# The boy in buster brown shoes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 3, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boy-in-buster-brown-shoes/649228 "2013-02-03T16:47:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjwilc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@jjwilc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjwilc)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boy-in-buster-brown-shoes/649228/1 "2013-02-03T16:47:59Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boy-in-buster-brown-shoes/649228/2 "2013-02-03T17:41:38Z")
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. [Whatever happened to Buster Brown shoes?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2839/whatever-happened-to-buster-brown-shoes) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boy-in-buster-brown-shoes/649228/3 "2013-02-03T17:50:13Z")
Using the [Brown Shoe Company website](http://www.brownshoe.com/history/bb-1950.asp), 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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Maren). Cool. He was a munchkin in _The Wizard of Oz_ in the 1939 movie. So, was the guy you met kinda _short_? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boy-in-buster-brown-shoes/649228/4 "2013-02-04T00:38:20Z")
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. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2013, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boy-in-buster-brown-shoes/649228/5 "2013-02-04T03:15:37Z")
> [@jjwilc](#): > > I would like to know what has happened to the grown man who was “buster Brown” living in the shoe. Where did the part about Desmond living in a shoe come from? ---
**Author:** ![Vashbul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Vashbul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vashbul)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-boy-in-buster-brown-shoes/649228/6 "2013-02-04T07:52:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Where did the part about Desmond living in a shoe come from? [So.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSWwuxvsXI)(One of the many commercials this persistent bit of doggerel was used in)