Full Circle In Vienna: Franz Gräffer, The Music And The Rink

"Walking, dancing, driving, riding and swimming, all these movements are far surpassed by skating... the moderate exertion and strengthening of the muscles, the feeling of power and well-being, the comfortable and exhilirating influence on the mental mood... are the peculiar advantages of skating." - Franz Gräffer, "Das Schlittschuhfahren", 1827

In researching history, there always seems to be one recurring theme... the fact that whatever innovation one may think of, whatever invention... someone we may never have heard of may have thought of it first. In the case of skating to music, one man conceived the idea a good thirty years before Jackson Haines' birth... and when he tried to make it happen, it didn't go so well for the poor lad.

Franz Arnold Gräffer was born in Vienna, Austria on January 7, 1785. He was the son of bookseller August Gräffer. After spending some time as a young man studying art, he abandoned his studies and acted as the librarian to Prince Maurice of Liechtenstein and the Count Karl Philip Harrach, the brother of Auguste von Harrach, the second wife of King Frederick William III of Prussia. He decided to focus his time on following in his father's footsteps and working in the family business. Fortunately, as the bookselling business floundered and he lost much of his money, he found great success as a writer. He also fell in love with skating.

Mary Louise Adams' book "Artistic Impressions: Figure Skating, Masculinity, and the Limits Of Sport" (an invaluable resource on more than one occasion, trust me) offered the most detailed account of what happened next I could find: "In 1810 a Viennese bookseller named Franz Gräffer - a 'fanatical skater' who, decades before Haines, had wanted to combine skating with music - tried to open an ice rink. He was refused permission by the police and for another fifty years Viennese skaters had to make do with the uncertain ice on the narrow River Wien and on ponds in city parks." Skate Austria's website echoes that "the Police Chief Directorate" shot down Gräffer's big notion. The reason provided was that his skating rink "could never benefit in political nor military educational views." 

You'd think that a firm and flat no from a police chief might deter someone's passion for skating, but in Franz's case, to the contrary. In 1827, he penned the book "Das Schlittschuhfahren", an instructional manual of sorts for those wishing to take up "the noble art" of figure skating, under a pseudonym.

Plates from Franz Gräffer's 1827 book

Franz wrote over fifty books on everything from skating to Viennese daily life to freemasonry and founded the first Austrian lexicon, but he died in poverty in October of 1852 without seeing his dream of skating to music take off. It seems only fitting that after Jackson Haines' much acclaimed exhibition of free skating to waltz music in Vienna in 1868, Eduard Engelmann Sr. would go home and have an ice rink built in his large garden. His son Eduard Engelmann Jr. would carry on his father's tradition, building Vienna's first artificial ice rink in 1909 and winning the European skating titles for three consecutive years in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Fittingly, Eduard Jr.'s daughter Christine would marry two time Olympic Gold Medallist Karl Schäfer, who would skate at this rink himself and become one of history's great masters of interpreting music on ice. Through Jackson Haines and Vienna's rich skating tradition, Franz's dreams were posthumously realized in the grandest of ways. 

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

The 1957 Canadian Figure Skating Championships

The 1957 Canadian Figure Skating Championships were held at the Winnipeg Winter Club and the brand spanking new, two million dollar Winnipeg Arena from February 14 to 16, 1957. The decision to host the event in the dead of winter in the prairies was announced at the CFSA's Annual General Meeting in Vancouver in late October 1956, to the shigrin of some. Jack Abra, a doctor who was a member of the Winnipeg Winter Club, served as the Chairman of the Competitions Committee.

Many of the top competitors had competed at the North American Championships only a week earlier in Rochester, New York and were exhausted when they arrived with little time to practice, but the show went on, sans a fours competition which was cancelled when only one team from Vancouver entered and decided not to make the trip with no one to compete against.

Out-of-town skaters, judges and officials stayed at the Fort Garry Hotel, which was only six blocks away from the Winnipeg Winter Club. John Stewart McDiarmid, the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, acted as a patron for the event. He had good reason. His granddaughter Margaret was one of the judges' caddies who held up marks after each skater's performance! The caddies were dressed in gold lamé leotards, emulating the historic Golden Boy which sat atop Manitoba's Legislative building. They earned their jobs as winners of a ticket-selling contest. Speaking of historic, Arthur F. Preusch of St. Paul made history in Winnipeg as the first American to judge at the Canadian Championships.

With two thousand, five hundred spectators, the event received excellent coverage in the local print media and it is from a treasure trove of clippings from "The Winnipeg Tribune" and its evening and weekend versions that I was able to discern a great deal about how this forgotten event all played out. Grab yourself a nice cup of coffee and hop in the time machine as we explore the skaters and stories from this fascinating competition from days past!

THE JUNIOR COMPETITIONS

Joan McLeod and Carl Harrison

The first gold medals to be awarded in Winnipeg were in the junior pairs competition, which consisted of a single free skate performance. With first place marks from three of the five judges, Joan McLeod and Carl Harrison of the Granite Club in Toronto took top honours ahead of Jane Sinclair and Larry Rost of the Winnipeg Winter Club, Patricia Scott and Ian Knight of the Lachine Figure Skating Club, Sandra Mooney and Dennis McFarlane of Saskatoon and Dona Kulai and Frank Clark of the Connaught Skating Club. McLeod was a graduate of Northern Technical School and worked as a secretary. Her sister Eleanor competed in the junior women's event. Six foot tall Harrison worked in a pharmacy and excelled at baseball, track and field and swimming.

Hugh Ernest Smith and Doreen Lister

Hugh Ernest Smith of the Toronto Skating Club trounced the competition in the junior men's event, taking a twenty four point lead over his closest competitor, junior pairs champion Carl Harrison in the school figures and only expanding upon it in the free skate. Harry Nevard of the Connaught Skating Club placed third ahead of entries from Winnipeg, Toronto and Vancouver. Smith was also an ice dancer and had won the Canadian junior title in 1956 with Beverley Orr. He was a seventeen year old student at Oshawa Collegiate.

