LA shoemaker holds Hollywood's past in a dying art
In a cobbler's workshop in Los Angeles_ the footprints of Hollywood history are stacked floor to ceiling_ watched over by a man who says his profession is dying.
Yellowing boxes hold the lasts -- foot-shaped molds -- used to create footwear for everyone who was anyone in America's entertainment capital for more than half a century.
Elizabeth Taylor lies toe-to-toe with Peter Fonda_ Tom Jones and Harrison Ford.
In another stack sit the lasts for Sharon Stone_ Liza Minnelli and Goldie Hawn.
Action heroes Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzeneggar are also present.
"There's a bit of everybody here_" says shoemaker Chris Francis_ the custodian of the famous feet molds.
Francis came into the collection a few years after the 2008 death of Pasquale Di Fabrizio_ an Italian cobbler known in Los Angeles as the "shoemaker to the stars."
"Di Fabrizio made for everyone_ from the casino owners to the actors_ the performers in Vegas_ Broadway_ Hollywood_ for film -- just anybody you could think of who was performing from the 1960s until 2008."
Some of the aging boxes contain autographs or dedications from the A-listers.
Others_ like those of Sarah Jessica Parker or "Sound of Music" songstress Julie Andrews_ hold drawings from television or film productions.
'Something that nobody else had'
Hollywood was once the ideal place for a shoemaker_ says Francis_ with its voracious creative industry that churned out a constant stream of people who needed to make themselves stand out from the crowd.
"Celebrities would brag about how much they paid for a pair of shoes_ and they would want something that nobody else had_" he said_ pulling down a box containing the lasts of Adam West_ the actor who played Batman in the original 1960s TV series.
Francis began his own couture journey making clothes_ and was given his first gig after being discovered stitching a leather jacket on a park bench.
"Here in LA_ it is easy to be in the right time in the right place_" he laughed.
But it was footwear that he really wanted to create_ and began practicing in his kitchen at home.
"They were sort of crude at first; I was just teaching myself how to do it_" he said.
In search of someone to teach him the art_ Francis traipsed around Los Angeles looking for an internship.
"These guys are all old Armenian_ Russian guys. They're all from like the old world -- guys from like Iran_ Syria.
"They wouldn't talk_ or they didn't speak very good English. So you just have to watch and learn_ and then just learn by making over and over and over again."
And if you don't pay attention_ it can all go wrong_ he said.
"There's no forgiveness in a shoe. If you miss a step_ if you cut a corner_ then the next 20 steps after that might suffer. So everything has to be on point the whole time."
Mass production
But in a changing world_ such meticulous craftsmanship is not always rewarded.
Where Burt Reynolds or Robert De Niro might once have been happy to shell out thousands of dollars for a pair of handmade shoes_ the whole industry has been turned on its head.
"I'm finding more and more celebrities wanting shoes for free_ which is just killing shoemakers like me_" said Francis.
With his aging rockstar looks_ Francis says in darker moments he wishes he had taken the advice of some of the old cobblers who taught him the trade. "They told me to go join a band_" he said.
"When I first started_ (one man) said: 'Why in the world do you want to be a shoemaker? They can buy shoes for $20 these days.'"
Francis_ 48_ says some of the old-time shoemakers have given up trying to create footwear from scratch_ and now just fix the mass-produced shoes that have put them out of business.
"As a profession_ it's extremely difficult to survive_" he says.(AFP)