JOHNATHAN! JOHNATHAN! JOHNATHAN!:

Skating and Punching Their Way to Self-Esteem (ALESSANDRA STANLEY, 1/02/05, NY Times)

For a while, it seemed as if Roller Derby was a lost art, like illuminated manuscripts or clog dancing. Actually, it's more like polio: many people assume it was eradicated in the 1970's, but it's still around and, in some areas, quite virulent.

"Rollergirls," a documentary-style reality series about Texas Roller Derby that has its premiere tonight on A&E, is proof that the spectacle sport never went away entirely; it just drew less attention. There was a reason interest faded, and "Rollergirls" is also proof of that.

There is something creepily fascinating - and sometimes poignant - about the women who devote themselves to this campy, feline version of pro wrestling. They do have, after all, tattoos, slutty costumes and stage names like Jailbait and Gun Smoka LaLoca. It's just not enough to fill 13 episodes. One or two episodes could easily do justice to the sport's struggle for recognition and its players' quest for empowerment and self-esteem.

And that could be the one surprise in the series: that women who work as nurses and teachers are somehow most proud of themselves when they put on roller skates, helmets and vinyl corsets and punch the daylights out of one another.

They should have made a reality show out of the Rollerball simulations we had in our neighborhood in the Summer of '75. In the early '70s they still showed Roller Derby on TV in New York City and a team played out of Madison Square Garden. If I recall correctly, they showed it on Sunday Mornings, after Sunrise Semester, Davey & Goliath, & church, but before the Abbott & Costello movie.

MORE:
Roller Derby Revivin' (Lee Cowan, June 19, 2005, CBS)

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 1, 2006 11:59 PM