Fourteen young women contested the junior women's title in Winnipeg and it was a fourteen year old, Doreen Lister of the Porcupine Skating Club, who took an early lead and maintained it through all five school figures, placing twelve points ahead of her closest rival, Sandra Tewkesbury of the Chatham Figure Skating Club. Skating to Amilcare Ponchielli's "Dance Of The Hours", Lister unanimously won the free skate and gold medal in graceful fashion ahead of Eleanor McLeod of the Granite Club and Tewkesbury. Diane Frith-Smith of the Galt Skating Club placed second in the free skate to vault from eleventh after figures to fourth overall. Lister was an honour student who took ballet, sang in her school's glee club and played badminton.

Elaine Protheroe and Bill Trimble

The Winnipeg crowd was elated when two of their own, Elaine Protheroe and Bill Trimble, took gold in the junior ice dance event.  They edged siblings Svata and Mirek Staroba by 2.8 points. Two teams from Kerrisdale, Florence and Jack Morgan and Vivian and John Mitchell, claimed the bottom two spots. Two time Canadian Medallist Sheila Quinton (Smith) remarked, "The Protheroe-Trimble dance pair was the smoothest. They were in closer unison that their opponents and displayed cleaner turns. The Starobas, however, were not quite as stiff and very rhythmic."

THE PAIRS AND ICE DANCE COMPETITIONS

Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul

As expected, Barbara Wagner and Bob Paul of the Toronto Skating Club defended the Canadian title they had won the year before in Galt, in a four-one decision over runners-up Maria and Otto Jelinek, students of Marg and Bruce Hyland. Wagner and Paul's training mates, Barbara Bourne and Thomas Monypenny, claimed the bronze medal.

Maria and Otto Jelinek. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Prior to the ice dance competition, defending champions Lindis and Jeffery Johnston delivered a shock to CFSA officials when they headed straight home to London, Ontario after the North American Championships and announced they had no plans to defend their title because of "the reaction of the judges to our style of skating". They had been placed fourth at the North American Championships and believed Canadian judges were unsupportive of their shift to a more American style of ice dancing. Separate Waltz, Tenstep and Championship Dance competitions were held and the same three teams placed in the same order in all three.

Geraldine Fenton and Bill McLachlan

Geraldine Fenton and her bespectacled partner Bill McLachlan, coached by Jean Westwood, easily defeated junior men's champion Hugh Ernest Smith and his partner Beverley Orr and Winnipeg's Elaine Protheroe and William Trimble, junior ice dance champions 'skating up' in the senior event. Smith caused quite a stir, going against convention by matching his partner's shadow blue costume. Lindsay Crysler wrote, "The youthful eastern couple left the Winnipeg Arena Saturday night bearing two trophies and a rose bowl after accomplishing a clean sweep of top honours in the three major dance events."

THE MEN'S AND WOMEN'S COMPETITIONS

Charles Snelling and Carole Jane Pachl

Defending champion, nineteen year old Charles Snelling of Toronto's Granite Club, took a hefty lead over two Otto Gold students, Donald Jackson and Eddie Collins, in the school figures and coasted to victory in the free skate. Snelling wasn't perfect, however. He fell once, but it was two times less than runner-up Jackson, who tumbled no less than three times, once less than he did at the North American Championships in Rochester. Collins claimed the bronze, besting Dick Rimmer of Toronto.

Left: Margaret Crosland and Hans Gerschwiler. Right: Karen Dixon. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Nineteen year old Carole Jane Pachl was a heavy favourite, having won the Canadian senior women's title the two previous years and finishing a strong second at the North American Championships only a week prior to the Winnipeg event.  It was initially thought that her biggest competition would come from seventeen year old Hans Gerschwiler student Margaret Crosland of Winnipeg, the defending junior champion, but in the end it was Karen Dixon of the Glencoe Club in Calgary who took the silver. Pachl was in a class of her own and won unanimously by a wide margin, dressed to the nines in royal blue chiffon with silver sequins.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

A Feather In Her Cap: The Lillian Cramer Story

Born in October of 1894 in New York City, Lillian Olga Levy was the daughter of Samuel and Annie Levinson, Russian Polish immigrants. The Levinson's, who were Jewish, anglicized their name to Levy not long after arriving at Ellis Island. Lillian's father and older brother Sydney manufactured ostrich feathers, which were in high demand in the millinery trade at the time. The Levinson/Levy family had worldwide ties in the trade at the time. One of Lillian's relatives, English author and playwright Samuel Levy Bensusan, was also the child of an ostrich feather manufacturer.

Lillian grew up in the lap of luxury on East 64th Street in Manhattan, with two live-in servants catering to her needs when she wasn't away at boarding school. When she was twenty one on Valentine's Day, 1916, she married Adolph Bernard (Goldstein) Cramer, a hosiery salesman. The happy couple took up residence in a row house on East 70th Street.

It was during the Great War - the height of a skating craze in New York City fuelled by Charlotte Oelschlägel's popularity on Broadway at The Hippodrome - that Lillian decided to pursue figure skating seriously. From 1920 to 1923, she amassed three medals at the U.S. Championships - a silver and two bronzes. On each occasion, her losses came at the hands of Theresa Weld Blanchard. She didn't appear at the 1922 U.S. Championships as she was mourning the death of her first child, who passed away when she was only seven months old. She continued to compete as late as 1928, when she finished a very close second in 'Class A' women's free skating in the Skating Club Of New York's Championships to Gertrude Meredith.

Although her competitive record was nothing to sneeze at, the real feather in Lillian's cap was the fact that she was one of the first female figure skating judges in America. She was the only female judge at the U.S. Championships that decided the American team that competed at the 1932 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid. By the early forties, she was one of only six American women who held the distinction of being selected by the USFSA as international judges.

