This article was published: in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 13, 1993 online in 2006
James Charles Bendrodt (1891-1973), roller-skater and restaurateur, was born on 26 June 1891 at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, son of James Peter Bendrodt, a Danish sea-captain, and his wife Emily Caroline Delphina, née Swanson. Having attended school at Vancouver, Jimmy worked his passage to Sydney as a stoker, arriving by 1910 with only £5. Dark, lithe and muscular, he claimed to have been a lumberjack and to hold Canadian roller-skating titles.
With his partner George Irving, Bendrodt prospered as a trick-skater in Sydney and on country tours. Appointed manager of the new Imperial Roller Rink, Hyde Park, he soon secured the lease and fostered an exclusive and decorous image that was to characterize all…