SHOE BOY was Hank Braddigan's first foray into documentary filmmaking. Frustrated by his mother's insistence that he solely wear Tom McAn shoes throughout childhood and early adolesence, Hank felt determined to find out what drove his mother's single-mindedness.

What he discovered that the first Tom McAn shoe store opened up in NYC in 1909, and for no apparent reason was named for a credible Scottish golfer of some notoriety, one Thomas McCann. So after consciously misspelling his name to avoid royalty payments, the chain went on to rank as the fifth largest and most profitable U.S. shoemaker by 1970.

Hank thought this information would be a revelation to the public. The public felt otherwise.