This little piggy went to market...

How many of us as kids went to either Slobiens or Cherinsky's on Smith Street for our shoes? Do you remember the shoe fitting fluoroscopes they used in assisting in finding the perfect fit for our feet?

A fluoroscope was a metal construction approximately 4 feet high in the shape of an upside-down tea cup, with steps for us to step up on. The kids would then place his or her feet in the opening provided and while remaining in a standing position, look through a viewing port hole at the top of the fluoroscope down at the x-ray view of the feet and shoes. Two other viewing portholes on either side enabled the parent and a sales assistant to observe the child's toes being wiggled to show how much room for the toes there was inside the shoe. The bones of the feet were clearly visible, as was the outline of the shoe, including the stitching around the edges. Get this...the exposure time would have been around 15 seconds.

The gimmick changed from decade to decade to suit the market at the time, but the most famous sales pitches were that the fluoroscope allowed salesmen to better fit shoes and that it made it more fun for kids to go to the shoe store. At the peak of devices popularity in the early 1950s, about 10,000 machines were in use.In 1949, the danger of the fluoroscope was revealed and the machines in the United States were quietly phased out during the 1950's and 60's.

Makes one wonder if this guy started out with the normal five.