Transcontinental Roller Derby admission ticket
Collection — Folder: S3385
Identifier: S3385
Scope and Contents
This collection includes one printed ticket for the Transcontinental Roller Derby event on the Indiana State Fairground in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 5, 1937.
Dates
- 1937/10/05
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Legal title, copyright, and literary rights reside with Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN. All requests to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to Rare Books and Manuscripts.
Biographical Note
A struggling film publicist in the 1930s, Leo Seltzer was doing research on ways to make money by entertaining outside of the film industry. He landed on roller skating as he had found out via Reader’s Digest that at that time, 93 percent of Americans had tried roller skating in their lives and he wanted to capitalize upon that. His idea was to combine the idea of long marathon bike races just using roller skates as opposed to bikes, and then having teams compete on wooden banked ovals to see how far they could go and how quickly. The idea for his Transcontinental Roller Derby in 1935 was for the participants to skate the distance from New York to Los Angeles and the initial event lasted for more than a month. It started with 25 two-person, male-female teams to cover the 3,000 miles, but due to injury and exhaustion, 16 teams failed to finish. After the initial event for a month in Chicago, Seltzer took his show on the road with a portable $20,000 track which would gather crowds in the thousands. The elbowing and whipping that is commonly thought to occur during these races wasn’t added to play until the late 1930s, as Seltzer had wanted to keep his sport legitimate, but the crowds loved the action and he agreed to the change. Roller skating and roller derby have seen many rise-and-fall cycles since the 1930s in terms of popularity, but the event remains a popular niche sport.
Sources:
Wikipedia. "Leo Seltzer." Wikipedia.org. Accessed February 5, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Seltzer.
Sources:
Wikipedia. "Leo Seltzer." Wikipedia.org. Accessed February 5, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Seltzer.
Extent
0.01 Cubic Feet (1 folder)
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
This collection consists of only one item.
Custodial History
This collection was received by Rare Books and Manuscripts as a donation.
Accruals
No further additions are expected.
Processing Information
Collection processing competed 2024/02/01 by A.J. Chrapliwy. EAD finding aid created 2024/02/05 by A.J. Chrapliwy.
- Title
- Transcontinental Roller Derby admission ticket
- Status
- Completed
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Repository
Contact:
140 North Senate Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 U.S.A.
317-232-3671
140 North Senate Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 U.S.A.
317-232-3671
