The Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, or World’s Fair as it is popularly known, brought children from all over the world to St. Louis. In fact, children at the Fair even had their own parade on Children’s Day in August. While it’s safe to assume that most of these children were well behaved, and certain that most of them were actual children, Buster Brown was famously neither. However, with the help of Brown Shoe Company, Buster became one of the most memorable personalities at the Fair and a shoo-in for the naughtiest.
Buster Brown was a character in the literal sense. He was created in the mind of Richard Fenton Outcault, an Ohio-born cartoonist credited as the inventor of the modern comic strip. In some ways, Outcault’s character was a good natured, polite little boy. Part of an upper-crust family in New York City, Buster sported a blonde “pageboy” haircut, dainty shoes, and pastel knickers. However, Buster was best known for his delightful naughty streak. In the Buster Brown comic strip, which ran in the New York Herald starting in 1902, Buster got into all sorts of trouble, along with Tige, his talking American Pit Bull Terrier. In one strip, Buster gets caught putting syrup into his mother’s perfume bottle. In another, soda splashes on well-dressed ladies after Buster tries to serve his dog from a soda fountain.
Outcault brought Buster to the 1904 World’s Fair in the hopes of selling licenses to his character to businesses. Buster turned out to be very marketable, which was due in part to the fact that his name and image had already been established and adored in American comics. Outcault ended up selling the rights to his character to over 200 businesses, most notably the St. Louis-based Brown Shoe Company, which by coincidence shared a name with Buster Brown.
From there, Buster went live. Starting in 1908, the shoe company, which was founded in 1878 by George Warren Brown, sponsored a number of actors to perform as Buster Brown around the country. The actors often appeared with trained dogs and performed in venues such as theatres, department stores, and shoe stores. The shows regularly drew large crowds. The actors told jokes, did tricks, and, of course, encouraged onlookers to buy Buster Brown Shoes.
With the help of these Buster Browns, the company grew quickly. By the 1920s, it ranked among the greatest shoe manufacturing concerns in the world; but Buster Brown’s legacy did not stop there. In 1944, The Brown Shoe Company sponsored an NBC radio show called “Smilin’ Ed’s Buster Brown Gang,” with radio personality Ed McConnell and a cast of characters including “Froggy the Gremlin” and “Midnight the Cat.” The show featured adventure stories, songs, and multiple plugs for Buster Brown Shoes and Buster Brown comic books, which were available at Brown Shoe Company retailers.
Today, Brown Shoe Company still uses the Buster Brown name for its line of children’s shoes, but the character is no longer central to the brand. Still, Buster Brown will be remembered for his naughty antics, his connection to St. Louis shoe manufacturing, and for his industrious debut as an advertising character at the St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair.
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