Shoes (1916 film)

Eva Mayer works in a five-and-dime store for five dollars a week. That meager salary must solely support her family of two parents and three sisters because her father prefers to lie in bed reading, smoking his pipe, and drinking pails of beer rather than looking for work. After working throughout the week, Eva returns home to offer her mother what little money she has earned. The money is barely enough to pay for food for her family. Eva desperately needs new shoes. The only pair she has are literally falling to pieces with soles that have large holes, so large in fact that she must insert pieces of cardboard inside her shoes to protect her feet. Finally, Eva decides to sleep with Charlie, a local cabaret singer, in exchange for money. She buys new shoes but learns the same day that her father has finally secured a job, at least temporary work. ==Cast==

showing (from left) "Cabaret" Charlie (Mong), Lil (Arnold), and Eva Mayer (MacLaren) • Mary MacLaren – Eva Mayer • Harry Griffith – Eva's father • Mattie Witting – Eva's mother (credited as Mrs. A. E. Witting) • Jessie Arnold – Lil, co-worker at store • William V. Mong – "Cabaret" Charlie • Lina Basquette – Eva's sister (uncredited) ==Production==

In addition to directing the film, Lois Weber composed the production's scenario, adapting it from a short story written by American author and suffragist Stella Wynne Herron. That story, also titled "Shoes", was originally published—complete with illustrations by Hal J. Mowat—in the January 1, 1916, issue of ''Collier's'' magazine. Herron, in turn, was inspired to write her dramatic tale about a poor young woman desperately needing shoes by Jane Addams' 1912 nonfiction book on prostitution, A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil. In fact, for the epigraph of her short story, Herron quotes directly from Addams' work: "When the shoes became too worn to endure a third soling and she possessed but 90 cents toward a new pair, she gave up the struggle; to use her own contemptuous phrase, she 'sold out for a new pair of shoes. Weber in her screen adaptation followed closely Herron's narrative, with "dialogue from the story occasionally appearing verbatim in the film's intertitles." Weber did, though, make some obvious as well as subtle changes to lengthen the short story to a one-hour film. The director, largely in keeping with Herron's original story, also introduces the central character in her film as "Eva Mayer" and to her family as "the Mayers". Yet, references to the characters in 1916 publications and in modern film references often cite Eva's surname as "Meyer". Weber was reportedly "impressed by her style and peculiar type of beauty", so much so that the director gave Mary uncredited bit parts in two productions: ''John Needham's Double, which was released in April 1916, and Where Are My Children?, released in May. Weber also kept her in mind as a possible choice for the role of Eva in Shoes. Commenting too about such good fortune, the New York-based trade journal The Moving Picture World'' stated, "Mary MacLaren is a mighty lucky young lady to have Lois Weber sponsoring her future upon the screen...she is a full-fledged star in about the fastest time known to screen history." As was customary in her productions, Weber created authentic-looking settings for a dual purpose: to enhance the story's appearance on screen and to enhance the performances of her cast by immersing the actors in environments with "physical and psychological realism". The trade journal The Moving Picture Weekly was one of the publications in 1916 that described the principal sets used on Shoes: ==Release and reception==

Released on June 26, 1916, the film became Universal's most-booked Bluebird production by regional distributors and theaters. Hoffman further predicted, "It will be the most discussed and most profitable feature ever released during a program series." The newspaper underscores too the cultural significance of the film, calling it "one of the most important sociological plays presented on the screen." The co-editor of the widely read entertainment paperVariety had a more measured response to the drama. Writing under the pen name "Jolo", Joshua Lowe characterized the tragic story as "devoid of all theatricalism" and "far above the average of Bluebird releases." Lowe noted in particular that Mary MacLaren "gave an exceptionally good portrayal of the hopeless creature." Praise for the film, however, was not universal in the media in 1916. Peter Milne, the reviewer for Motion Picture News, insisted that Weber had exceeded acceptable limits for realism in depicting Eva's "trials and hardships". "Miss Weber", he observes in his June 24 assessment of the film, "has gone a step too far in showing a closeup of the girl extracting splinters from the sole of her foot", as well as "showing the girl scraping mud from her feet with a pair of scissors." ==Parody of Shoes, 1932==

In 1932—sixteen years after the release of Shoes—Universal Studios produced a parody of Weber's film, converting it to a sound comedy short by re-editing original footage from the 1916 drama and using voiceovers by a "great wisecracker" to amuse theater audiences. The sound "novelty", titled The Unshod Maiden, was directed by Albert DeMond, who also wrote the satirical narration for the 10-minute film. In its positive review of the short in March 1932, The Film Daily alludes to neither Weber nor Shoes, but the trade paper's synopsis of the comedy's plot clearly shows that it mirrors the storyline of the 1916 feature: In the weeks prior to the official release of The Unshod Maiden, screenings of the comedy were presented by Universal at private gatherings and in select theaters. Motion Picture Herald, another popular film-industry publication in 1932, reports on DeMond's parody in its February 20 issue and refers directly to the original footage and to the star of Shoes but mentions nothing about Weber: ==References==