BACK ON THE SADDLE SHOES | PART 3 | A.K.A. TBAMFW # 25

1978 | Original Saturday Night Live cast member Gilda Radner
Ad for CREEM magazine subscribers
Photograph: Lynn Goldsmith
Source: CREEM magazine | May 1978

Routineers - Self Titled
(Sammich/Dischord, 2004)

The Modernettes - Get Modern Or Get F*cked
(Lady Kinky Karrot, 2007)

1983 | Donald Roller Wilson
Patricia (the dog) | detail

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger
(Zappa Records, 1984)
Painting called Patricia by Donald Roller Wilson

The A's - Self Titled
(Arista, 1979)

The A's - Self Titled | Inner Sleeve
(Arista, 1979)

FOOTNOTE

Routineers was the last known band led by former Desiderata/Sammich Records owner Amanda MacKaye. Recommended if you like Ignition, Warmers and Rites Of Spring. "Get Modern" is a compilation of the great Modernettes from Vancouver: punk/power pop of the highest order. Even Philly's The A's were power pop but with an emphasis on pop. Zappa is Zappa even conducted by Pierre Boulez but you would have failed the blindfold test. I failed it too.

BACK ON THE SADDLE SHOES | PART 1

BACK ON THE SADDLE SHOES | PART 2

THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING
SHOES & MUSIC

1973 | Mick Jagger In Vienna
Photographs: Robert Cohen
Source: Julien's Auction

Both pictures used for the bootleg "Goats Head Soup Outtakes Collection" (The Godfatherecords, 2012)

BACK ON THE SADDLE SHOES | PART 2

Well, their white bucks

And saddle shoes

That's the style

That's makin' the news

Ivy league at all at best

In the north and the south

And the east and the west

Getting ready to go steady

Are white bucks and saddle shoes

Getting ready to go steady

Are Joe's white bucks

And Mary's saddle shoes

1958 | "White Bucks and Saddle Shoes" (excerpt)
Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman

1947 | High-School Fads
Photograph: Ed Clark
Source: LIFE | November 17, 1947

SADDLE SHOES MAKE COMEBACK

Recently at Griffith Institute, a new style has been instigated. This style is the wearing of saddle shoes. Saddle shoes, for those who don't remember them, are black and white oxford-type shoes that tie like sneakers, and for many of us, were a low point in social fashion. They were, in mother's own words, "sensible, healthy shoes." 

They weren't, however, in most children's words, "stylish." (At that time, one needed patient leather shoes to be considered fashionable.) Now the tables are reversed, and saddle shoes are becoming the rage. What should one do about this ironic twist of fate? Why, go out and buy a pair of saddle shoes, and bring them home and ask your mother: “aren’t they neat?”

Linda Burke

Buffalo courier Express | January 28, 1967

1948 | Saddle Shoes & Roller Skates at Palo Alto, CA
Source: LIFE Magazine | June 21, 1948

She proudly showed me some black and white saddle shoes. Oh, my. They were hideous, in my opinion I felt hot tears stinging my eyes, and I stood there not knowing what to say. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but neither did I want t wear those shoes.

... Ma said she was leaving the shoes on top of my dresser. She was sure they would grow on me. I felt sick to my stomach each time I looked at those shoes, knowing I was going to have to wear them.

Lesson learned: is this where I learned that what I said or thought didn't matter? Or am I just super sensitive?

Yvonne Grady

From: My Hometown Was the Backseat of a Car (Balboa Press, 2017)

1999 | Celebrate The Century - 1950s
Set of fifteen stamps issued May 26, 1999
Source: stampcommunity.org

The big girls, seventh and eighth graders, would bring their favourite records to school, and the Sisters of St. Agnes - nuns - supplied a record player! Yes, they did - and I remind you that this was St. Mary's Catholic Grade School.

Believe it or not, almost all the girls (never the boys) danced to rock and roll every lunch hour. In fourth grade, I had "rock-and-roll saddle shoes." They were white with a black saddle-shoe band that came to a point on either side of the laces, and the sole were soft and smooth - perfect for dancing.

From: Penny Loafers & Bobby Pins. Tales and Tips From Growing Up In The ’50s and ’60s. (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2010)

Eve Arnold | The Fifties. Photographs Of America
(Pantheon Books, 1985)

FOOTNOTE

The picture "High-School Fads" (first one on top) is also available at Getty Images but it is placed out of context. They don't explain that it was a fad among the teenagers which had fun swapping one shoe. 

