Universal’s Shoe-in

That guy’s scuffed prom shoes need buffing. This lady’s pumps are missing tips. And Frankenstein’s suede leather boots need new soles pronto or the tourists at Universal Studios will be recoiling at a monster in socks.

“I do Frankenstein,” says Georgeta Tavitian, owner of Dan Dee Factory Shoe Repair. She drops names as steadily and unenthusiastically as driving hobnails into a heel: “I do Beetlejuice and Wolfman. You know how Charlie Chaplin has the funny shoes with the ends that go up? I do those.”

In 1990, Tavitian bought Dan Dee, a narrow storefront that was here, off Hollywood and Vine, when Bela Lugosi still walked the boulevard. With a dour vigilance, she reshods, every month or so, the well-trodden custom-made shoes worn by Universal Studios characters.

A shoe worker in a dirty apron stitches a leather horn to jut from Klingon boots for “Star Trek: Voyager” while a production assistant rushes in to pick up a pair of beige dance shoes for Bridget Fonda. “You see,” Tavitian says, “it is like this every day.”

Naturally, there are perks: signed glossies with bad-pun odes (“Thanks for the souls,” from Alice Cooper) or free tickets to the Rockettes. But even a big show around the corner at the Pantages--which could translate into as many as 50 pairs of clogs in search of repair, or at least a “Riverdance” poster signed by Michael Flatley--doesn’t make Dan Dee’s owner dance a jig.

“I don’t get excited,” Tavitian clarifies. “They get excited because they know I’m here.”

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Dan Dee, 1713 N. Vine St., (323) 464-4082.