1.Growth of the Sport

Roller skating, one of America's primary mass participant sports, has traveled a long and sometimes hard road since the day two centuries ago when an anonymous Dutchman first attempted to transfer skating from ice to ground. The Netherlands ice-skating enthusiast, who could scarcely wait for the canals to freeze over each winter, nailed some large wooden spools to wood strips which he attached to his shoes, and went bumping along his merry way. Apparently his crude attempts at "ground skating" were not too successful, for nothing more was heard of a substitute for ice skating until mid-eighteenth century.

Then an ingenious Belgian mechanic and musical instrument maker, named Joseph Merlin, devised a pair of skates which ran on small metallic wheels. In London, where he had moved to become director of several museums, he fascinated the local gentry at a Soho Square party with his skates. However, he could neither turn nor stop his forward progress on skates and dashed himself against a huge mirror at a fashionable masquer­ade party while skating and playing the violin. According to a contempo­rary account, "He impelled himself against a mirror of more than £500 value (approximately $1,300 at today's exchange rate), dashed it to atoms, broke his instrument to pieces, and wounded himself most severely.

After this disastrous occurrence in 1760, roller skating disappeared from public notice until after the French Revolution. Then, as France was gripped by the reign of terror following the overthrow of the monarchy, a Parisian diemaker named Vanlede invented a wheeled skate in 1790. His device, called the "patin-a-terre," or ground skate, became known in Germany, but roller skating again disappeared from public attention until its reappearance on a Berlin ballet stage in 1818. The following year, roller skates were used on the streets of Paris, and several varieties of wheels attached to boots and shoes were invented and used in various entertain­ments and exhibitions. None of these, however, caught the public fancy. The two to four rollers on these devices did not permit the user to travel in anything but a straight line.

Strangely enough, roller skating enjoyed the greatest public acclaim since its inception nearly a century before, in 1849, at the Paris Opera House. Al­most overnight, roller skating slid into a starring role in a famous opera and a ballet, both of which were sensational successes—artistically and financially. The opera, which gave roller skating its greatest dignity and catapulted it into international fancy as a pastime, was Meyerbeer's "Le Prophete" (The Prophet), with its third-act ice-skating scene.

In those days, synthetic ice was unknown and real ice could not be successfully transferred indoors and kept fit for skating. A Paris machinist solved the problem of simulating ice skating on a wooden stage floor by developing a fairly practical skate running on iron wheels. For male mem­bers of the cast, he made a skate with two wheels in a straight line. Female members wore skates with four wheels each, not in a straight line but coupled front and rear for a broad-bearing surface. Shortly after the opera's successful premiere, "Prophete Skates" became the rage of Paris and were widely used on the asphalt streets and marble or parquet floors.

The success of the opera and of skating spread quickly to London. Similar success followed the Paris premiere of an entire ballet devoted to skating. This was Paul Taglioni's "Le Plaisirs de l'Hiver, ou Les Patineurs" (The Pleasures of Winter, or The Skaters). The ballet brought bravos from critics in both France and Germany and took London by storm, giving roller skating a stimulus it had never before known. The popularity of the skating scenes in these two productions was so great that London impresarios opened public skating rinks in 1857 at Covent Garden and in the Strand. Three years later, skating made its public debut in Australia in a variety show. However, despite the growing popularity of off-the-ice skating, most of the turns and graceful figures which gave ice skating its popularity were impossible with wheeled skates.

THE FIRST  ROLLER-SKATING BOOM

Roller skating really came into its own as a practical year-round pastime with the American invention of a skate that would perform as well as any­thing on runners. This was the "rocking skate," invented and patented in 1863 by James Leonard Plimpton of Massachusetts and New York. Plimpton, called the Father of Modern Roller Skating, devised a skate that did not have to be forced into a curve by brute strength but which could be gently guided at the skater's will by leaning foot or body to one side or the other. Plimpton's skate had two sets of parallel wheels, one pair under the ball of the foot and one under the heel, arranged so that when the skater pressed or leaned to one side of his foot, the two wheels on that side came closer together while the opposite set moved farther apart. This caused the skate to move on a curved line while the wheels remained squarely on the surface of the floor. The invention of a roller skate, after more than a century of trial and error, which would perform as well as an ice skate, touched off a world-wide boom in roller skating and brought Plimpton international acclaim.

