Leo on the Lam

This is a story that very few people know, but since many of the principals involved are gone, I think it is time to tell it.  It certainly contributed to the demise of Roller Derby in 1973.

When I incorporated the new company to promote Roller Derby (Bay Promotions, Inc) I had capitalization of just $500.  My father Leo very kindly let me buy the banked tracks, uniforms, etc on a deferred payment basis and we were under way.  At 26 I was too dumb to know we couldn’t succeed.

After several years we started to expand our operations and as our television network grew, we were able to play games (not bouts) in more and more cities.  We actually were able to go back to the birthplace of Roller Derby, the Chicago Coliseum, now operated by my father’s former partner, Fred Morelli.  The building was in terrible shape, the dressing rooms filthy, chairs broken, bad lighting, etc.  However I felt an obligation to play there and it was only after we had so many complaints from the fans that we moved to the International Amphitheater in the famed Chicago stockyards.  I know Fred was upset, but I told him the building was in such disrepair that it was unsafe.

Over the years when we played Chicago on our tour and eventually when the Pioneers started skating home games there, the Amphitheater became our base.  The Coliseum was rarely used by anyone and Fred eventually made a deal with Elijah Muhammad, and it was established as the main gathering place for the Black Muslims.  Muhmmad Ali and Malcom X made their speeches there.

My father was constantly on the phone getting more cities for our expanding network (he was on salary then) and although I was repaying him for the equipment he had given us, he certainly earned his money.  I was taking care of Oscar and the Roller Derby Skate Company also by running commercials in all of our telecasts for the Street King outdoor shoe skates ($5.99 a pair, and $8.99 when plastic wheels replaced the metal ones).

Fred Morelli and Albert Horan.               Life.com photograph

I have already told how badly we were hurt by the gas crisis, but in 1972 something came at us out of left field.  Fred Morelli sued us under an agreement he had with my father in a company called Roller Derby Associates where he claimed a partnership in all Roller Derby activities.  I talked with Hal Silen, who was part of our company and an attorney, and he agreed we needed to get a good lawyer to represent us.  I of course immediately contacted my Dad, who said the agreement was not valid because when the business had started decreasing he had asked Fred for additional capital and Fred had refused; Leo then sent him a letter stating if he didn’t put up his share he was no longer a participant.

I was stunned.  I was in the middle of something I had no prior knowledge of.  I liked Fred and his wife Kay.  In summer we sometime had gone up to his family farm in Wisconsin and played with his children.  I knew he was politically very influential having been the head of the first Ward (downtown Chicago), and it had been rumored that during the 1944 Democrat convention he had engineered the selection of Harry Truman as vice President on behalf of his friend Tom Pendergast from Kansas City.  I also knew that little of what went on in Chicago was done without his knowledge.

At Northwestern University I had a fraternity brother named Joel Sprayregen who was from New Jersey, was funny, aggressive and smart and had become an attorney.  I conferred with Hal and decided to hire Joel’s firm.  Joel read through the documents and felt that the partnership had never been dissolved and they had a good case.  I couldn’t sleep, realizing that they could probably take all that we had away.   Joel said he would start on his research and get back to me.

Joel called and said he had been checking on Fred’s background, and he felt it was pretty unsavory.  I was stunned again.  He arranged to meet with Fred’s attorney, a Mr. Topper from Chicago, who demanded a large sum of money to make it go away.  That was impossible.  I talked to my father (who was in Oregon) and told him he (and probably Oscar) would be deposed soon.  The next thing I knew he called me one night, said the local police (his friends of course) had told him a process server was asking where he lived.  That very night he and Belle threw a few things in his car (a normal stretch Cadillac with jump seats in back), called Oscar and his wife Agatha, and they all took off. I did not know where as I did not want to perjure myself.

Fred came out to San Francisco to be deposed and as always he was very friendly to me.  He did not look well as he was in a later stage of Parkinson’s disease.  I assume he wanted to get all of his business affairs in order and that is why he sued us at this time.  Joel started the most interesting questioning I have ever heard.

“What was your relationship with Al Capone? With Cooney (one of Capone’s successors), with the Lexington Hotel?”  Fred got very upset and Topper turned bright red and demanded to know what any of this had to do with the obligation of Leo Seltzer.  Joel calmly said that since Fred had started as the doorman of the Lexington, Capone’s hangout, he was going to show that the agreement was made under duress, that Fred as the successor to Capone and all of the mob, had muscled in on Leo.    Wow.

Topper immediately demanded they go before the judge as this was all irrelevant.  The judge told Topper to produce Leo to the court and Topper said the subpoena was out, it would be served, and that by the court date in eight months he would produce him with the proper testimony.

