Roller Derby Kids

Growing up as a child of Roller Derby parents

Roller derby was born on Aug. 13, 1935, at the Chicago Coliseum. The story goes that Leo Seltzer, an event promoter who had cut his teeth on walkathons, was looking for something a little more exciting to draw Depression-era crowds. After reading in a magazine that more than 90 percent of Americans had roller-skated at some point in their lives, he decided to put his show on wheels.

Twenty-thousand people came out for the first Transcontinental Derby to watch two-person teams, each consisting of a man and a woman, skate 57,000 laps around a flat track, Keith Coppage writes in “Roller Derby to RollerJam: The Authorized Story of an Unauthorized Sport.” Small lights on a large map tracked the skaters’ progress as they took turns whizzing around the ring, their mileage blinking along the route from New York to San Diego. The first team to complete the roughly 2,700 miles from coast to coast was declared the winner. On average, a single marathon took more than three weeks.

I am a child of Roller Derby. My Father, Hank Goldberg skated, my Mother Barbara sold tickets, they bumped, I dropped. :)

There are many other children of Roller Derby parents, including some like Mike Gammon, who himself became a skater.

This film will explore what it was like growing up as a Roller Derby Kid.

 

 

It is being announced today, August 13th, 2022 as this is the anniversary of the formation of Roller Derby.

I'll be adding more photos and videos to this page soon.

 

In the meantime check out my other films:

I have conceived of, and written a lot of documentary films, sometimes as many as three a week.  This is in addition to the many other commercial, narrative and TV series work I do.

I've also written several narrative films and a few TV series, but they can't be discussed here.

Interested in picking up one or more of these properties? Mark

The Documentary Factory which is a division of AVS Production Company has many films which are either in production or pre-production. They are:

Life Is EL - Living and working under and around the elevated train tracks in New York City (In Production)

Step Streets - Where did the Street go? (In Production)

Education In Smithtown - Lots of pencils, lots of books, and we loved our teacher's dirty looks (In Production)

Sake in America - The love for and growth of what used to be a Japanese exclusive drink in America (In Production)

Scams Are Us - You have it, we'll take it (In Production)

In Search of Whale Vomit - It'll help you smell better (Pre-Production)

Oh Deer - How we live with our forested friends (In Production)

Life Before Twitter - The history of the digital era (In Production)

Volunteers Of America - Without Volunteers, we would all be in trouble (Pre-Production)

Legendary Smithtown - How a man named Smith settled in for the long ride after a short ride (In Production)

Tea For Two Billion - Our love for the second most consumed beverage in the World (Pre-Production)

The Life Of Death - Who's there at the end (Pre-Production)

Smart Phone, Stupid People - Your phone is getting smarter, but you are getting stupider (Pre-Production)

1 Dollar For You - Yes, you can still get things in NYC for only $1 including great Pizza! (Pre-Production)

The Deadliest Sport - Is Gymnastics the deadliest sport? (Pre-Production)

50 Years of Planting Trees - The history of Earth Day and the related movements (In Production)

The Trees of NYC - Did you know there are over 692,892 trees in NYC? (In Production)

Can It - What's with all that metal around my stuff? (Pre-Production)

Sprout Poop  -  The care, feeding and love for Sprouts and the World's greatest Virtual Air Band (Pre-Production)

Whatever It Takes To Get The Shot - Ken Regan did whatever it took to get the shot (Pre-Production)

It Takes a Second - It can take a second to change your life (Pre-Production)

Drummers - The history of drumming from 5500 B.C. to today (Pre-Production)

Gridded City - Why cities around the World are laid out in grids (Pre-Production)

Blocks of Glass - Why glass blocks are all the rage in construction (Pre-Production)

New York City Subway Art - There are over 342 permanent works of art in the system (Pre-Production)

Roller Derby Kids - Growing up as a child of Roller Derby parents (Pre-Production)

Bill Graham's Gift - He provided us with decades of great music (Pre-Production)

Sous Vide - Is this the best cooking technique? (In Production)

Too Old to Rock and Report, Too Young to Retire - Ageism and discrimination in the news media (Pre-Production)

Garden Bay Manor - One of the most serene neighborhoods in NYC with a rich history (Pre-Production)

It's Still a Long Strange Trip - The Psychedelic Culture still exists (Pre-Production)

Are you hiring? - The second most asked question of a record store owner or manager (In Production)