This isn’t a clickbait article, it’s a Roller Derby sales brochure from 1964. I found a pdf on my hard drive dating back to 2010, and the meta data revealed it might hav come from someone named Benjamin Marcus, so I’ve sent an email asking for more info. The scans show hole punches for placing the pages in a binder. Unfortunately, it looks like some of the pages were cut at some point to fit in the binder. The middle section contents sometimes gets cropped.
UPDATE: Turns out I had lost correspondence with Ben Marcus before he published his book “The Good, the Rad, and the Gnarly” in 2011. The brochure was sent to him directly by the folks at Roller Derby, who believe they actually started selling skateboard in 1959, but the documentation is lost in time.
5 GREAT WAYS TO CASH IN ON THE RUNAWAY MARKET.
5 HOT Roller Derby SKATE BOARDS
Here’s the cover, featuring the iconic Model #10 skateboard.
Two page spreads.
The back page, getting back to the meat of their product line, roller skates.
“Pre-sold for you by ROLLER DERBY’S own saturation TV sales campaigns, coast to coast and in Hawaii. New markets added daily – see your ROLLER DERBY man.”
Here’s select individual pages in a larger size.
Here’s a page touting television commercials for Roller Derby skateboards! I’ve scoured the interwebs for these but haven’t found it online. Scott Starr (R.I.P. ) would have been the person to ask about this.
“The greatest name in Skate Products ROLLER DERBY presents another profit making first”
The illustration was used in other ads that weren’t targeted at retailers. The most interesting thing is that in 1964, a deluxe version of a skateboard was available with “plastic wheels.“ Plastic? Truly plastic, or some early form of urethane? All the non-steel wheels are labeled as plastic instead of the expected composite.
BIG NAME TIE-INS!
“Famous star Keenan Wynn shows one of Hollywood’s most glamorous beauties how to have fun on a Roller Derby Skate Board.”
If you look up Keenan you’ll see he was quite prolific. In 1964 he was in 3 movies, including Dr Strangelove, and Bikini Beach, which had some incidental skateboarding in it. The unnamed glamorous Hollywood beauty looks like she’s about to Wilson the minute Keenan lets go of her.
That’s it. Looks like I’ll have to track down those articles from Post and Seventeen magazine.
List of Roller Derby brand skateboards in this brochure.
- #10
- #15 Mustang
- #20 Deluxe
- #30 Surfari
- #40 Aerflyte
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