up and upper body and head way down. Her very long hair would touch the ice as she came to a stop in that position. Almost one hundred years later the Charlotte Stop is often emulated by skaters today.

She returned home for her mother’s funeral in 1939 and became trapped in Berlin by World War II. When peace came Charlotte taught skating in West Berlin and died there in 1984.