Plimpton built a $100,000 roller rink in New York and organized the New York Roller Skating Association, which promoted the increasingly popular recreation and sport among society's bluebloods at fashionable Newport, Rhode Island, with a summer rink. He did his best to bring roller skating to the attention of the "educated and refined classes" through­out the country and also attracted the attention of European nobility with his Newport rink.

Plimpton's skate, superior to any which had been introduced before, brought him fame and fortune—and also their accompanying headaches. Scores of inventors rushed to leap on the bandwagon with similar types of skates and took out 60 English patents and 45 in other countries, in attempts to equal the working qualities of the Plimpton skate. Plimpton claimed that most of these infringed on his patent and instituted a lawsuit. In 1878 he won a decision which compelled the infringers to make a settle­ment with him. The law held that the skates had to be bought from Plimpton's company, with the concession of the exclusive right to use them in a rink within a designated area.

Then entertainment and sports entrepreneurs began building rinks throughout America, England, Europe, and Australia. Roller skating be­came a national craze in England, and the favorite pastime of all classes of society. Even the famous British humor magazine Punchtook notice of the avid "rinkers." Then, a few years later, roller skating's popularity be­gan to fade. This was partly due to the fact that many rinks were mis­managed and improperly regulated—and partly due to boredom, once a skater had attained the peak of proficiency. Once the rink patron had learned to skate, all he could do was rattle endlessly around and around the rink. Figure or partner skating was almost impossible because rinks were not large enough. Also, many managers of rinks discouraged this form of skating because it interfered with the more profitable crowd of skaters, all traveling around and around in one direction. There were no games, no competitions, no planned programs to keep the skaters' interest alive. Skating was just going around in circles and getting nowhere.

Plimpton, more foresighted than many rink operators, had already seen the necessity for encouragement of figure skating, and he established an award of merit which entitled the winner to admission to all rinks controlled by his firm. In 1879, the National Skating Association of Great Britain was formed to promote, regulate, and reward speed and figure skating and hockey. Also, as the first big boom of roller skating began to wane, there was a definite attempt to achieve proper management and regulation of public rinks, but the impetus for a renewed skating craze took some time and more than just a change in policy.

THE  SKATING  RENAISSANCE

When the next renaissance of roller skating did come—in the 1880's—it was credited mainly to mechanical improvement of the skates themselves. The introduction of ball-bearing skates caused a second surge of skating popularity which lasted well into the Gay Nineties, when bicycling became the rage of the gaslight age. Before this second roller-skating boom faded in the '90's, rink operators were hiring professional instructors, presenting skating exhibitions, and encouraging figure skating. In larger cities, they were building new and bigger rinks.

Music in those days was furnished by such sterling organizations as National Guard Regimental bands. A Chicago newspaper description of the Casino Rink, which stocked 1,500 skates, noted:

The music is furnished by the band of the First Regiment of the Illinois National Guard, directed by Professor Austin, a cornetist of no mean note, and whose excellent qualities include his adaptability. He is immensely popular there, and his music is never mo­notonous.

It was just before the turn of the century also that roller polo became popular, with polo clubs from several large cities forming a national league at Dayton, Ohio.

Roller racing also made its appearance before this time, but most races appear to have been between professional skaters. The New York Clipperof March 14, 1884, gave prominent play to an account of a six-day roller race at the old Madison Square Garden in which the winner, a fleet-footed Irishman named Donovan, skated a total of 1,091 miles.

However, despite all this encouragement to roller skating, it languished and lapsed with the advent of the bicycle craze. Harper's Weeklyprinted a fitting epitaph with which to conclude this proud period of the popularity of roller skating. This erudite magazine simply quoted a gravestone inscrip­tion of the period, which noted:

Our Jane has climbed the golden stair, And passed the jasper gates; Henceforth she will have wings to wear, Instead of roller skates.

ANOTHER  ROLLER-SKATING  BOOM

However, roller skating did not lie dormant for long. Scarcely had the twentieth century started when the rumble of a third boom in roller skating echoed across the land. In 1902, a crowd of more than 7,000 people attended the opening of the Chicago Coliseum as a public skating rink. The follow­ing summer saw the old Madison Square Garden in New York converted to a roller rink. Grand Central Plaza also opened, one which attracted thousands. Broadway producers, taking note of the ever-increasing popularity of roller skating, followed earlier entrepreneurs of opera, ballet, and vaudeville by staging a musical comedy in which chorus girls cut cute capers on roller skates equipped with rubber-tired wheels. So great was the popularity of roller skating during this period that Washington, D.C., businessmen often skated to their offices, and in 1909-1910 hundreds of new roller rinks opened all over England.

