Straps worn by Werner Groebli of the ice skating duo "Frick and "Frack": Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Pair of brown leather straps with gold colored buckles. There are four decorative brass flowers attached down the center of each strap. This is an original native costume design from Kanton Appenzell region where Groebli was originally from. These were worn by the donor, Werner Groebli, while performing as "Mr. Frick" in the Ice Follies, 1930-1960. He was one half of the famous duo "Frick and Frack" who skated in vaudeville shows during the 1930's and 1940's throughout America and Europe. They joined the original Ice Follies show in 1937 as comedy ice skaters. They skated in Alpine Lederhosen and performed eccentric tricks on ice, including the "cantilever spread-eagle", created by Groebli, and Mauch's "rubber legs", twisting and bending his legs while skating in a spread eagle position. Only a few skaters have successfully performed the duo's routines since.

Materials, dates and provenance

• user: Groebli, Werner
• Object Name: Straps
• Object Name: straps, ice skating
• Physical Description: leather (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 16 in x 3/4 in; 40.64 cm x 1.905 cm
• web subject: Sports
• web subject: Entertainment
• web subject: Vaudeville
• name of sport: Ice Skating
• level of sport: Professional
• ID Number: 2003.0302.05
• accession number: 2003.0302
• catalog number: 2003.0302.05
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.