$25,000
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sold
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Description
8.25" (21 cm.) The rigid white leather ankle strap shoes have tacked-on leather heels, padded soles, and original metal taps at the toes. The shoes are imprinted I. Miller & Sons, Inc. on the soles, and gold stamped "I. Miller Beautiful Shoes Made in New York" on the inside of the right shoe. The inside of the left shoe has custom gold lettering "To Shirley from Uncle Bill". There is some typical scuffing from dance movements. The shoes were a gift to Shirley from her beloved tap dance partner, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. She wore the shoes to her handprint and footprint induction at the famed Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Several photographs of the ceremony are included with the shoes, including one in which "Bojangles" is shown holding the shoes. These are some of the very rare photographs in which Shirley is not expansively smiling, for a few moments prior to the ceremony she lost a baby tooth, and not wanting to reveal this in a photograph, offered only a tight-lipped smile. In order to further draw attention away from her missing tooth, Shirley adroitly removed her shoes, handed them to Bill Robinson to hold, and added footprints to her handprints.