Presidential Shoe Exhibit Offers History Footnote

Some politicians are heels and others are sneaks, but a president’s shoes can be hard to fill.

Honest Abe trampled out the vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored wearing massive size 14s. Lyndon Baines Johnson was a shoe salesman’s nightmare--domineering, pigeon-toed, an 11 on the right foot and an 11 1/2 on the left.

Such footnotes to history are the stuff of an exhibit opening today at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Twelve pairs of chief executive shoes will be on display until Nov. 29, courtesy of the Johnston & Murphy shoe firm.

Now based in Nashville, the company boasts it has shod every president since Millard Fillmore.

“We write them a nice letter extending our offer and telling them our history,” company spokeswoman Deanna Grubbs said. “They always respond graciously and send us their size. We’ve never had one refuse.”

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While Johnston & Murphy hasn’t been bashful about plying the presidents with hand-crafted shoes that now would cost a non-president at least $1,000, getting them returned for promotional purposes is another story.

“We don’t go and ask for them back,” Grubbs said. “When we make a pair, we also make an exact replica.”

Those replicas have wandered the United States for the past decade. They have been on display at national landmarks, presidential inaugurations, political conventions--anywhere that history and publicity go foot-in-sock.

The Reagan museum has its own stash of shoes, curator Jim Powers said.

“They tell the story of what his tastes were, what his style was, what he was comfortable with,” he said.

Among the footgear in the Johnston & Murphy collection:

* White bucs favored by Woodrow (size 9) Wilson, who wore them with white linen suits.

* Warren (size 9) Harding’s spats.

* Richard (size 11D) Nixon’s classic black wingtips.

* Gerald (size 10D) Ford’s tasseled chukka boots. (“Very ‘70s,” Grubbs commented.)

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Bill (size 13C) Clinton’s black cap toes are not on display, nor are the blue suede penny loafers the company threw in for him.

“We knew he loved the blues,” Grubbs said.