As I found out later, the Seltzer brothers and the wives had headed into Mexico (exciting stuff, huh?) and were staying in a hotel in Guaymas by San Carlos beach.  For the next 8 months they had a great time fishing, touristing, sitting on the beach; probably the first real vacation my father had taken in 30 years.

Photo by haak78. From stock.xchng.com

We did all the depositions and I stated truthfully that I had no knowledge of the so-called agreement and gave the facts as I knew them.  The court date came, Leo was not produced, the case was thrown out.  The Seltzers came back from their Mexico sojourn, tanned and healthy.  Fred went back to Chicago and died shortly thereafter.  I felt badly for him as he had established a legitimate life and his children went on to successful careers.

Unfortunately, whatever money we had went to pay the legal fees (actually, we were $2500 short and after we had shut down the Roller Derby Joel’s firm sued us, and we paid), and with the gas crisis and the resultant lack of attendance on our usually successful tour, it was the end of the road.

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Leo the promoter

My father hated to be called a promoter…he felt that was someone who used other people’s money, and he always used his own.

But although sports history credits him with being the inventor of Roller Derby, he did a lot more projects, some successful, many not (but that is a promoter for you).

The first one he always talked about was his plans for making money off the end of prohibition.  In 1932 when it became apparent that FDR (best known initials before J-Lo) was going to repeal the act, he bought a large amount of Philippine rum and was having it shipped to a port in Mexico so that when it was legal it could be sold in the US.  He had put aside $25,000 from the Walkathons (a fortune in those days) which he had given to my mother, as they planned to buy a farm outside of Portland.  He told her not to give it to him under any circumstance;  then later he pleaded with her to let him use it as this was a no-fail deal.

Well, the liquor wasn’t registered properly, required a US license, and the boat ended up sitting in the port until the officials confiscated the cargo.  My mother was furious, just having borne her second child, a wonderful precocious beautiful and loving boy  So Dad went back on the road.

In 1935 having acquired the Chicago Coliseum and first using it for the walkathons and then his new game Roller Derby, Leo had to figure  a way to keep the building occupied.  It had a main arena of approximately 5000 seats including the balcony, and a smaller north hall which was ideal for weekly boxing and wrestling matches, and could seat about 1500 for these events.  Both halls could be cleared and connected for trade shows.  He also had an ownership in the Arcadia Skating rink on North Broadway in Chicago, where often new skaters trained.  And he leased the Chicago Armory, around the corner from the Coliseum at 16th and State (the Coliseum was at 15th and Wabash) which he used for walkathons later, as well as fights and wrestling when there were trade shows in the main building.

When my sister was 12 and I was 9 after our mother died of breast cancer, we moved  to Chicago, and of course we regularly attended events at the Coliseum.  The horse shows featured beautiful riding; trade shows as a whole were uninteresting, but they gave away great stuff in the booths, most of which I had no use for.  I loved the outdoor shows where they featured stuff for camping and other activities, and put a pool in the arena where you could fish.

All of these shows had featured entertainers:  I saw Bob Hope perform, also Eddie Cantor, a very popular performer of the 30’s who was a comedian and singer and dancer (“Making Whoopee”).  He introduced his new young singer, Eddie Fisher.  And a popular local duo that performed often, the Clooney sisters, Rosemary and Betty.  They were George’s aunts.  Betty must have given up her career.

The league that was the precursor to the NBA played in the Coliseum.  The American Gears featured the great George Mikan before the Lakers started.  I enjoyed their games, often played before just a few hundred fans.

My father became a successful boxing promoter.  Working with Jack Kearns, who had been Jack Dempsey’s manager, he brought many name fighters into the Coliseum.  I saw the great Willie Pep, small but dynamic, defend his world title.  Also he promoted the Jake Lamotta-Bob Satterfield fight which I mentioned previously in the blog on Leo.  After Jake knocked his opponent out of the ring, I immediately jumped out of my seat to see Satterfield;  I had on my Niles Twp high school sweat shirt.  A photographer snapped the photo and it was on the front page of the Examiner the next day.  I received a lot of comments from everyone at school, including one teacher who wanted to know why I was there on a school night.

There was a great wrestler named Chief Don Eagle who would appear regularly in the Coliseum.  When he wrestled it would be necessary to move the event in the main arena.  Don Eagle was ahead of his time; unlike the other wrestlers of that era, he was well built, and extremely athletic.  He was quite young and his father managed him.  Leo convinced them both that Don Eagle would be a great heavyweight.  Kearns brought in a trainer and the young native American won his first 7 or 8 bouts easily.  Were these fights patsies?  I don’t know.  Then he fought a serious contender before a full house and took a beating.  He went back to become a top-flight wrestler.

But there was a great prospect that my dad and Kearns managed.  His name was Harold Guss.  He was a powerful heavyweight, won all his matches with ease, and with his first large paycheck bought a new car.  The following weekend he was in a crash and was killed.  My father was heartsick as he and Harold were very close.  He never had anything to do with fights again.