Speed skating became very popular at this time, and exhibitions of fancy, novelty, and trick skating nourished both here and abroad until an assassin's bullet at Sarajevo plunged the world into World War I. Novel­ties such as acrobatic and comedy skating, stilts skating, spinning, chair and barrel jumping, and fancy dance skating by couples became popular and captivated American and European audiences alike. To keep roller skating in the public eye, rink operators resorted to the P. T. Barnum type of publicity and promotions, such as public weddings on skates, attended by thousands.

Although World War I did not immediately affect roller skating's popularity, as the conflict dragged on, governments began to requisition large buildings, such as rinks, which had large unobstructed floor areas. This, coupled with rapidly rising rents and supply costs, made it difficult for many rinks to continue successful operation, and some were forced to close. The postwar ascendancy of ballroom dancing, movies, and motoring also made inroads on the popularity of roller skating during the years immediately following the Armistice, although occasional, well-publicized events kept the public interested in the sport, then and in later years.

One of these events was a six-day roller race held in Madison Square Garden, June 10-16, 1929. Others included a series of annual roller-skating derbies started by the New York Daily News Athletic Association in 1933. The Daily News derbies drew hundreds of amateur skaters from the metropolitan area to compete in the races on Central Park's Center Drive, and drew crowds totaling as many as 50,000 spectators. Similar races were held in other large cities during the 1930's.

In the latter part of the decade of the Great Depression, dancing on wheels began to become popular with the skating public and gave roller rinks another boost. As in earlier times, people began to tire of passive recreation and sought something in which they could participate. Roller-skating rinks provided an answer to an afternoon or evening of enjoyment and exercise at a minimum cost.

THE  EFFECT  OF  THE  RSROA

In 1937 a group of roller-rink operators determined to band together and make a serious attempt to elevate the sport's standards and management. Several amateur competitions were fostered. On April 3, 1937, seventeen operators met at Detroit and organized the Roller Skating Rink Operators Association of the United States, popularly referred to as the RSROA. It set up as its main objective the advancement of amateur roller skating.

Perry B. Rawson, a retired New York broker and amateur ice skater, who had thoroughly studied International Style figure and dance skating, visited England in 1937 and saw for himself what had been accomplished on rollers in that country. When he returned to America, Rawson brought back motion picture films showing that the International Style, which was prevalent on ice, was possible on rollers. The films showed British cham­pions doing school figures, free style, and dancing on roller skates. The exhibition of these films in many rinks throughout the United States aroused great enthusiasm. In October of 1938, James and Joan Lindstone, the British champions, came to the United States and toured the country, giving exhibitions at many of the leading rinks. Their spellbinding act greatly impressed American skaters, and from that point the International Style came into its own in the United States.

The first national meet to be sanctioned by the RSROA was the speed-skating championships held at the Sefferino Rollerdrome at Cincinnati in 1938. In the following year, the RSROA held its first national figure- and dance-skating championships, the figure-skating events being held at the Arena Gardens Rink in Detroit, and the skate-dancing competitions at the Mineola Skating Rink, Mineola, New York.

In 1940, figure-, dance-, and speed-skating championships were combined, and an all-inclusive national championship meet was held at the Cleveland Public Auditorium. The four-day meet catered to almost five hundred amateur skaters participating in all the classes of the three branches of the sport. The meet was so successful that the membership of the RSROA decided to hold the National Championships at the same auditorium in 1941, when for four days, once again, the big auditorium was filled with amateur skaters. There were many more competitors than in the previous year, and ages ranged from six to thirty-six, all competing in dancing, figures, and racing for national titles.

At this time the RSROA founded an annual professional school where the country's leading instructors could get together in a group, exchange information, and agree on the standardization of skating and teaching procedure. It established rules and regulations for the game of roller hockey and for the organization of amateur roller hockey teams and leagues. It arranged a series of graded proficiency tests for dance, figure, and speed skating, for which bronze, silver, and gold medals were awarded.

