Claude Thompson spends his days sneaking looks over each shoulder some 50 feet up Welton Street off the 16th Street Mall, from which he was banished last week.
Virtually tiptoeing back to his old corner, he scans the passing crowd. “What’s the best membership?” he howls. “Lifetime!” a chorus shouts back.
For nearly 10½ years, he has worked this corner, shining the shoes of businessmen, police officers and even mayors, greeting each with a smile and a good-natured quip, becoming something of a landmark on the Mall.
Then Wednesday, a police officer informed him he must either get a permit, walk his shine box 50 feet from the Mall or go to jail.
Downtown Denver Partnership, which develops and manages businesses along the Mall, called the cops on Claude Thompson.
Other vendors have permits, and in the interest of fairness, Thomp son needs one too, said spokeswoman Sarah Neumann.
Thompson is having none of it. Besides, he says, he has no idea how many shoes he must shine to raise the $550 for a permit.
He instead began on Thursday asking people to sign his petition, the aim of which he has no idea. Still, more than 200 people had signed by Friday morning.
“That’s the reason you’re walking without a woman,” Claude Thomp son hollers at a man who declines his invitation for a shine.
“I am the king of shine!” he says to no one in particular, before yelling at a group of men walking past: “What’s the best membership?”
“Lifetime!” the men, who never stop, shout back.
Seemingly everyone on this stretch of Welton knows Claude Thompson. Out of nowhere, it seems, a line has formed as he sits on his wooden box, bags of polishes and rags spilled around him.
He arrives at the corner every morning, at about 11 a.m. in winter — 9 a.m. in summer — and shines until demand falls off.
“God put me here,” Thompson says. “I had a foot problem back then so bad I had to sleep with my shoes on to avoid the smell. He cured that and made me his shoe representative.”
In a lull, he pulls out his customer book, a worn leather binder that contains the names and cell numbers of maybe 300 people. In a different book are photographs.
“Bill Cosby here,” Thompson says, pointing to a photo of him and the comedian, “is a lifetime member. I see him three times a year.”
A single shine costs 5 bucks. Or you can sign up for a lifetime membership, which on this day is priced at $30. “It is all tips from there,” Thompson said.
He doesn’t know exactly why the city is trying to run him off, he says.
“Ever since the economy went bad, the city’s got problems, and they want me to help them out of it,” he spits, considering for a moment getting a permit.
Standing alone in the shadows far up Welton, Thompson insists he will not allow the city to dictate his life.
“I’ve been here longer than many of these businesses on the Mall,” he says. “It’s not fair, them trying to deny a man a living. What gives them the right?”
Slapping his shine rag across his right shoulder, he tiptoes back into the sunlight bathing his old corner.
“Shine! Shoeshine!” he yells.
Bill Johnson’s column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-2763 or wjohnson@denverpost.com.
