I see a young woman on regular roller skates being pulled by her dog who is on a leash. You see a lot of rollerbladers or inline skaters these days, but not so many on regular roller skates. Of course, I began to think about the history of roller skating. My only experience as a child was with clamp-on skates and a pillow tied on my behind in case I fell.
According to Wikipedia, roller skating has had a checkered past over its nearly three-century history. Given its ebb and flow of popularity over the past century, writers labeled each generation's attraction a "craze!" Describing the opening of a new roller rink, the caption in a 1904 Decatur, Illinois, newspaper read, "Old Craze Comes Back," adding, "Roller skating promises to be as popular as it was 20 years ago." In 1906, with the opening of another Chicago rink, the Inter Ocean newspaper complained that "after 20 years of exemption from the affliction the desire to roll is again taking possession of American adults...the mania has struck Chicago!"
Nearly 40 years later, Charlie Tyler would write, "This current roller skating 'craze' is nothing new." He wrote for Chicago's Herald-American in September 1941 and described the opening of the city's Madison Gardens Rink's 35th season on the eve of World War II. Tyler was referring to the first roller skate craze at the turn of the 20th century, when ball bearings revolutionized roller technology and roller skaters staged spectacle events and speed-skating marathons.
Below is a timeline of the history of roller skating.
1743: First recorded use of roller skates, in a London stage performance. The inventor of this skate is unknown.
1760: First recorded skate invention, by John Joseph Merlin, who created a primitive inline skate with small metal wheels. He was referred to by contemporaries as "The Ingenious Mechanic."
1818: Roller skates appeared on the ballet stage in Berlin when it was impossible have ice on a stage. The ballet called Der Maler oder die Wintervergn Ugungen: “The Artist or Winter Pleasures.” Ice skating was one of the winter pleasures simulated by roller skaters.
1819: First patented roller skate design, in France by M. Petitbled. These early skates were similar to today's inline skates, but they were not very maneuverable. It was difficult with these skates to do anything but move in a straight line and perhaps make wide sweeping turns.
1823: Robert John Tyers of London patented a skate called the Rolito. This skate had five wheels in a single row on the bottom of a shoe or boot.
1857: Finally, roller skating had gained enough momentum to warrant the opening of the first public skating rinks. The Strand, London and Floral Hall had these first roller rinks.
1863: The four-wheeled turning roller skate, or quad skate, with four wheels set in two side-by-side pairs (front and rear), was first designed, in New York City by James Leonard Plimpton in an attempt to improve upon previous designs. The skate contained a pivoting action using a rubber cushion that allowed the skater to skate a curve just by pressing his weight to one side or the other, most commonly by leaning to one side. It was a huge success, so much so that the first public roller skating rinks were opened in 1866, first in New York City by Plimpton in his furniture store and then in Newport, Rhode, Island with the support of Plimpton. The design of the quad skate allowed easier turns and maneuverability, and the quad skate came to dominate the industry for more than a century.
1884: Levant M. Richardson received a patent for the use of steel ball bearings in skate wheels to reduce friction, allowing skaters to increase speed with minimum effort.
1898: Richardson started the Richardson Ball Bearing and Skate Co., which provided skates to most professional skate racers of the time.
1902: The Chicago Coliseum opened a public skating rink. Over 7,000 people attended the opening night.
1935: The Chicago Coliseum hosts the first Transcontinental Roller Derby with a pair of men and women and Chicago becomes the birthplace of roller derby.
1937: Roller skating the sport was organized nationally by the Roller Skate Rink Owner's Association and the onset of roller skating's golden age. The reputation of roller skating was transformed into a sport for all adults to enjoy as recreation.
1938: Dancing on roller skates became popular and spread from the east to the west coast. National competitions were established for speed skating, skate dancing and figure skating.
1955: Gene Kelly roller skates as part of a dance routine in "It's Always Fair Weather."
1972: Raquel Welch stars as a roller derby skater in "Kansas City Bombers."
1977: Inline skates looking like ice skates were used by DEFA — the East German state film studio — in the film "Die zertanzten Schuhe," based on the fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses, in some winter scenes on a frozen lake.
1979: Scott Olson and Brennan Olson of Minneapolis, Minnesota came across a pair of inline skates created in the 1960s by the Chicago Roller Skate Co. and, seeing the potential for off-ice hockey training, set about redesigning the skates using modern materials and attaching ice hockey boots. A few years later Scott Olson began heavily promoting the skates and launched the company Rollerblade Inc.
1980: "Heaven's Gate," with Kris Kristofferson and Christopher Walken, set in 1890s Wyoming, features a scene in an early roller-skating rink.
1984: Starlight Express, a musical written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, opened on London's West End. The cast performs on quad skates.
2008: MTV's America's Best Dance Crew watches Breaksk8, a group of hip hop dancers on roller skates.
2018: United Skates, a documentary about roller skating in the United States.
Comments