73 Years

Posted by osdaadmin on August 14, 2008 in Roller Derby

Today is the 73th anniversary of the first game of the Roller Derby,
held in Chicago. To the women and men who are skating today in
OSDA,WFTDA and all the independent leagues, always remember you are
heirs to a great legacy. So to Leo Seltzer and the skaters of the first
game, the greats that have laced them up on the banked track, the flat
trackers and banked trackers of today. Happy Anniversary

Marc Stern
The Chicago Ace
Roller Derby
Most of us have heard the story hundreds of times, but . . .

With the onset of The Great Depression, Leo Seltzer saw receipts at his
Oregon movie-houses drop. To offset his losses, Seltzer began promoting dance
marathons or walkathons to attract the paying customer. After moving his
family to Chicago and reading a magazine article stating that ninety-three per
cent of Americans had, at one time or another, roller skated, Seltzer was
challenged to create a sport based on roller skating. Combining roller skating
with the dance/walk-a- Combining roller skating with the
dance/walk-a-thons, Leo Seltzer came up

The first Transcontinental Roller Derby began at the Chicago Coliseum on
August 13, 1935. An event that ran for over a month, the Derby simulated a
cross-country race on roller skates in which twenty-five male-female couples
raced around a massive oval-shaped wooden track for eleven-and-a-eleven-and-a-<WB
to cover the 3,000 mile distance between Los Angeles and New York. A
lighted map traced their progress across the country. Sixteen teams dropped out
over the course of the race due to exhaustion or injuries, but nine teams
completed the race. The winners were Clarice Martin and Bernie McKay, who had led
the race for the final eleven days.

As the race evolved the number of hours of skating per day was dropped to
eight but the skaters were encouraged to engage in jams or the “open house,” a
five minute sprint, for extra points or prize money. At times, massive
collisions would occur or elbows would fly as skaters tried to pass one another.
Damon Runyon suggested to Leo that this be incorporated into the game as it
never failed to bring the crowd to its feet.

The Transcontinental Roller Derby evolved in a team sport between two teams
of five skaters. Early teams were named for colors. Later the names were
changed to those of Indian tribes. An early version of the team concept
featured three teams competing on the track at the same time, but this often
resulted in two teams ganging up on the third. The team game evolved into a “home”
team competing against a “visiting” team.

On March 24, 1937 a bus transporting skaters and support personnel to the
next game, blew a tire and crashed into a bridge abutment. Nineteen people
were killed in the crash and five more were injured. Leo almost shut down the
Derby but he was convinced to carry on. In remembrance of those who died in
the crash, the jersey number “1″ was permanently retired from use by Roller
Derby teams.

The Derby continued to grow during the following years. Games were
broadcast by radio. World War II came and again the Derby came close to going under.
Because so many of its male skaters were in the armed services the Derby
skated through WWII with only two teams.

On November 29, 1948, Roller Derby debuted on CBS television in New York.
The first game drew a sparse crowd but by half-time the phone was ringing off
the hook with calls from people wishing to buy tickets for the next game.
The Derby had, after years of failure, finally cracked New York City. After
the initial appearances on CBS, the television rights were purchased by ABC
television which broadcast Roller Derby games nationally several times a week.

Derby enjoyed remarkable success in New York over the next couple of years.
Appearances at Madison Square Garden drew tremendously well. The regular
games at the 69th Street Regiment Armory were an unqualified success. Skaters
like Gerry Murray and Midge “Toughie” Brasuhn became household names

By the early ‘Fifties, after the ABC contract was ended, the Derby saw
attendance fall. Over-exposure on television had sucked the life out of the
Derby. As he always seemed to do when the Derby had out-stayed its welcome in one
area, Seltzer moved operations to another city. In 1953-54 the Derby moved
cross-country to Los Angeles, California and the Los Angeles Braves were
formed. In 1954 the team that would lead the Derby through the ‘Sixties, the San
Francisco Bay Bombers, was formed.

By 1958, Leo Seltzer had had enough. Keeping the Derby going through more
bad times than good had taken its toll. He was ready to shut down the Derby
and concentrate on his real estate holdings. Instead of shutting down, he
gave control of Roller Derby to his son, Jerry Seltzer.

With Jerry’s guidance the Roller Derby reached new heights in popularity.
By building a 120-station television syndicate, Derby reached millions of fans
every week, often drawing higher ratings than its prime-time network
competition. By taking the flagship Bay Bombers on the road during the “off-season,
By taking the flagship Bay Bombers on the road during the “off-season,<WBR>”
Roller Derby drew thous the Derby appeared.

Following the 1971 Bay Area season, the Derby did not make it usual road
tour featuring the Bombers taking on one of the other Roller Derby teams.
Instead, home teams were placed around the country with the New York Chiefs
representing the East Coast, the Midwest Jolters representing the Ohio, Kentucky,
Western Pennsylvania, and surrounding areas, the Central Pioneers with Chicago
and the Central United States as its home area and the Bay Bombers as the
home-team for the South and Southwest. The Red Devils and Eagles generally
served as visiting teams in all areas of the country.

Successful in the New York and Chicago areas but less so in other parts of
the country, what should have been yet another high point in Roller Derby’s
existence may have doomed it. The expense of keeping six teams on the road for
six months of the year created a situation in which income was not always
meeting overhead expenses.

The home season in the Bay Area was a less than stellar. The Eastern Season
that followed saw only two home teams, the Chiefs and Pioneers. The Jolters
and Bay Bombers served as visiting teams. The Eagles and Red Devils were
gone. Teams from the rival National Skating Derby sometimes served as the
visiting teams for the hometown Chiefs and Pioneers.

Competition for the entertainment dollar was fierce. In a stunning blow,
KTVU, the home station in the Roller Derby syndicated network, announced that
it would be canceling Roller Derby at the end of 1973 as part of a national
call to reduce violence on television. A national gas shortage made it
difficult for skaters and fans to get to games, resulting in the cancellation of
games that were needed for revenue.

Roller Derby had run its course. There were no new areas to take the game
to re-invent it. There were few bright new skating stars emerging to take the
place of the sport’s aging stars. The decision was made to cease
operations, shutting down the Roller Derby. The final game was skated at the Long
Island Arena in Commack, NY on December 8, 1973.

__Phil Berrier__

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