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[BIRDS CHIRPING]

LARRY: Venice is,
do what you wanna do,

be who you wanna be.

JIMMY: Roller dancing
is my escape.

It's a part of me.

SALLY: When we skate,

it's the only time
when you're free.

DUVAL: Roller skating made
Venice Beach what it is today.

A lot of people don't
wanna give us that credit.

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

Welcome to Venice, California.

We're live at the beach.

LARRY: When we
started skating,

we would have literally
rolls and rolls of people
just watching us skate.

It was something nobody
had ever seen before.

They've seen
people roller skate,

but they didn't see
anybody dance.

We lived and breathed skating.

I mean, we slept
with our skates on.

When I was just
a little kid,

skating around with
all these adults

and half-naked women,
and it worked for me.

They called us
"street skaters".

Meaning that we don't
have any formal training.

Our practice is performing.

A lot of the technical skaters

that do, like,
the competitions,

they have to do
the axels and the lutzes.

Their moves are
already pre-programmed,

and I don't like
pre-programmed.

I like to have my shit
organic and natural.

We would get out there,
like, 12:00 in the daytime.

We'd leave at, like,
8:00 at night.

I used to get cramps
at like 2:00 or 3:00
in the morning from skating.

SALLY: You just had
the most wonderful
black culture

in all these
different forms.

Everybody was there to skate.

Everybody was there
to enjoy the music.

It was a black beach

which, you know,
in a city, that never
existed anywhere else.

I just loved it
because it's where
I felt like I belonged.

I couldn't really relate
to a white beach scene.

I was about
black urban culture,

but for once, not being
confined to the ghetto.

We get to enjoy the beach.

We get to be in the sunshine,
having fun.

It was pretty much
black people from
the inner city

who've come out to the beach.

And that's what was great
about Venice Beach.

LARRY: There was a lot
of songs that we skated to,

but our theme song
was Prince's songKiss.

[ KISSPLAYING]

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

JIMMY: It was just
like a party.

The more people
that were there,
the more hyped we got.

[CROWD CHEERING]

People were going,

"Wow, they're not
just skating,

"their choreography
is incredible.

"They're all in sync."

I really got a kick
out of performing.

I hadn't been around
this kind of atmosphere.

I hadn't had
that kind of attention.

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

DUVAL: When we got
300,000 to 400,000 people
on a weekend

coming down to Venice
from all over the world,

we turned out to be
Venice Beach celebrities.

MAD: All of a sudden,
this phenomenon starts

picking up real fast.

LARRY: All of a sudden,
Venice Beach was on the map.

We definitely were
rock stars down there.

TERRELL: Our crowds,
because of the music,
because of the people,

they would literally
sit there for hours.

But we're not asking you
to put money in a bucket.

Maybe your phone number,
but not money.

SALLY: The girls out here
were practically groupies

that'd be like
falling over themselves

wanting to get to the guys.
[CHUCKLES]

[CROWD CHEERING]

About 10:00 to 5:00.

That's the best time.

[CHUCKLES]

DUVAL:
The ambiance out there,
the applause,

you know,
the cheering out there.

The more we got,
the better we became.

[CROWD CHEERING]

Everybody from
around the world

come out there to see us.

Oh, we were rock gods.

We were the ones
on Mt. Olympus.

TERRELL: Back in the day
for blacks,

there were only certain places
that you could live.

South Central,
Watts, and so on.

It was very segregated.

So, this was
the only beach area

where blacks and Mexicans
were allowed to live.

LARRY: And this is
the place, Oakwood,

that's where it all
started out for me.

My roots.

Oakwood was different
when I was a kid.

It's full of black families.

Black people have lived there
since 1905.

In fact, the canals
of Venice were built
by black people.

TERRELL: No one really
wanted to be in Venice.

It was the slum
by the sea.

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

So, Venice, even though it was
born out of segregation,

it would've never had
the culture or the flavor
that it has now.

It's an artist place where
everybody can be free
to do what they want.

It made Venice
into a Beatnik,

kind of a Bohemian
type of place.

It was the wild wild west.

You can be yourself,
you can be crazy.

Whoo!

We got our own area.

It was this winding
snake-like place,

but the concrete was smooth,
it was level.

We could blast the music.

People could watch us
from both sides.

And that became disco alley.

[CROWD APPLAUDING]

JIMMY: OG means
you're original.

These are the people
that started this,

the first ones
that made it popular.

OG really means
"Original Gangster".

Me, Sally, Larry,

Duval, Terrell, Mad.

We were a family.

TERRELL: Everybody has
their own flow,
their own style.

And that's what makes it hot.

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

My style is kind of
a fusion of hip-hop,

skating and break dancing.

LARRY: Terrell's style,
arrogant, show-off,

very good.

JIMMY: Terrell was somebody
that was always
an entertainer.

He's a great dancer.

He feeds off of attention.

You're smooth with him.

It'd feel like a part
of your body, period.

JIMMY: Larry's style is a lot
of movement with the skates

with crisscrossing
of the wheels
and really fancy feet.

TERRELL: Larry is the Swiss
pocket knife of skaters.

He can do a little bit
of everything.

You can be so graceful,
and it's so much fun,

and it's just like
sex on wheels.

It's freedom.

JIMMY: Sally was smooth.

She glides on her skates.

And she would get
into her own world.

You would see
her eyes would shut.

You would be like,
"She's gone."

TERRELL: She's got
the long legs,

booty sticking out.

She's graceful, elegant.

She's the Cadillac
of us skaters.

My style,
they called me "buck wild",

'cause I get
really crazy on the skates.

I'm almost gonna fall,

and if I do fall,

I started learning how
to actually make that
into a move.

TERRELL: Jimmy's style
is what we call
"organized confusion".

He's the perfect
skating tornado.

'Cause I do
the crazy legs
like no other.

I put my heart
and soul into it.

JIMMY: Duval's style
is out there.

He was different.

TERRELL: And he wore
the big baggy pants

with the cowboy boots.

