has buffed more than a millionpairs, including those belonging to
early Hollywood stars, politiciansand gangsters. Today, his isa dying
profession.
April 18, 1994 | JOHN M. GLIONNA | TIMES STAFF WRITER
An eighth-grade dropout, Calton isa pure talker who has opinions on
any subject, not just his passions: fishing, cars and the seasons he
played in the old Negro Baseball League or the winters he shined shoes
in east Texas during the oil boom of the early 1930s.
And how he asked his wife, Burnice, to marry him--just like that--in
1942 as they were driving across the Arizona desert in his brand new
red-and-white Mercury Monterey with its red-and-white leather
interior. Yes, those were thedays.
Customers seem to come back forthe conversation as much as the shine.
"It's so surprising that a man who has shined shoes all his life is so
knowledgeable about current affairs," said Jarman Holland, a computer
salesman who has visited Calton for more than a decade. "I'm very
political. So everytime I sit in the chair, Lee's ready totalk turkey.
"Today we talked partisan politics, how these Republicans are ganging
up on Clinton over Whitewater. Lee is opinionated andI find that
refreshing. He has heart and spirit, and it makes you feel good when
you leave his chair."
Now in his eighth decade, Calton has the body of a man half his age,
the taut frame of a boxer or gymnast--flat stomach, muscular forearms.
And the smile, it wins you.
And how Calton still likes to dress, still likes the image of himself
in expensive suits and shiny shoes, a reminder of the days when his
stepwas quicker, when he and his profession were young.
Calton came to California in 1934 shining shoes. He had left home
inArcadia, La., years earlier and hitched a ride on a freight train to
the east Texas oil fields, where a friend taught him the shining
trade.
During the summers, Calton recalls,he became a utility player with
various teams in the Negro Baseball League--the Kansas City Monarchs,
Halstead Greys and American Giants out of Chicago--teams that were the
only game in town for black players when the big leagues were white
preserves.
But he had his most fun touring with the African Zulus, which back
then was baseball's version of the Harlem Globetrotters. In fact, he
says, the team was run by Abe Saperstein, the Globetrotters' owner,
and they used the same touring bus as the basketball team.
The Zulus sure raised some eyebrows.
"We'd roll into town and conversations would stop in mid-word," Calton
says. "All of us were barefooted, wearing these big wigs and grass
skirts. We weresupposed to be straight out of Africa and we played our
games inthese get-ups.
"In small towns, we gave people heart attacks, scared them to
deathgetting off that bus, ballyhooing at each other in this fake
African dialect, 'Who-bally-bally-who-ahhhh!' Later, we would just die
laughing."
In California, Calton worked in Beverly Hills until the late 1940s,
when he took a yearlong job as butler for Hollywood star Tyrone Power.
After that, he spent 17 years at the Los Angeles Athletic Club shining
shoes by day, workingthe door at night.
Fifty years later, those Beverly Hills days stick in his mind.
Like the time Bugsy Siegel arrived at the haberdashery with his
entourage and caught Calton gawking at him through the barbershop
window.
"What are you looking at?" the gangster snapped.
"Nothing, Mr. Siegel," Calton remembers responding. "It's just that
you look like hell in that sportsjacket."
Later, after a manicure, Siegel walked past Calton and threw the
jacket on his lap: "I'll always remember how he looked at me and said,
'Here, you SOB, the jacket's yours now.' I wore that jacket for years
and years."
Or the day he yanked Cecil B. De Mille from his chair with a
panickedpull of his shine cloth. The director was discussing with a
fellow customer his most recent project, which he mentioned had cost
$4 million.
"I had just never heard of that kindof money before," Calton recalls.
"Iwas so shocked I pulled back on the cloth and he almost fell out of
the chair. I apologized and told himthat I couldn't imagine what $4
million even looked like. And he just tipped his head back and
laughed."
With that, with all the memories and their sweet retelling,
shoeshineLee Calton tips his own head back and he laughs, too.
--
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