ABSTRACT
In October 1957, Canadian Business declared that ‘bowling is by far Canada’s biggest participating sport’. The same was true in the USA. In Canada, bowling was a $52 million industry with 3,000 lanes in 900 establishments scattered across the country. There were over a million bowlers in Ontario alone; Toronto had more bowling alleys than New York and Philadelphia combined; and Windsor and Vancouver had the highest number of alleys per capita. The Financial Post noted that ‘bowling alleys boom along without regard to recession, region or remoteness’. Up to 25 per cent of all revenues in the business was profit. Bowling leagues were running the establishments at full capacity six evenings a week. ‘Drop-in’ bowlers, taking advantage of their leisure time, kept the lanes busy during afternoons and late nights. In Vancouver, ‘Bowl-A-Parties’ for women’s organizations and the ‘Ladies-in-Waiting’ league expanded the customer base for entrepreneurial proprietors. Bowling palaces with bars, cosmetologists, laundry services, nurseries and restaurants exploited the appeal of recreation and sport to the entire family. The Canadian Junior Bowling Council, formed in 1957, quickly spread across the provinces to promise the business of habitual bowlers well into the future. Physical education courses in bowling, along with intercollegiate and intramural competition, seemed to guarantee that the next generation of parents was properly socialized into the middle-class recreational and leisure pursuits.16
