Some Older Members May Remember these...

[whirlcool]

Does anyone remember years ago when you went to buy new shoes the shoe store had those X-Ray machines to see if your shoes fit properly? I remember those from when I was little. They seemed to disappear as the 50's ended and the 60's started.

Here is a website that explains it all for you....

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/shoefittingfluor/shoe.htm

 

[tolivac]

I beleive there was one of those foot-shoe X-Ray machines in a dept store until the 70's in West Va.I can vaguely remember those-but didn't use one.

 

[foraloysius]

I remember those! We had a shoe shop in my home town that had one. In my childhood we bought shoes there sometimes and the owner would put me on that thing to see how they fit. I remember I could have a look myself too.

 

[tomturbomatic]

They stopped using it in the late 50s in the Thompson Bolland Lee store in Atlanta, but it was still there. No one would talk about it. I read of a correlation between adults who developed thyroid cancer and their childhoods with fathers who were shoe salesmen so the kids were able to play with the foot fluoroscope machine.

 

[westie2]

I re,e,ber thse machines and getting to look at lur feet was a big deal.  All the department stores had then and used them for kids. men and women.  We sould go up and play with them too. one of us kids would stick our hand or head in and the toher would view.  Mothers just gabbing and letting us do it.  I remember the Buster Brown shoe stores.  Wasn't it the Buster Brown stores that if you cought shoes you got to go up and pull the gooses head down and it laid a plastic egg filled with goodies?

 

 

 

[twintubdexter]

I am so delighted to honestly say I've never seen one of those things in my life. Suddenly I feel "hours" younger. I only remember those cast aluminum things with the sliding width scales.

this thing...something to play with until the salesman got there

 

[arbilab]

I have seen them but never a working one.

By the way, the slidy thing has a name. Who knows it without looking it up besides me?

 

[whirlcool]

I got the link from a website that has a lot of people from my old neighborhood on it. One guy said that he worked at a shoe store while in high school and the machine was in the back room unused. It looked like the company that made them didn't want them back when they were encouraged not to be used anymore. So it sat for years in the back room.

This guy asked the owner if he could have the machine. The owner told him he could take it. He used to put kids heads in the machine, dogs, cats, etc so he could see inside of them. Finally when they got bored with that they took it apart, piece by piece and smashed the tubes inside of it on their driveway.

Geesh! I wonder how much radiation they released into the neighborhood? Finally they set the cabinet on fire!

He said it's been 30 years since they did that and they all are still alive today!

 

[whirlcool]

Lets see, Foot-O-Meter?

I've recently seen one of those in a shoe store.

 

[angus]

That is called a "brannock device"

 

[tomturbomatic]

Red Goose Shoes had the eggs. Poll Parrot Shoe Stores just had a parrot in a cage. Those two brands and Buster Brown Shoes used to have ads on TV during children's programming.

 

[arbilab]

Brannock Device.

Buster Brown had his own whole show. A line from it is "plunk your magic twanger Froggy".

Who sponsored Captain Midnight and would send you a decoder ring if you sent in top seals?

 

[joeekaitis]

When a chain specializing in children's shoes (might have been Buster Brown) installed computer-assisted sizing devices in the late 1970s, the TV commercials included the onscreen disclaimer:

NOT AN X-RAY DEVICE

 

[sudsmaster]

I'm old enough to have been in shoe stores when these were in use, but I don't remember ever seeing one or having my feet x-rayed. However, for some reason, for a while my Mom was trying to get me fitted with corrective shoes for some sort of alleged foot issue. It was probably flat feet. I remember getting fitted with a pair of shoes that were bent like claws, and instantly raising a ruckus and telling anyone who would listen that they hurt and I wouldn't wear them. I think my Mom was secretly relieved since they were probably costly as well.

I've had flat feet since then but it really hasn't cramped my style. No foot doctor I've seen as an adult seems to think it's a problem.

Because the corrective shoes were supposedly custom made it's possible they x-rayed my feet before fitting them. I do remember there being some big sell going on before they put them on me... like they were wonderful special shoes and I was so lucky to get them. LOL. Perhaps they were custom made for someone else... like an ostrich...

 

[fido]

I remember being aware of these X ray machines in the late '60s when I was quickly growing out of shoes so frequently having to have new ones. My mother disapproved of such things, saying X rays were harmful. I think she had been X rayed a lot as a child when she had TB and diphtheria.

 

[tolivac]

Looked these things up-The Adrian X-Ray Shoe Fitter-glad my folks didn't let me use this.they were aware the dangers of X-Rays-the machine could be started and used without authorization-so kids liked to "play" with them-X-Raying whatever they could fit into the foot openings.And the machines did have poor sheilding-so more than just your feet were X-Rayed.The machine had 3 veiwports-one for the user getting his feet X-Rayed-another for a salesperson-and the last for a parent to look thru at your feet.On the web these machines sometimes surface in antique and curio shops,and EBay.They used a 50Kv power supply at up to 8Ma to the X-Ray emitter tube.and the exposures-SCARY---5sec-45sec!Many shoe salesmen of that era did suffer injuries from these machines-salesmen often put their hands in the foot opening while the customer was having the shoes fitted-and the X-Ray energized-imagine this several times a day!!!The X-Ray emitter in this would be about like some smaller dental X-Ray machines.
the last of these machines was in a dept store in West Va-1981-was removed from service at that time.It was illegal-under state law to use it.Most states banned these machines starting in the 50's,60's.