X-ray Vision: The Fluoroscope Fad

 In a previous post, we saw Mary (Patrick) Culbert (wife of Milward Taylor "Mel" Culbert) walking past the Rowland Hill's Shoe Store in London, Ontario in 1945 with her three-year-old son, Terrence Patrick "Terry" Culbert and her baby daughter, Dana Elizabeth Culbert.

Mary (Patrick) Culbert with son Terry Culbert and daughter, Dana Culbert (in pram) walking by Rowland Hill's Shoe Store on Dundas Street in London, Ontario, 1945.

Terry was probably hoping to drag his mother into the shoe store. Why? So that he could x-ray his feet!

Inside Rowland Hill's Shoe Store was a device known as a fluoroscope or a pedoscope.

Advertisement for Rowland Hill's Shoe Store's X-ray shoe fitting equipment, i.e. fluoroscope. Source: London Free Press, 31 October 1935.

Terry Culbert says, “It was a thrill to use that machine! You could look through the viewer and see the bones of your feet!” His sister, Dana (Culbert) Garrett remembers that “it was the highlight of every shopping trip!”

Fluoroscopes began popping up in shoe stores in Canada and the United States during the 1920s. Purported to be a shoe-fitting aid, their popularity lasted for decades. 

X-Ray Shoes sign at a store in St. Petersburg, Florida, 1930s. The bench also says X-Ray Shoes.

Fluoroscope frenzy, 1920s.

As a child in the 1960s, I shared Terry and Dana’s excitement at using that marvel of a machine. I couldn’t wait to run into Rowland Hill’s Shoe Store and slide my feet into the fluoroscope.

1940s Fluoroscope demonstration.

In 1999, Time magazine described the fluoroscope as one of “The Worst Ideas of the Century” but to children, it was a miracle machine.

The fluoroscope stood at about 4 ½ feet high. An x-ray device was concealed within the fluoroscope.

How did it work? First, you tried on a new pair of shoes. Then, you slid your feet into the two slots at the base of the fluoroscope. Next, you peered into one of three viewers at the top of the fluoroscope. You then set a timer, and looked at the image of your feet on a screen. You could clearly see the bones of your feet, glowing green!

If you wiggled your toes, you could see your bones move. It was like watching a dancing skeleton.

As mentioned, the fluoroscope had three viewers at the top. Up to three different people could look at the bones of your feet at the same time. For example, a child could observe the bones of their feet through one viewer while their mother and the salesperson looked through the other two viewers.

The salesperson claimed to be able to see if the shoes fit you properly by looking through the viewer at your bones. However, the proper fit of a shoe is based on the soft tissues of the foot, not the bones. Undoubtedly, the fluoroscope was more of a sales gimmick than a tool.

A section from a shoe salesperson’s fitting card.

According to an article in the University of Chicago’s The History of Social Science, “the shoe-fitting fluoroscope was nothing more or less than an elaborate form of advertising designed to sell shoes.”

Not only was the fluoroscope a gimmick, it was a health hazard. Fluoroscopes produced and leaked radiation. Not just a little radiation; A LOT OF RADIATION. The fluoroscope delivered a radiation dose of 13 roentgen. This wasn’t particularly harmful if you only used the machine once or twice a year. However, these were dangerous levels of radiation if you were a fluoroscope enthusiast like me and my siblings, Terry and Dana or if you were a shoe salesperson who was constantly in close proximity to the machines.

By the 1960s, fluoroscopes were banned in the United States but their use carried on in Canada until 1970. 

Fluoroscopes were all the rage with children. Children are much more radiosensitive than adults yet kids begged their mothers to use the shoe store’s fluoroscope. After all, what kid wouldn’t want to see their skeletal feet glowing green?

This photo reminds me of my childhood fervor for the fluoroscope. [photo via]

Seriously?

Fluoroscopes were fun but dangerous. There are records of shoe salespersons and customers who suffered radiation burns and foot cancer. Fortunately, Terry and Dana and I (and maybe some of you) have managed to make it this far in life without any known side effects. 

Time magazine really did make a good point when they described the fluoroscope as one of “The Worst Ideas of the Century.”