"Managing to serve the perfect drink and stay upright (mostly)"

December 1, 2014 12:03 AM

1920s – 1930s: The ice-skating waiters of Switzerland. Enough said.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (8 comments total)

Years ago – long before home video – my father somehow had acquired a small 8mm film collection, including one reel excerpted from Hit the Ice, a 1943 Abbott & Costello feature where, while hiding from gangsters, the two become ice-skating waiters in the mountains.

Guess what? It turns out that Lou Costello appears to be a horrible skater. His prowess on ice can be seen starting 10-1/2 minutes into part 2, here.
posted by LeLiLo at 2:04 AM on December 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

the ice skating waiters of Switzerland
they skate as they pour you a drink
quite skillful are they, as they carry their tray
quite skiillful indeed, don't you think?
here comes my man now, with my cocktail
a highball, served in a tall glass
he's skating toward me, but what's this I see?
he's fallen down flat on his ass!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:06 AM on December 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

St. Moritz was were winter sports as we know them began. It was a place of experimentation and innovation. Apparently not everything caught on, but winter sports did in general. I can't trace what the "Grand Hotel" is in the captions but probably Badrutt's Palace Hotel, which had a hotel skating rink and was the main hotel. Here's a 5 minute video from 1930.
posted by stbalbach at 7:39 AM on December 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

Inspiration for the carhop, perhaps?
posted by exogenous at 8:04 AM on December 1, 2014

Wes Anderson views these pictures and cries softly, darlings, at the opportunity he missed by failing to have Ralph Fiennes don skates and serve champagne to guests of the Grand Budapest Hotel.
posted by mosk at 4:55 PM on December 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

This was exactly the bit of joy I needed to start my Monday off today, thank you. I aspire to being that suave someday.
posted by MetropolisOfMentalLife at 5:51 PM on December 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of a restaurant I went to when I was a kid called Le Pirrot or something like that (incorrect French for 'The Parrot'). It had a nautical theme and all the waiters dressed up like pirates and wore roller skates.

It all seems like a drug induced dream when I write it down, but it really existed! The one thing I remember the most was that service was really fast. If you wanted your water glass filled, they were skating across the restaurant in seconds. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, it didn't last long.
posted by eye of newt at 9:05 PM on December 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have always wanted to visit Switzerland. Things like this just strengthen that desire.
posted by pandalicious at 10:17 PM on December 1, 2014 [1 favorite]