I’ve probably been in Broussard’s a dozen or so times when a Cajun craving hit, but I never noticed “The Bootery” set into the entrance before this visit.
If you click the photo to make it larger, you can see my reflection in the glass. It was a warm day, so I didn’t commit the terrible fashion faux pas of wearing socks with my sandals.
Search came up empty
A search of The Missourian archive for “Bootery” turned up empty. I turned to Google next. It took me to a 1959 Life Magazine ad for Roblee shoes. The word “bootery” was used by a lot of shoe stores, but the only listing for Cape was C.S. Gaylor.
Gaylor’s was where we usually went to buy shoes. I was always disappointed that Mother wouldn’t let me play with the neat fluoroscope that let you see your toes inside your shoes (while delivering a mass of x-ray radiation to your gonads). You can read more about the machine here.
What was at 120 Main?
My next trick was to search for the store’s address, 120 North Main street. Still pretty much dry except for a 1938 ad for The Smart Shop. The building next door at 118 North Main was being vacated by Vogelsanger Hardware Company.
The Smart Shop was showing furs from St. Louis, but you could buy a quality rayon Giana crepe for $6.50 at Hecht’s. (I don’t know whether you’re supposed to eat, hang or wear a crepe, so you’ll have to tell me if that’s a good deal.)
Follow Santa’s Trail
The Smart Shop was mentioned in this Christmas contest ad in the December 6, 1939, Missourian. It’s fascinating to see how many businesses were still around 30 years later. You’re definitely going to have to click this one to make it larger to read the names.
Bootery mystery
Someone else is going to have to fill me in on the background of The Bootery. I couldn’t come up with any information about it.
Good luck on finding Booty…I have spent a great deal of my life looking for it too…
BTW: I see one of the Cape ghosts in the window of Broussard’s. I thought you were kidding about ghosts on Broadway! Now they are on Main street too!
Here’s your shoe tie-in (pun intended)
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=f_QoAAAAIBAJ&sjid=INQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6619%2C2583630
Snippet at the bottom of this list of news tidbits mentions “the Annex of the Sample Shoe Store” was to open on a Saturday in May 1928, at 120 Main Street.
That URL didn’t work. It looks a little short to be a Google News Archive link.
When I clicked on the link, it worked fine for me.
If you can’t click on it, just go to the googlenews page, Southeast Missourian May 18, 1928. On page 8 column 1, 2nd from the last item under Personals.
Here’s a URL I got to work. It shows there was a shoe store at that address in 1928, but it wasn’t called The Bootery. (It’s the last item in the Personals column.)
PS
I see from other articles of that era that the main Sample Shoe store was at 122 Main, so perhaps the Annex was a bargain outlet of sorts?
That looks like more of a modern script in the photo, but I have no recollection of such a place. I do, however, recall fondly when Broussard’s was the Town Pump which had some of the best dry-rub barbecue in history. Moreover, the comment on the x-ray doohickey to which you referred as we also had one in the children’s shoe department at Buckner-Ragsdale. Indeed we still have it, though the ‘guts’ are long gone. Somehow we’ve survived its evil rays.
Southeast Missourian
Out of the past 6/17/10
75 years ago: June 17, 1935
A two-story brick building at 122 N. Main St., owned by Morris Shaltupsky and occupied by the Bootery, a shoe store managed by Shaltupsky, has been purchased by Mr. and Mrs. August Lang; a lease has been taken by the Bootery, and it will remain in its present location.
Thanks Ken I love a mystery!
Southeast Missourian
Out of the past 8/11/06
75 years ago: Aug. 11, 1931
The name of the Sample Shoe Store, 122 N. Main St., has been changed to “The Bootery,” it is announced by M. Shaltupsky, manager; the store has been in Cape Girardeau 17 years and two years ago underwent extensive remodeling, enlarging the shop and adding new features.
I love a good mystery that someone else solves. Nice sleuthing.
It was T.E. Clark Music Company in 1920, “Exclusive Victor Victrola Dealers”. So at least we know the mosaic is not original to the building.
It has always been interesting to me how Cape Girardeau seemed to have businesses flourishing and maintaining commerce in the 1930’s. The Boy Scout council was formed in 1930, and grew by leaps and bounds in the following decade. A book on Cape Girardeau and the Great Depression would be an interesting read. I wonder if it was a bit like the recession we have been weathering. Cape was not hit nearly as hard as other parts of the country.