80-YEAR-OLD STILL FINDS TIME TO SHINE.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

The old shoeshine man's the last of a dying breed.

No one's standing in line for his job. No ``spit and shine'' hotshots are coming up through the ranks, wanting to knock Peter Arceneaux off his shoeshine stand because it's at a prime location.

The corner of Victory and Magnolia boulevards, outside the Magnolia Car Wash in Burbank, isn't.

The old Main Street Gym in downtown Los Angeles, where Pete used to have a stand in the '40s, was at one time. So was the old Sunset Bowling Alley, across the street from the Brown Derby restaurant, or outside the old Warner Bros. back lot in the 1950s and '60s.

Those were the days when people had the time and style to spend a few minutes in Pete's chair to let him shine their shoes for 25 cents or half a buck.

Now, most people are in too big a rush for that, he says. Most of his customers drop their shoes off on their way to work in the morning and pick them up on the way home. Only a very few people sit in his chair and talk anymore.

The upside to being the last of a dying breed is you've got pretty good job security if you want it, Pete says. And he wants it. Needs it. There's no pension or 401(k) retirement plans for a shoeshine man.

At 80, he's still getting up at 6 a.m. in the room he rents by the week at the nearby Avalon Hotel so he can open his stand in time to catch the morning rush hour.

He'll stay open until 9 p.m. or so, then walk home, and start all over the next day. That's the old shoeshine man's life - 15 hours a day, seven days a week, shining shoes on this Burbank street corner.

``He's out there every single day, rain or shine,'' says Randy Hawk, operations manager of the Magnolia Car Wash. ``Pete's got his space in the world, and that shoeshine stand is it.''

It's always been it, Pete says. He's been shining shoes for 70 years, since he was 10 and took over one of his older brother's shoeshine stands in downtown Houston after the family moved from Louisiana.

He got his education on a street corner, not a classroom.

``I moved out here in 1940, and set up a stand outside the Main Street Gym downtown for about four years before moving over to the Sunset Bowling Alley, across the street from the Brown Derby,'' Pete said, waving to a few motorists who honk their horns at him as they drive by.

When you've been a fixture in town for more than 30 years, people recognize you, even if they don't have the time to sit in your chair and get to know you.

Outside the Brown Derby and Warner Bros. is where he shined the shoes of some of his most famous customers, Pete says.

Rita Hayworth. James Cagney. Edward G. Robinson. Paul Muni.

``I charged them the same thing I charged all my customers back then, a quarter - but they were better tippers,'' he says, smiling. ``People had the time to sit in my chair back then, even famous people.''

It would be nice if more people stopped by to meet this man who is the last of a dying breed, says Scott Smith, owner of Magnolia Car Wash.

Sure Pete mumbles and is hard to understand sometimes, but if you listen carefully over the roar of traffic, you can make out the stories he has of shining other people's shoes for the last 70 years.

``He's just a great guy,'' Smith says. ``When he's not shining shoes, he's planting flowers around here and looking out after people.''

All the employees at the carwash look out for Pete, too, because it turns out the shoeshine man is one of the easiest touches in town.

``Guys will walk by his stand and try to bum money off him he doesn't have to give,'' Smith says. ``Pete knows how tough it can be on the streets. Sometimes he has trouble saying no.''

That's the way it usually is when you've gotten your education on a street corner.

Dennis McCarthy, [phone]

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Pete Arceneaux, 80, shines a boot outside the Magnolia Car Wash in Burbank. The Louisiana native moved to Los Angeles in 1940 and set up outside the old Main Street Gym downtown. He sees fewer customers these days, and those who do fancy a shine are less likely to sit and chat.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer