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Loretta (Continued)
My First Pay Check
It was 1950 and I was just a young skater and skating as often as I could at the training school, which was located at the 14th street armory in Manhattan. This was when and where I was chosen for a position on a professional Roller Derby team. My thoughts were so focused on the excitement, and my new position on the team that I could think about nothing else.
That first day on the team was nerve racking! I was so scared to talk to some of the other skaters that I just stayed to myself. When someone said, "Get out there kid," I jumped off the infield bench and joined the skaters in the pack. Then I just kept my ears open for someone to shout at me or tell me what to do. Being a clumsy type of skater, I tried to stay out of everyone's way until I was more relaxed and was able to stay in a pack for more then a few jams a game. Later on in that first game, I got cocky. I thought I knew everything and was pretty full of myself. Well, you already read what happened to me and you know that being cocky is not the way to get ahead in professional team sports!
After weeks of skating and doing what anyone asked of me, our unit manager stopped me on the way to the women's dressing room. He had an envelope in his hand for me. I took it wondering if it was a fan letter or a dismissal letter from my coach. I opened it and saw my first pay check. I was overjoyed! I had forgotten all the while that I was now a professional and would be paid for my skating. It just seemed so amazing to me that I was now getting money for what I really loved and enjoyed doing. I could hardly look at the money, because it was just unbelievable.
My Pay Schedule
I was paid every three weeks. I learned to budget well and tried not to spend all my pay in the first week because it had to last for three long weeks. I often wondered if the other skaters had the same pay problem, but no one ever spoke about their salary. It made me wonder if some people were paid differently or were given more money for special work like interviews, match races, etc. I never found out the answers to my questions, and I was always afraid to ask anyone.
When I told my dad about being given my first paycheck, he laughed and I'll never forget his words. "You will get paid peanuts and eat the glory," he said. As parents go, they didn't understand the love of the game, or the excitement of becoming a skater, and leaving home for the first time.
An Allowance and Perks
Because I was still young and learning, my pay was satisfactory to me, as we were also getting our room and board paid and traveling expenses as well. When we were on the road or skating regularly for 12 months out of each year, it seemed to me that they took care of us. When we traveled, there were arrangements made for us at a hotel. Sometimes in the early days, in some towns we lived in quarters. I remember being in quarters in the Orange Show Grounds in Florida, in the fair grounds in Milwaukee, and sometimes in the Chicago Coliseum. If the weather was too cold, we were put into the Carlton Hotel. It was right around the corner from the building at which we were skating.
During the winter it was so cold, and we had to walk to the Coliseum with our uniforms on for that day's work (game). After our game, we would walk back to our quarters for a good hot shower. It was just too cold in those big arenas, and they could not keep the locker and shower areas heated well.
In some towns a kitchen was set up in the buildings in which we skated. We had three meals a day, plus a midnight snack after a skating game, cooked by our traveling cook who was named Ma Prennie. Later, we had a wonderful lady called Rosie. We were like one big professional family at that time. Mealtime was a time that brought the skaters together. It was always a whole lot of fun, with all sorts of laughing and joking. All of us were trying very hard at the meal table to forget about the two hours of skating we had to do each day.
In Time Our Pay-Scale Improved
I felt like they (league management) really took care of almost all of our needs. Over the years as a professional female athlete on the road, our pay arrangements improved. After a while we were paid each week instead of every three weeks. In our weekly pay, they also gave us our extra allowance for the week. All of our hotel and travel bills were taken care of by the league and as long as you did not run up extra charges at the hotels all seemed wonderful in the world of the Roller Derby.
For American in the 1950's, we led some very progressive lifestyles. Most of American had not come to grips with what independent women and professional female athletes were all about. We were developing family-like ties with our fellow athletes, skating every day and on the road all the time. It was the start of a new breed of skater in America. Our fellow skaters were loved and hated by one another. When we found ourselves on the road for the holidays, we found great solace with one another because we missed our biological families so much. Life in the Roller Derby was an American dream that had come true for this young girl.