Item #6065 Roller Derby is NOW! [Press Folder]
Roller Derby is NOW! [Press Folder]
Roller Derby is NOW! [Press Folder]

Roller Derby is NOW! [Press Folder]

Oakland: Bay Promotions Inc., ca. 1971. Offset printed orange folder (9 ½ x 12 ½ in.) containing 10 photocopied single sheets and one photocopied 6 sheet packet (8 ½ x 11 in.) Very good; minor edge wear to folder, inside sheets clean. Item #6065

Folder containing promotional materials to advertise the official Roller Derby League of the early 1970s.

The folder, packed with promotional and educational materials about Roller Derby, was created to persuade the Northeast Conference of Division I athletics to begin competition of the sport. In the folder are press clippings covering existing roller derby teams and matches, television and film coverage of matches, as well as testimonials written to Jerry Seltzer, the owner of the original roller derby league, which was created by his father Leo Seltzer in 1935. The business card of Larry M. Sadoff of the Cincinnati Roller Derby Regional Office, is stapled to a pocket of the folder.

While the official league helmed by the Seltzers dissolved in 1973, this press packet indicates the national rise of the sport in the 1970s. Today, roller derby is played in over 1,000 amateur leagues across the world and is characterized by its camp, punk, and DIY aesthetics.

A strange document of the attempt to professionalize roller derby into a sport played by Division I college athletic teams.

Sold