This happens quite often with historical photographs and it's a pity because Getty Images manages the complete LIFE Picture Collection, hence they should know. In other words, you pay full price for half the picture.

BACK ON THE SADDLE SHOES | PART 1

BACK ON THE SADDLE SHOES | PART 3

Various Artists

Dancing Shoes Volume One

Auto Change Records

BACK ON THE SADDLE SHOES | PART 1

White bucks and saddle shoes

That's what the kids all choose

Jeans and slacks of course

Oh, yes, they sure look boss

Getting ready to go steady

Are white bucks and saddle shoes

1958 | "White Bucks And Saddle Shoes" (excerpt)

Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman

1943 | Washington, D.C. Saddle shoes are still popular at Woodrow Wilson High School

Photograph: Esther Bubley

Source: Library Of Congress

It was a slow build-up since the beginning of the last century, but the first big break of the saddle shoes came with the well known LIFE magazine cover (June 7, 1937); after that, they went in and out of fashion pretty regularly. 

The Class Of 1937 At Sarah Lawrence College | Bronxville, N.Y.
Photograph: Alfred Eisenstaedt
LIFE magazine | June 7, 1937

THE COLLEGE GIRL HAS A STYLE ALL HER OWN

NEW YORK - On the campus, college girls from coast to coast like flared or pleated skirts, saddle shoes and short wool socks and sweaters. Sweaters and still more sweaters. For afternoon, dirndls in velvet and velveteen, and Tyrolean jumper frocks are their pets.

Marian Young

Rochester Times-Union | August 6, 1937

1938 | Norman Rockwell
Football Hero (The Letterman) | detail
Saturday Evening Post | Cover | November 19, 1938
Source: The Best Of N. Rockwell (Courage Books, 1988)

Rockwell is the definitive stamp of approval. He also featured saddle shoes in other prominent paintings like "Liberty Girl" (1943) or his "Triple Self Portrait" (1960). However, this fashion presented some issues.

SADDLE SHOE PROBLEM

As for footwear, you can't put down those saddle shoes that start out in September looking as saddle shoes should and end up in June with the complete disapproval of the dean and the entire faculty.

Most saddle shoe addicts are convinced that the comfort of their classroom footwear, the simplicity of depending on trusty old saddle shoes instead of having to bother with rubbers or overshoes, are reasons enough for tolerating the dirt and run down look of the campus footwear.

So if you must conform to the saddle shoe tradition, take along some white cleaner and try, once in a while anyway for the sake of the faculty who have to see your feet, to touch up the dirtier spots on those mistreated shoes.

The Times Record

Troy, N.Y | August 27, 1941

Girl In The Can
Year & photographer unknown
Source: Saddle Shoe Habitat

The beginning of the 40's saw the first signs of changing taste among teenagers.

NEW FASHIONS IN SHOES FOR "TEEN AGE GIRL"

Good-by, brown and white saddle shoe. Hello, shiny moccasins and oxfords.

Schoolgirls are bidding a fond farewell to their beloved, begrimed and be-autographed saddle shoes by government order forbidding the manufacture of two-tone shoes. But they are hailing with equal joy the new fad for well-shined play shoes of brown antique calf or alligator.

... "We're tired of sloppy saddle shoes", says one spokesman. "We want our feet to look neat now - just as neat as our clothes."

Dorothy Roe

The Binghamton Press | November 23, 1942

1960 | Saddle Shoes & Bobby Sox
Photograph: Alfred Eisenstaedt
Source: LIFE magazine | December 26, 1960

The very same photograph used for the LIFE cover above reappeared in an article titled "A Dull Moments Of Mad Fads" (December 1960):

This clamp of distant years, the late '30s, during which a man and a maid could view the moon as a thing rather than a place, also included:

… saddle shoes and bobby sox were thriving, and later the socks were to thicken into the cherished horse-bandage look …

Elliot Chaze
LIFE magazine December 26, 1960

BACK ON THE SADDLE SHOES | PART 2

BACK ON THE SADDLE SHOES | PART 3

1938 | Norman Rockwell
Football Hero (The Letterman) | Saturday Evening Post | Cover | November 19, 1938
Source: The Best Of N. Rockwell (Courage Books, 1988)