I had previously told of Oscar Seltzer and he taking over the management of the Louisville Armory and the hockey team, but there was an event that he created and I remembered was the best ever (outside of Roller Derby, of course).  In the 40’s he had this concept for a Broadway-type musical that could play arenas.  It was called “Alaskan Stampede” and had as leads some prominent performers, as well as a musical score by a well-known songwriter.  The main arena was converted into an Alaskan landscape (no, you couldn’t see Russia) and had an ice rink at one end (my dad also promoted Holiday on Ice in Chicago, Louisville and Columbus, Ohio).  The show also had animals including reindeer, caribou, and others, which were kept in the north hall, and of course a dog sled.  The theme had something to do with new Alaskans, taking medicine to someone by dog sled, the animals grazing, great songs and choruses, and ice skaters, all obviously not  at the same time. (“Mushing along the trail, hurry along, you huskies…”)

They mounted the show in 6 weeks when they should have taken 6 months and technically it was a disaster, but highly enjoyable.  The Tribune gave it a bad review, but the Examiner said “Almost a bell ringer”.  It shut down after two weeks.

Leo went on to many other projects including helping me to get TV stations for our network (the man at WTBS in Atlanta told him: “we are just a small station; we can pay $25 and give you 4 spots in the telecast and 4 ROS.”  His name, Ted Turner)

He had a great sense of humor, often not appreciated.  He always wanted to be a landscape architect, but obviously found another career.  Every day after work at the Coliseum he would come home to Glenview, change to his old clothers, and prune and trim the 2 and 1/2 acres of bushes.  He never knew his neighbors in the Glen Oak Acres subdivision, and one day a couple came driving up and said to him, “I don’t care what Seltzer is paying you, you do such a great job, we will pay you more to work on our property.”

He replied: “I just couldn’t, Mrs. Seltzer lets me sleep with her.”  Belle made him go over to their house afterwards and explain.

Leo

Leo Seltzer was born in Helena, Montana, on April 5th, 1903.   His parents, David and Celia, were immigrants from Romania.  David had been offered a job with McCormick in Chicago, but upon his arrival he found that it was not as a carriage maker as was his trade in Bucharest, but a very menial job.  The family, then also consisting of his wife Celia, two young boys Harry and Oscar, boarded a train for Montana where a cousin was established.

David became a cattle rancher, operated a general store, and was a member of the local vigilantes.  Unfortunately, Celia being of delicate health could not handle the winters, and the family moved to Portland, Oregon, where Leo and his brothers grew up.

In high school (Lincoln High in Portland) Oscar and Leo excelled in sports:  Oscar in football and Leo in basketball.   When Harry the oldest brother went to the University of Washington to study accounting, it became apparent there were not sufficient funds for all three brothers to attend college.  Oscar went to UW and played football; after graduation Leo went to work as the youngest (17 years) film salesmen for Universal Films; his territory was the Northwest.

Soon he was successful enough to start helping to fund his brothers’ tuition and he enrolled in night school.  He also found a willing partner and they bought and operated three movie theaters in Portland:  the Laurel, the Oregon, and the Hiway.  Soon he was looking for opportunities and in 1930 he found one in Hoquiam Washington where he saw one example of popular entertainment in the Depression,  the Walkathon, which consisted of couples walking continuously for a period of time for prize money.  He thought this was something he could promote.

Gathering his former high school friends, he established his own version of the attraction and headed for Denver, Kansas City, and other midwestern cities.  He heard reports from his participants how badly they had been treated by other marathon operators – he was always concerned for the “walkers” and had proper meals, rest periods, nurses on hand as most of them had no other income or place to go.  He formed an association of marathon promoters and set up standards for them to uphold.  His masters of ceremonies included Red Skelton, Frankie Laine, and “Lord” Buckley.

In summer of 1935 he had taken over management of the Chicago Coliseum, an historic arena where William Jennings Bryan had been nominated for the presidency;  the front of the building was all stones that had been removed from the terrible Libbey prison in the South after the Civil War.  He was trying to think of an attraction that he could bring in the building when he read in the Literary Digest that over 95% of Americans roller skate at some time in their lives.  So he advertised for skaters and many of the walkathon participants joined also, and thus the first Roller Derby was presented on August 13, 1935. Teams were 1 male skater and 1 female, skating on a slightly banked track, alternating with one resting while the other was skating.  The object was to skate across the United States and the progress was shown on electric lights on a huge map at the end of the building.

During breaks, skaters would perform little skits or acts and the audience would show its appreciation by throwing coins at them.  Admission was only a dime,  and the fans could stay as long as they liked.  Most of the money that was made by Leo was from the concessions.

