Barber Shop Is Calm Refuge in Changing Area

Barber shops are sanctuaries, places where you can disappear for awhile and read golf and fishing magazines until it’s your turn in the chair.

The Larchmont Barber Shop smells of hair tonic and old vinyl-covered chairs. Patrons swap stock tips and second-guess the politicians.

It is unseemly to be in a hurry in the Larchmont Barber Shop. You may glance at your watch and think about how far behind schedule you are, but barber Jerry Cottone won’t let you out of the chair until he has knocked the hair clippings off you with a whisk broom and given your shoulders a massage.

And these days, more than ever, Jerry’s place is a refuge because change--and lots of it--has come to Larchmont Boulevard.

In the last couple of years, real estate prices have shot up on this short street of shops, which for 50 years has served the residents of Hancock Park and Larchmont.

Rents have tripled, forcing out some establishments and putting a strain on others.

“A way of life is going, going, gone,” said Cathy Brown, a real estate agent who works for Dippell/Better Homes and Gardens at the southern end of the boulevard.

“What made this special,” Brown said, “was that the shops were all owner-operated. They knew about the spaghetti suppers and Boy Scout fund drives.”

Cookie Day, another Dippell agent who has lived in the area for decades, remembered the services that made the old shops special.

“At Jurgensen’s--and before that at Balzer’s--you would order your groceries over the phone and the delivery boys would come into your house and put it all away for you,” Day said.

But Jurgensen’s, a small gourmet chain, was sold recently, and the Larchmont store has been replaced by a delicatessen.

The Poinsettia Cleaners--before its space gave way to higher-paying clients--had keys to the homes of many of its patrons. The Poinsettia’s longtime customers would come home to find their cleaning and laundry put away in their closets.

The Shoe Inn, until steeper rents forced it out, would even baby-sit in a pinch. The neighborhood women who ran it took turns fitting shoes and keeping passers-by up to date on the talk of the street.

Now there is a new low-fat yogurt shop, a clothing store for super-babies and video rental outlets with flashy signs.

There are new faces, and everybody is in a rush.

“Even Landis has been sold,” said one dismayed Larchmont denizen, referring to the recent sale of Larchmont’s folksy five-and-dime store with its community bulletin board and tiny Post Office branch.

To the relief of many, Bob Landis said he would stay for a few more years to run the store for the new owners.

The change on Larchmont Boulevard has upset a lot of people, according to Jane Gilman editor of the Larchmont Chronicle. But Gilman thinks that overall the area will be better off.

“I regret that some people got forced out of business,” she said, “but the new shop owners are getting very involved in the community. All in all, Larchmont is a lot more peppy.”

Peppy is not a word you hear much in Jerry Cottone’s barber shop. It is still the place to relax, the place where fathers and sons know the bond that comes with “getting your ears lowered together,” as one said recently.

“I have a great landlady,” Jerry said. “She says I’m OK as long as she’s around.’

The radio in the shop is stuck on a station that plays Glenn Miller tunes and Tony Bennett ballads. On Saturdays, there is always a ball game or a golf match on the TV, and a good whack with the heel of your hand will sometimes improve the picture.

For now, anyway, the Larchmont Barber Shop is a refuge in the 1980s transformation of a neighborhood.