when Los Angeles was skating on disco

This Tuesday, we are swinging on roller skates! We go back to the 1980s, we slide towards Los Angeles. The brilliant story of a nightclub like no other, told in the ELLE of the week.

The “Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace”, the Mecca of Californian nightlife, open for a very short period, from 1979 to 1981, but a legendary venue on Santa Monica Boulevard, where you could combine two passions, dance to disco, and skate the night away.

This roller disco, we owe it to an Englishman, Ian Ross. His first professional experience speaks volumes. He worked on Radio Caroline, the boat from which a band of merry fellows broadcast indie rock in the 1960s, off the coast of Britain. The film Good Morning England released in 2009 told this crazy story. And so after these circles in the water to the tunes of Who, here is our man left for the California sun

Nile Rodgers on the decks

After visiting a roller disco in New York, after being enchanted by the atmosphere (for Ian Ross, roller disco can save the world), he launched his own business in Los Angeles. The concept takes hold, in a tailor-made city. The establishment is packed, we dance on especially on that

The group Chic, and its leader Nile Rodgers, it is he who takes care of the playlist. According to the daughter of Ian Ross, interviewed by the magazine SHE, he came as a neighbor, put on his skates, and loved to see all the communities riding together, on the same groove. Because the Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace welcomes everyone. No bouncer at the entrance.

In a very compartmentalized city, anyone is invited, regardless of their origin, age, or sexual orientation. The main thing is to respect the happy and peaceful attitude of the place. Legend has it that this is the only place where the Bloods and the Crips, the two notorious rival gangs of LA, keep up with each other.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elton John, Patrick Swayze

Star side, we do not count them. Cher and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elton John, Patrick Swayze, Robin Williams. Laura Dern et Quentin Tarantino were still teenagers, but they too were on the dance floor. March 31, 1981, concert event: Prince. “His Purple majesty” is there. In underwear, gaiters, and bandana. Without doubt the most memorable evening of this roller disco, which welcomes more and more people.

Except that the neighborhood is starting to find it a bit too much, a bit too noisy. The establishment is not completely in order, the municipal authorities end up cracking down.
Ian Ross has three days to close the premises or be deported from the United States. One last halloween night, roller skating zombies. And the adventure ends. Ian Ross becomes a butler in the upscale neighborhoods of LA.

His daughter Liberty, has just published a book retracing the crazy history of this nightclub. If we believe the SHE, a second generation flipper’s should open in 2022. In Los Angeles, and why not in other cities around the world. Because as Liberty Ross says: “After this pandemic, we need places of cohesion, tolerance, joie de vivre, places like the Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace.