Animanikin: The Magic of the Nail
by Doug Huse
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About the Book
This is a true story of one man's obsession of manufacturing an unusual, entertaining advertising gimmick for his shoe repair stores. The journey began in 1936 when Ivar Nelson made a photo cutout of himself, at 1/4 scale, hammering a nail mimicking the eight basic movements of a cobbler.
After years of experimentation, a lifelike shoe man with all its intricacies of a cobbler’s motions was far from reality. But then, through two random encounters, Ivar met a neighbor and a doctor, who both turned out to be key players in the creation of the first Animanikin.
As the years passed, the little shoe men started to fall apart, and eventually all but disappeared from the windows of 200 shoe repair shops across America. Years of re-discovery and restoration was undertaken by the author, a collector, who had first seen the Animanikin as a young boy in 1950.
After years of experimentation, a lifelike shoe man with all its intricacies of a cobbler’s motions was far from reality. But then, through two random encounters, Ivar met a neighbor and a doctor, who both turned out to be key players in the creation of the first Animanikin.
As the years passed, the little shoe men started to fall apart, and eventually all but disappeared from the windows of 200 shoe repair shops across America. Years of re-discovery and restoration was undertaken by the author, a collector, who had first seen the Animanikin as a young boy in 1950.
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