There’s a lot to be said for bowling. It’s loud. It involves a kind of controlled violence. It requires strength, coordination and genuine technique. And it’s damn fun.
Here, for no other reason than we like the sport and because the pictures are pretty cool, LIFE.com presents photographs of men, women and kids bowling. Some of the bowlers are serious. Some are what we might call hobbyists. Some are clearly awful. But what they all share is the evident desire to smash the pins. To make that improbable spare. To nail a convincing, resounding, unmistakable strike.
Ready to roll?
Pins scatter as they fall after being struck by a bowling ball in 1951.Mark Kauffman–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesBody English at the bowling alley, 1948. Ralph Morse–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesDon Miller makes facial expressions and wiggles his body while watching his ball roll down the lane in 1948.Ralph Morse–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesBob Jones watches his ball roll down the lane while a cigar hangs from his mouth in 1948.Ralph Morse–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesPat Patterson, who bowled for the Budweiser Bowling Team and became a United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer, kneels down on one knee as he watches his ball roll down the lane in 1948.Ralph Morse–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesA woman finishes bowling her turn with a grimace in 1948.Ralph Morse–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesA bowler covers his eyes after releasing the ball in 1948.Ralph Morse–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesUnited States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer Joe Falcaro in midair, 1940.Gjon Mili–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCatherine Fellmeth, 1948.George Skadding–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesTwinkle Watts, a child actress and bowler, 1942.Bernard Hoffman–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesA female bowling team member wears a uniform representing her team and sponsor in 1948.Ralph Morse–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesBowler Phyllis Mercer releases the ball down the lane in Evanston, Illinois, in 1960.Stan Wayman–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesPhyllis Mercer turns frustratedly away from the lane after watching her ball miss the pins in Evanston, Illinois, in 1960. Stan Wayman–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesFlorence Wilson and other women at a bowling alley in Teaneck, New Jersey, in 1947.Gjon Mili–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesMen cheer a fellow team member's shot at a bowling alley in Teaneck, New Jersey, in 1947.Gjon Mili–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesWomen bowl in two of the four bowling alleys located under the chapel of New York's Riverside Church in November 1937.Margaret Bourke-White–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesDorothy Crouch, balanced on one foot at the end of her stride, releases the ball in a preliminary match during the nine-day World Series of Bowling championship tournament in Chicago in 1955. She finished seventh among women.Francis Miller–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesChampion bowler Marion Ladewig dabs at her eyes after losing the championship tournament in Chicago in 1955. Pictured at age 40, she told LIFE she planned to retire, adding, "At my age, bowling comes to be a hardship."Francis Miller–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesWomen at a bowling alley bar celebrate their high-scoring game with a round of drinks at the Orchard Twin Bowl in Skokie, Illinois in 1960.Stan Wayman–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesWomen get their hair set between games in a beauty shop adjoining the Cotton Bowl lanes in Dallas, Texas, in 1960.Stan Wayman–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesChildren play with a plastic bowling ball and pins, provided in order to prevent them from interrupting their mothers as they bowl, at a nursery at the Hart Bowl in Dallas, Texas, in 1960.Stan Wayman–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesArchers shoot arrows alongside bowlers at the Sunnyside Bowl Bowling Alley in Fresno, California, in 1961.J. R. Eyerman–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesAn apprentice geisha in a kimono and full make-up smiles as she bowls in Kyoto, Japan, in 1964. Larry Burrows–Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesA young bowler watches his ball approach the pins in 1959.Thomas D. McAvoy–Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
