# Buster Brown shoes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 23, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769 "2009-01-23T14:06:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JimR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@JimR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimR)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/1 "2009-01-23T14:06:01Z")
No big deal, but it is still possible to buy Red Goose shoes (but maybe someone else owns the trademark now). My son had a pair of red goose sandals a few years ago, but I was ignorant of the history of the brand. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/2 "2009-01-23T14:27:15Z")
**JimR,** since you certainly don’t want everyone to be in the dark right off the bat, it’s a good idea to put in a link to the column when you start a thread like this. Here, I’ll do it for you: > **[Whatever happened to Buster Brown shoes?](https://www.straightdope.com/21343926/whatever-happened-to-buster-brown-shoes)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD I used to wear Buster Brown shoes, but I outgrew them, then went on to bust other things. That’s all the contribution I can make, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![JimR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@JimR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimR)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/3 "2009-01-23T14:32:36Z")
Thanks a lot. I just clicked the link that said “COMMENT ON THIS ANSWER” and sort of assumed the link would come from the article to the comment (instead of the comment back to the article). Without context my comment wouldn’t have made much sense. Thanks again, Jim ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/4 "2009-01-23T14:38:09Z")
> [@JimR](#): > > Thanks a lot. I just clicked the link that said “COMMENT ON THIS ANSWER” and sort of assumed the link would come from the article to the comment (instead of the comment back to the article). Don’t feel bad. It happens often. I’ve been running a one-person crusade to get the “comment” link to link to something better, like an intermediate page of simple instructions or hints, but my pleadings seem to have fallen on deaf ears. You just proved my point once again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/5 "2009-01-23T17:18:16Z")
“Half the fun of having feet is Reg Goose Shoes”–that was their slogan. It was a lie. There is no how, no way that Red Goose shoes were ever more than 32% of the fun of having feet. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/6 "2009-01-23T17:35:33Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Don’t feel bad. It happens often. I’ve been running a one-person crusade to get the “comment” link to link to something better, like an intermediate page of simple instructions or hints, but my pleadings seem to have fallen on deaf ears. You just proved my point once again. 🙂 No, not fallen on deaf ears, but just a fairly low priority given the limited resources (i.e., staff) and the many assignments they have. I’m thinking about setting up a page of Standard Responses so that, in future, I could just answer this with “See Standard Response #17.” ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/7 "2009-01-23T18:45:57Z")
> [@JimR](#): > > No big deal, but it is still possible to buy Red Goose shoes (but maybe someone else owns the trademark now). My son had a pair of red goose sandals a few years ago, but I was ignorant of the history of the brand. Where did you get them? I love it when old brands come back to life–I use Barbasol shaving cream, for instance–and am happy to be proven wrong. (signed) Mike Warns, the guy who wrote the report ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/8 "2009-01-23T21:50:37Z")
I remember Red Goose! The Golden Egg is still floating around in my memory. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/9 "2009-01-23T22:31:24Z")
I just want to thank **Mike Warns** (if that is your real name!) for bringing back the memory of those prize eggs. It’s been quite a few years since I last thought of those. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/10 "2009-01-24T00:37:22Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > I’m thinking about setting up a page of Standard Responses so that, in future, I could just answer this with “See Standard Response #17.” Which brings to mind the prison tale…which I will attempt to tell here in case not everyone has heard it. Seems a new prisoner is in the dining room. Someone yells out “Fourteen!” and they all laugh. A little while later, someone else yells, “Thirty-two!” and they all laugh uproariously. “What’s going on?” the newbie asks. “We’ve been in prison so long that we’ve heard all the jokes. So we wrote them all down and numbered them. Now, if you want to tell a joke, you just yell out the number, and everyone knows what you mean,” said a helpful inmate. So the newbie decides to get with the in-crowd. “Thirty-Nine!” he yells. Nothing but silence. “What gives? Why didn’t they laugh?” He asks the inmate. “Some people just can’t tell a joke,” was the reply. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/11 "2009-01-24T04:07:11Z")
Second ending to that joke, for the record: The newbie is still a little curious, waits a little while, then shouts out “eighty-three!” This gets a better response, but one of the inmates responds with gales of laughter. “Huh. I guess he hadn’t heard that one before.” ---