The way that skaters could gain an advantage was to break out of the group and try to pick up a lap on the other skaters (a “jam”). Before long, skaters were banding together to try and block back skaters who were leaving the pack; at first they were not allowed, but the audience liked that aspect so much, that Leo made it part of the rules.

The Roller Derby moved from city to city until 1937 when a tragic bus crash killed 18 of the 21 people aboard, and Leo wanted to shut the Derby down, but the other skaters convinced him to keep it going.  The uniform number 1 never was used in Roller Derby again as a memorial to those killed.

In Coral Gables Florida Damon Runyon, America’s best known Sports and short story author (“Guys and Dolls”) saw the Derby, became fascinated and he and Leo created the five on five game, men and women alternating periods, that lasted throughout its existence.

Leo proved to be a great booker and promoter.  He brought trade shows, leading entertainers, boxing, wrestling and more into the Coliseum.  His creative use of discount tickets was copied by others.  He also took over the lease of the Louisville Armory and he and his brother Oscar operated a minor league hockey team.  He always bemoaned what he felt would have been his greatest non-Derby promotion:  convincing Adolph Rupp, legendary Kentucky basketball coach, to partner with him on a Louisville professional team with the entire national championship team turning pro.  Unfortunately, a cheating scandal was discovered and none could participate.

Leo made Roller Derby a national phenomenon and was looking to make a revival of a fully legitimate league when he died of an stoke in January 1978.  His dream was to have Roller Derby in the Olympics.  With the 2000 amateur leagues in 65 countries today, it may very well happen.  Read the complete story in Roller Derby to Rollerjam. Leo died in 1978, believing his game had died with him.

The Second Front

I am just learning how to do this……like most things I do, I refuse to read any instructions so I am just letting wordpress guide me.

By the way, my name is Jerry Seltzer;  I don’t think I mentioned it before and I don’t want to be rude.  I was born in Portland Oregon and remember clearly the day I heard a newsboy yelling “Pearl Harbor attacked”.   Of course no television in 1941, no iphones etc and the radio was not on all the time, so the newspaper was how we found out about things

My life really changed shortly afterwards:  my mother died of breast cancer in March of 1942 (I had never heard the disease mentioned), and my sister and I had to leave Portland to move to Chicago where my father (yes, he invented Roller Derby) spent most of his time.  We only saw him 3 or 4 times a year in Portland.

The country was united against the axis (Japan, Germany and Italy for those who don’t know who our enemies were in WW2) and we were all asked to sacrifice and contribute to the war effort.  Rationing of food and clothing followed shortly and families had to learn to live with limited amounts of meat and other foodstuffs and women became very creative in feeding their families.  Strange new meat products appeared that were made from parts of animals that were previously thrown away as unsuitable for the marketplace (can you say Spam). Most families had an A Sticker to put on their cars which entitled them to 6 gallons of gas per week.

Very few people complained as our soldiers were doing the fighting and we were to help in any way we could.  There were savings bond drives and stars and other personalities would show up and everyone would buy;  of course the main purpose was to take money out of circulation and avoid inflation.  Price controls were established, as well as limits in salaries (90% tax brackets!  And what are you complaining about?).  Since the country had been in such a severe depression it didn’t seem such a hardship and now war jobs were helping families.

I divert, as I often will, and wonder that in all the wars or “police actions” we have been in since then, if the government had asked us to sacrifice we might be in better shape now to really get off of oil dependence and really move to a “clean” economy.  But Johnson and the others decided we could have butter and guns and America could just go on.  (I understand in Iraq in one barrack there is a sign on the wall “We go to war, Americans go to the mall”) And this would have been a killer today:  no cars were produced for civilians from 1942 until 1946.

So now in 1944 I was 12 years old and living in Glenview, a suburb of Chicago.  It sounds terrible but the war was very exciting:  we never heard about our terrible losses in the Pacific or elsewhere until much later, but just how well our boys were doing…there was constant talk of when the real “Second Front” was going to happen.  The Russians, who were now our great friends and allies were pressuring the British and the Americans to attack Europe to take the pressure off of the Eastern Front, but of course we were arguing with each other.  The Brits convinced us to invade Italy in 1943 but we all knew that was not the real invasion.

On June 6th,  just 3 days after my 12th birthday I was at home and suddenly a bulletin came on the radio (I was probably listening to a daily serial:  Superman, etc) that our forces had landed at Normandy in France.   I am certain now that it was hours after it happened as our news was really screened.  My dad was not home, he was at the Coliseum as there was a Roller Derby game that night.   I immediately called the night number of the switchboard (“for emergencies only” he had told me), and they brought him to the phone.”We have invaded Europe at Normandy”…..he was happy for the information and when he came home I asked him how the crowd had responded when the announcer told them what had happened.  “They clapped and cheered”

I was happy…..that was my first successful promotion.