Vic De Rose interview

Interview with Vic De Rose - Part I

For 47 years Vic De Rose has operated a barber shop at 864 N. High Street. Before that, his father operated a shop in a different building in the same location. In this first installment of an interview by Andy Klein, Vic talks about his father.

Vic: This building was built in 1952. I came here in 1954. This has always been a barber shop, my dad had it. My dad came here in 1934. He worked here until he passed away in 1969. 35 years. Before the depression, my dad worked at a company, west of the old Armory on Main Street, in a building where they made copies of Stradivarius violins, and my dad was the foreman in the sanding room. Well, when the depression hit, no one would buy violins, let alone a copy of a Stradivarius, so he was only working one day a week. In those times, in order to be a barber, all you had to do was watch a barber for awhile until you thought you could do it, then start in. The barber law didn't go into effect in Ohio until 1933, and then if you get your license and register, all you had to do was swear you're a barber, and that's all there was to it. The fellow who owned this shop at the time, his wife was very very ill and the doctors told him to take her out west. It wouldn't cure her, but she might live a bit longer, so my father purchased this barber shop for $500. Just the shop, not the building, in 1934.

Andy: What did the old barber shop look like? You said the door was about in the same place.

Vic: The old barber shop was about one-fourth the size of this room. The pot bellied stove sat in the back, and there was a rest room, all that was in it was a toilet. There were two chairs. It was about half as wide and half as deep.

Andy: What kind of hours did he work here?

V: Weekdays 6 to 6, and on Saturdays, he probably didn't get home until midnight. Saturday was a big day.

A: What kind of customers did he have?

V: All kinds. Folks from the neighborhood, workers, laborers. And then as their families got larger, why they moved out, but they still kept coming back. And also, Jeffrey Manufacturing up here, at that time, they were working day and night, three shifts, and they probably had 4000 employees, and he would catch some of the guys who worked in the factory, coming and going, and the office people, they had staggered hours, and he would get them, coming and going.

A: What did he charge for haircuts?

V: When I came here, they were $1.50. But my dad always said he made more money cutting hair at a dollar a head than at any other time.

A: What kind of rent did your father pay for his old space?

V: Probably $25/month. They didn't raise his rent very much when he moved into the new building.