International Sport Sensation! Roller Derby Souvenir Program.

Sydney: Publicity Press, 1955. Paperback small quarto, fair condition, stapled pamphlet, paper covers, black & white text photos & drawings, advertisements, pages & edges lightly toned, foxing edges, spine edges little rubbed, edgewear covers, creases pages & covers, spine creased, bottom corner front cover creased, closed tears fore-edge front cover, staples rusted, covers little faded & marked. 16 pp. This pamphlet is about the Roller Derby 1955 season Australia vs. America. The Australian and American team names are both listed. There are photos, adverts and a few cartoons that will interest anyone wanting to learn about this sport and a brief history of it. The Roller Derby was created in 1935 in Chicago, Illinois, on a tablecloth in Rickett's restaurant in the northside of Chicago. Leo Seltzer, a young West coast promoter had just bought the Chicago Coliseum and needed an attraction that would bring the crowds to his building. The first night of the Roller Derby, was August 13, 1935, and the game was a test of endurance, more than just team play, as teams of two skaters joined together to race against time and distance in a cross country race. By 1941 close to 4 million people turned up to watch the wheelers in 20 mid-west cities. Since then, Roller Derby hit New York ad an overnight sensation and has since spread to all corners of the earth. (Unnumbered pages.).