Wurts Bros, 1922, MCNY: Close up detail
It's interesting mainly because they sold elevator shoes for short men. They also had great advertising slogans, like “Build up your ego, Amigo! Now you can be taller than she is!”
from 14 to 42
Men who bought these shoes tended to be discreet about it, as this ad promises the Adler catalog will come delivered in "a plain wrapper," the way pornography was mailed.
Adler elevators stayed in the closet, a private affair between a man and his heels, until the 1970s, when TIME announced, "Now, inspired by the fancy footwear of rock stars like the Temptations and the Rolling Stones, the Elevated Look has come out into the open." The elevator shoe was vanishing, but the store managed to stay on 42nd and 6th until the mid 1990s.
As an aside, the full photo of the shop at MCNY is worth checking out as an example of how old-school businesses piled atop the other--a lighting fixture shop, a chiropodist office, Prof. Rohrer's Beauty Parlors above Leo Morse's "Nursery Novelties." There's just something about those old second-floor businesses that appeals.
3 comments:
Whenever I see ads for elevator shoes I think about poor Larry Hart.
In the fantastic biopic of Rodgers & Hart, which I can't stop crowing about, Hart buys the shoes early on, is predictably scorned in love by a taller woman, and then, when he's about to die a staggering drunk, stumbled back in front of that old elevated shoe store. I wish I could remember if it was actually Adler's. Here's the trailer.
i also think of "poor Larry Hart," and in just that way. god, that movie is heartbreaking.
Its amazing to see the advert, I make elevator shoes myself, (Dons Footwear). I never knew that Adler shoes had a rich history. What I do know is that they only sell their shoes online now as I know the production manager, Not many shoes are made in the US now, I guess its just the way it is these days.
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