When Roller Derby “hit it big” in the US in the late 40’s and early fifties composer Leonard Whitcup wrote a ditty that had the above first line.  To hear the song, go to you tube, seek Mike Gammon Roller Derby, and you will see a ten-minute video of Roller Derby in the early days until the early 70s, and of course you will hear this catchy tune.

Once Roller Derby became popular on the ABC network (serving 13 cities at that time; almost no TV sets in homes, people watched in bars or at windows in front of radio stores), my father received offers from all over to promote this amazing attraction, and the one that intrigued him the most was to bring it to London and Paris.  So in 1953 they picked two teams of all stars, put a track and the skaters on a ship and off…