The Superman logo
and all his cartoon
characters that he drew.

LARRY: He brought
a free spirit there.

Always had that
crazy smile on his face.

DUVAL: Uh, I came up
with what was called
the Pinocchio Theory.

I have no strings
to hold me up,

to hold me back
or to hold me down.

That particular move
became now known
as "The Matrix".

I wanna say something
to the Wachowskis,
"Where's my royalty check?"

because I did that move
before the movie
even came out.

[CHUCKLES]

LARRY: Who helped to take
the line dance off

was the guy known as Mad.

TERRELL: Mad was our leader.

He's like the godfather
of skating.

SALLY: He was the king
of the skate world.

When I first saw Mad,
I couldn't stand him,

you know,
because of the look.

You know, that's just like...
It's his look, you know.

JIMMY: Mad was strength.

He was chiseled.

Six-pack.

He looked like a cobra.

SALLY: He's what
Mr. T wants to be.

He's what
Arnold Schwarzenegger
wishes he was.

They're not it, he's it.

And he kinda, you know,
at first, was like,
"Who are you?" you know,

"What's your name?"

And I was like, "I'm Jimmy."
and he's like,

"Stay out the way."
You know?

When I would watch him
and see what he could do,

I was like, "Hmm,
dude got some skills."

[RETRO DANCE MUSIC PLAYING]

TERRELL: Mad, at his best,

is like a bull
in a China shop,

except for he doesn't
knock down any of the China.

SALLY: It's poetry in motion.

I mean, the way he moved,
it's just like incredible
liquid poetry.

JIMMY: I was in awe of Mad.

It looked effortless
when you saw him skate.

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

JIMMY: Mad was
a great mentor to us

because he made sure
you got it right.

"Do it again.
No, do it again.

"That ain't right.
Do it again."

He motivated you to be good.

TERRELL: Every time
I would come out,

"You brought your little ass
back out here again?

"Come on, you might as well
learn how to skate
with feet this big.

"Come on over here."

So he would tease me
about that.

He would show me a move,

then he grabbed
all over my shirt
and have me like...

And I'm like, "Get off."

My mom would be like,

"Why are your shirts always
so wrinkled in the shoulder
when you get home?"

I'm like, "Oh, that's Mad."
"Who is this Mad?"

"He's like my big brother,
I guess." kind of thing.

LARRY: Everybody idolized him.
I did.

Everybody tried
to mimic Mad's style.

The boombox
we had out there
that Mad built,

it was our lifeline.

It was the beat
of Venice Beach.

TERRELL: Mad was the one
that called out the line-up,

so what he said, we did.

It was just steps
and you just learn the step.

Or you don't have to,
but, I mean, then you'd
be off by yourself.

If you wanna be part
of the group, you had
to learn the step.

He'd be at a party
one night, dancing, like,

"Wait a minute.
I'mma put that
in a routine."

and then, boom.

[RADIO SCREECHING]

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

LARRY: Mad is a kid at heart,
as well as I.

We watched cartoons.

So Mad basically
took certain steps

and named them after cartoons.

They were basically
the Transformers.

It was like, Omega Supreme,
Optimus Prime, Dinobots.

That was Mad's thing.

JIMMY: Mad was everything.

SALLY: I don't know.
I think of him like a lion.

Head of the pride.

JIMMY: So when Mad
stopped skating,

we lost a leader.

He's more into
his motorcycles now.

He traded eight wheels
in for two.

LARRY: It just changed.

Everything changed down there.

They took my beats
away from me.

SALLY: We didn't
see this coming.

MAD: The roller dream
out there was taken away.

It didn't fade, it was taken.

NEWSCASTER 1:
A riot zone it was.

The worst riot
in the history
of Los Angeles County.

NEWSCASTER 2: Six days
of rioting in a negro
section of Los Angeles

left behind scenes
reminiscent of
war-torn cities.

NEWSCASTER: More than 100
square blocks were decimated
by fire and looters,

and few buildings
were left in-tact.

[SIREN WAILING]

Brought up in Watts.

The Watts riot,
I was ten years old.

Black people have
been under stress

and false accusations
just by being black.

White man was
basically in charge.

The Watts riot started
with a police officer
disrespecting a black youth.

When the mob came out,
a police officer,

he did something
he shouldn't have done.

It was all white businesses
in an all black neighborhood.

Every business in Watts
that don't belong there,

they just got burned out.

Right down there,
the whole street
on both sides.

Martial law showed up.

Military showed up.

Anything caught outside
after 10:00,

don't arrest it, shoot it.

For a person like me
to witness something
like that,

it's some hard shit
to swallow.

It was very nerve-racking

to a point where
you look at things
and what you're going through,

how the world really is,
and it ain't what you think.

This is the street
I was brought up on.

This house right here,
we lived in the back.

Five of us lived
in this house.

All the nightmares
and everything,

it happened here.
This is where
it started at.

I didn't have a childhood.

In the family,
there was no love.
There was no understanding.

Didn't have a dad,

but my mom had to be
the man of the house.

SALLY: Mad grew up
in a very abusive home.

Whatever problems
his mother was having,

she tended
to take out on him.

Spent the majority of my time
in closets, hiding from her

because when she came home,

we were basically waking up
2:00 or 3:00 in the morning,

getting damn near
beat to death.

And I didn't understand that.

No matter if you was
a kid or not,

long as you was colored
you couldn't be trusted.

When we saw the police,
first thing we did was...

"We out here."

When they caught us,
"Why you running?"

"You the police."

"What that gotta do with it?"
"You the police."

This is like a hand-me-down
from generations.

"See the police? Run."

And when you're brought up
around something like that,

you know,
you never lose it.

Then one day, I decided
to go to Venice.

I just saw a guy out there

who just was skating
to a transistor radio.

When I got bored enough,

I started asking him,
"What was that?"

Got me a set of skates
to put that ball
under the foot,

took that toe stop off
and I got busy.

