Courtesy of Cernik family/Skate Daze. First business for Frank Cernik.
Courtesy of KMTV.com. A better picture of what Frank owned.
Courtesy of KMTV.com. Watch the video and you will see an old tent rink Frank had.
Frank B. Cernik Mobile Tent Rink Traveling through Nebraska.
Frank was a young man who worked hard after hearing his parents talking about the one armed man who is disabled and not working. That really encourage Frank Cernik who had partial right hand due to an accident. He was determined to be successful so he began his own business at age of 18! However, 4 years before that, he started to work at a roller rink in Wahoo, Nebraska assisting customers with their clamp-on skates. Wahoo was where he was born and raised on a family farm where he loved to farm.
His disability did not interfere with his ability to work. No excuses. And God bless him with having a job because it was common with discrimination against people with disabilities, deafness, etc. And Frank did well with the patrons when he worked at that rink. I have no idea what the name of that rink was. Anyone?
So finally as young man at age 18, in 1946, Frank was able to start his own business which was a mobile roller rink. That is, you travel town to town truckloads of a huge heavy canvas tent, roller skates rentals, shelves for the rentals, and of course, the main attraction was the Maple wood floor. It must have been a tongue and grove format that frank and perhaps his staff put together quickly and built the rink. The size could have been like a 1000 square feet. Small because its too much time to built that up each trip and spaces on old 1930s pickup trucks and install lights and all. Then after that day or a week, then go to next town by take down and load and go to that town. I am painting a picture of a real life skate operator would do with their tents. It was common back in 1860s to 1950s. Brick-and-Mortar were more practical and easier to open and close with just a key and turn on the lights and heater or air conditioning. I know because I worked at a rink and that was my job to open it up and close up.
However, a fire destroyed Frank's moving tent roller rink because of careless smoker who flicked his cigarette onto the roof instead of the ground to put out the cigarette one summer. Likely in Summer of 1949. And things took time till 1950 when he was 22 years old finally bought the Harker's Roller Rink. See that profile by clicking on the name of that rink. His motivation to start the tent rink was because he worked for four years at that Wahoo, Nebraska roller rink which began his life long career in roller skating industry. To pick up history where this left off, please read profile about Harker's-Fremont Roller Rink and go from there.
Frank was a pioneer in modern roller skating rink business industry. He was awarded into the Hall of Fame. Frank passed away in February 2020. There is an excellent full history on Frank's history in association with roller skating and rinks on Skate Daze.
To what I saw pictures of Frank and reading stories, sound like he was a real nice man and understands disabilities (I am Deaf and blind in one eye) and for his love of skating and people especially children to roller skate (I have no children of my own but I understand! Thank you Frank for making millions of children happy to skate! God bless you, Frank!)
The Interior.
Small Maple floor with canvas tent overhead, opened sides but can roll down to protect from sun or rain elements. One side showed where skate rentals were set up for skaters to rent skate and go skating. I doubt they had bathrooms!
The Exterior.
I do not know what color that canvas tent was. It was built to protect the outdoor Maple rink from the sun and rain. And it was wooden posts supporting the tent up from center. Likely they had no bathrooms. They had snow drift fence as barriers to keep other curious people from going onto the rink without paying admissions. Perhaps they did allow smoking and this is why it burned down because of ejected cigarette onto the tent.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A Floor: Maple. Floor Layout: N/A
Building Size: N/A Built: 1946 (business) Demolished: Destroyed by fire due to reckless smoker who flicked cigarette onto the tent.
Type of Building: Post supported tent. 5 columns.
Roof: Post supported tent.
Acres: N/A
Operated: 1946 to 1949.
Reason for Closure: Destroyed by fire due to reckless smoker. Decided to upgrade to brick-and-mortar. (now he must have known about the 3 Little Pigs story!)
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of start and end. When was that fire? More photos?
Sources: Obituary, Skate Daze, Frank Cernik Genealogy site,
© 2019-2020 Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved.
Frank was a young man who worked hard after hearing his parents talking about the one armed man who is disabled and not working. That really encourage Frank Cernik who had partial right hand due to an accident. He was determined to be successful so he began his own business at age of 18! However, 4 years before that, he started to work at a roller rink in Wahoo, Nebraska assisting customers with their clamp-on skates. Wahoo was where he was born and raised on a family farm where he loved to farm.
His disability did not interfere with his ability to work. No excuses. And God bless him with having a job because it was common with discrimination against people with disabilities, deafness, etc. And Frank did well with the patrons when he worked at that rink. I have no idea what the name of that rink was. Anyone?
So finally as young man at age 18, in 1946, Frank was able to start his own business which was a mobile roller rink. That is, you travel town to town truckloads of a huge heavy canvas tent, roller skates rentals, shelves for the rentals, and of course, the main attraction was the Maple wood floor. It must have been a tongue and grove format that frank and perhaps his staff put together quickly and built the rink. The size could have been like a 1000 square feet. Small because its too much time to built that up each trip and spaces on old 1930s pickup trucks and install lights and all. Then after that day or a week, then go to next town by take down and load and go to that town. I am painting a picture of a real life skate operator would do with their tents. It was common back in 1860s to 1950s. Brick-and-Mortar were more practical and easier to open and close with just a key and turn on the lights and heater or air conditioning. I know because I worked at a rink and that was my job to open it up and close up.
However, a fire destroyed Frank's moving tent roller rink because of careless smoker who flicked his cigarette onto the roof instead of the ground to put out the cigarette one summer. Likely in Summer of 1949. And things took time till 1950 when he was 22 years old finally bought the Harker's Roller Rink. See that profile by clicking on the name of that rink. His motivation to start the tent rink was because he worked for four years at that Wahoo, Nebraska roller rink which began his life long career in roller skating industry. To pick up history where this left off, please read profile about Harker's-Fremont Roller Rink and go from there.
Frank was a pioneer in modern roller skating rink business industry. He was awarded into the Hall of Fame. Frank passed away in February 2020. There is an excellent full history on Frank's history in association with roller skating and rinks on Skate Daze.
To what I saw pictures of Frank and reading stories, sound like he was a real nice man and understands disabilities (I am Deaf and blind in one eye) and for his love of skating and people especially children to roller skate (I have no children of my own but I understand! Thank you Frank for making millions of children happy to skate! God bless you, Frank!)
The Interior.
Small Maple floor with canvas tent overhead, opened sides but can roll down to protect from sun or rain elements. One side showed where skate rentals were set up for skaters to rent skate and go skating. I doubt they had bathrooms!
The Exterior.
I do not know what color that canvas tent was. It was built to protect the outdoor Maple rink from the sun and rain. And it was wooden posts supporting the tent up from center. Likely they had no bathrooms. They had snow drift fence as barriers to keep other curious people from going onto the rink without paying admissions. Perhaps they did allow smoking and this is why it burned down because of ejected cigarette onto the tent.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A Floor: Maple. Floor Layout: N/A
Building Size: N/A Built: 1946 (business) Demolished: Destroyed by fire due to reckless smoker who flicked cigarette onto the tent.
Type of Building: Post supported tent. 5 columns.
Roof: Post supported tent.
Acres: N/A
Operated: 1946 to 1949.
Reason for Closure: Destroyed by fire due to reckless smoker. Decided to upgrade to brick-and-mortar. (now he must have known about the 3 Little Pigs story!)
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of start and end. When was that fire? More photos?
Sources: Obituary, Skate Daze, Frank Cernik Genealogy site,
© 2019-2020 Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved.