I didn’t realize that we lived so close to each other. I’m in the Louisville area.
I have a friend in Idaho who does roller derby. I’d be afraid to suggest to her that the sport is scripted.
Afterward, as you’re struggling to get up and she’s looming over you, she shouts, “WAS THAT SCRIPTED?!”
“Well, I was improvising on my end, but I’m not sure about you.”
We use to go to the armory in Tacoma and watch roller derby back in the 60’s. Had a chance to see it again a few years ago, the biggest change was the track. In the old days the track was banked and made from plywood. Now it’s flat and looks like half of a basketball court. All the competitors had fake names, some even changed them during the matches.
RIP Joanie Weston, the blonde bomber. She was always my favorite.
That’s the name I was trying to remember. Thanks!
(All my muddled brain could come up with was Jo Anne Worley.)
Perhaps not so muddled. Jo Anne Worley played a roller derby skater in that Disney comedy classic The Shaggy D.A., opposite Dean Jones, Suzanne Pleshette, and Tim Conway.
That should tell you something about how big roller derby was in the 70s, that Disney would incorporate it, however loosely, into one of those gimmicky live-action comedies that they were making in that era.
Well, that makes me feel a bit better…although I don’t think I’ve ever seen that movie!
The game show To Tell the Truth once had a roller derby star as a contestant sometime in the early 70s. I don’t remember her name, but she was big, mean-looking and blonde. As my brother remarked, “she looks like she could pick up a man and break him in half”.
That was the first time I’d ever heard of roller derby. I also remember that the two imposters were obviously that. The show’s producers probably didn’t have anyone in their Rolodex who looked the part.
ETA: she might very well have been Joanie Weston.
Here’s a brunette from '71.
Here’s another one from 1960.
I was a referee for the LA Derby Dolls for 7 years at the height of the last revival period. While the games were never scripted, there was more of an emphasis on camp, rowdy-ness and having fun in the early days (inspired by the Texas league who had the A&E show). I joined at the point the league decided to get serious about it as a sport and that required better officiating. Skaters used to be rowdy and sometimes hard living girls looking to have fun and work out some aggression. Then there was the transition to skaters who wanted a physical social activity. And finally the transition to athletes who treated it as an athletic compeition.
And the athletes wanted to win first and foremost and the games became…boring… When I started there was little strategy… Fast chaos! Every skater skated as fast they could…so the jammers (the players who can score by lapping opponents) were having to skate even faster. Jams (a 60 second period of play) would be low scoring. So the games were exciting since game were often very close. The lead could change on a single jam… and then as strategy came in… skaters didn’t skate as fast because they focused on blocking and getting their jammers through and stopping the opposing jammer from getting through and getting points…Jammers got faster and and 15 point jams were a big deal… then they became common…and then we got 20 point jams…
During this time the Whip It movie came out (a bunch of LA skaters are in the movie and its looosely based on the early days of LADD), and just about every network show did a derby episode (This was partially due to several people in the entertainment industry also being involved in the league.) So the public profile was pretty big.
Buuuuut…
The games got… sigh…If teams weren’t perfectly balanced…scores started becoming ridiculous. I remember the first time a team hit 100 points… our scoreboard didn’t go that high. There’d be games that the final score would be 144 to 30. That’s not fun for a crowd or really either team.
It hurt attendance.
I retired back in 2015, but I keep up with it. It’s settled into nice niche sports activity for girls and women (there are also men’s leagues out there for the curious). I don’t think there will be another big time revival.
I’ve been reading online. Sources said the change from ramped lanes to flat slowed down the skating.
But, flat lanes offers more places to host the games. They don’t have the construction of ramps.
The 1971 timeframe is certainly in the ballpark. But unless I’m experiencing the Mandela Effect, I’m pretty sure she was blonde.
Flat track is more egalatarian–you can set up a “track” anywhere so its more prevalent.
Banked track is a faster, dynamic game (don’t hate on me WFTDA-ers, it’s true) but requires space for a track and the means to store it if not in use.
Very similar styles but different games.
I was very lucky that during my tenure we mostly had a dedicated space so I only had to do track set-up a handful of times.
I’m not sure who WFTDAers are, but it’s simple physics that a banked track will enable higher speeds. It’ll also have an interesting penalizing effect on skaters who aren’t going fast enough.
One can, of course, debate whether faster = better, but the faster part is definite.
Did a Google, first result:
They would benefit from a catchier name.
It’s pronounced “Woofda” Which is fun and catchy.
Just because I’m wondering … how long does it take to set up a flat track? Or a banked track? How long is the teardown? How much space do you need to set up, and have an audience?
Like I said above, I used to work with a pro wrestling promotion, and helped set up and tear down the ring many times. We didn’t have a permanent venue, and we’d take the show to various locales in and around town, so every show was set up and torn down that night. It would take us between 20 and 30 minutes for each, but I’m thinking any kind of roller derby track would take longer, just because of the size.
The flat tracks I’ve seen required placing plastic cones around the inner and outer perimeters of the racing oval.
Based on some minimal information the banked tracks were set up pretty fast. Something like scaffolding sections made of wood and steel angle, and then something like a bowling alley track surface. Surely took longer to set up than a wrestling ring, but I got the impression the tracks sections would be stored at the old arenas that hosted Roller Derby and not typically moved from venue to venue like wrestling rings.
Flat, not long… tape measure, some tape (usually leagues will put some rope under the tape to provide a bump to skaters know when they exited the track boundaries).
For banked…
Depending on how many people you have to help and how good your crew is…a few hours. Here’s a sped up video of a track set up.
https://youtu.be/XcL1ITjELN0?si=_PIsenG0fTDYuTRn
And tear down…
https://youtu.be/tjn7BW1nxs8?si=45Ve-NDKdOZjlOG7
Space-wise, I don’t remember dimensions offhand, but you need a good amount of space.
For flat officially-
“Length
108 feet (32.92 meters) with a 10-foot (3.05-meter) Outer Officiating Lane
98 feet (29.87 meters) with a 5-foot (1.52 meter) Outer Officiating Lane
Width
75 feet (22.86 meters) with a 10-foot (3.05-meter) Outer Officiating Lane
65 feet (19.81 meters) with a 5-foot (1.52-meter) Outer Officiating Lane
NOTE: 5-foot (1.52-meter) Outer Officiating Lane only permitted with an acceptable barrier. Consult the WFTDA Risk Management Guidelines for details regarding acceptable barriers.”
Banked is close to that… but for the outside, while you do want a buffer zone, it is not necessarily for refs (there are sometimes 2 stationary outside refs) but for the audience. Crowds used to be able to be right up against the track and skaters do sometimes fly out of the track due to hits… so the buffer zone is there for someone doesn’t get a skate to the face. And then whatever amout of space you have left is for the crowd.