Stylish Bootblack Shows Professional Polish With Silk Shining Cloth, High Heels, Tuxedo

They wear tuxedos and high heels on the job and can make $100 on a good day, but Jordana Merry, 20, feels that more importantly “it’s a fun job that gives me an opportunity to relate one on one.”

And if the customer wants one, she’ll even give him a foot massage for $5 in the lobby of the Irvine Marriott Hotel where the shoeshine stand is located.

But the job is more geared to shining shoes, she said, while cracking the silk rag she uses to polish off a job.

“Most men are very particular about the shoes they wear,” said the Orange Coast College student who was working the 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift. “We’re really busy up to about 10 a.m. but it slows about then and picks up later.”

The shine takes about five minutes and costs $3, but she also averages about $1.50 tip per job. “This is a fun job and we hardly ever take the guys seriously,” she said, noting that most men getting shoeshines are wearing the conservative wing tips and loafers. “We joke all day long and the customers get a kick out of our tuxedo outfit. It’s a good gimmick.”

But not so for Merry’s boyfriend. “He just didn’t understand the concept of the job,” she said.

Jordana and other bootblacks are independent contractors, said Newport Beach entrepreneur Patsy Romesburg who owns PJ’s Shoe Shine Co. and has 10 similar shoeshine stands in other Marriott hotels in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

“The women who shine shoes are all professionals and they conduct themselves in a professional manner,” said Romesburg, who points out that each bootblack leases the $3,000 two-seat stands, “so that makes them president of their own company.”

Chefs have titles that most mortals probably don’t understand such as poissonnier (cooks the fish) and saucier (makes the sauces), positions held a few years back by Ted Gray, who was named executive chef at the Newporter Resort hotel in Newport Beach.

So it was not surprising to receive a press release stating that Gray was promoted from sour chef.

It was supposed to read sous , which means assistant chef.

Rhinokay, Bumbler Lion, Butterbear, Hoppo Potamus, Moosel and Eleroo make up the Wuzzles population of the land of WUZ.

Well one of these days it appears that Disneyland will get those new characters, who look like the animal combination their names depict, after they debut on televison in September.

Although one news wire service said they were already cavorting at the Magic Kingdom in Anaheim, Disneyland corporate spokesman Gary Kalkin said that’s not so and “We have no current plans to introduce the characters . . . but who is to say we won’t.”

Anything is possible in the land of WUZ!

Detective Frank (Pete) Peterson, 57, who retired after 28 1/2 years on the Fullerton Police Department, was talking about police work and related the story about working off-duty at a bowling alley where he told an 8-year-old to put out his cigarette.

“It wasn’t but just a little while later,” he said “that I got a call from the kid’s parents to tell me I had my nerve telling the boy to put out his cigarette.”

Despite that, he said, “police work was enjoyable.”

It must be. There were 164 applications for his and one other opening on the Fullerton force.

Acknowledgments--Westminster resident Gary Ellis named president of the 110,000-member Cal State Long Beach Alumni Assn. . . . 16-year-old twin sisters Alexa and Erika Reetz of Fullerton finished second and third, respectively, in the recent 10-mile Seal Beach Rough Water Swim in times of 3:32.08 and 3:32.09.