RHYTHM ON WHEELS

[Music] so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] rhythm on wheels well this isn't exactly rhythm but they're on wheels and you have to learn the fine points of skating sometime or else you miss a lot of fun because roller skating is big stuff today kids with elementary old-fashioned iron clads like these are ready to follow in the fast flying footsteps of the professional hockey stars and although the surface of the rink isn't slick and cold it's slippery and so it goes in every city in every town and village youngsters are picking up the rudiments of roller skating and street games like this teach them agility make them feel at home on the whirling circles prepare them for the big moment when they'll don a pair of fancy modern skates and really be able to demonstrate rhythm on wheels when that moment comes chances are they'll be heading like this mob toward one of the many big indoor rinks that in recent years have put in appearances all over the country a new kind of community center where athletic exercise and music go hand in hand here is sidewalk roller skating grown up the click and whirr of rollers blending with the music of a swing band yes here's a kind of folk dancing that's typically american fun to try and fun to watch the modern rink keeps a large supply of skates on hand not every patron owns her own this type of clap skate is nicknamed the chopper no steel rollers on these you use a specially constructed job with composition or wood wheels which have precision ball bearings the skates on these shoes are much lighter in weight than the common off pavement variety do you know a pair of these precision skates on custom-made shoes can cost you from forty to fifty dollars in other words you're good when you get in this class plenty of service and plenty of ankle support that's it sister lace it up tight among the tens of thousands who frequent indoor roller skating rinks there are hundreds of couples who really work seriously to develop their dancing technique they are the ones who devote ours toward perfecting new steps and new figures it's not a question with them of simply rolling around and round the floor it's a question of suitable maneuvers to suitable music executed with grace and agility these polished pairs are demonstrating the popular 10 step and it's not unusual to see as many as 200 couples on the floor at one time doing these fascinating roller steps [Music] modern skates are so flexible that with any ability or balance is perfect and speaking of ability meet frank copeland who proves the old adage that you can do anything on rollers that you can on ice this is a maneuver known as the circular split frank could undoubtedly earn a living as a trick skater but like everybody else in this picture he prefers to skate for fun now he's doing an inside split [Music] frank is one of the country's top flight amateurs and he really goes round on his ear [Music] and here's something that's practically impossible he's trying to put his best foot forward [Music] forward backward two legs one leg it's all the same to this wizard of the wheels to get both sides of the modern rotor skating picture the outside as well as the inside we go to jones beach new york where we find 12 year old june hendricks novice united states single champion in slow motion we observe just how she performs this difficult variety of split next what's known as a sal cow jump now a jackson haynes spin these two young ladies are expert at precision skating so let's watch them do that tricky stuff as they present a display of feminine wilds on wheels [Applause] spins and splits and other maneuvers easy on the rollers and easy on the eyes top flight performers such as these perform every figure the champion ice skaters do with a few added twists of their own [Music] preparing now to step out on the rink is william bickmeyer jr youthful united states senior champion this is his version of a loop jump [Music] ah smooth work bill there's keen competition in modern roller skating just as there is in other amateur sports each year national championships are held and you've got to show form almost as good as big meyers even to enter them he tops a top ernie wetler is the leading exponent of acrobatics on wheels his skating is a happy combination of a whirling dervish and a texas cyclone here he goes into a difficult axel paulson jump [Music] in this kind of skating the big things are coordination and control and a couple of waltz jumps coming up now ernie really gives out with the acrobatics with two giant loop jumps and finally a split very pretty and thanks not all of us can learn to do acrobatics on rollers but we all can learn how to dance on them and that's the real secret behind roller skating's renewed popularity if you're a smooth dancer on a dance floor you can become a smooth dancer on skates many a couple has discovered that it's just a matter of practice this as the music tells us is a tangle no fox trot on a dance floor is half as exhilarating as a fox trot on a rink [Applause] [Music] it looks like fun doesn't it and it is more and more today when a fella goes around with a girl it's on wheels sister you're pretty slick and brother you're way past your basic training too [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] here's a step you'll never see on an ordinary dance floor it's the 14th step and something every skater eventually learns [Music] the wave and her boyfriend are right in the groove solid as its name implies the 14 step calls for fast and tricky footwork [Applause] [Music] this sailor is doing fine but then he's used to rollers yes when they took skating off the streets and added music they really started the fastest growing amateur sport in america and how it all will end nobody knows well so long folks see you all again soon on wheels foreign