This article appeared in the July 13, 2012 Jewish Advocate.
Shoe’s on the right foot for longtime Coolidge Corner retailer
By Susie Davidson
Imagine you're shopping for a new pair of UGGs. A kindly salesman greets you at the door of an old-fashioned shoe store. But instead of asking about your shoe size or color preference, he asks where you come from and what you studied at school.
Such is the reception you’ll likely receive at Downtown Shooz from Mel Kravitz, a beloved Coolidge Corner institution.
If you’re having a bad day, all will soon be right with your world. You might well find yourself transported back in time to a dreaded childhood shoe-buying expeditions, when a friendly salesman put your mind and feet at ease by gently measuring your size and bringing out selections chosen just for you. Kravitz still does both.
Like Ethel Weiss down the street at Irving’s Toy and Card Shop, Kravitz blurs the lines between retailer and neighborhood pal. Weiss is now 98 and still going strong, and Kravitz, at 80, has a long way to go.
The walls of Downtown Shooz – which could rightly be called a period storefront, one that still retains its original, 1960s-era look, with a bit of Building 19 thrown in - are lined with letters, photos and signatures from “friends of Mel.” Among them: Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls, who is putting Mel’s name on the credits of his new CD; Zak DeOssie of the New York Giants; Gil Velazquez, a former Red Sox player currently with a Miami Marlins affiliate; and Jason Varitek sparring with A-Rod; as well as former Florida state senator, Lieutenant Gubernatorial candidate and Florida Elections Commission member Tom Rossin.
Just as precious to him are the cards and notes (complete with imaginative grammar) from kids that he’s kept for decades: “You always looked for shoes which fits me [sic],” wrote one pint-size admirer, who decorated her letter with a drawing of a cherry blossom. “I will remember your kind [sic] and you forever. Please take care of yourself.”
Another drawing, called “Mel the Man,” depicts cartoon characters voicing Kravitz’s classic trademark saying, “See any goodies?” (a reference to shoes) as well as their own proclamations, such as “Hey! Is Mel Around Today?” and “I [heart] Mel!”
Kravitz supplied boxes of old shoes for a scene in “Good Will Hunting” when a set designer came in looking for materials to use to fashion an old storefront in South Boston. And one day shortly after the 2001 World Trade Center tragedy, Katie Couric, who was visiting her sister in Brookline, came in for patriotic sneakers for her daughters. “They were red, white and blue Converses,” recalled Kravitz. She came in on a Thursday, and I called Converse on Friday. I told them I needed two pairs for Katie Couric, and they were here by Monday.”
Converse also played into a visit from CNN film producers, who came into the store around that time. “They were doing a feature on how sneakers have gone high-tech,” Kravitz recalled. “They filmed kids playing basketball at a school, and then came in asking what we carried and how we sold them.” He showed them the tops and bottoms of his favorite styles. “I said that Converse customers are the best in the world,” he said. “I should have said sneakers, but I really meant the customers.”
Kravitz was one of three sons of Westborough natives Abe and Lillian Kravitz (two of the few Jews in Westborough at the time, they married right out of high school). He grew up in the East Side of Worcester on Vernon Hill, and celebrated his bar mitzvah at Waverly Street Synagogue, one of four in the city at the time. Abe was a caterer who at one time operated a kosher meat market in Framingham. Well into their 90s, the senior Kravitzes delivered meals to homeless shelters and organizations for the needy on behalf of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts' food recovery program Rachel's Table. They did this from the program's inception in 1989 until their deaths in 2008, receiving a prominent writeup in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette in 2001 (“93 busy years,” by Chris Echegaray). They also transported elderly people on shopping trips for the Jewish Community Center, and helped out as well at the Beth Israel Synagogue, where Abe served as Executive Director for 20 years.
During World War II, Abe Kravitz served as an air raid warden in Worcester. “He went around to houses with a whistle during drills,” his son recalled. “You couldn’t have lights on while they were being conducted, not even street lights,” he explained. After graduating high school in 1949, Mel Kravitz joined the Navy Reserve, spending two weeks training each summer off the East Coast.
During this time in 1953 on Kenberma Street in Nantasket, he met his wife, Loretta, a Dorchester native. The couple wed at Congregation Chai Odom, which was then in Dorchester. Eventually, he was called up to serve at the Navy air station in Pomona, N.J. Although he himself did not fly in them, he spent two years training planes for aircraft landings. While there, Loretta volunteered at the Atlantic City Hospital.
The Kravitzes settled in Somerville, and then Belmont, where they still live. They raised three daughters in the town and joined Beth El Temple Center. Kravitz helped with veterans’ services and events; they still attend services there.
During high school, Kravitz had worked as a stock boy in the shoe department at a department store in Worcester. “When we moved to Boston, I worked for Morse Shoe, at four of their stores,” he recalled. When he relocated to Belmont with his wife, he began working at Suburban Shoe on Trapelo Road. “From there, I opened Tremont Shoe Outlet in Oak Square, Brighton, and a year later, when I learned that Hy’s Capital Shoe at Commonwealth and Harvard Avenues was going out of business, I bought that store from him.” He changed the sign to Mel’s Capital Shoe and began operating next to the old Macy’s Liquors (later Marty’s). One day, he drove by an empty storefront in Coolidge Corner that had been a men’s boutique. That became Mel’s Capital Shoe II, with Loretta at the desk. When the building in Allston was sold, Mel took over the Coolidge Corner site.
Loretta, whose mother, Shirley Fine, was a longtime resident at Hebrew SeniorLife in Roslindale, continues to volunteer there each Monday, bringing books to residents. Kravitz also keeps busy helping his daughter Rhonda organize Avon Foundation's Walk for Breast Cancer and the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life events (Kravitz' wife, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law are and were survivors). And in the tradition of his parents, Kravitz also delivers meals to the poor through Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly.
Customers get far more than a new pair of footwear when they visit the store, Kravitz distributes favored article reprints, which include the story of a 300-year-old European Torah scroll now serving on a U.S. Navy carrier; a comic about Mass. Pike exits for “Woos-tah” and “Bahs-tan”; and the Invocation of Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner of the Union for Reform Judaism at the 2007 inauguration of Governor Patrick. He has never met Pesner, but idolizes Earl Grollman, Rabbi Emeritus of Beth El Temple Center, and often distributes his writings as well.
What does Mel himself wear? “Dr. Scholl’s tie shoes,” he replies (not a stock item, the store will begin carrying them this fall). Neither dapper nor rumpled, his clothing style is casual and unassuming.
He remains at the Coolidge Corner site today, working six days per week from 3 p.m. until closing (which is supposed to be 8 p.m. but very often runs later), but as manager, not owner. “I sold the store in the early 2000’s to Andy Nastasi of Saga House Inc., because I was ready to retire,” he said. The store was renamed Downtown Shooz. But, he couldn’t leave the shoes, or the customers. “Mainly the customers,” he admits.