During the thirties, Lillian was a perennial judge at the U.S. and North American Championships. She also often travelled to clubs outside of New York to judge high level tests, all the while continuing to perform in the Skating Club Of New York's annual carnivals for many years. She was an avid collector of trade cards that depicted skating scenes. In 1944, she wrote to "Skating" magazine about her hobby. "Everyone in big business used them," she recalled. "They covered every subject, but mine are all skating ones. They are cute, funny, colourful and gay. The skates, costumes and positions, to say the least, would put any of us in the best of humour. The cost is trivial, some as low as five cents, none over a dollar."

Although little is known about Lillian's later life, her role in skating history as a pioneering female judge and one of America's first Jewish figure skaters of note was certainly of significance.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

The 1968 World Figure Skating Championships

Photo courtesy Judy Sladky

Watchmaking, fine chocolate, cheese fondue and yodelling... these were the associations many made at the time when thinking of Switzerland. From February 27 to March 3, 1968, figure skaters from around the world got to experience these long-standing traditions for themselves at the World Championships in Geneva, held at the ten year old Patinoire des Vernets. Many of the competitors who had competed outdoors the previous two years in Davos and Vienna were thrilled to be skating entirely indoors for the first time at the World Championships since 1965. As the ice surface at the Patinoire des Vernets was seventy by forty feet - larger than the regulation competition size at the time - a sixty by thirty foot area was used for the free skating, with seventy large flower troughs bordering the outside of the rink.

Two members of the Skating Club of New York living in the resort town of Montreux arranged for the American team to practice in Villars following the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France. John Hayes, the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, generously donated to a fundraising campaign organized to cover the U.S. World Team expenses, which raised an impressive four thousand dollars.
The Canadian team travelled from Grenoble to Zweibrucken, West Germany on a night bus. They stayed at the Third Wing of the Canadian Air Force Base, which had a covered arena where they were able to train for eight hours a day. During their stay, they gave an exhibition for the members of the Canadian military stationed there. Jay Humphry recalled, "They had a great hockey rink there and we had it to ourselves for the time between the championships.... It was like being at home in Canada in the middle of Germany."

The 1968 American and Canadian World teams. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

North American skating fans with the means to travel could join one of the first package 'skating tours', first travelling to Villars to watch the U.S. team practice then staying at the Hotel Intercontinental in Geneva while taking in the competition. The tour was arranged by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Shearer, a couple from Burlington, Vermont. Those unable to attend could watch television coverage from the comfort of their living rooms. Let's reimagine what those spectators would have seen!

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

The required elements in the pairs compulsory program were a single Axel Paulsen lift, split jump, pair sit spin, flying camel spin, death spiral, straight line step sequence and serpentine step sequence. The leaders after the first phase of the competition - to no one's surprise - were two time Olympic Gold Medallists Ludmila (Belousova) and Oleg Protopopov.

The Protopopov's performed equally as beautifully in the free skate to Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", Tchaikovsky's "Fifth Symphony" and Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 1". However, they were actually placed second in that phase of the event by Canadian judge Bill Lewis behind Americans Cynthia and Ron Kauffman.

Cynthia and Ron Kauffman. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

After having placed fifth in the compulsory program, the Kauffman's brought down the house with a flawless free skate set to "Tara's Theme" from "Gone With The Wind". Their effort earned them the bronze medal, behind Soviets Tatiana Zhuk and Alexandr Gorelik, who skated to music from the Aleksandr Faynsimmer film "Ovod". The Kauffman's received two low marks from Eastern European judges, which were heartily whistled and booed. Canada's only entry, Betty and John McKilligan, placed thirteenth. The pair who finished dead last, Glenda and Brian O'Shea, were the first South African pairs team in history to compete at the World Championships. Two years later, the South African Olympic Association would be expelled by the IOC due to the laws of the South African government with respect to apartheid.

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

By the time she'd skated the final school figure - the RFO-LFI paragraph bracket - nineteen year old Olympic Gold Medallist Peggy Fleming had amassed an incredible seventy four point lead over Gaby Seyfert. It's interesting to note that two judges placed Trixi Schuba ahead of Seyfert in the figures, recognizing her uncanny tracing ability in only her second trip to the World Championships. She managed to finish a solid third, ahead of Hana Mašková, the bronze medallist at the Grenoble Games.

Peggy Fleming skated brilliantly in the free skate, earning first place marks from all but the Austrian and East German judges who opted for Gaby Seyfert. Swiss skating historian Nigel Brown commented, "Peggy Fleming's middle sequence in her free program marks a chapter in the art. Phases of ballet have been attempted often by individual girl skaters. Imitation of it, however, is the most that can be said of such endeavours. Peggy's interpretation was beautiful, and, as she did it, ballet has a rightful place on the ice."

Peggy Fleming and Gaby Seyfert. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

A tenth place finish in the figures dropped Trixi Schuba behind Seyfert and Mašková... meaning the medallists from the Olympic Games had finished in the exact same order at the subsequent World Championships just as Sjoukje Dijkstra, Regine Heitzer and Petra Burka had in Dortmund in 1964. Canada's Karen Magnussen finished seventh in her second trip to the World Championships, earning third place ordinals in free skating from  the Australian and Canadian judges. Canada's second entry, Linda Carbonetto, moved up to thirteenth with a lovely free skate after a disappointing eighteenth place showing in the figures.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Ludmila and Oleg Protopopov, Peggy Fleming and Emmerich Danzer

Emmerich Danzer in 1968. Photo courtesy Bildarchiv Austria.

Austria's Wolfgang Schwarz was the only winner at the Winter Olympic Games not in attendance in Geneva. The surprise Olympic winner had turned professional and planned to tour with the Ice Capades. After the twenty men's competitors skated their six school figures, America's Tim Wood had managed a slim lead over two time and defending World Champion Emmerich Danzer of Austria. How close was it? The panel was split five-four in favour of Wood, with a fourth place for Danzer from the American judge being one of the deciding factors. France's Patrick Péra, the bronze medallist at the Grenoble Games, stood third, followed by Scotty Allen and Gary Visconti.