Skating basically meant
the world to me

because of what I wanted
to do with it, for me.

I didn't just wanna
do the routine,

I wanted to be the routine.

SALLY: So Venice was his
escape from all that.

Venice was his playground.

It was the one place
he could go to express
himself and be free.

He was channeling all
that pain into his skating

and he turned all that pain
into something
really beautiful.

Not having a childhood,
this is gonna be mine.

And I told myself,

"Nobody out here
is gonna rain on my parade."

It's so hard
to fully explain

my resonance with
African-American culture.

I'm Middle Eastern,

and I grew up in a very,
very racist environment.

In the South, you're either
black or you're white.

"Black or white" is the way
they would say it to me.

"Are you black or white?"

And, um, you know,
I never knew what to say.

I came to Venice Beach
back in '82.

It was America
at its furthest point.

Multicultural, hip, authentic.

I saw Mad skating,
and I was just blown away.

MAD: Sally was
a nice-looking girl.

Very slender.

She had my attention.

I was on her
like skin on grape.

When it came down
to the introduction thing,
I already knew.

I hopped onto her,
I got up in her face,

and she was, like,
stuck on a smile.

SALLY: He just turns
his skate to the side,

and in one incredibly
rapid movement,

just glides
right over to me.

Now he's like inches
from my face,

towering above me
in his skates.

And he just looks down
at me and he goes, "What?"

"Will you teach me?"
I said, "Look, lady,

"you get some skates.
I'll teach you."

And he's like,
"Be here tomorrow, 3:00."

I took my life savings,
which was $100,

and I paid
for these roller skates,
you know,

having no idea if
I could actually skate.

And then I just started
going out there every day.

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

I never gave any thought
that Sally would be
my skate partner

until I started teasing her.

Then once I made her do
the hard numbers,

she did it.

"Man, wait a minute.
Do this again."

And when she did it,
I got a smile then.

"I'll be damned."

SALLY: "I hope
you're what I think you are,

"the skating partner
I've always dreamed of."
And I'm like, "Yes!"

Because, of course,
I was hoping that
he could see in me

what I really
believed I had
inside of me,

I could really move soulfully
and really be a great
partner for him.

TERRELL: Skating kept me
out of trouble because it
was that something to do

for those eight or ten hours
on a Saturday or Sunday

while I wasn't
in my neighborhood.

I'm from South Central LA.

[ENGINE REVVING]

The two permanent black gangs
are the Crips and the Bloods.

I lived in
a Crip neighborhood,

but there were two
different factions
of Blood gangs around.

You had to know
how to navigate

through the world
of the gangs,

and in my case,
to navigate without
being in a gang.

On my way to Venice,
I would take the bus,

and I'd have to go through
several Crip neighborhoods
just to get to the beach.

And it was like coming out
of where I come from,

where you have to fight
or dodge bullets or whatever.

It was like a utopia.
It was like my
little sanctuary.

LARRY: But his mom didn't
mind him coming down there.

even though he was a kid.

It kept him out of trouble.

We looked out for him.

We looked out for everybody
that skated in that area.

We became inseparable.

I mean, we were turning
into a family.

JIMMY: My brother,
he got caught up
in some stuff.

He was a playboy
gangster Crip.

He ended up going to jail,

incarcerated for
a long period of time,

so he spent more than half
of his life in prison so far.

He's been in jail
over 35 years.

When I turned 17,

I was hanging out
with some people
that were not doing the best.

I would've had to have
join a gang

in order to survive
in that neighborhood.

I just needed to get away.

I needed to find
some new friends.

When I came to Venice,
it kept me out of the hood,
it kept me out of trouble.

I would say
it saved my life.

We didn't have to worry
about gang members
or anything like that

because Mad is so known
all throughout Los Angeles
that even gangs know Mad.

TERRELL: Mad would never
let somebody get jumped.

And I've seen many times
where there'd be, like,

five Crips on one Blood
or five Bloods on one Crip.

He'd look
and he'd be skating.

"The hell's going on
over there?"

And then he'll take off.
"What is he doing?"

So now, I'm trying
to keep up behind him.

And he'll get to a crowd
of people and he just starts
throwing people out of the way

and they'll all turn like,

"Oh, yeah, okay.
No, I'm good."

He was the law
and the jury and the judge
all at the same time.

He was more like a protector.

MAD: I didn't trust
nobody back then.

I didn't smile.
I had this look.

And when I said something,
that really scared them

'cause of the voice
and the size.

People looked at me
like I was a monster.

LARRY: He looks like
this guy that just wants
to rip your head off

or something like that,
but he's gentle.

The music was
the most important thing.

Without no music,
nobody knew what to do.

The six-pin,
a slingshot

slide into it, the alpha.

You didn't feel like
doing none of that

'cause you had no motivation.

The music was the motivation.
Like a night club.

Is there a night club
where there's no music?

That wouldn't go.

When that song
Nasty Rock came on,

I felt what was going on,
knew all the cuts.

The song came on,
everybody knew what to do.

[ NASTY ROCKPLAYING]

[WOMAN LAUGHING]

ALL: Whoo!

[WOMAN LAUGHING]

Come on up.

In the '70s and the '80s,

it was a whole
different country,

especially in
the black community.

And the music reflected that.

When you incorporate
dance into that,

there's so much
self-expression,

especially if you're lucky
enough to be skating
to some meaningful music.

I will tell you, the greatest
protest folk song
that was ever written

was by Mr. James Brown.

I'm Black And I'm Proud,
that song meant so much
to so many people.

-♪ Say it loud
-♪ I'm black and I'm proud

-♪ Say it loud
-♪ I'm black and I'm proud

SALLY: And when
we skate to that song,
it does something.

You have people just saying,
"Goddamn it, yeah."

-♪ Say it loud
-♪ I'm black and I'm proud

♪ One more time

-♪ Say it loud
-♪ I'm black and I'm proud

♪ I worked on jobs
with my feet and my hands♪

My theme song
coming up in this

was Egypt, Egypt
by Egyptian Lover

'cause there was this
breathing part, it was like...