**Author:** ![mrgriffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@mrgriffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrgriffin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/12 "2009-01-24T04:17:48Z")
I don’t recall seeing Buster Brown shoes advertised on Howdy Doody, but they sure were on The Buster Brown Show. Actually I’m not sure of the official name, but that’s what we all called it. It started on TV in the mid-fifties with one guy, who was eventually followed by Andy Devine in his post-Jingles-P-Jones Wild Bill Hickock (Hey, Wild Bill! Wait for me!) career. The primary advertising hook was the BB logo going live for a few seconds to say “I’m Buster Brown, I live in a shoe. That’s my dog Tige, he lives there too.” The show featured a live audience of kids and a segment with Froggy the Gremlin, Midnight the Cat and Squeaky - some form of rodent, I’m not sure whether mouse or hamster. Midnight and Squeaky would typically “do” a musical number, probably wired in place while there props made appropriate motions. Midnight would at some point say “Nice” in a voice sufficiently catlike we always wondered if it was real. (Hey, it was the fifties and we were 8-10 years old.) Froggy was a puppet of limited mobility who, I’m sure everybody must remember, appeared in a burst of smoke in response to the incantation “Plunk your magic twanger, Froggeeee!”, greeting us with a hearty “Hiya, kids! Hiya, hiya, hiya!”. He then kept us in stitches by feeding inappropriate phrases to the host or a particularly pompous guest who would unwittingly work them into their discourse. And of course, there was the weekly adventure episode, usually of Rama the Elephant Boy and his buddy, about whom I only remember his inevitable line “Ai-ee Rama, such is so.” We loved it. Okay, that’s my complete memory dump on this topic. Probably more than anybody besides me cares to remember. But I hated to see it not even get honorable mention in the StraightDope Halls of Fame. (I did check Wikipedia before starting and determined that Smilin’ Ed McConnell was Devine’s predecessor, and had in fact run the show on radio for some years before moving to TV.) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/13 "2009-01-24T05:11:29Z")
> [@mrgriffin](#): > > But I hated to see it not even get honorable mention in the StraightDope Halls of Fame. Er, that would be because I’m several years younger than you. Born in 1954, not in 1944. 😃 ETA: Eeeek! You people now know my real name and my year of birth! Can my Social Security Number be next? How about my mother’s maiden name? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![mrgriffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@mrgriffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrgriffin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/14 "2009-01-24T05:23:58Z")
Dear Dropzone - I didn’t intend to fault anyone, just wanted to acknowledge a childhood favorite. Sorry if it came off as a criticism. I enjoyed your piece and forwarded it immediately to my wife for her own little stroll down memory lane. Regards, MrGriffin ---
**Author:** ![cmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmoose)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/15 "2009-01-24T05:26:13Z")
It’s hard to believe Buster Keaton was so well known at the age of seven his name was used by Outcault, but a Keaton web site says he was given that first name by Houdini, and was the first person to have that name. I clearly recall in the '40s on Smilin’ Ed McConnell’s program the commercial: two barks by a dog, and “That’s my dog Tige, he lives in a show. I’m Buster Brown - look for me in there too!” Of course, the trademarked image of Buster and Tige were the inside of each shoe. In 1906, in an episode of Seymour Eaton’s “Roosevelt Bears” (comic page), Teddy B and Teddy G met Buster and Tige. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/16 "2009-01-24T05:44:07Z")
Buster Keaton spent his formative years thrown violently across a stage by his father. He later claimed that, at one time or another, he broke every bone in his body. Watch his movies. NOBODY could take a fall like Keaton. Er, it’s “He lives in a SHOE.” Yeah, by 1906 Buster and Tige were big stars, and people, and imaginary bears, loved to bask in their reflected glory. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/17 "2009-01-24T05:51:45Z")
Dude, no criticism seen! I LOVE getting more remembrances of the completely ephemeral Kiddy TV/Radio! The only things left of that are, usually, people’s memories. Think of how you have added to it, because I plan to update the report with such stuff. Look at\*\* JimR\*\*'s report that he bought Red Goose shoes for his kid. That is NOWHERE in any library I visited, nor is it on the internet. We Boomers, and near-Boomers, are the only easily-accessible source for a lot of this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/18 "2009-01-24T12:53:45Z")
**cmoose**. If you could supply a lin to the column in questions [Whatever happened to Buster Brown shoes?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2839/whatever-happened-to-buster-brown-shoes) it helps readers to follow along. You can simply cut and paste the url if you choose. BTW, great job on the report, **Mike**. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/19 "2009-01-24T18:15:15Z")
Thanks, **sam**! ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769/20 "2009-01-24T21:30:35Z")
The show started as _Smilin’ Ed McConnell and His Buster Brown Gang_. When Ed McConnell died, Andy Devine took over, and the show was retitled _Andy’s Gang_. Both versions featured puppets Midnight the Cat, Squeaky the Mouse, and Froggy the Gremlin (“Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!”). There was also a prefilmed _Ghanga the Jungle Boy_ section. Think of it as the first draft of _The Banana Splits_. Stores that sold Buster Brown shoes gave away comic-book adaptations of the show. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buster-brown-shoes/482769.md?page=2)