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And now,
A Closer Look at Roller Skating
Newport, Rhode Island, is known to many for being a place where the super-rich hang out with each other and the men wear Lily Pulitzer and wear draped sweaters with the arms hanging out down front. It’s also known as the place where yachting’s America’s Cup was held for 132 years until Dennis Conner’s team lost it to the Australians in 1983.
One hundred years earlier, Newport’s Atlantic House Hotel was abandoned by its tenant, the U.S. Naval Academy. The New York Skating Association moved in and the hotel converted the dining room into a suitable place for rinking, the new craze brought over from Europe.
The influencers of the 1800s were royalty, near-royalty, and anyone with enough old money
All across Europe these early adopters converted their ballrooms to private skating rinks where they could dance on roller skates while orchestras played. The socially obligatory dancewear was tuxedos, ball gowns with enormous feathered hats, elbow-length opera gloves, and lavish jewelry. Forgotten Roller Rinks of the Past called roller skate dancing “the most delightful variety of dancing ever known.”
Swept up in the craze, theaters added roller skaters to their assorted entertainments, including plays and operas
In more than one performance, actors and actresses (period-correct language) moved about on roller skates to simulate skating on ice.
This rinking, what we know as roller skating went viral
All of a sudden, what seemed like everyone wanted to roller state. Public skating rinks were built, but anyone could skate on sidewalks and in the street, and boy, did they ever. Writing in The Genealogist, Jayne Shrimpton tells us about it: “A few skaters traveled at speed along the pavements, creating a nuisance and danger to pedestrians, even fatal accidents. Some local authorities tried to introduce by-laws prohibiting or limiting street skating, but there was opposition” and it was never got passed.
A man named Plimpton brought the craze to the States
He had good reason to, because his new roller skate design was the technological marvel of its day. Roller skates of the previous hundred years had two wheels (a few had more) in a line from front to back, the same as bicycles. James Leonard Plimpton’s design used four wheels, two near the front and two near the back. With wheels at all four corners, his quads made it easier for skaters to turn and pivot.
James Leonard Plimpton’s wheel placement also made his roller skates much more stable
Now everyone could have fun. Even the inevitable pratfalls became part of the hilarity. Go figure.
Entrepreneurs quickly opened public roller rinks to cash in on the mania
Young and old, people came in swarms. Roller skating rinks popped up all over, especially in rural areas where there was little competition for entertainment dollars.
In the 1930s, there were 5,000 roller rinks in the U.S.
Organ music went with roller rinks as surely as apple with pie
Indoor rinks needed to be large enough for hundreds of people to skate at the same time without crashing into each other. The noise from hundred of wheels on wooden floors made the live music hard to hear. Operators of large rinks brought in Mighty Wurlitzer Theater Organs to play lively music that masked some of the constant drone.
Music was live until a.i. replaced the organs with cheaper amplifiers and speakers
With the next wave, the pendulum swung back, away from canned music and toward live DJs fitting the music to the crowd.
J.J. Merlin gets most of the credit for inventing roller skates in 1760
But roller skates were probably invented the same way most things were back then before instant worldwide promotion and distribution. It is more than likely that people everywhere tinkered with ways they could get around using wheels. I’ve scattered photos throughout.
Product innovation is a speeded-up version of evolution
The wheels on the earliest skates were made of wood. In time, they’d be replaced by metal, which in turn gave way to rubber, plastics, and exotic composites, each superior in some way to the materials used by their ancestors.
Public skating rink floors were made of strips of wood, like the lanes at a bowling alley, but longer and wider
Wooden wheels gave a rough ride, lost their roundness, and wore out quickly, needing regular replacement. Metal wheels never needed replacing, but they chewed up the wooden floors. Wood and metal wheels were both too slippery to grip the floor, making turning and stopping real adventures, they say, telling tales of roller skaters crashing into things.
A few rink operators tried metal floors. Loud? In a big room with hard surfaces everywhere?
The rolling thunder was so loud that people didn’t enjoy skating on metal, so that evolutionary branch was nipped in the bud. Softer wheels made skating easier, quieter, more relaxing, and more fun.
Other improvements were added as they were invented
Using wheels with ball-bearings made for smoother rides and easier coasting. Rubber stops were added at the toe and heel for better braking and quicker stopping.
Everything having to do with roller skating has gone through boom-and-bust cycles like a wildcatter through oil leases
Early roller skates went from simple wooden platforms to tall, lace-up boots with in-line wheels only the wealthy could afford. For many years, roller skates for regular neighborhood kids were inexpensive four-wheeled metal clamp-ons that used straps, buckles, and skate keys to attach them (more or less securely) to whatever shoe the skater was wearing.