Twenty three year old Emmerich Danzer rebounded with a fine yet somewhat conservative free skating performance, earning first place ordinals from all but the American judge, a string of 5.9's and a perfect 6.0 from the British judge.

Tim Wood, who finished second, missed a triple Salchow but skated an otherwise outstanding program. He told Associated Press reporters, "I think I was good enough to win, despite that slip. I skated my full program and made no other mistakes." Patrick Péra had fewer points than fourth place Scotty Allen, but he took the bronze based on his ordinal placings. His free skating program was set to a piece called "Concertino en Ut", composed especially for him by Eddie Warner, who composed much of the official music used at the Grenoble Games. Danzer's win was regarded as quite controversial at the time and he announced his retirement from competition to reporters in Geneva.

Two of the biggest audience favourites in Geneva were Gary Visconti and Jay Humphry, who earned third and fourth place in the free skating with dazzling performances. They placed fifth and seventh overall, held back by their placements in the compulsories. Canada's second entry, David McGillvray of Toronto, skated well in the free skate but placed tenth.

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Photo courtesy BIS Archives

Fifteen teams choctawed and cross-rolled their way through the Foxtrot, Westminster Waltz, Kilian and Blues but no one even came close to three time World Champions Diane Towler and Bernard Ford. They brought down the house with their fast-paced free dance ending in "Zorba The Greek", earning unanimous first place marks and their fourth World title.

In the battle for silver, Yvonne Suddick and Malcolm Cannon defeated Janet Sawbridge and Jon Lane by the narrowest of margins. Both teams tied in total ordinal points, with Sawbridge and Lane placing ahead of Suddick and Cannon in the free dance. Ultimately, half an ordinal placing determined Suddick and Cannon's silver medal. Though British ice dancers had been on the podium every year since ice dance had been included as a discipline at the World Championships, it was the first British sweep of the World podium in any discipline since 1956. Canada's two entries, Joni Graham and Don Phillips and Donna Taylor and Bruce Lennie, placed ninth and thirteenth... meaning that Canadian skaters had placed an unlucky thirteenth in all but one discipline at this particular World Championships.

Janet Sawbridge and Jon Lane. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Following the event, Rudolph Loeser of Wakefield, Massachusetts complained in "Skating" magazine, "I sat down in front of the television set, anticipating a full hour of ice dancing, waiting to see all the new and original dance steps. It was very beautiful to watch each couple skating as one, but the programs were free-skating programs without lifts. There were few new dance steps or sequences to be seen anywhere. A mini free-skating program has no place in dance competition. Free dancing needs to be re-examined and the 'dance' put back into dancing."

THE AFTERMATH

Karen Magnussen skating to "Second Hand Rose" on the ISU World Tour

On the closing Sunday, an exhibition was held at three in the afternoon, followed by a gala dinner banquet at the Hotel Des Bergues that evening where prizes were awarded. Following the banquet, many of the top skaters in Geneva embarked on an ISU World tour that visited East and West Germany, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, France and England.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

Inside Edges In The Iridium Room

Near the theatre district on Fifth Avenue and Fifty Sixth Street in New York City, the lavish, white tie Iridium Room supper club at the historic St. Regis Hotel was a perfectly located spot for playgoers to stop and have a bite to eat before they took in a show on Broadway. 'Before they took in a show' isn't exactly accurate... for customers at the Iridium Room were treated to a fabulous nightly ice show while they dined.

The Iridium Room's ice shows began in 1940 as twice nightly affairs, with one show at nine or nine-thirty serving as an evening matinee to the main event... the Midnight Ice Show. For approximately fifteen dollars, patrons could enjoy squab guinea hen en casserole, cream of corn soup and the St. Regis' dessert speciality - frozen cake - while watching skaters whirl around on a twenty square foot skating rink mounted on rubber rollers.

Three time U.S. Silver Medallist Erle Reiter skating at the Iridium Room. Photo courtesy Minnesota State Archives.

When the hotel decided to discontinue the skating shows briefly in favour of other entertainment, patrons complained so much that Vincent Astor himself ordered that they be reinstated. The St. Regis wasn't the only hotel in the Big Apple at the time offering suppertime ice shows during the World War II era. The Biltmore Hotel and the Terrace Room in the Hotel New Yorker's ice shows were perhaps better-known and often drew in bigger names.

Stars of the shows - which had names like "Ice Frolics", "Adventure On Ice", "Ice Pictorials" and "Ice Quakes" - included Carol Lynne, Rudy Richards, Dorothy Lewis, twins Jack and Bob Heasley, Hazel Franklin, Joan Hyldoft and adagio pair Bob and Peggy White. For a time in 1943, Gustave Lussi himself acted as the director of these shows, which were produced by Marjory Fielding. Interestingly, Lussi had worked as a dishwasher at the hotel when he immigrated to America from Switzerland in 1915.

The Heasley twins

There wasn't a record player in sight. Skating to everything from minuets to "Malaguena", skaters were accompanied by live bands lead by the likes of Freddie Miller, Theodora Brooks and Gus Martel. Reviewing one of the shows in "The New York Sun" on October 29, 1941, Malcolm Johnson noted, "It is a handsome show, attractively costumed and moves swiftly, running not more than twenty minutes."

