I Got Shoes

Master the 40: The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald

Our second episode looks at one of the most obscure of Fitzgerald's 178 stories, "I Got Shoes." Published in 1933, this eighth-to-last of the author's 60+ contributions to The Saturday Evening Post tells the story of a proud actress, Nell Margery, who schools both her adventurer boyfriend and a daffy gossip columnist on the meaning of professionalism. Critically ignored, the tale appeared on the heels of a vicious marital therapy session in which Fitzgerald vainly excoriated his wife, Zelda, over her efforts at writing, including her play, Scandalabra, which Baltimore's Junior Vagabond Players were soon to stage to a disastrous reception. We read the story against the backdrop of his resentment toward amateurism, explore its connections to the Little Theatre movement and modern ideas of celebrity, and question its curious borrowing of the name of a famous African American spiritual for its title. Along the way we talk about Robert's own newfound fame after his recent profile in The Guardian and Kirk thanks copyright laws for preventing him from torturing audiences with the Veggie Tales version of the gospel classic.