(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Washington State History Museum: Roller Rinks, Roller Disco (photo diary) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-03-04 The Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, Washington had a special exhibit on roller skates. The first recorded history of roller skates was in Belgium in 1759. Joseph Merlin, a musical instrument maker, fashioned skates with two inline wheels on shoes. The design was based on ice skates. Merlin made this first set of roller skates for a costume party: he wanted to make a spectacular entrance rolling into the party while playing a violin. While this was a great idea, he had failed to consider the need for stopped and crashed into a full-length mirror. In the mid-nineteenth-century, roller skates continued to be associated with music: an opera by Giacoma Meyerbeer included an ice-skating scene which was performed on improvised roller skate and a ballet composed and choreographed by Paul Taglioni included an ice-skating episode performed with roller skates. By the 1880s, roller skating was a popular pastime with mass produced skates and roller rinks. When the rinks added music, roller dancing became popular with the roller two-step and the roller waltz as popular dances. The era following World War II saw a boom in roller rinks and from the 1950s through the 1980s, it was common for American children to have a roller skating birthday party. In the 1970s, the disco craze hit roller rinks and roller discos became the new fad. In his book Panati’s Parade of Fads, Follies, and Manias, Charles Panati writes: “The faddish marriage between disco dancing and roller skating, the latter a popular Seventies pastime in its own right, took place in rinks in Brooklyn and the Bronx late in the decade. By 1979 the Roller Skating Rink Operators Association of America reported that at least 70 percent of its member rinks were equipped for roller disco—an expensive conversion in terms of lights and loudspeakers, but one essential to survival.” With the end of the Disco Era, many roller rinks closed down. Shown below are some of the displays from the roller rink era in the Washington State History Museum. Most roller rinks also rented roller skates. Shown above is an inline rental skate from about 1990-1999. Shown above is a roller skate from 1982. Shown above is a Sonia Henie Ice Skating Doll from about 1939. More Washington State History Museum exhibits Washington State History Museum: Roller skates (photo diary) Washington State History Museum: Roller Derby (photo diary) Washington State History Museum: Model railroad (photo diary) Museums 101: The Little Black Dress (photo diary) Museums 101: Farming and Fishing (Photo Diary) Museums 101: Grand Coulee Dam Museums 101: World War I Ship Building (Photo Diary) Museums 101: Washington Frontier Towns (Photo Diary) [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/4/2226854/-Washington-State-History-Museum-Roller-Rinks-Roller-Disco-photo-diary?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/