I would like to know what has happened to the grown man who was “buster Brown” living in the shoe.
In 1978 I was living at a Christian Conference Center in California. While there I met a man who was previously the “little boy”. He told me about how he became a “Queen” in New Orleans. After a time he saved up money to have a gender change operation. He almost died from infection from the surgery. He gave his life to Christ and then ministered to the Gay community. He had a book written about his life. I have lost it now. He was a wonderful and interesting man.
I can’t remember his name now but would like to know if anyone knows what has happened to him.
Thank you
While your question is only tangentially related to the column by Mike Warns, Straight Dope Science Advisory Board member, I’ll link to it anyway.
Using the Brown Shoe Company website, and their timeline history, it would appear that an actor named Jerry Maren was the young Buster Brown in tv ads(which I watched in the early 1950s.
Taking the next step, searched Wikipedia for Jerry Maren. Cool. He was a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz in the 1939 movie.
So, was the guy you met kinda short?
No, he’s writing about Perry Desmond, co-author of “Perry: A Transformed Transexual”; as far as I can tell, though, Desmond does not claim to have been Buster Brown’s “Boy in the Shoe” or in any other advertising.
ETA: I forgot to mention that Desmond died in 1984, of a heart attack.
Where did the part about Desmond living in a shoe come from?
So.(One of the many commercials this persistent bit of doggerel was used in)