In preparation for The House of Shoes' 50 Year Celebration, I was in contact with the store's founders: Michael & Shirley Keane. Michael was kind enough to provide me with his story at our special celebration on Saturday 12 October 2024. And, I wish to share it with you here for your enjoyment:
Before the shop opened, I was working as an accountant in London. My uncle, my grandfather, and his father had all been in shoes, but I'd decided to go down another path.
One day, I received a letter from my uncle, Hugh Duncan, asking me as an accountant to come back to Tasmania and manage James Duncan & Co., the family shoe shop. Of course, I knew a bit about shoes having grown up with footwear, but this would be more of a challenge.
In the end, I decided to give it a go. Back in Tasmania, it took time to learn the financials, but, after a while, I started getting more of a taste for the buying and selling side.
After 9 years working for Hugh, it was time to make a change. When the Pitt Brothers turned the once-famous Brisbane Hotel into the Old Brisbane Arcade in 1974, my wife, Shirley, and I decided to open our own shop in what used to be the hotel's front lounge. Shirley could remember going there with her grandmother for afternoon tea. We wanted to stock different brands from James Duncan and include more imported European shoes for women.
Excerpt from The Examiner Newspaper, May 1988
It was about 6 months between resigning from James Duncan's and starting the new shop. We waited and waited for the refurbishing work to be completed, watching our bank balance diminish. Plus, there were all those cartons of shoes sitting in our house to be unpacked and paid for.
Several prospective customers couldn't wait for the shop to open and came to our house one day and bought shoes straight from the carton - which I suppose in retrospect, was a good omen.
Excerpt from The Examiner Newspaper, 1977
Finally, in October 1974, the doors opened. It was the era of the high cork platforms and we introduced the brand "Tom" to Tasmania pioneered by the New Zealander, Tom Yandall, which sold very well. Tom was also the Australian agent for Christian Dior shoes which we also carried.
As time went on, we began stocking more accessories and international shoe brands such as Sergio Rossi of Italy. In those days, our customers practically queued at the door waiting for the new season's Sergio Rossi styles to arrive. They were so popular that, one year, we re-ordered from Italy during the season. Unfortunately, the re-order was left outside in the rain at Jakarta airport and when we opened the cartons, the shoes had mould growing all over them. The whole consignment had to go to the tip. Fortunately, this was an isolated case.
In the ten years we had the shop, we had many great customers, lots of great shoes and dealt with some pretty interesting characters in the shoe trade.
In 1983, we opened a new shoe outlet in Hobart which we called "Collage". Two years later, our family moved south and we sold the Launceston shop.
We are sorry we can’t be here this evening to celebrate the 50 year anniversary, but would like to wish Dianne and Rohan all the very best for the future.
Words by Michael Keane, 2024.
