February 24, 2025

This Week in the West: Salvatore "Sam" Lucchese

5 minutes

🤠This Week in the West

🎙️ Episode 17: Salvatore “Sam” Lucchese

📢 Episode Summary: When Salvatore Lucchese and his family arrived in America in 1883, they had the knowledge of shoemaking, and not much else.

More than a century later, “Sam” has a legacy - Lucchese Bootmaker, one of the most well-known and respected brands for cowboy boots.

In our podcast this week, we tell the story of Sam’s journey to Texas from Italy and how being in the right place at the right time allowed Lucchese Bootmaker to become a bootmaker for the army before moving on to some of the most well-known customers in the world.

And then there was the time their shop door opened and in walked Teddy Roosevelt...

You can see some great examples of Lucchese boots at "Cowboy Boots: From Roundups to Runways," a new exhibition at the National Cowboy & National Heritage Museum.

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

The Origins of Lucchese Bootmaker: How Italian immigrant brothers, including Salvatore "Sam" Lucchese, built a world-renowned cowboy boot company after arriving in Texas in 1882.

Lucchese's High-Profile Customers: From working cowboys to Hollywood stars like John Wayne and U.S. presidents like Lyndon B. Johnson, Lucchese boots became a status symbol of craftsmanship and style.

Sam Lucchese’s Impact Beyond Boots: Besides his bootmaking success, Sam invested in San Antonio's entertainment scene, creating a hub for Spanish-language theater in the 1920s.

👥 Behind the Scenes

Host: Seth Spillman

Producer: Chase Spivey

Writer: Mike Koehler

🔗 Further research:

A timeline of the Lucchese Bootmaker company: https://www.lucchese.com/pages/timeline

Cowboy Boots: From Roundups to Runways, Presented by Lucchese Bootmaker, a new exhibition at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/exhibitions/cowboy-boots/

The Handbook of Texas History: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/lucchese-sam

📬 Connect With Us:

🌐 Website: www.nationalcowboymuseum.org

📖 Read Our Blog: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/blog/

📩 Email: [email protected]

📲Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ncwhm/

📷Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nationalcowboymuseum

❎X/Twitter: https://x.com/ncwhm

💼LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-cowboy-&-western-heritage-museum

🗺️ Visit Us:

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd Street, Oklahoma City, OK, 73111

💡 Support Us:

🏅Become A Member of the Museum: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/support/memberships/

🛒Shop at Persimmon Hill, our Museum store: https://persimmonhillstore.com/

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:

🔹 Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-the-west/id1776228708

🔹 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2KYmd2BumVtQVH1ez1Cr2U

🔹YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFoE2kU21JpX9T6W9NonXuD9UapS1TsmN

🔹Podbean: https://thisweekinthewest.podbean.com/

⭐ If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to rate & review!

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By The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

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