1966 | TONY THE SHOEMAKER GOES ORIENTAL | BY BETH & HERBERT LEVINE

1966 | Beth & Herbert Levine’s Tony The Shoemaker at Berger’s
Source: Buffalo Courier Express December 4, 1966

TONY THE SHOEMAKER goes oriental, in a multicoloured Temple print, on cream-colored silk … sets it on a graceful mid-heel. It’s exclusively Berger’s. $ 28 shown with a matching hand-bag, in a Hermés inspired style. $20 
Source: Berger’s advertisement
Buffalo Courier Express December 4, 1966

It wasn’t “exclusively Berger’s” as the model here below was made for Joseph Magnin, and we might add that we’re not sure how Beth Levine would have liked the “Hermés inspired style”, but that’s the way it was.


1966 | Tony The Shoemaker
Source: Etsy (sold 2014)

1966 | Tony The Shoemaker
By Beth & Herbert Levine


FOOTNOTE: TONY THE SHOEMAKERS 

Plenty of Tony The Shoemakers in and around New York: Levine’s Tony was Tony Acuti, production manager at Herbert Levine, Inc.; before that, at the beginning of the last century, other Tonys made headlines.

The first one was Antonio Milano - known as Tony The Shoemaker - who murdered and set on fire in his bookshop the body of Harry E. Smith, a fourteen year old boy. The boy had rushed inside the shop, as chased by other boys, and went straight toward Tony who reacted either hitting the boy with the hammer or throwing the hammer at him: he didn’t remember, nor he remembered what happened soon after. He was sentenced two years later (1913) and plead for clemency.

Another Tony The Shoemaker was Tony Perretti, one of the leaders of the Navy street gang in Brooklyn. Involved in a crime in 1926, he fled Brooklyn and returned two years later convinced he was in the clear. He wasn’t.



BETH & HERBERT LEVINE
FEATURING TONY THE SHOEMAKER

BETH & HERBERT LEVINE
I N D E X



1966 | Tony The Shoemaker
Insole Detail

 

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