When I was a kid shoe salesman was a high status job.
The shoe salesmen were all well spoken and impeccably dressed. TV ads always portrayed them as consummate professionals. In some stores they even operated X ray machines called fluoroscopes which were specially designed for feet. I loved getting new shoes because that meant I got to look into the machine's viewer and watch my own skeletal feet.
Geez, that was dangerous radiation. I hope I don't wake up some morning with an extra head on my shoulders.
Parents had to be careful with money in those days, so they always got over-sized shoes that their kids could grow into. I guess that made the salesman's job easier.
Like a lot of kids in my time, I considered selling shoes as a possible career. Ads in magazines gave me the impression that only beautiful women bought shoes, and I was prepared to do my best for them.
I was aware of the hazard presented by dealing with beautiful legs all day. Even as a little kid I fully expected a lot of customers to throw themselves at me. I anticipated that I'd have to deflect their advances, and I was determined to do it with humor and savoir-faire. After all, a shoe salesman is a professional and must maintain a professional detachment.
I can't remember what changed my mind about selling shoes. Was it Bundy's horror stories about the job in "Married With Children?" No, that came much later. I guess I just got interested in other things, like being a pilot or a general....or a cartoonist.
Occasionally I come across a veteran shoe salesman from the old days. These guys still dress like Cary Grant and still treat their customers as if they were lordly aristocrats. They still handle quality leather shoes as if they were marvels of technology and craftsmanship. I'm always tempted to ask them what it was like in the good old days. Ah, the stories they could tell!
6 comments:
Cool anecdote. I heard Ed Love, one of the animators at the Lantz and MGM studios, started out as a shoe salesman. Interesting.
Could you explain to me this Hunger Games book that everyone at my school keeps talking about? I've never heard of it or the movie before, but I have a feeling it might be the most popular movie of the year in terms of revenue and sales.
yes its true, the savvy salesmen are still around, mostly in high end classic menswear stores.
A very pleasant shopping experience too I must admit.
The downside ofcourse, is the pricetag :(
Uncle Eddie sed - "They still handle quality leather shoes as if they were marvels of technology and craftsmanship."
High end leather footwear was the result of craftmanship in the past. I don't know if that is still true or not. I do know you can wear ill-fitting clothes and be fine whereas ten minutes in a bad pair of shoes will have you cringing with every step.
I have one pair of hand made Italian leather shoes that I purchased decades ago. They are dress shoes and I can wear them all day as if they were a pair of sneakers.
Roberto: Thanks or the info. Ed Love was a show salesman!? I had no idea.
I never heard of Hunger Games til you mentioned it. I looked it up on Amazon and was shocked to see that the first volume of the trilogy got over 4,300 comments, almost all of them favorable! Is this going to be the next Harry Potter? I'll see if I can get it from the library.
Tek!: Ah yes, the price tag....!
I worked in a clothing store in college and there was a shoe department. The shoe salesmen were the strangest people you ever saw. One was an opera singer who had a night job as a high class gigolo. Another was a goony guy in his 20s who had 14 kids. Another was a southern good old boy who would go on benders of pills and booze and show up two days later looking like something the cat drug in. I have never met a shoe salesman who could be described as "ordinary".
Eddie:
Do you remember Ed Love?
My best friend from high school developed a foot fetish selling ladies' shoes.
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