For nearly a decade, the ice shows in the Iridium Room at the St. Regis Hotel were well-attended and received favourable press. It wasn't until after World War II, when a cabaret tax was imposed on New York City supper clubs that offered entertainment that the management of the hotel gave the ice shows the old heave ho. Sadly, as is often the case in the skating world, the demise of great skating shows often comes down to the almighty dollar.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

#Unearthed: Learning To Skate

When you dig through skating history, you never know what you will unearth. In the spirit of cataloguing fascinating tales from skating history, #Unearthed is a once a month 'special occasion' on Skate Guard where fascinating writings by others that are of interest to skating history buffs are excavated, dusted off and shared for your reading pleasure. From forgotten fiction to long lost interviews to tales that have never been shared publicly, each #Unearthed is a fascinating journey through time. This month's #Unearthed is a duo of stories both entitled "Learning To Skate". The first was penned in 1866 by detective novelist Metta Victoria Fuller under the pen name 'Mrs. Mark Peabody' for "Beadle's Monthly: A Magazine Of To-Day". The second is a wonderful unattributed piece that appeared in the "Wyoming Press" on March 22, 1902. Grab yourself a nice cup of tea and get ready to skate back in time.

"LEARNING TO SKATE" #1 (METTA VICTORIA FULLER)

Tintype of skaters in Central Park. Photo courtesy New York Public Library.

"Do you skate?"

"H-m! Not much. Do you?"

"Oh yes, I'm passionately fond of it! I'm sorry you don't skate!"

"Perhaps I could learn. I could like anything that you liked - but there's our turn - now!" and away the couple went, after a momentary pause, in the German.

The speakers were Miss Oylwell, of Fifth Avenue, and Bob Frothingham, favourite in society, of no particular place. Scene: Mrs. Smythe's mansion, on the avenue above mentioned, four o'clock in

the afternoon, gaslight, long, crowded room, music, thirty couple swaying and whirling about in the German.

As soon as they came to another pause, Miss Oylwell, flirting her fan, and looking very warm, continued, enthusiastically

"You must learn, Mr. Frothingham. Why, I never dreamed that man who dances as you dance, didn't know how to skate."

"It wasn't so fashionable when I was in my youth," her partner was about to confess, but he checked himself. He passed for a good-looking man of from thirty-three to thirty-five, and if he were any older he succeeded in keeping it secret. He was quite the best dancer in the room in fact, he had been chosen by Mrs. Smythe to lead the German, and she had kindly given him the richest girl on the list for his partner. Here was a chance it would be madness to neglect. From two to three hours with the richest girl in the room, young and pretty besides, and the prospect of leading her down to the five o'clock hot supper Mr. Frothingham had considered himself in clover until that unlucky reference to skating.

"Have you heard that old Doubleday has left his wife?" he asked, quite forgetting the unsuitable nature of the subject, in his anxiety to change the drift of Miss Oylwell's thoughts. She opened her blue eyes widely, but answered him quite unembarrassed.

"La, yes, a week ago. I'm going to Central Park tomorrow. Didn't you think, when you came in, that the skating would be good by that time? It was so splendidly cold."

"It was cold," asserted her partner.

"Oh, freezing! The ice will be beautiful tomorrow. I know it will. It's so funny you don't skate. That's the reason I've never met you at our Pond, I suppose. I and Carrie have season-tickets to the Pond. But, we're going to the Park tomorrow, for a little extra fun. I do wish you were going, Mr. Frothingham. Do go. You can learn in a little while. You dance so beautifully, I'm sure you'll skate to perfection. Do you know, I believe I could skate out this whole German on the ice, without a

single false step. Will Herring says never look so well as when I'm on the ice. You ought to see me in my skating costume."

"I should like to, very much though I'm sure it would be utterly impossible for you to look better than you do this minute. In my eyes, a woman always looks prettiest in ball costume and yours, Miss Oylwell, is exquisite."

"Thank you, Mr. Frothingham. I expect it is pretty - it cost enough."

"The cost would be nothing, if there was not handsome girl to wear it." The gentleman got out this tremendous falsehood with the ease of long practice. It might have been worn by an angel, yet had it not been cut in the latest mode and been of the richest material, it would not have awakened his sense of beauty. Miss Oylwell, for her part, having only sported expensive things for year or two, also still estimated them very much, as she had naively confessed, at their cost.

"La, you needn't think to flatter me - I'm used to it, and it don't have the least effect," she cried, merrily. "Will Herring said he should be at the Park at two o'clock tomorrow. I'd like awfully

to make him jealous. I do wish you'd call, and go with me, Mr. Frothingham. We'll go in the carriage, and then send it back."

This was an invitation not to be neglected. To be actually asked to the Oylwell House, to be promised drive in their carriage, and the privilege of escorting and taking care of Miss Oylwell, at Central Park, where many would see his good-fortune, lifted him up to the seventh heaven of hope. But he kept

sinking, as fast as he rose. 'Who was this Will whom she had twice mentioned, and whom she wanted to make jealous? and, oh, gracious if she should insist upon his trying to skate. However, before the German and the supper were over, he was in for it. He had promised Miss Oylwell that he would go with her to the Lake and that he would bring a pair of skates. 

What was left of that night, after Mrs. Smythe's German was over, was spent by Mr. Frothingham in state of agitation which precluded any thing like real repose. He had struggled for twenty years to make his fortune by marrying one to his hand, and had never been nearer to it than now. Miss Oylwell evidently favoured him. She had blushed at some of his compliments, which was high testimony in favour of the effect they had produced, for she, although but eighteen, was quite inured to flattery. She had actually urged him to escort her to the Park. 

Ah, if it had only been summertime, what a happy man he would have been. Then, with soft airs, and soft perfumes, and soft music, he might press her soft hand softly, and be as soft upon her as he chose. All things would have smiled upon him. But in winter - ugh, he shivered under the bed-clothes, as he thought of it. The wind was so rough, and his nose always got purple, and he was afraid that the ice would bring on his rheumatism. He should have to rise by eleven o'clock to make his toilet and, be he ever so careful about it, he was afraid of the consequences of bad night's rest, of broad sunlight and glaring snow. He should look at least ten years older than he did the previous evening, where the shaded gaslights of Mrs. Smythe's rooms told no tales of vinegar-rouge and hair-dye, of incipient wrinkles and artistic enamelling.

