Clevelander J. After World War II, industrial recreation groups were concerned about the ABC restriction, since black employment in manufacturing had increased significantly during the war, and industrial bowling leagues were still the backbone of the sport. The technology that truly revolutionized postwar bowling was the automatic pinspotter, which swept the alley clear of fallen pins, respotted the remaining pins, and returned the ball to the bowler, eliminating the need for pinboys.
First demonstrated by AMF in , it was made fully automatic by and installed in bowling centers all over the country. Bowling was now a big business; and although a large initial investment was required to install the automatic pin spotters, lane owners could profitably operate 24 hours a day, days a year, with little overhead. By there were approx. Cleveland shared the national postwar bowling boom and the economic prosperity that fueled it.
Automatic pinspotters had been installed in 10 bowling centers here by , and larger, more luxurious alleys continued to be built, particularly in the suburbs, where many offered free bowling lessons, coffee, and babysitting to attract homemakers to the alleys. Non-sanctioned-league participants, junior bowling programs, and recreational bowlers accounted for more than , additional bowlers. Much of this increase was due to women bowlers, whose participation doubled in 20 years. League competition became so prevalent that the dominance of factory worker teams was challenged by thousands of professional businessmen and women who took up the sport.
The Professional Bowlers Assn. Cleveland had been a regular stop on the PBA national tour since There was increased competition for the recreational dollar from other athletic interests; and with the more unstructured lifestyle of the s, a weekly commitment to league bowling became a less attractive option. Women's participation in particular declined as more of them took jobs outside the home.
In the s, however, more senior citizens took up bowling, and local proprietors offered special promotions to lure open bowlers to the alleys. In these efforts brought a slight upturn in the number of open games bowled. Elmer Reed, who were chosen for meritorious service to the sport. As an industrial urban area, Cleveland shared in the steady growth of bowling as a popular national sport from the turn of the century until the mids.
Since that time, national interest in bowling has waned, but the decrease in economic opportunity and loss of population in Cleveland has caused a more severe decline in the sport.
More than 20, lanes were built from to Then, as the Baby Boomers grew up, the centers expanded to also include snack bars, coffee shops, cocktail lounges, even nurseries, drawing in more women and young people. From to , the American Bowling Congress went from , to 2. Bowlers would commit to coming to the bowling alley every week; but, often, the walk-in bowler was ignored. White Hutchinson also concluded that bowling has shifted to predominately white-collar participants.
They're thriving. Robert Putnam, who taught at the University of Michigan before becoming a public policy professor at Harvard University, has made the case that a decline in league bowling signals something more: It's a symptom of a decline in social activity.
Putnam's paper, "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital," which caught the attention of then-President Bill Clinton and was later expanded into a book in , made the case that the decline was a metaphor for community engagement in America. It's also possible bowling isn't what people do anymore.
Hansell, who has been in the bowling business since the s, takes the view that there still are more frames to play.
While league bowling isn't what it once was, in part because folks don't have the time to commit to it, he said, it's still popular, with more than 67 million people bowling at least once last year. But, at the end of the day — and we haven't gotten there yet — bowling should be poised for another year run. By there were 5, bowling centers in the US, according to HighBeam, less than half the s peak. So what does all of this tell us?
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