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

And I could thump and flip
and do all my tricks

to that song.

The girls would tend to like
to see my booty move.

Any song
with a lot of breathing

allows me to move my butt,
which allows girls
to watch my butt,

which allows me to meet girls.

It's a love triangle of music,
skating and women.

[CROWD APPLAUDING]

LARRY: Mad was just about
fun and women, period.

He's getting in trouble
all the time
with his girlfriend.

"Larry, watch the box."
and he's gone.

"Oh, God,
here we go again."

And I go,
"Where's Mad at?"

"I don't know."

TERRELL: Mad would see
somebody sitting there
and have me like,

"Terrell, come here."

Grab me by my shoulder
and just like,

"See that girl over there?
Go get her number for me."

I'm like, "Uh, okay."

and I'd skate over,
"Excuse me, Mr. Mad
wants your phone number."

And she's like,
"Who the hell is Mr. Mad?"

I'm like, "Uh, that
big dude over there."

And she's like,
"Oh, tell him to come here."

So I'd go back, skate back,

"Mad, she said you need
to go over there."

"All right."
Then Mad scoots over
and gets her number.

And that's how we did it.

MAD: I was mostly into myself

more than a woman
wasting my time.

Mad was more
of a big brother than a dad

'cause the dad wouldn't
tell you some of the shit
that Mad told me.

He would give me
words of wisdom like,

"Stick and move.
Stick and move."

basically meaning,
"Don't get caught
with one woman."

Stick and move meant,
get one, get done with it.

Get another one,
get done with it.

So when he found out
that I was having a kid,

he was like, "Oh,
you stick and got stuck."

HOST: We have
the Venice skaters here,

and I think they're
gonna start the show.

We have Mad here.

[CROWD CHEERING]

And let's her it
for Terrell, Jimmy.

[PERCUSSION MUSIC PLAYING]

SALLY: When we all lived
in small tribal communities,

whether you were
in Ireland or Africa,

men would dance together.

And it's a beautiful thing.

And that lives
in roller skating.

But there's nothing like
a great dance or skate team.

There are things that a team
can do together

that just create
a certain magic,

like Fred Astaire
and Ginger Rogers.

I always used
to think of me and Mad

as being the Fred Astaire
and Ginger Rogers
of roller dancing.

The soulful version.

If it came down
to going somewhere

to sell it to the public,

she was the ticket.

All females, basically.

It's never the guy
that sells a ticket,

it's your partner.

SALLY: My friend from Sweden
happened to come by

and take these
photos one day,

and I was sort of almost
embarrassed by it

because my love for him
is so obvious...[LAUGHING]

It's almost embarrassing.

Man, I had one of
the great love affairs
of all time

without even necessarily
having a love affair.

JIMMY: Some people
are performers,
some people are watchers.

I started seeing
footage of myself,
pictures of myself,

and people coming and saying,
"Hey, look, I found you."

I never really recognized
what it looked like,

and I realized,
you know, this is...

"You're doing something
very unique."

Instead of celebrating us
or thanking us or paying us,

Hollywood comes down and tries
to exploit the talent.

NARRATOR: He's the best
skater around.

She's the hottest
date in town.

Together, they're
love on wheels

inRoller Boogie.

DUVAL: We taught
Linda Blair how to skate.

She was like all feet.
Nowhere to go.

LARRY: All of those
roller skate movies,

all carbon copies
of what we did down in Venice.

MAD: Roller Boogie,
only showing Linda Blair,

this dude doing
some Scott Hamilton,
Dorothy Hamill shit.

Uh, where's the talent
in that? I don't see it.

DUVAL: Skatetown, USA.

The whole story
was centered around
a bunch of white guys.

This white guy,
white girl picture.

I mean, none of us
are being represented.

Skatetown, USA,where they
wanted to cut me in half

and put this dude
on top of me.

And I'm like,
"You gotta be kidding."

They was like,
"What's wrong with that?
Everybody does it."

I say, "How they gonna
know who I am

"if they're only
seeing this part

"with some dude
that I don't even know
on top of me?"

I said no.

LARRY: Xanadu.

They didn't
really get skaters.

You have clowns,

you know, 'cause they're
doing flips, they're flopping.

They're doing
everything but skate.

Anybody can skate
in a straight line.

But can you do
the other stuff?

MAD: People came out there,
they got upset.

"I can't even see
the roller skaters.

"I heard so much about them.

"Where the white people at?"

"We watched it on movies."

They wanted white America
out there,

but Venice is about
the only beach that's black.

LARRY: They definitely
whitewashed it.

SALLY: If we were
to look back

on what record do we have
of the skating phenomenon

that really was a part
of black culture in America,

you wouldn't see
the phenomenal things that
happened on Venice Beach.

We would see these
ridiculous movies,

silly Afros,

ridiculous clothing.

The tragedy of that is that
history has just been
completely rewritten.

That becomes what people
think the culture was.

DUVAL: It doesn't give
any of us skaters

who are out there
over the weekend
any representation.

We have a black Green Lantern,
but there's no black Superman.

So I was like,
"We gotta remedy that."

Keep it hidden,
as you can see.

And this is yours truly

in regal fashion.

I'm Superiad, the forgotten
prince of Krypton.

These are my skates of power,

the most dangerous
skates alive. [CHUCKLES]

Skating is a need
to express yourself,

the same may I do
in my artwork.

I'm a freelance illustrator.

And this is my dream
called Roller Coasters.

TheRoller Coasters
was my very first
creator owned series.

I sat there
and thought one day,

"Why not have a roller-skating
superhero team?"

The reason why
they have skates on,

because they're
lightning fast.

They're faster than
the speed of sound.

This is Mr. Mad.

He's the perfect character.
[CHUCKLES]

Strong, brash,
and very, very impulsive.

SALLY: Nobody mattered
like Mad did.

He was really an artist,

and his dreams were
like any artist's,

to show the world
what he could do.