It would not do to lie awake thinking of it, for the less he slept the older he should look so he fairly forced himself into slumber from which he was awakened about ten A.M. by dreaming that he was dancing the German with Miss Oylwell on a glass floor, made of ice, and that he slipped, fell and broke his false nose, and that Miss Oylwell laughed outrageously. Now, his nose was not false, although some other of his features were, and he sprung up in bed, rubbing it, and glad that it was only dream. 

He got up and drew aside the window-curtain. Everything was glittering and sparkling. It was cold, steady, crackling cold. His wild hope that there might be a thaw congealed at once. Two or three times, while dressing, he felt tempted to break the engagement, and thus lose the chance to make more important one. But he had not laboured twenty years to give up now. He would go, he would make himself agreeable if necessary, he would skate. Bracing himself with three cups of strong coffee and a dozen fried oysters, he sallied out, well-made-up and elegant looking gentleman, gloved, cloaked

and furred in the latest style. His first duty was to buy pair of skates. A shop stood ready, not far from the restaurant where he had breakfasted. The willing clerk showed him a dozen different

styles; avowing his ignorance of such things and that he wanted "the best," he paid, with an inward groan, for the pair of patent, self-adjusting, self-regulating, self-balancing, lightning skates which

were selected for him, slung them over his arm with an air of one familiar with the slippery affairs, and picked his way to the house of the rich - the immeasurably, uncountably rich - heiress.

The carriage was already at the door, and in the reception-room, Mr. Frothingham was introduced to Carrie, the younger sister who had not yet "come out," and Mr. Herring, no doubt the Will of whom he had heard. They were all ready, and eager to start.

"You've kept us waiting ten minutes," cried Miss Oylwell.

"Really, have now? That's unpardonable; but that awkward clerk was so long fitting my skates."

"A new pair?" asked Mr. Herring, politely. 

"He doesn't skate but I'm going to learn him how," said Miss Oylwell. "Let's be off, or the ice will be too crowded."

They took their seats in the carriage; the horses dashed off, glad to be moving, in such weather; it seemed to Frothingham that they were not over three minutes going the three miles to the Lake.

His companions were full of frolic. The girls were bewitching, in their scarlet petticoats and Polish boots, their coquettish skating caps and ermine furs; the cold air only made their cheeks red and their

eyes bright, and their white foreheads whiter, while poor Frothingham's eyes were full of water, and his handkerchief in constant use. He did his best, however, to be agreeable, concealing the anguish at his heart, under demeanour of youthful gaiety, all the time conscious that he was watched with jealous eyes by the handsome and healthy young fellow opposite, who, finding that he was not to sit by Miss Oylwell, made himself as comfortable as possible by the side of laughing Miss Carrie.

"Here we are! Oh, look, look what crowds! Won't we have a jolly time?" and Miss Oylwell clapped her hands.

"I wish it were another German, instead of this," sighed her companion, in her ear, pressing her hand, as he assisted her out of the carriage.

"I  don't; sir don't you see, we can dance all the year round but skating comes but once a year! You'll like it as well as I, when you get used to it."

"Perhaps I will," and he escorted her toward the ladies' dressing-room but she wasn't a bit cold, and wanted her skates on immediately.

One thing he could do gracefully, and that was to kneel to fasten on her skates but he had to be instructed in the mysteries of strapping. They were on, all right, and the other couple stood waiting

for them.

"Now put on yours, Mr. Frothingham."

"Oh, not just yet. I'll watch you awhile first."

Miss Carrie darted off by herself, with school-girl freedom, while Mr. Herring and the heiress glided off gracefully, looking so handsome, happy and well-mated, that the forlorn, forsaken one, sitting there by himself, would have ground his false teeth with jealousy, had he not been afraid of injuring the enamel. Every once in while they skated up to him, pausing to urge him to try his luck on the ice; and every time the young man appeared more easy, happy and self-assured, and the girl more radiantly beautiful. The exercise sent the warm blood to their lips and cheeks, and merriment bubbled up in their hearts. "If this goes on much longer, I'm lost," murmured Frothingham, when they sailed away for the fourth time. "Here, boy, put on these doosed things for me." When they again came gliding into port, convoying Carrie also, he had braced himself to the undertaking.

"I guess I'll try it this time," he murmured, as the heiress, all glowing and sparkling, sped up to him. 

"Wait a minute, till Mr. Herring gets out of the way," for something told him who was his most dangerous rival, and he did not like the cool, laughing light in the young man's eyes.

"Oh, I'll get out of your way. Come, Carrie," and away they flew.

"Don't you think you'd better take a chair. They're so much more comfortable for ladies," asked her partner, trying to prolong the dreadful moment when he was to balance himself on those treacherous instruments of torture strapped firmly upon his slender feet.

"You can, if you prefer one," with a little, sarcastic laugh. "I thought chairs were for invalids and old folks." Horrible! Did she suspect he must make an effort? She was growing impatient to be away again; he could see that, plainly.

"What spirits you have, Miss Oylwell, and how charming you look. Perfectly charming, upon my word. Your cheeks are like roses. You don't seem a bit cold," he rattled on, to draw her attention from his efforts to stand on the smooth, glistening surface, which mocked his distress.

"Cold? I guess not. That last race put me all in glow. You do first-rate. Indeed, you do. Now, then, strike out."

"What do you mean by 'strike out?'"

"This way," and she showed him.

Despair will sometimes do what nothing less could accomplish. In sheer desperation, Frothingham struck out," and to his own agreeable astonishment, he did not bring up on his back.

"You do better than expected. Isn't it nice once you get used to it, and you'll like it better than the German. Now, take my hand, and we'll go slowly along together. That's it. All you want, Mr. Frothingham, is confidence."

"It's the first time I've ever been lacking in that," thought he, his spirits rising with this little success, and his teeth ceasing to chatter.

