There was a time when you knew the appropriate footwear to wear based on the venue or the event. As a child or teenager, when going to school, church, a funeral, restaurant, or social event, you understood that it had to be your “Sunday go to meeting shoes” or your “dress shoes.”
As you may realize, many children today do not own a pair of such shoes. Today, you are more likely to see folks wearing sneakers to events than dress shoes. In the past, all children had at least one pair of shoes reserved for special occasions.
Perhaps you recall the days when you were accompanied by your parents to purchase new shoes. Where I grew up in West Philadelphia, we went to the local shopping strip at Lancaster Avenue. Occasionally, we traveled to 52nd Street—a longer walk but also in West Philadelphia.
These shopping strips and others across the city had shoe stores that sold shoes for boys and girls with store and brand names like Thom McCann, Father and Son, and Buster Brown. As many boys became teenagers, we had to have a Hanover shoe for its notoriety or infamous “Old man’s comfort” shoe.
This column is not focused on little children’s shoes, but rather on something many of us have forgotten or perhaps never experienced in the past: the shoe-fitting fluoroscope.
Do you recall stepping up on an elevated stand to insert your foot into a machine for an accurate view of how your foot fitted in your shoe? While some of you may remember this machine, its name may have escaped you. It was called a store-fitting fluoroscope, also referred to as an X-ray shoe fitter, Pedoscope, or foot-o-scope.
I must admit that before writing this column, the name of this machine had escaped me despite the many times I had my foot in one as a child. So, let’s take a deep look at its history, how it operated, and how it was used back in the day.
A fluoroscope or X-ray shoe device uses a beam of radiation to create an image of the bones, soft tissues, and joints of your foot. The procedure was quick and painless and was known as a scientific way to ensure a proper fit.
The device was marketed as a family event with three viewing ports. The customer, the salesperson, and a parent could all watch the bones of the foot inside the shoe—a novel experience for children.
Shoe retailers used the machines as a sales tool, encouraging customers to buy new shoes based on visual feedback. Some even gave away freebies like balloons and lollipops. I vaguely recall lollipops being a giveaway item to children after using the machine.
I, like many children, was frightened at the thought of putting my feet into this machine, which some claimed increased the risk of cancer.
Numerous people claim to have invented this machine. However, those interested in digging deeper may want to research Jacob Lowe. He demonstrated a modified medical device at shoe retailer conventions in 1920 in Boston and in 1921 in Milwaukee. Clarence Karrer, the son of an X-ray equipment distributor, claims to have built the first unit in 1924 in Milwaukee.
Later, it became clear that the machines posed significant health risks to both customers and clerks due to radiation leakage, resulting in regulations being imposed. A Google post even identified this shoe-fitting fluoroscope as one of the “100 worst ideas of the 20th century,” a relic from a time when the dangers of radiation were not fully understood.
As some of you may recall, not every shoe establishment had an X-ray machine. So, what was the alternative?
Without a proper fit, many children grew up wearing ill-fitting shoes, leading them to patronize shoe stores such as Shapiro’s, located on 52nd Street, which specialized in orthopedic shoes.
Alternatives to fluoroscope fitting included salespeople or parents placing the child’s foot on a piece of paper and tracing its outline. This tracing was used as a pattern for the purchase of a new shoe.
Another method involved using a wooden or metal measuring stick called the Ritz Stick to determine the basic length of the child’s foot. Additionally, the Brannock Device—a metal tool that measured the length, width, and arch length of the foot simultaneously—became an industry standard.
There was also manual assessment, where salespeople relied on their fingers to check the fit of the shoe by pressing down at the toe to ensure there was adequate room for the child’s toes to wiggle, and measuring the girth at the ball and instep with their hands.
Without good measurements for proper shoe fit, we regularly saw or heard of issues that, thankfully, do not surface today to the same extent. Shoes that did not fit properly—often from hand-me-downs or thrift shops—frequently resulted in bunions, calluses, and corns, which were often attributed to wearing improperly fitted shoes as children.
So, for those of you who avoided those annoying foot problems, be thankful that you were exposed to a fluoroscope or other effective shoe-fitting techniques back in the day.
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Alonzo Kittrels can be reached at backintheday@phillytrib.com or at *The Philadelphia Tribune*, Back In The Day, 520 South 16th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19146.
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