Roller Derby Chronicles
October 27th, 2009From the Executive Producer of Rolling Thunder – Jonathan Gross
This project actually started with another piece of sports nostalgia, WHA Chronicles boxed set of a couple of years back that featured a documentary-esque look at the old hockey league with interviews with the likes of Bobby Hull and Wayne Gretzky. Further, one of the rare games in the set game from Golden Sports in Niagara Falls, New York and its fearless founder Steven Bass, the renowned Roller Derby archivist who has hours and hours of footage. Having been a Derby fan going back to 1966, I though I’d revisit another passion of a misspent youth and so the adventure began as Rolling Thunder, named after the unique sound the old wooden wheels made on masonite, set up shop in San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York and LA to get the interviews and action footage we needed to make Rolling Thunder work. We then negotiated with Sports Illustrated and several other sources while editing the doc and cobbling together the DVD in time (a little late) for the release of Fox’s Whip It, a chick flick that is set in the post punk world of women’s derby, a kind of distant cousin to the action contained in the Chronicles. Nonetheless, anyone who loves or loved or would live to love Roller Derby has got a virtual salad bar of tastes in this boxed set. What did I learn? Roller Derby wasn’t as fake as people thought and the athletes who were fortunate enough to wear the hallowed colors of the Bombers, Chiefs, Pioneers and others understood how fortunate they were to have had the experience. As are we.
Besides my email(left here since it doesn’t list a direct contact email for you); please holler back.
I’ve covered wrestling(and secondarily boxing, MMA and derby from ‘66 to current). I’ll see if I can bug Bryan Alvarez for your direct email.
Thanks, MIke(I’m in Oakland, CA at 510.865.6744)
I was hesitant how our game would be treated, but I was blown away by “Rolling Thunder”. It captured not only Roller Derby, but the eras from the 30’s to the 70′ of America and our participants. My father Leo Seltzer who created the sport and never felt it got the respect it deserved would have loved the whole boxed set. Whether you know Roller Derby or not, this will provide hours of great entertainment.
“Jerry – I had mine preordered from the Canadian website and received it in
October. It’s fantastic! I thoroughly enjoyed all of it. The documentary
“Rolling Thunder” is very well done and I loved watching the old games too! “
“So far I’m loving the boxed set.”
“It was a great evening and I was glad that I could be a part of it. I enjoyed
meeting with old friends. Thanks”
just had to write and say I received the Roller Derby Chronicles for
Christmas, and it was wonderful to see all the action from back in the day, not
to mention seeing you too! Thank you for helping keep derby alive!”