1898 — 1927
The boy who walked to Hollywood.
Salvatore Ferragamo was born in 1898 in Bonito, a tiny village in Avellino. He apprenticed himself to a shoemaker at nine, opened his own shop at twelve, and emigrated to America at sixteen. He worked in a Boston shoe factory and then moved to California — Santa Barbara first, then Hollywood. He opened a custom shoe shop on Hollywood Boulevard. Within a few years he was making shoes for the silent film stars: Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo.