He didn't allow himself
to have a lot of dreams.

Dreaming is
dangerous territory.

Skating with me
the way he knew
I could skate with him,

skating in competition,

was the only dream
he ever allowed
himself to have.

And then I went
and fucked it up.

So even though skating
had suddenly become
this wild obsession,

my life-long passion
and my career was music.

So just as I was
becoming a skater,

I went off to Europe
with my songwriting partner
to do a tour.

My very last day,
and we're in London,

the folks I was
staying with, he calls out,

[IN BRITISH ACCENT] "Sally,
could you come down and
help me jump start the car?"

And I turned
to run to the other
side of the street

and ran smack into a car.

And the car actually
ran over my foot
and into my knee,

and sort of
permanently destroyed

what would've been
my great skating career.

She came back
with some crutches,

walked over to me,
"Hey, how you doin'?"

I froze and I look.

I went, "The hell
happened to you?"

My nightmare just started.

Nobody else was
capable of doing what she did.

SALLY: He was like,
"You'll never be able
to be really good again."

And he turned away from me
and didn't speak to me
for, like, two, three years.

I basically dashed
the only dream

he'd ever really
allowed himself to have.

My dreams, everything
went down the drain.

SALLY: I didn't understand
why he was ignoring me.

And what was
really frustrating

is that he would be teaching
all these other girls

who just didn't
have it in them.

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

REPORTER: The three
police officers facing
felony criminal charges

were among a group of 15

who stopped a 25-year-old
black man last Saturday night,

then beat him,
kicked him and clubbed him,

unaware that
an amateur photographer

was recording the incident
on video tape.

MAD: When the guy filmed
the police beating
Rodney King,

black people used
to seeing that.

That was no big deal.

JURY MEMBER: We, the jury,
to the above entitled action,

find the defendant,
Stacey C. Koon,

not guilty of the crime
of assault by force

likely to produce
great bodily injury
and with a deadly weapon.

The jury is what
started the riot.

[SIREN WAILING]

The world just blew up.

NEWSCASTER: The National Guard
has been called in to quell
widespread violence

in South Central Los Angeles.

The violence erupted
after the acquittal

of four white policemen
in the beating trial
of black motorist Rodney King.

There's been looting,
buildings has been set ablaze.

So far, eight people
reported dead.

Scores of others
have been injured.

Governor Pete Wilson
has declared a state
of emergency.

LARRY: The riots
were a turning point.

Everything down
at the beach changed.

It broke the continuity
that we had down there.

It just shattered everything.

All of a sudden,
drugs became notorious.

When crack cocaine came out,
this place flipped

because, I mean,
it's definitely so addictive

that it took people you know
that were straight-A students
and good people,

all of a sudden and just
turned them into thugs,

and people doing whatever
they felt they wanted to do
just to get a hit.

LARRY:
So I started experimenting
with heroine, crack

from about '86 and '93.

I was... I was out of control.

MAD: Larry was on a roll
of self-destruction.

He looking like
whatever them drugs,

whatever that nighttime
thing he was doing,

it was on him.

He was showing it
in the look.

And we couldn't
trust something

to be left right here

if Larry was there.

It came up missing.

LARRY: I was a burglar.

No house was safe.

The day that I got busted,
I didn't know the cops
were looking for me.

And I was at a crack house.

When I came out this house,
as soon as I walked out,

"You Larry Pitts?"
"Yup."

And that was it.

You know, I kind of
pulled out of the skating
scene in the '90s

for a short while
because I had a child,

you know, my son was born,
and I was busy
being a mother.

But meanwhile, other forces
were changing the scene.

[STATIC BUZZING]

[HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYING]

SALLY: The big
record companies

started hyping up
the worst wannabes
in every genre,

but especially hip-hop,

which degenerated
almost exclusively
into gangster rap.

♪ Crack rock, silver pots
Manage to get dough

♪ Crack rock, silver pots
Manage to get dough

♪ Crack rock, silver pots
Manage to get dough ♪

It's really painful to me
because we used to have music

that we skated to
that empowered us.

How did we get from the '70s,

where everybody was learning

how to listen to one another
and respect one another,

and to now?

"Bitch better have my money"?

You expect me
to skate to this shit?

[MUSIC CONTINUES]

DUVAL: All they talking
about is the bling-bling

or how many ladies they have

or how much gold they got on

or what kind of cars
they're driving or whatever.

I don't wanna hear all that.

MAD: I mean, these lyrics,

a lot of "M-Fs,"
some prostitutes,

that's the number one song

and I'm supposed to,
what, enjoy that?

Why the motherfucker's
always standing in the middle

at a fucking skate way
doing nothing?

JIMMY: That music
had to be popular,

had to be what was
going on at that time.

It fueled the fire.

MAD: LAPD back then,

they got too many
black people in one spot.

That's gonna be a problem.

Just about every weekend,
a uniform would show up.

And I knew right then
and there that something
was about to go wrong.

[YELLING INDISTINCTLY]

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

[CROWD CHEERING]

MAD: And all of a sudden,
out of nowhere,

the police got orders.

"Amplified music
on the beach is not allowed."

JIMMY: The police started
coming and shutting
our music off,

and have decibel
meters and say,

"You can only
have it this loud."

and we'd be like,
"We can't even hear it."

The police were afraid
of the number of people.

I mean, you'd have
like 1,000, 2,000,
3,000 people there

and there's only
20 cops or ten cops.

I think they got afraid
that if something jumped off,

they wouldn't be able
to handle the situation.

SALLY: Then the cops,
they started shutting
us down at 8:00,

then they started
shutting at down at 7:00,

then they started
shutting us down at 6:00.

And I was saying, "Man,
if we let them do this,

"soon they'll be shutting
us down altogether."

MAD: "I gotta tell you
one more time,

"you and this box
is going to jail."

This is my goat, my goat.
Yeah, uh-huh!

It's right here.

-Mad here.
-Right on.

Turn it back up.

