Roller Skates

above 1925
Why E. N. Robinson would have 125 pair of roller skates is unknown.  My guess would be they came from the Coliseum see below.  E. N. Robinson was Edward Nelson Robertson (1903-1975) from the Whitehaven area.  He married Katherine Phillips of Delmar about 1926 who was the daughter of Grover C. Phillips and Roxie A Hastings. By 1930 Nelson and Kate would be living in Baltimore.  He worked as a streetcar conductor. Nelson and Kate would have as children; William E. Robertson (1926 ) and June Carolyn Robertson.  The marriage would end about 1935.  Kate would marry in 1936 David R. Brady, 20 years her senior. Nelson would marry Julia J. Dreyer who would die in 1953.  Next he would marry Johanna Wegert.  


South of Delmar, about where the current IBEW Union building is today, stood The Coliseum. The Coliseum was the largest dance hall on the Eastern Shore until 1942 when it burnt. The road we now call Bi State Boulevard was than called the Delmar Road and it went from the overhead bridge in Salisbury into Delmar. It was a popular strip for beer joints, night clubs, dance halls and tourist cabins. The most popular was the Coliseum. It started life known as the Chatterbox Night club and was later converted to the Coliseum Roller Rink. It seem to have been built by a Thomas Philips and was later owned by a Mr. Harvey M. Ruble. Mr. Ruble also owned the Pier Ballroom in Ocean City.

The Coliseum had roller skating, square dances, banquets, amateur boxing, big band orchestras and 24 hour walkathons, anything to make a buck. On a Friday night in July of 1940 it held an amateur boxing match that drew over 700 fight fans to it. I think the real draw was they had Jack Dempsey as the referee and Red Burman, a protege of Dempsey, was in the audience. Some of the Bands and singers of the era at the Coliseum were the Larry Clinton band, Will Osborne and his Slide orchestra, Rudy Vallee, and Don Bestor. The 24 hour walkathons seem to have been the equivalent of a 24 hour dance marathon and were described as controversial in the newspaper, apparently because of the large crowd that they drew.

When it burnt at the end of November 1942 a Mrs Annie Jackson, 82, died in the fire. She is believed to be the mother of Mrs. Ruble and lived at the Coliseum. The flames were reported to be 150 feet high and the smoke could be seen in downtown Salisbury. Winds whipped the fire around sitting fire to the surrounding bushes and grass in the area.