From our Everything Old Is New Again files
Roller skates cycled through strap-ons to boots to clamp-ons to boots again. And from a single row of wheels to four wheels at the corners (quads) and back again, this time called inline skates and rollerblades, a descriptor someone converted into a brand name.
A story about roller skates and skating isn’t complete without a bit about racing
Promoters organized endurance races in the 1800s. One that really stands out is an 1865 six-day endurance contest where the winner of the $500 first prize dropped dead after the race.
Who was Leo Seltzer?
He was the creator of a 3,000-mile race inside the Chicago Coliseum. Like all promoters, Seltzer wanted an attraction that would draw crowds. Dance marathons and bicycle races were popular in those days, so he invented The Transcontinental Roller Derby.
Twenty-five male-female skating teams would compete on a specially constructed wooden track
It was promoted as the Transcontinental Roller Derby because skaters supposedly circled the track enough times to go from coast to coast. For 30 days, the skaters went around and around, lap after lap. Lights spaced across a large map of the United States came on to show where the contestants would be if they were actually skating across the United States.
Skaters left the track only to rest, eat, and sleep in the infield
The event was a money-maker, so Seltzer took his now trademarked Roller Derby show on the road. Because the event was-coed, most saw it as entertainment, not as a sporting event. With weeks and weeks of non-stop skating, there were plenty of bumps, bruises, and crashes.
A fella named Damon Runyan wrote stories about gamblers and gangsters, hustlers and con artists, all colorful
They were the speakeasy crowd of the Prohibition Era. His best known musical was Guys and Dolls, with Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson and Frank Sinatra as Nathan Detroit in the film version.
Runyon told Leo that he’d observed the crowd was more excited by the roughhousing than by the racing
If that’s so, he told Seltzer, why don’t you turn it into an organized brawl?
Seltzer did just that
From now on, skaters were told to maximize physical contact by elbowing each other, beating on each other, and shoving the other team’s skaters over the rail. Skaters were told to flail about and exaggerate every push, shove, and poke so the rubes in the nickel seats could see, too.
By this time, the tour was in Los Angeles
Fans loved the fighting so much that radio stations began to carry live roller derby programs. Television was close behind, broadcasting events from 1939 through 1973, when Plimpton left the roller derby business.
The Blonde Bomber
Roller derby legend Joanie Weston came on the scene in the 1950s and 60s. She was the “glamour girl” face of the San Francisco Bay Area Bombers and all of Roller Derby for many years.
Using the business model invented by the Globetrotters, the Bay Area Bombers won all their matches
Like professional wrestling, entertainment was provided by heroes and villains beating on each other in matches that were entirely and transparently phony, but no one seemed to care. Promoters said it’s the reactions of rabid crowds that make professional wrestling great.
Jeopardy!
- At its peak in the U.S., 18 million people participated in this activity. What is roller skating?
- It’s located in Lincoln, Nebraska. Admission is free and parking is around back. What is the National Museum of Roller Skating?
- These girls wore white roller skates as they served customers in cars at drive-ins like the one in American Graffiti. Who were carhops?
- Carrie Fischer skated her way to stardom in this, the greatest roller skating film of all time (with apologies to Raquel Welch and Kansas City Bomber) What is Roller Boogie?
- Recorded by Dave “Baby” Cortez in 1962, this hit single was played by roller rinks all across the U.S. What is Rinky Dink?
While researching for this article, I learned one of my long-held assumptions was completely untrue
Ever since I was hauled outside on a windy, bitterly cold day to watch an outdoor hockey game when I was five, I thought ice hockey was invented in Canada, what with it being their national sport and all. Nope.
Ice hockey has another of those hazy histories that suggests it probably evolved in several places
I’m told the game really grew in Ireland and Scotland and has been refined by Canada ever since 1875, when it was played indoors for the first time. Canadians have always felt ice hockey is their game, but it didn’t formally become their National Sport until 1994.
Bonus
The Americans had earned the right to face off against their Cold War Enemies, the Russians, in the 1980 Winter Olympics
The heavily-favored Soviet players were paid professionals with extensive international experience. They had not lost a game in their last four consecutive Gold Medal-winning Olympics. The U.S. squad had four minor-league hockey players and the rest were college kids.
Goliath vs. David
After their against-the-odds 4-3 victory over the Russians, Americans won ice hockey gold with the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Olympics. Sports Illustrated named it the top sports story of the 20th century. The game was not shown live in the United States, but tape-delayed for reasons involving the Russian TV audience. When I turned on to watchl, I found the game had been bumped by the Bellevue Baptist Church weekly televised church service. Argh. Almost like the Heidi Bowl.