I say, "No."

"Put your hands
behind your back.
You're going to jail."

"For what?"
"For amplified music."

"Whoa, you gotta be kidding."

WOMAN: Who's in charge?

They put you in charge?

MAD: The police came.
They came hard.

And they came
directly at me.

SALLY: During that period,

Mad was thrown
in jail repeatedly.

I don't know how many times,
but it was a lot.

When we were roller skating
in the '80s,

we thought things
were gonna get better.

You know, we honestly thought
that a lot of the prejudices

that we grew up with
in the '50s and '60s
or whatever

were dissipating.

We didn't see this coming.

All we wanted to do
was dance, skate and play.

There's no reason
for this reprimand

or for this
enforced nonsense.

We have got
a little problem here.

After 20 years
of doing this for you guys,

LAPD has decided that
they don't wanna do it.

Fight for our right, guys.

MAN: [IN MEGAPHONE]
I don't think there's
a black race or white race.

We're all
the human race, right?

There's no law
against skates,
so we're gonna skate.

ALL: ♪ No music, no music

♪ Come on, come on
No music, come on

♪ It's in here
Come on ♪

Being black and getting
music on the beach

was far as,
in white community

and white eyes, no.

"You guys can have fun,
but not like that."

I have a look of,

"You need to come
fuck with me."

First thing out
of their mouth,

"What penitentiary
you just got out of?"
Attitude.

"What makes you think
I've been in a penitentiary?"

"Look at you.

"You see,
you're a serious threat.
How'd you get that size?"

SALLY: First,
he couldn't drive
without getting pulled over,

and then he kept scaling down.

Bicycles. He still got
pulled over for speeding
on his bicycle?

And I don't think it's easy
to imagine what that's like.

When you walk out
your front door,

you're automatically a threat.

Mad is the black man
that white America fears.

And he's the...
He's the image.

NEWSCASTER: Venice Beach
roller skaters are now
skating on thin ice.

At issue
is this piece of pavement.

The police say they need
emergency access to the beach,

and that this smooth
piece of concrete,

a haven to skaters
for two decades,

is one of the few
routes to the sand.

It's never been
designated for that.

They've never got a law
or an ordinance passed
for that reason.

And they didn't
do their homework.

NEWSCASTER: An alternate spot
has been offered,

but it's slanted and flawed,

and in the lingo
of a skater, "cracked heels."

We hesitate
to call it racism,

but we can't help
but wonder

why they're selectively
enforcing it here.

They have indicated
to us in the past

that it's because we
attract "a certain element,"

which we all know
what that's a code word for.

MAD: They picked out
who they wanted to
be on the beach

and who they didn't
want to be on the beach.

[PEOPLE CLAMORING]

And then they end up
finally figuring out

that the only way
they can really destroy us
and get rid of us

is to rip up the pavement.

SALLY: That land
under which we skated

was sacred ground,
as far as I'm concerned.

And they just bring in
bulldozers and rip it up.

That's when the soul
left Venice Beach.

I'll be damned
when it was good.

I'm going with it.
I can't do nothing
else with it.

Time for me to go.

MAD: No more skating.

I miss it, but I can't
go back over there.

MICHELLE: I think
he misses skating a lot.

He has such passion
in what he does,
and if he can't...

That's why he's not
skating now,

it's because if he
can't do it right,

he doesn't wanna do it at all.

Original Steel Horses jacket.

Just about everybody
in the club has one of these.

RUSTY: He's my mentor,
he's my mechanic,

my personal trainer
when I'm getting
ready for races.

He likes to teach
if you wanna learn.

[ENGINE REVVING]

MICHELLE: I think, sometimes,
he's trying to run away

from all his past.

James wakes up mad.

And it takes everything
he has in the day

to keep him
from showing that side.

WAITRESS: Your eggs.

-You're kidding, right?
-[WAITRESS LAUGHING]

WAITRESS: You want
your hamburger and your eggs
on the side, no?

I wanted two eggs.

Yeah, but he wanted
it separate.

I wanted it separate.
Two eggs separate.

MICHELLE: I always call him
"The Incredible Hulk"

because he's one of those

that when he gets mad,
he can really get mad.

Hey, homie. Dude.

Tell her I don't
want that burger.

Didn't fix it right
the first time.

I don't need a second.

[MICHELLE SPEAKING]

Yeah, fuck me.

LARRY: I couldn't
skate in prison.

But when I got back out,
I was able to do everything.
I remembered everything.

But when I came down
to the beach,

all of a sudden, it's changed.

It's not like it was

because they've taken us
away from where we were at.

I said "Where's Mad?"
"Oh, he don't
come down there anymore."

Everything was changed.
Everything was different.

And I was ticked off.

And they, like,
shoveled us off to the side,

in a corner.

We were totally invisible.

SALLY: These days,
the cops don't have
to harass us anymore

because we've been
neutralized and marginalized.

They've got us shunted off
in that funky little area

which has, coincidentally,

become the hygiene-challenged
homeless area.

It's not what it used to be,

back when Mad, Jimmy,
Terrell, and I

were down there
doing our thing.

TERRELL: I think
with Mad being gone,

there was no real leader.

SALLY: The skating
scene's really gone.

The heart and soul
was being lost.

TERRELL: So we need Mad
back in Venice Beach
to get that back.

INTERVIEWER: If you ever
went back to LA,

ever went back to Venice,

would you go back
out to Venice

and would you skate
for old time's sake?

If they brought it
to that situation, I would.

MAD: Utah is not the problem.
It's what's in Utah.

And they want you to be,
like them, not be yourself.

You can take a boy
out of the hood,

but you can't take
the hood out of a boy.

I mean, you're talking
about Utah.

That's Mormon country.
I mean, there's snow up there.

You know, I can even
remember him telling me,

"Man, I ain't never felt
nothing like this
before in my life."

I'm like, "What?"
He said it was cold.

[LAUGHS]

MAD: You visit the snow,
it's lovely.

