The Boy with the Leaking Boot

Statue in Cleethorpes, England

The Boy with the Leaking Boot is a statue showing a young boy, with a bare right foot, holding up his right boot and looking at it. The statue is about 4 feet (1.2 m) tall, and in many cases forms a fountain, with water emerging from the toe of the boot. There are at least 24,[1] and reportedly "hundreds"[2] of examples. The origins of the statue are obscure. The boy is reported to be a young Italian newspaper seller who drowned, or an American army drummer-boy who carried water in his leaking boot to help fallen comrades,[3] or a young fire-fighter either using his boot in a bucket chain or emptying his boot after an incident,[2] or possibly none of these. The statue has also been called The Boy with the Leaky Boot,[4] Boy Immigrant and Unfortunate Boot.[5]

  1. ^ "The boy and the Boot". RoadsideAmerica.com. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
  2. ^ a b Rubin, Brian (November 2009). "That Mysterious Boy with the Boot". Shawangunk Mountain Guide. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  3. ^ "Leaking Boot". Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
  4. ^ Carney, Jim (16 February 2014). "Boy with the Leaky Boot to return to Wadsworth for city's bicentennial". ohio.com. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference ellenville was invoked but never defined (see the help page).