"Who could help learning with such a teacher," he whispered, as soon as he could command his voice, holding very tightly to the little hand nestled in his.

"Ah, Miss Oylwell, if could only hope could only dare to aspire to the thought that you might be my teacher through life to teach me all those sweet - ah-h!" and he clung tighter, and very nearly slipped up, having come into slight contact with a passing demoiselle. 

"What on earth is there that you don't know already? I'm sure I shouldn't presume to teach you - any thing but skating," replied the heiress, looking at him with the most innocent expression.

"You know what I mean, dear, dearest Miss Oylwell. You can teach me to love to adore to kneel at your feet in worship" and just then, forgetting his new art in his old one, his heels flew from under him, and he came down on his knees in good earnest. Several of the people about them laughed, and as the pretty girl who was helping him up did the same, he was fain to join in, though he felt dreadfully jarred. "Thank fortune, I didn't fall on the back of my head my wig might have come off," was his secret rejoicing.

" I didn't expect you to kneel in this crowd," said the heiress, with a soft, saucy, piquant look, which might have been encouraging, or might have been prompted merely by girlish fun. He chose to consider it encouraging, and the pain went out of his knees, and he began to feel less cold, and to believe that he could learn to skate for the sake of an interest in the oil region, and place of shelter in the avenue. 

"Let us find quiet place and sit down little while," he said. I've something very particular to say, and I'm afraid-"

"Of tripping up? I couldn't possibly sit, now; when I am so warm should take cold. Mamma has ordered me not to," and looking about her, "see that's Will! Doesn't he skate magnificently? Come, try again." 

Her suitor tried again and ever as he slid slowly along, clinging timidly to the heiress' hand, Will Herring shot past them like an arrow, returned, circled about, cut the most intricate patterns in the ice before their faces, skimmed away like swallow, back again, around, off, near, far, amid admiring cheers, followed by her eyes, until her companion grew desperate, and resolved to draw her away from that dangerous rivalry, let what would come. With wild ambition to achieve, he struck out bravely, and the heiress glided by his side, her eyes, how ever, still fixed upon the champion skater's retreating form. 

Suddenly there was cry of warning. Too late. The couple were quite beyond a stake marked "dangerous," the ice was cracking beneath their feet, the water was rising over it a step or two away. Light and skillful as Miss Oylwell was, she could, even then, have turned away, and escaped the consequences of her carelessness, but poor Frothingham could not turn himself a hair's breadth,- and clung tenaciously to her hand, dragging her down with him. There was a shriek - surely, not her voice - splash, crash, splash, and both were floundering in the water. Men dashed aimlessly about, and women screamed. "Stop yer yellin'!" roared an ungallant policeman, to the excited crowd, and keep back," as he run up with plank, "t'ain't deep enough to drown'd 'em, but it's too cold to feel good." His advice was obeyed by the most, but one young man who had been rods away the previous minute, could not be held back, and sprung into the water as naturally as Newfoundland.

"Get her on the plank," shouted the policeman, and while he stayed one end of the board on firm ice, the young man assisted the young lady to foothold then a dozen hands reached out and pulled her to aqua firma, and her rescuer gave his assistance to her companion, still floundering and splashing

amid the ruins of the splintered ice.

For moment all was fuss and confusion, then Will Herring, dripping and steaming, was clasping Miss Oylwell's wet glove and looking very much as if he wanted to kiss her.

"Oh, Will, it was so good of you to get me out."

"But you mustn't stand here, not a moment. Is the carriage waiting? Yes, I see it, just coming up. Will any one lend the young lady a dry shawl or two? We will drive home as fast as the horses will take us. You'll both take your death of cold. Come, Frothingham."

But no Frothingham answered.

"Where is he? Where can he be Didn't he get out ?" anxiously cried Miss Oylwell, while little Carrie cried, and Herring, shivering, looked about for his rival.

There was no Frothingham to be seen. Yes, no Mr. Frothingham, but another person who certainly looked as if he had been in the water, though how he, too, came wet and shivering, no one

could say. But two persons went into the water, and he was not one of them. This was quite an elderly man. His head was bald, and looked pitiful, with out any hat, that article being still afloat in the air hole. There was something else beside the hat it may have been a wig. Looking twice and thrice, and seeing no one else but this half-drowned individual, light broke gradually upon Will Herring, though it was all dark yet to Miss Oylwell.

"Good heavens Frothingham, is this you?" he burst forth. Miss Oylwell looked, and gave a little

scream.

"If it's you, pray, come along. The lady will freeze to death." The fortune hunter gave one glance at the heiress' face, and saw that the game was all up for him.

"I  can't nor won't go, till I find my teeth," he muttered, speaking as plainly as chattering toothless jaws would allow him. They cost over a hundred dollars before gold went up, and they'd be

twice that now. "Won't some fellow dive, and find my teeth? I'll give five dollars to anybody that'll get my teeth."

"That wouldn't pay for gettin' wet," sung out a rough chap.

"Well, ten, then," he moaned, in desperation.

"Offer a reward, and come away. You'll take your death-cold," remonstrated Will. The ladies can't wait."

"I don't want them to; I'll get a private vehicle, and go to my hotel."

"Goodbye, then," cried out Will, and we are afraid there was triumph in his voice.

It was no time to stand upon ceremony, and Miss Oylwell hurried home to dress. The next day she was on the ice again with Will Herring, not a bit daunted by yesterday's misfortune but alas, Mr. Frothingham was no more seen by her side. Neither was he met again, for some weeks, at a German or soiree. 

Upon sending to inquire after his health, Miss Oylwell learned that he was confined to his room by influenza, and received in return the following characteristic billet-doux.

"Miss Oylwell,

As it was entirely owing to your solicitations that I attempted to learn to skate, I must hold you directly responsible for the effects of the accident which followed. I send you the bill."

Miss Olywewll was an honest young woman, and seeing the justice of this demand, she immediately settled the bill.