You live in the snow,
it ain't lovely.

Utah was not a place for me.

I needed to go home.

[ENGINE REVVING]

LARRY: I think Mad
came back from Utah

because it just...
It wasn't him.

He misses the beach.
He misses...

He misses everything
that we used to do.

What it feels like
to be back?

I don't like
what I'm looking at.

I'm looking at
the new changes
and trying to adapt to it,

but there's really
nothing to it.

It's like a showboat place.

Back in the day,

I used to live right up there
before it was Muscle Beach.

It used to be just
an apartment.

None of this was out here.

[WAVES SPLASHING]

[CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]

LARRY: My whole
way of thinking changed.
Everything about me.

No more drugs,
no more drinking.

I just work. That's it.

I'm the appliance M.D.,
you know, I'm the doctor.

I've been doing this now
going on about ten years.

Something that was given to me
by a best friend of mine, D,

another skater.

Gave me a life.

Venice today
is commercialized.

It's not what it used to be.

It's changed a lot.

To me, I wouldn't
say for the better

because it's...
It's too preppy now.

It's not family-oriented
like it was when I grew up
here back in the '60s.

That's new.

The house here is new.

Another new home going up.

Now, it's like everything
is bought and sold in a week.

Somebody come here,
"I don't like it.
Tear it down.

"Throw something new up,
you know, another box."

This right here,
they've changed everything.

This is where
I grew up as a kid.

This spot right here.

And my grandmother
and grandfather lived
right here up front,

but all of this has changed.

This is a tree we planted.

It was cool growing up here.
I really loved it.

I mean, I love Venice
right to this day.

And if I hit the lotto,
this thing's gonna come down

'cause I'd give them
what they want

just to build
the original house
that I grew up in

right here on this spot.

I would love to have it.
I really would.

SALLY: I'm like a great
American tragedy now.

Enormous potential,
and I'm living in a garage

without a bathroom
and a kitchen.

I'm living on $740 a month.

I have about $20
a week for food.

I keep a smile on my face,

but it's really
humiliating to be this poor.

It's really humiliating
to never have money

and never be able
to buy anything,
never be able to do anything.

MICHELLE: The job that
he's now doing,
which is security,

Mad doesn't like
to be micromanaged.

He's one of those
who needs a job

that you tell him what to do,
and he just goes and does it.

MAD: I'm working at an area
I used to have fun at.

I'm working at a beach
I used to come down

and be known
when everybody comes by.

"Mad!"

Yeah.

Do I like it? No, I do not.

I gotta pretend like
I'm happy to see these people.

Every time I go apply
for a job,

they ask you that
one question right there,

"Have you ever been arrested?"

I'm stuck.

Am I a harsh criminal? No.

But in the eyes
of the world, I am.

People are like,
"What you crying about?"

"You won't believe
what I went through

"just to get a couple of years
of roller skating in."

TERRELL: Racism is
actually worse today.

Before cameras
and all of that stuff,

brothers were getting
pulled over and...

I've been pulled over
and handcuffed

and had to sit on a curb
while they go through my car

at least 12, 15 times,
for no reason,
and they let you go.

"Okay, you don't
have anything."

[CLAMORING]

But it has gotten worse

because it's gone
from ass-kickings

to, like, unarmed shootings.

Now there's cameras
and Twitter and Facebook,

and so people are filming it
and posting it

before cops can even,
like, say,

"Oh, no, we didn't do it."
"Yeah, you did."

-[SIREN BLARING]
-[SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]

JIMMY: I don't hear of
black-on-white crime as much,

but I do hear of
police-on-people crime a lot.

To me, that's the racism.

[HELICOPTER HOVERING]

SALLY: Meanwhile, Venice
has been gentrified

and ethnically cleansed
of the positive
black role models

that the skaters once were

so that, what I would call
the terrified affluent,
feel safer.

That's one of the many
downsides of racism,

that it causes people
to misjudge good people

or a whole neighborhood as bad

out of sheer
brainwashed terror,

and they trust people
that they shouldn't

just because they
look a certain way.

It's a shame that America
is still so plagued by racism,

but here we are.

[PEOPLE LAUGHING]

[CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]

You don't have
to go do this shit.

MAD: It was pretty shocking
when Michelle had set up

a birthday for my 55th year.

The people that she had
come to that party.

She has surprises
all left and right,

and they walked in
one at a time.

Just about everybody
that came in
came off that beach.

MAN: There you go. The 1980s.

TERRELL: Whenever we all
get together,

it's nothing but,
like, but just pure
reminiscing and fun.

It just takes me back
to those days.

LARRY: We started talking
about skating and stuff.

I said "You gotta
come out and skate."

[ALL LAUGHING]

Oh, my God.

Y'all know what I'm saying.

I'm not going
to show this to nobody.

They already said,
before and after.

MAD: It hit me
like a ton of bricks

'cause all I'm thinking
about is

how it's been invigorating,

a tight turn,

slow motion.

Hitting that split.

I cannot do that now.

People I haven't
seen in a while,
thanks for coming out.

Damn.

Elvis, want some?

Don't tell the other ones.

I can't keep nothing around
if they can't do
what it used to do.

Michelle is more, like,
you wanna keep 'em
till they disintegrate.

But, basically,
when they get old,

it's time for me
to get rid of them

because I ain't
into that nursing.

You can't get up,
you can't sit down,

to me, you're done.

Come on.

MICHELLE: I would love
to see him skate again,

but I don't think, physically,
he's capable of doing that.

He had a huge stroke in 2009.

It messed up his equilibrium.

So, the problem is,

the turns
and things like that,

throw him totally off balance.

With skating,
he is a perfectionist.

If he can't do it right,
he doesn't wanna do it at all.

Once I'm sitting down,
I'm cool.

When I'm standing up,
that's somewhat of a problem.

All right.

LARRY: He's getting
a lot older now.

He can't do the same
things he used to.

I mean, if you looked at
the before and afters of him,

and I'm talking about
somebody that could skate,

oh, yeah.

