The Show Folks Shoe Shop Dedicated to Beauty in Footwear
I. Miller Building
1929, Louis
H. Friedland
167 West 46th Street at Seventh Avenue
As you stroll down Broadway after your matinee, stop and glance at the
inscription on the façade of 167 West 46th Street (close to the
northeast corner of Seventh Avenue and 46th Street), the site of the I. Miller
shoe shop that served New Yorkers from 1929 into the 1970s. The words "The Show
Folks Shoe Shop Dedicated to Beauty in Footwear" describe I. Miller's two
passions-shoes and stars. As an added attraction, four statues by Alexander
Stirling Calder (father of Alexander Calder of mobile fame) appear in niches below
the inscription. Miller invited the public to vote for their favorite actresses
as models. The winners were Ethel Barrymore as Ophelia, Mary Pickford as Little
Lord Fauntleroy, Marilyn Miller as Sunny, and Rosa Ponselle as Norma.
Theresa Craig
Theresa
Craig is the author of Edith Wharton: A House Full of Rooms-Architecture,
Interiors and Gardens. She has taught literature at City University of New York
and humanities at the New School University.
