From A&E Website and Wikipedia.
During the worst of the Great Depression, a Chicago promoter named Leo Seltzer came up with the idea of a skating spectacle to compete with the dance marathon craze then sweeping the country.
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6/24/1947 - Chicago, IL: Gerry Murray (left), Captain of the Chicago team, and Midge Brasuhn of the Brooklynites, fight for the lead position during the roller derby finale in Chicago June 22nd. |
Far from the raucous sport you see today, the debut Roller Derby on August 13, 1935 in the Chicago Coliseum was an endurance test. Billed as The Transcontinental Roller Derby, it featured teams of one man and one woman who took turns skating 57,000 laps, or the equivalent of a 4,000-mile cross-country race. Roller Derby was an instant success, drawing 20,000 spectators in the first week alone. Seltzer soon took his show on the road. Legend has it that "true" Roller Derby surfaced in Miami in 1938, when famed New York sportswriter Damon Runyan saw a few contestants tangle during a "speed jam." Runyan suggested to Seltzer that body contact and keeping score might boost attendance. Presto! The following night, Derby returned to the track, ready to rum In the 1950s, the new medium called television catapulted Roller Derby into a national phenomenon, drawing thousands of fans and making legends out of women challengers like Midge "Toughie" Brasuhn and Gerry Murray. There were the Pioneers in Chicago; the Jolters in Cincinnati; the Chiefs in New York; and the champion Bay Bombers in Northern California.ble. |
In 1958, Jerry Seltzer, Leo's son, moved the operation to the San Francisco area, and Derby continued popular through the '60s. But by the '70s, the wheels started coming off, despite the 1972 kitsch classic "Kansas City Bombers," starring Raquel Welch as a troubled Derby skater. Overhead costs and the gas crisis forced the younger Seltzer to shut down his dad's show in 1973.
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Over the next decades, several promoters tried various routes to resurrect Derby but none of these went the distance. It took the new century, and women's interest, to revive the old sport. The game started rolling again in the early 2000's, fueled by fierce all-girl leagues launching around the country. Today's young women athletes are independent amateurs who pay to play. Holding jobs outside the rink, they buy their own gear (and health insurance) and compete with total determination and passion. Dressed in revealing outfits, flaunting kick-ass attitudes, these tough girl leagues are attracting increasingly bigger and hipper crowds. The contemporary revival restored a focus on athleticism, albeit with modern-day campy accoutrements. The emphasis on camp and athleticism –which are not necessarily mutually exclusive– varies from league to league. Roller derby has since spread beyond its American roots, with leagues extant in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. |
2008 - Tallahassee Rollergirl' Fem Venomous goes head to head with Molly Roger's Rambo Brite. |