I mean...

And if he can't do it
the way he used to,
he's not gonna touch it.

MAD: This is my
roller skating bag.

Those skates are
the new ones.

Why the heel?

-They all come with it.
-I thought they come flat.

-Oh, they don't.
-This is like a dancing shoe.

-Disco dancing.
-No.

You don't know anything
about roller skating.

-I don't.
-I might put them back on.

And I think
about it a lot, but...

MAD: Thought it was a joke.

I'm like, "Really?
Are you kidding?"

All I gotta do
is just be there.

I'm like, "Why not?"

MAD: I need my hush stretched.

Gotta be like Michael Jordan
in that last shot.

That's the only thing
they remember.

The last shot went in
and won that series with it.

And for me to put
them things on and do that...

Just to talk about it
all day long cannot do that.

SALLY: I'd like to
see us all out there

skating to those
really dynamic,

you know, funky '80s tunes

where that bass just
makes you grind
your heart out,

and remind people
what life can be like
when it's authentic.

I could just hear it now,
you know.

Mad's like,
"Five, six, seven, eight."

And there it would be,
you know.

[CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]

DUVAL: Once Mad come out here,

he'll pretty much
bring us back.

Problem is, with all
the old school gang
out here.

You're gonna see
some dramatic changes.

[FUNK MUSIC PLAYING]

HOST: Venice Beach, hands up!

Let me hear you
make some noise!

[CROWD CHEERING]

We have a lot of things
we've been doing
over the last 30-plus years.

We've been doing
line dances, we've been
doing choreography,

so we genuinely
appreciate you for coming out
and hanging out with us.

We got Larry
right here, folks.

Larry is one of the OGs.

He's one of the guys
that started line dancing.

We got Duval,
Superman in the house.

[CROWD CHEERING]

There's a reason
that we have what is now
called skate dance plaza.

We fought for it, folks.
We all went to city hall.

We fought with
the police, folks.

All the time.

Who wants
to just dance, folks?

Who wants to follow
this man right here, folks?

We wanted
to follow Mad, folks.

This is the man
who started the craze.

One, two, three,
give it to him!

[CROWD CHEERING]

Play the music, Maestro.

Everybody who knows
what's called a line dance,

he's the very first person
I ever danced with.
He taught me all this.

[ NASTY ROCKPLAYING]

MAD: When them songs came on,

I didn't know how
to react to that.

I mean, that fucked
with me real bad.

And I had to turn around
and face these people
and put on a show.

In my mind, I was doing
this, this, and this,
and this.

But I'm standing there.

I said, "I can't. I can't.
I need to leave."

Come on, y'all.

All of a sudden,
my energy level went low.

Very low.

I just turned around.

"You guys go ahead."

"It's your show now,
not mine."

Hit me real hard,
what I can't do.

This is hurt.

And I never did
roller skating when it hurt.

Like, deep down,
up in here, this shit
really hurts.

[SNIFFLES]

Saying to myself
the whole time, "This is it."

I was eager when it was fun.
It's not fun no more.

Look at how easy it is
for everybody else to do it.

And you wonder why
I don't come back.

JIMMY: I don't know
what I would do without Mad.

I don't know where
I would have been

if Mad hadn't
been there for me.

The heart of Venice
right here.

The heart of skating
right here.

JIMMY: Thirty-five
years later, I still can't
wait for the weekend.

You can call Venice
our Never Never Land.

We never grew up.

We're the Peter Pans
of Venice.

TERRELL: Skating
kept me out of trouble.

That's one thing Mad
told me, like,
always try to be the best.

So when it became time
for me to be a dad,

even though I was young
and kinda scared,

and not knowing
what the hell I was doing,

I still wanted
to be a good dad.

So, skating gave me a career
and a life and a direction.

I signed with the agency,

I believe, three weeks
after my daughter was born.

We got iPod,
and then there
was Mountain Dew.

It put my daughter
through school.

My daughter graduated
from college in three years.
Ivy League School.

My son is at
Indiana University.

Venice raised me.

It made me the man
that I am.

Venice is what
taught me real skating.

LARRY: Some people may
think that the dream is dead.

To me, it's, nah,
it hasn't gone anywhere.
It's still here.

And as long
as it remains here,
it'll never die.

I can always replay it
over and over and over
and over and over again.

So it's not gonna leave me.

It's a part of me,
and I love it.

SALLY: You know, I think
part of our connection

is we both have enormous
amount of pride,
probably to our detriment.

We think of ourselves
as being very strong
and very physically fit.

I mean, shoot, I'm 61.

You know, I've got
arthritis, cancer,
ripped cartilage.

All my joints
are bone-on-bone now.

I'm still skating
'cause I love it that much.

Skating is still
the greatest joy in my life.

It gives you so much joy

that even excruciating
physical pain is like...

"I don't care."

I feel so grateful that
I happened to be

in Venice Beach at that
particular time in history,

and to be a part
of that scene

because there'll never be
anything like it ever again.

It's just incredible.

And there they are.

They're precious.

If anything happened to these,

oh, my God,
what would I do?

I couldn't replace them.
I'd die.

DUVAL: Skating, to me,
is like breathing.

And I'll be like
a fish out of water.

Superman without the sky.

SALLY: Roller skaters
are family.

I'll always feel connected
to all my Venice Beach
peeps, you know.

[ALL CLAMORING]

[CAMERA CLICKS]

MICHELLE: There's no way
to explain the way
Venice Beach was 20 years ago.

There's not the same aura
about the whole entire area.

He misses what it was,
not what it is now.

Because of the police
and the music,

it can never be like it was.

SALLY: But I still have
this dream

that he'll put
his skates on again

and I'll be skating somewhere,

and he'll just jump in there.

And for those few moments,

we'll be what we always
knew we could be,

just phenomenal.

MAD: I still dream about it.

I dream about it every day.

Would you like to be filmed?

[ ONCE IN A LIFETIMEPLAYING]