History – The 1950’s shoe shine contests in North Carolina And Shoe History
Albeit we do see some shoe shiners showing off artistry in these contests, who are real entertainers apart from being great at shining shoes, no one really reach the levels that many of the contestants did in the huge shine contests held in North Carolina some 70 years ago. I came across the story about these a few years back, and it’s really a great one.
As most likely know, back in the days, there were a huge amount of shoe shiners on the streets, in hotels, train stations and so on, especially in the western world. In fact, the first photographed humans in history was a shoe shiner and the man who had his shoes shined. They are seen in the photo “Boulevard du Temple”, taken by Louis Daguerre at 8.00AM a spring morning 1838, of a street in Paris. With the exposure time of this daguerreotype photo being several minutes, the street looks empty since people moved too fast to be captured, everyone except the shoe shiner and his client.
In many cases, the ones who shined were young boys, often from poorer families, who did this to support the family with an income. That’s where the expression “shoeshine boy” comes from, which was the common name used for shoe shiners for decades, even if it was older men, or women for that matter. In the cities, all wore proper leather shoes, and many of these – men as well as women – regularly had them shined by these shoeshine boys.
In 1949 the American songwriters Harry Stone and Jack Stapp wrote the song “Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy”, a really catchy tune that’s been recorded by among others Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, but the main hit version was done by Red Foley. The song is about a shoe shiner who entertain his customers, among other things with how he “pops the rag”, which was a thing shoeshiners did to sort of play a nice rhythm, and get some extra tip. The base beat of the original Red Foley recording is made with catchy rag popping, even if they didn’t include this in live versions as the one below.
In many cases, the ones who shined were young boys, often from poorer families, who did this to support the family with an income. That’s where the expression “shoeshine boy” comes from, which was the common name used for shoe shiners for decades, even if it was older men, or women for that matter. In the cities, all wore proper leather shoes, and many of these – men as well as women – regularly had them shined by these shoeshine boys.
In 1949 the American songwriters Harry Stone and Jack Stapp wrote the song “Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy”, a really catchy tune that’s been recorded by among others Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, but the main hit version was done by Red Foley. The song is about a shoe shiner who entertain his customers, among other things with how he “pops the rag”, which was a thing shoeshiners did to sort of play a nice rhythm, and get some extra tip. The base beat of the original Red Foley recording is made with catchy rag popping, even if they didn’t include this in live versions as the one below.
A couple of years later, in 1952, the event had grown even bigger, with the Wilson Department of Recreation and several local stores sponsoring the event. Over 1,200 people attended, and competitors had traveled in from other parts of the state. Bo McCann was there again, several recreation directors from other cities attended to gather info to start similar events back home, and LIFE Magazine had sent a reporter and photographer.
It’s after a photo from the first event started circulating online that photos taken by the LIFE photographer John G. Zimmermann became public. The report never made it into print, but John’s daughter Laura recognised the event from photos she had found when she went through her fathers archive when he past away. She shared the images and eventually a local TV show made a report about the photos, the shoe shine event and one of the contestants, Curtis Philips, who won the professional category three times and was the big star of the shine scene.
After the contests Curtis Philips continued for three decades as a shoe shiner, mainly at Cherry Hotel in Wilson. In the TV coverage the then 80 years old Curtis showed off that he still had shoe shine skills. This when visiting a former a protege of his, Michael Moor, who ran the only remaining shoe shine service of Wilson, called Mr. Magic’s Shoe Shine Parlor. This place was closed a few years ago. Now, sadly, what was once a city where shoe shining was thriving and where this craft was celebrated, has none such dedicated services no more. To prevent the loss of more such places, all current shoe shine competitions and all other ways promoting this craft are highly positive.
Here the “shoeshine boy” Bo McCann, who was the inspiration for the Red Foley song, is putting on a show with his rag, while a band is playing. Previous pictures: John G. Zimmermann / WUNC
A Walk Through the History of Shoes
First Steps
How far back in human history do shoes go? Anthropologists estimate that humans first began wearing some form of sturdy foot covering at least 40,000 years ago, based on changes in toe bones. The oldest surviving pair of shoes is what’s referred to as the Fort Rock sandals
, woven sagebrush bark sandals made by Indigenous people in what’s now southeast Oregon and northern Nevada about 10,200 to 9,300 years ago
(according to radiocarbon dating). Similar variants of these sandals were made by the Klamath Tribes up until the 20th century.
As for fully enclosed shoes, archaeologists made a surprising discovery during a 2010 dig in an Armenian cave: well-preserved shoes made from tanned cowhide that date back 5,500 years. In other words, the world’s oldest leather shoes. Aside from being made of a familiar modern material, the shoes were also laced along a center seam. Renowned designer Manolo Blahnik commented, “It is astonishing how much this shoe resembles a modern shoe!”