Opinion: Before Air Jordans, we had Buster Browns

Before Air Jordans, we had Buster Browns

Buster Brown had come to town, making the front page of the Roosevelt County Herald.

It happened on May 3, 1910. He performed to a full house at Portales' Wonderland Theater, at the invitation of Miller & Luikart, the retail store that happened to sell Buster Brown children's shoes.

It was no coincidence, of course. The little boy was in town to sell shoes as part of an advertising campaign.

"There wasn't a shadow of a doubt that Buster would attract a full house for he began to draw the small boy from the time he stepped off the train until he took his final departure for his home in St. Louis," the Herald reported about Buster's trip to Portales.

The newspaper story wasn't clear what exactly Buster Brown did during his performances. We know he provided entertainment of some kind, and when he finished he asked that every boy in attendance wear only Buster Brown shoes.

They all raised their hands to indicate the deal was sealed, the newspaper reported.

That Buster Brown, according to the newspaper, was 9 years old and accompanied by his mother. Buster "made many friends as he has a pleasant disposition and is an exceedingly pleasant little fellow," the paper reported.

We also know Buster was a fictional character.

The kid in Portales was real enough, but his name probably wasn't Buster Brown.

The internet tells us the shoe company hired dozens of actors - mostly small adults - to travel the country, pretending to be Buster Brown.

The real Buster Brown was a comic strip, created by Richard Outcault. It began in 1902 and ran through 1923. Later the newspaper strip became a comic book and the image continued making appearances into the 1990s.

In 1904, Outcault signed a licensing agreement with the shoe company and every boy in America soon wanted Buster Brown shoes because that comic strip kid and his dog named Tige - short for Tiger - had so many wonderful adventures in the Sunday funnies.

One of the Buster Brown actors was a 4-foot-tall former Santa Fe Railway employee in Pampa, Texas, named Jack Fox. In 1905, Fox left his job as a railroad timekeeper to travel the country as Buster Brown for the next 25 years.

The White Deer Land Museum in Pampa - about 175 miles east of Portales - tells us Fox's story on its website.

"(T)housands of baby boys were named Buster and countless canines were given the name of Tige," wrote Eloise Lane, whose historical newspaper articles were published for 10 years in the Pampa News.

Buster Brown soon expanded its brand to include "Mary Jane" strap shoes for girls.

Brown Shoe Company was still around in 2015, when it changed its name to Calares. The americacomesalive.com website tells us the company sells about $2.6 billion worth of shoes annually today. Its brands include Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl's and LifeStride.

It all began with a marketing campaign that would have impressed Michael Jordan.

David Stevens writes about regional history for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]

More local history:

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