Bowling Abides
Bowling has been around for a long time. Anthropologists found rudimentary balls and stone pins in Egyptian tombs dating back to 3200 B.C. The Romans played outdoor bowling. In Germany, around 400 A.D., bowling with rocks and clubs (called kegels) became a religious ritual. We see an evolution of that tradition at the beginning of Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle”:
As they ascended, Rip every now and then heard long rolling peals, like distant thunder, that seemed to issue out of a deep ravine, or rather cleft, between lofty rocks, toward which their rugged path conducted.
Those “peals” turn out to be the sounds of mountain people “playing at nine-pins” — perhaps the first description of bowling in American literature!
The first American bowling alleys appeared up and down the East Coast during the twilight of the Gilded Age. The White Elephant, owned by American Bowling Congress founder Joe Thum, was an elegant restaurant and bowling alley in New York City that served upper-class patrons. Further south, West Virginia’s renowned resort The Greenbrier offered gracious amenities to guests: a pool decorated with mosaics, white-gloved tea service accompanied by a string quartet — and bowling lanes. Captain of industry George Vanderbilt took the trend a step further by building a bowling alley into his Asheville, North Carolina mansion. Other millionaires followed suit, and nowadays the mansion-bowling-alley is iconic of a bygone era, often seen in popular culture.
American ten-pin bowling reached its golden age in the in the postwar years of the 1940s though the ’60s. League bowling soared in popularity, particularly among working class men. By the mid-’60s, the American Bowling Congress reached 4.6 million dues-paying members. Presidents Truman and Nixon installed bowling alleys in the White House. Even Fred Flintstone and Tom and Jerry bowled! Ten-pin bowling was introduced to new audiences around the world. But then, interest began to wane.
In recent decades, bowling leagues — increasingly associated with burly men, nachos, and beer — have seen a decline. Income from leagues formerly generated 70% of revenue for bowling alleys, but as of 2015 only contributed 40%.
I asked some of our SCAD bowling student-artist-athletes for their take on the decline of leagues, and one speculated that the commitment to a 36-week schedule was daunting to younger bowlers. Should we be worried about the future of bowling?
The bowling Bees say “no” (as do the statistics). Team member and junior branded entertainment student Joe Innis said, “Bowling as a pastime is slowly making a comeback.” 45 million people bowled at least once in 2017, a number that’s held steady for the last five years. The aforementioned study also found that those participating are predominantly white-collar workers. They’re just not in leagues. And they’re not going to the boozy, dimly lit, smoky bowling alleys of old.
They’re going to the boozy, dimly lit, admittedly less smoky bowling alleys of now.
These new bowling centers are certainly not your grandfather’s. They may actually be more akin to your great-great-grandfather’s, harkening back to the days of bowling granddaddy Joe Thum himself.
Upscale resorts near Savannah like Palmetto Bluff and The Cloister are adding new lanes. In Atlanta, three avant-garde venues have sprung up in the last four years. The Painted Pin describes itself as “an upscale boutique bar, bowling and entertainment venue,” and its sister location, The Painted Duck, claims to be “a distinguished drinkery, duckpin bowling, and gaming parlour.” Yet another such multi-faceted entertainment and gaming center is Punch Bowl Social, a massive “next level,” “25,000-square-feet of sheer awesomeness” franchise popping up in major cities across the country.
“I went to The Painted Duck a few weeks ago for my birthday, actually!” said graduate student in graphic design E’lan Boynes-Page. “I loved it. It was very different from regular bowling. The ball and the pins are smaller and you get three tries to knock them all down.” The Painted Duck is perhaps the most hipster of this new generation of venues. They offer obscure games such as Belgian feather bowling, toad in the hole, and duckpin bowling, which is a variation on traditional ten-pin.
All three Atlanta hotspots are overbooked nearly every weekend. Sometimes groups will wait over an hour for a lane to open! Part of the appeal is the variety: no longer just bowling lanes and a claw machine. The Painted Pin alone boasts bocce courts, shuffleboard, ping pong, skeeball, southern skittles, darts, and giant Jenga (plus others!). And beyond the activities — the menus in each restaurant are littered with novelty bites and drink concoctions named in such a way you just can’t help but want to try them. A “7/10 Corn Split” to go with your “Terrapin Hopsecutioner,” anyone?
The bottom line is that bowling is fashionable again. But regardless of whether these jazzed-up options are a signifier of bowling’s future, bowlers like E’lan and Joe are in it for the long haul — for the love of the game in its purest form.
“Bowling is in my family’s DNA,” said E’lan. “My grandparents got me bowling at the young age of five.” She points out the way that bowling allows people from any generation to come together. “It’s fun, and it’s a great way to make long-lasting friendships.”
Joe expressed much the same sentiment. His grandparents got him bowling, too, and it’s been his enduring passion since childhood. He says, “Probably the proudest moment I had as a bowler is getting the phone call from the head coach of the bowling program offering me a scholarship to come bowl here at SCAD.”
My intention with athletics at SCAD is to promote lifetime sports like tennis, golf, cycling, and bowling. I’ve always looked back fondly at my time bowling at Furman, and I wanted to give the same opportunity to our students. Coach Walter Cottingham was my bowling professor; he had extra-long curling white eyebrows and described bowling as “poetry in motion.” He was a true master.
I was not his best pupil. But I’m proud to play a role in imparting that poetry to new generations of bowlers. Onward it rolls.