Meanwhile, roller skating had been publicized in three motion picture short subjects, had been included in two feature films, and had been the subject of many magazine articles and at least one full-length novel. Books were published, containing the various rules, regulations, tests, and amateur competitions for all branches of the sport. The first regularly scheduled newspaper column  devoted exclusively to roller  skating started  in  the New York Journal-Americanin 1940. Shortly after, the Journal-Americanarranged the first roller TV show over CBS, and on May 8, 1941, the news­paper sponsored the first roller carnival in Madison Square Garden. Early in 1942 the Roller Skating Vanities (later Skating Vanities) became the first professional roller extravaganza and was the first to make a nation-wide tour. In 1942 a group of amateurs applied to the Amateur Athletic Union and received a charter to govern AAU registered amateurs. The RSROA re­signed from the AAU and sponsored an amateur group known as the United States Federation of Amateur Roller Skaters of America (USFARSA). A rival group of rink operators formed the United Rink Operators (URO) which sponsored the AAU affiliate, the Amateur Roller Skating Association (ARSA).

ROLLER  SKATING SINCE  WORLD  WAR II

Despite its obvious contribution to America's physical fitness, roller skat­ing was hard hit by World War II—hard hit both as a sport and as a business! Gasoline rationing, which made travel for amusement purposes unpatriotic and virtually impossible, took a heavy toll, and rinks not near public transportation suffered greatly or closed down completely. There were shortages, too, to complicate the picture—shortages of skates, parts, and boots. Whenever possible, rinks joined the war effort, running benefits for Army-Navy Relief, the Red Cross, the USO, and for other organizations. A few converted to defense plants.

Despite all the difficulties of transportation, shortages, and manpower, 1944 saw the RSROA stage a Madison Square Garden extravaganza—the first since the New York Journal-American'sin 1941—for the March of Dimes. A cast of five hundred skaters in brilliant costumes performed. Similar benefits for the same worthy charity were presented in 1945 and 1946, with casts increasing to more than nine hundred skaters.

The year 1947 saw the roller spotlight swing to international competition. For the first World Roller Skating Congress Championships, which followed the RSROA Nationals at Oakland, California, foreign talent came from as far away as New Zealand. The United States sweep of five events (men's figures, men's speed, ladies' figures, ladies' speed, and pairs) indicated that the visitors from Canada, Great Britain, and New Zealand were longer on enthusiasm than on skill. But they learned much and were on their way to future equality with the Yanks. In December of 1947, champions from four countries came to the National Arena, Washington, D.C., to skate against U.S. Amateur Roller Skating Association standard-bearers in the Federation Internationale de Patinage a Roulettes, the second world meet to be held in the United States.

In 1948, amateur roller-skating revues were occasional TV fare, and the Roller Derby, which had gone through ups and downs for more than a decade, was taking the nation by storm. Both TV and newspapers played important roles in the Derby's almost unbelievable rise to popularity. During 1949, when shortages had more or less ended, roller enthusiasts were encouraged by the building of plush new rinks and costly remodeling jobs. In New York City, the Journal-Americaninaugurated what was to become an annual event, its "Winged Skates Derby." For the debut edi­tion, more than 10,000 boys and girls answered the paper's call to compete in eliminations at five hundred parks and playgrounds. Finals were held on Columbus Day on Central Park's famed Mall.

During 1950, American movie-goers were seeing Mickey Rooney and Pat O'Brien in "Fireball," a movie built around the Roller Derby; wrestling promoter Bill Johnston, Jr., brought professional roller hockey into New York's St. Nicholas and Jamaica Arenas; and orchestra leader Guy Lom-bardo recorded "The Roller Skating Song." On opening night, the Roller Derby World Series lured 16,234 customers to Madison Square Garden, and the New York Daily Newsfilled the same sports palace for an amateur carnival.

In 1951, roller skating invaded New York's swank Stork Club when the Journal-Americanconducted finals of its annual Skate Queen contest at a rendezvous of society. Eliminations at ten rinks had drawn more than 3,500 pretty girl contestants. During the same year, the RSROA effected a radical change in competitive skating, completely separating figures and free style into two distinct events.

Skating Vanities, after touring this country and Europe as the roller sport's professional answer to Ice Capades and Ice Follies for more than a decade, merged with famous comedians Olsen and Johnson for the 1952— 1953 season. The combined company of skaters totaled two hundred. A year later, the show became "Hippodrome of 1954" with roller skating sharing the spotlight with "Dancing Waters," water ballet, vaudeville, and circus acts.

In 1958, 250,000 girl scouts passed a roller-skating Merit Badge Test, making it second in popularity behind the swimming badge. Roller skating has matured. It is now a major participant sport. Yes, roller skating is here to stay!

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