Roller derby: It's baaaaaaack

cnn.com ^ | Larry Smith

[shove_it]

Roller derby resurgence 2:01 Women across the country are suiting up for some excitement playing roller derby...

[shove_it]

cnn video

[shove_it]

p.s.

An ad comes first.

[Always Right]

I wonder what the attaction is...

[johnny7]

[n230099]

I don't know what it's evolved into. If it's like our main national contact sport "football" they've now got so many rules that lead to "fouls" they they cannot play without appearing silly.

If Roller Derby has the same affliction it won't be any fun to watch either. But....I remember watching it in the 50's and there was no faking what was going on. The skating skills were real and when you went down at 20 miles an hour it took a while to stop. These were some rough girls. Back then you didn't do it on the "gym" floor. There were special banked tracks for building speed. The interviews here seemed to indicate that the women were having fun.....Derby is not about fun....it's about getting out alive.

[TomGuy]

Joanie Weston and the Bay Bombers.

The original Roller Derby was rough.

Then Roller Games came into existence, and it was about as scripted as one of Hillary Clinton’s impromptu townhall question and answer sessions.

[Carl LaFong]

I seemed to me that there were only ever two teams—the LA Thunderbirds and the Bay Area Bombers.

[ErnBatavia]

"Whoa, Nellie!!"

[RGSpincich]

Charlie-O! Whuppin up on the bad guys.

[shove_it]

Yeah, yeah it’s not like the old days. But it does involve sweaty women in skimpy outfits on wheels salmmin’ into each other. Thats fine entertainment imo.

[TomGuy]

I seemed to me that there were only ever two teams—the LA Thunderbirds and the Bay Area Bombers.

IIRC, Roller Derby emerged in the 20s or 30s and continued into the 60s. It faltered and reformed with about 6 teams.

Roller Games came into existance, but it was more like pro wrestling -- for entertainment rather than gamesmanship. RG had 6-8 teams.

RD was losing ground and sort of merged with RG in the 70s.

The newly merged RG/RD still didn't gain much viewership.

A while later (90s) a female-only league emerged.

Wikipedia has a short history: Roller Derby.

[n230099]

"Thats fine entertainment imo."

Excellent point!

[catpuppy]

Joanie Weston and the Bay Bombers.

Charlie O'Connell, Ann Calvello, Bob (The Bald Eagle) Hein. Good times.

[ErnBatavia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Lane_%28TV_announcer%29

This thread brought back memories, because of announcer Dick Lane.

He was a fellow member, along with my Dad and a ton of others on California's Balboa Peninsula, of the "Goofoffers" - a group that'd get together informally at the Lido Diner and shoot the breeze.

They all had coffee mugs with their names - which reminds me I've got to try and find my father's as a memento; he joined Dick Lane in the celestial coffee klatch just over two months ago, and the mug would make a nice keepsake.

[Calvin Locke]

I saw an attempted come-back around 1990. The had a weird track, something like a figure-8 with a jump, iirc.

Didn't do anything for me, but they had Blondie as the half-time entertainment, trying to promote a song, so I stuck around.

[RangerM]

I don’t know, but I’d really prefer my pregnant, and very grumpy, wife could work out her aggression on someone else for a change.

Where do I sign her up?

[Roccus]

In the late 50’s I used to go to RD at the 14th St. Armory in NYC where the NY Chiefs skated.

[MarkL]

I wonder what the attaction is...

Mark

[finnigan2]

“I saw an attempted come-back around 1990. The had a weird track, something like a figure-8 with a jump.”

- I watched it a few times on TV. The rules seemed to call for some of the girls to act as blockers to prevent someone on the other team taking the lead while assisting someone on their own team to come first. My impression was that it was much like professional wrestling, made more interesting for the men in the audience in that it called for the girls to have “cat fights”.
There seemed to be a lot of pulled punches, theatrical landings, howls of pain and much spectacular flying over the railing, but I don’t ever remember anyone being seriously bloodied. And, like wrestling, I suspect the matches were scripted and the winners predetermined.

[the invisib1e hand]

oh, the liesurely, intellectually rewarding pursuits of the modern era.

What would Plato say?