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About this book
By 1950, roller skating had emerged as the number-one participatory sport in America. Ironically, the war years launched the Golden Age of Roller Skating. Soldiers serving overseas pleaded for skates along with their usual requests for cigarettes and letters from home. Stateside, skating uplifted morale and kept war factory workers exercising. By the end of the decade, five thousand rinks operated across the country. Its epicenter: Chicago! And no one was left behind! The Blink Bats, a group of Braille Center skaters, held their own at the huge Broadway Armory rink. Meanwhile, the Swank drew South Side crowds to its knee-action floor and stocked jukebox. Eighteen celebrated rinks are now gone, but rinks that remain honor the traditions of the sport's glory years. Author Tom Russo scoured newspaper archives and interviewed skaters of the roller capital's heyday to reveal the enduring legacy of Chicago's rink rats.
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Table of contents
- Front Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword, by Darius “D-Breez” Stroud
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I. The Golden Age of Roller Skating
- Part II. Rinks of the Golden Age, 1937–1959
- Part III. Chicago Rink Rats
- Part IV. They Kept the Home Fires Burning
- Part V. The Organizations of Roller Skating
- Part VI. How It Ends
- Conclusion
- Appendix A. Map of Chicago Roller Rinks, 1937–1959
- Appendix B. Chicago Roller Rinks: Skate Floor Dimensions
- Appendix C. A Roller Rink Poem
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- About the Author
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Yes, you can access Chicago Rink Rats by Tom Russo in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.