New York Shoe Store

[onceoza]

Is anyone familiar with Sommers Footwear, a shoe store from the past in New York? Might be associated with Capezio.

 

[lkranieri]

Per a 1972 article about a Capezio Foundation film called "The Three Legged Stool" (or "The Legend of the Three Legged Stool"?), Ben Sommers narrated the film about the history of the tools of the dancer. The article noted that Sommers was successor to Salvatore Capezio as president of the firm and was "founder and president of the Dance Business Groups of America, a director of the National Council on the Arts and Government and the Association of American Dance Companies." The article further noted that when Sommers was seventeen years old Capezio "entrusted him with the job of shoeing the 1923 'Ziegfield Follies'." and "At 30 he was vice president of the company. Such a close relationship existed between the two men that when Capezio died in 1940 Ben Sommers not only became president, but took on the role he was to make famous, that of 'Mr. Capezio'."

 

[lkranieri]

I forgot to post THIS link to (most of?) an ebook with much information about Ben Sommers. In case it doesn't take you right there, the Sommers part seems to start around pg. 320.