Ever since its resurging popularity in the 1960’s and 70’s, roller derby has been the subject or setting in various forms of media.
- In 1972, Raquel Welch starred in the feature film Kansas City Bomber. The dramatic quality is debatable, but the skaters’ low-cut skin-tight uniforms coupled with the pulling and grabbing of women on wheels certainly caught the viewers’ attention. Does anyone even remember that Jody Foster was in that one too?
- In 2005, A&E helped to spark a new popularity with its documentary, “Rollergirls,” tracking the revival of roller derby in Austin TX.
- Paramount Pictures and MTV Films are currently planning a comedy film (as yet untitled) about women's roller derby.
- But my favorite is a song called “Roller Derby Queen” – music and lyrics by Jim Croce, included in his 1974 album of greatest hits, Photographs and Memories. I love it!
Roller Derby Queen
By Jim Croce
Gonna tell you a story that you won’t believe
But I fell in love last friday evenin’
With a girl I saw on a bar room t.v. screen
Well I was just gettin’ ready to get my hat
When she caught my eye and I put it back
And I ordered myself a couple o’ more shots and beers
The night that I fell in love with a roller derby queen
Round and round, oh round and round
The meanest hunk o’ woman
That anybody ever seen
Down in the arena
She was five foot six and two fifteen
A bleached-blonde mama
With a streak of mean
She knew how to knuckle
And she knew how to scuffle and fight
And the roller derby program said
That she was built like a ’fridgerator with a head
Her fans call her Tuffy
But all her buddies called her Spike
You know that I fell in love with a roller derby queen
Round and round, oh round and round
The meanest hunk o’ woman
That anybody ever seen
Down in the arena
Round and round, go round and round
Round and round, go round and round
Round and round
Well I could not help it
But to fall in love
With this heavy-duty woman
I been speakin’ of
Things looked kind of bad
Until the day she skated into my life
Well she might be nasty
She might be fat
But I never met a person
Who would tell her that
She’s my big blonde bomber
My heavy handed hackensack mama
You know that I fell in love with a roller derby queen
Round and round, oh round and round
The meanest hunk o’ woman
That anybody ever seen
Down in the arena
Round and round, go round and round
Round and round, go round and round
Round and round
3 comments:
glad my post interested you. I was filming at a cabin that has a ghost story to it.
The more publicity roller derby gets, the more popular I am sure it will become.
I know my dad remembered it from back in the seventies (I think) he said he enjoyed it. Of course, any movie that features a sport that has women dressed like that would be popular among men (myself included).
The fact that the sport has been featured in film and music will no doubt be vital to the success of it. Look at the superbowl, and how many people view that. Surely some of the high viewer turnout has to be because of all the hype that surrounds it.
If the media does a good job of getting knowledge about the sport out there, then roller derby is bound to take off, as it apparently already has started to do.
God bless Jim Croce!
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