Tall-eez Shoes [[1459 Woodward)

[canuck]

You heard it right here - write it down!

At least he didnt come up with "Women with Bigfoot Asses". Now that would have sounded gross. I can't wrap my head around that concept.

[downtownguy]

Tall-eez shoes is owned by the Tatarians, who also own the old oslo building across the street, and the Singer building down the block. They've had it for quite a while and seem to be waiting for a buyout; perhaps these rumors come from a Gilbert offer? The Tall-eez shoes building is sorta messed up inside, scrappers ~10 years ago throwing radiators down the stairs and such.

I got to know the manager Steve in the late 80s when I worked nearby. They were across the street and a block down at the time, north of what is now Bleu. Steve may have been a Tatarian, not sure. I got the impression he was involved in ownership of the business.

This was in the years after Hudson's closed and many folks not familiar with the city had already written off Woodward. Perhaps some of that was ignorance because the clientele was mostly black, but that stretch of Woodward still had an active retail business, especially on Saturdays when the foot traffic would rival any suburban mall.

A few years before I met Steve they had opened a store in the Northland Mall. Northland was still drawing a crowd back then and hadn't declined to the point where it is today. But Steve said they closed the store after a few years because it couldn't rival the sales at the downtown store.

Aretha Franklin was a regular customer.