The rumour of her engagement to Will Herring was quite prevalent before Mr. Frothingham got out again. That gentleman is still unequaled in the German, and it takes great deal to make him

blush. But he has been known to do it when some unconscious fair one has chanced to ask him, if he is fond of skating?

"LEARNING TO SKATE" #2 (UNATTRIBUTED)

It was Thursday evening and Mr. Doddleby was calling on Miss Harmer. That had been Mr. Doddleby's invariable custom for at least four months and Miss Harmer had begun to look upon Mr. Doddleby in the light of a serious proposition. Mr. Doddleby was no longer in youth's springtime, and, therefore, Miss Harmer, who certainly could be counted in that class, had made careful inquiries about his bank account, ascertaining that his rating was AA1 and had resigned herself to a pleasant fate, says the Chicago Chronicle. On this particular Thursday evening Mr. Doddleby had made a remark about the monotony of the winter season when there were no forms of diversion open to loving hearts and willing minds except the theater, and this he voted decidedly dull.

"Oh, Mr. Doddleby," gurgled Miss Harmer, "don't you enjoy skating? I just love to skate." Mr. Doddleby gasped a little, swallowed hard and managed to say that skating was one of the accomplishments of boyhood he had failed to acquire, inasmuch as he had spent his early years in a region where there was no body of water larger than a cistern.
"Oh, but you could learn so easily," insisted Miss Harmer. "Why, I think I could show you how myself."

Mr. Doddleby gallantly declared that if any inducement on earth could move him to don a pair of skates and make a public exhibition of himself it was the one that Miss Harmer had just offered, and the end of it was that Mr. Doddleby, fond, trusting old man, promised to lead his inamorita to the ice in Lincoln Park on the next evening and there take his first lesson in skating.

It was not without many doubts and misgivings that Mr. Doddleby sallied forth the next evening with Miss Harmer hanging on his arm and regaling him with many tales of her fancy skating done in days of yore - not so very yore, of course, for no young woman will talk of anything further back than three years unless it is connected with the infant class in the Sunday school. At the park Mr. Doddleby sought out the man who rent skates to all comers and timorously asked for a couple of pair. They were slammed down on the counter before him, he paid his deposit and looked helplessly at the shining skates.

"How do I put these things on?" he asked Miss Harmer. "There seems to be as much machinery about them as though they were submarine torpedoes."

"Oh, that's easy," said Miss Harmer. "Just adjust the clamps, set the screws, throw the lever, and there you are."

Mr. Doddleby began on her pair, and after considerable ground and lofty tumbling got them adjusted. Then he slowly went at his own, and it was apparent that his own heart failed him whenever he looked over the smooth sheet of ice on which thousands of young people were enjoying themselves.

"I don't know how this is going to go," he said nervously, as he essayed to stand up.

"Oh, it will go all right." said Miss Harmer reassuringly, and at that moment it did. Mr. Doddleby's feet went with it and he clutched the young woman desperately and saved himself.

"Come out on the ice," said Miss Harmer.
"Keep hold of my arm and you will be all right. Now, then, just strike off like this."

She dropped Mr. Doddleby's arm and struck off. Before she had gone ten fet Mr. Doddleby became aware that his feet were slowly but surely parting company. One of them seemed bent upon joining the gay throng and the other evinced a desire to slide along the shore. Mr. Doddleby felt certain that this sort of thing would not last very long. He did not know just how it would wind up, but that there was a finish ahead of him seemed certain. He looked down nervously at his moving feet and noticed that one of them was winning the race. It was six inches farther from where it should have been than the other one was. He made a desperate effort to haul it in and the move was fatal. The off foot, which he was not paying any attention to, continued its trip along the shore, greatly accelerated as to speed, and he went with it.

Just as he was scrambling up the bank and shaking the cold, wet snow out of his hand Miss Harmer came up with a rush, executed a wide sweep on both skates and stopped before him, flushed and panting.

"Come on!" she said gayly, "It's glorious."

"Yes, it must be," said Mr. Doddleby weakly, as he brushed the snow from his overcoat.

Miss Harmer struck off and Mr. Doddleby did the best he could. As the young woman is strong and husky, she carried him forty feet across the ice before he managed to get his feet wrapped around each other, and when he was on the way down he heroically grasped two or three skaters near by and brought them with him. Luckily the ice was firm and the shock did no material damage - to the ice. The indignant skaters who had joined Mr. Doddleby scrambled to their feet, handed him a few opinions of their own and skated on. Miss Harmer was sweetly waiting when he arose.

"Don't you think you could try it alone now?" she asked. Mr. Doddleby had decided to indignantly retire from the ice and bid Miss Harmer a cutting good-night, but when she looked at him that way he weakened.

"I don't know but I could," he faltered. Miss Harmer encouraged him with a bright smile.

"I'll wait here for you," she said, and Mr. Doddleby struck out for himself. The first four or five strokes were not so bad, but when he let himself go across the ice he discovered to his alarm that he was like a runaway automobile. He could neither stop himself nor steer. Dead ahead of him a fancy skater was cutting doves and bleeding hearts on the ice before an admiring circle of spectators and Mr. Doddleby discovered that he was going to become one of the party. He plunged into the ring of onlookers like a wild engine and crashed head-on against the fancy skater. That gentleman was just putting the finishing touches on a Hummingbird, and what he said to Mr. Doddleby need not be set down here. Two kind strangers picked up the dilapidated Mr. Doddleby and started him toward the spot whence he had come, but again his feet proved treacherous, and Mr. Doddleby went careening into the arms of Miss Harmer. They both sat down and when they had rested a little while they slowly arose.

"Perhaps we had better not skate any more," said Miss Harmer, with some difficulty.

"Perhaps?" echoed Mr. Doddleby. "Huh!" The grunt was so very excessive that Miss Harmer, thinking of the bank account and the AA1 rating, led the way in silence to the shore.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.