Shoes (1916)

Interesting facts

• Based on: Shoes

Shoes is a 1916 silent drama film directed by Lois Weber and starring Mary MacLaren. It was distributed by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company and produced by Bluebird Photoplays, a subsidiary of Universal based in New York City and with access to Universal's studio facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey as well as in California. In 2014, Shoes was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

Production

In addition to directing the film, Lois Weber composed the production's scenario, adapting it from a short story written by American author and suffragist Stella Wynne Herron. That story, also titled "Shoes", was originally published—complete with illustrations by Hal J. Mowat—in the January 1, 1916, issue of Collier's magazine.

Weber in her screen adaptation followed closely Herron's narrative, with "dialogue from the story occasionally appearing verbatim in the film's intertitles." Weber did, though, make some obvious as well as subtle changes to lengthen the short story to a one-hour film. The director, largely in keeping with Herron's original story, also introduces the central character in her film as "Eva Mayer" and to her family as "the Mayers".

According to news items in 1916 film publications, while Lois Weber was still working on the scenario for Shoes, she met 16-year-old Mary MacDonald in the early weeks of 1916, when the young chorus girl was with a group of other women looking for work as extras at Universal Studios in California.

Weber in filming Shoes utilized fully furnished interior sets at the studio rather than partially constructed "corner sets". As was customary in her productions, Weber created authentic-looking settings for a dual purpose: to enhance the story's appearance on screen and to enhance the performances of her cast by immersing the actors in environments with "physical and psychological realism".

The production is made with all the skill and attention to detail which we have learned to expect from Lois Weber. The contents of a whole five and ten cent store was transported to the studio in order to film the store scenes. Real corned beef and cabbage were cooked on a real stove, with real fire in it, and the furniture which was used in the interior of the Meyer [sic] home was specially bought from just such people as the Myers [sic] were.

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