Toe clips were always made to be used with blocks/ cleats, nailed to the bottom of stiff leather soled shoes. The straps were there to hold the gap in the blocks onto the pedal so were never that tight but had to be loosened a lot to get the blocks clear of the pedal. A shoe iron to re-nail blocks was part of our workshop set up when I was racing as a kid. Plastic shoes with molded in blocks just started to come in in the 70s.
These are fancier than the ones we could get our hands on, they had square edges, not the nice ramps up to the slot. https://www.ebay.com/itm/28436123760...oAAOSwKUlg5APa