I'm surprised that 'Shoeshine Boy' dates from 1950, I thought that it was older than that. In the lyrics above one line is omitted from the last verse, which should read:

He opens up for business when the clock strikes nine.
He likes to get 'em early when they're feelin' fine.
And ev'rybody gets a little rise-and-shine
From the great big bundle of joy.
He pops the boogie woogie rag,
The Chattanooga shoe shine boy.

Having grown up in the North and unfamiliar with the terminology of Southern racism, I always pictured the shoeshine 'boy' as a little kid, and this was re-inforced by the line 'He charges you a nickel just to shine one shoe', which never failed to remind me of a story my uncle once told me.

He was in Mexico and a little kid, perhaps no older than nine or ten, came up to him on the street and asked, "Shine your shoes, señor?'

My uncle asked, "How much, kid?"

"Ze one shoe, she is five centavos."

"Sure, go ahead."

The kid shines the shoes and says, "That will be feefty-five centavos, señor."

"But you said one shoe was five centavos!"

"Si, señor, ze one shoe, she is five centavos, ze other shoe, she is feefty centavos."

"So", said my uncle, "I gave him the fifty-five centavos and he thanked me and went on his way. Of course, I had planned to give him ten centavos for the shine and a ninety centavo tip, so the little wiseass cheated himself out of forty-five centavos."

I don't speak Spanish, but I believe the word for shoe, zapato, is masculine, so it's unlikely the kid would have said, "...one shoe, she is...", but apart from that, I'm sure I would have forgotten the story long ago were it not for that song.

You don't see many little kids shining shoes these days. I'm reminded of a scene in 'Goodfellas'...