Barbers Suffer Unkindest Cut of All : Neighborhood: Elderly partners are being evicted after decades of making people look good and feel at home.

After more than three decades in the same North Hollywood location, barbers Tom Wilson, 76, and Jim Carcioppolo, 79, are about to find out what it is like to lose their home.

And, they say, it’s all because some of their clients have no homes of their own.

“Our landlord stood outside the doorway here and said if we don’t get rid of these homeless guys, he’s going to throw us out,” said Wilson, who received a notice to be out of Jim & Tom’s Barber Shop, which they rent for about $600 a month, by March 27. The notice does not state the reason for the eviction and a lawyer for the landlord declined comment.

“I don’t feel too good because we never did anything bad,” said Carcioppolo, who sometimes provides free haircuts to the homeless with Wilson. “In fact, we kinda helped people. And now we are in trouble.”

The barbers say ridding their barbershop of the homeless would be like kicking a relative out of the family.

Carcioppolo has spent the last 37 years making the tiny, four-chair shop a few feet from the corner of Magnolia and Laurel Canyon boulevards into a home for anyone who walked in. The cost of a haircut or a shave has remained the same for years--$6 each.

Wilson and Carcioppolo, who have been partners for 31 years, have created an old-time barbershop atmosphere, complete with four chrome barber chairs, hand-sharpened razors and even candy for children beside the antique cash register.

Most of the clients are working-class men from the neighborhood and professionals: veterinarians, lawyers and even an actor who played Superman in the 1930s.

About four years ago, Russ Turner walked in. A piano player who lost his home to drugs and alcohol, Turner was attracted to the shop by the antique Stoddard upright he saw through the window.

“I sat down and played for them,” said Turner, 43, who claims to have played for Frank Sinatra. Carcioppolo picked up his guitar and the two began playing together. “We just became like family.”

In return for his music, the barbers gave Turner a free haircut. Soon, more homeless men wandered into the shop, doing small favors or running errands in exchange for an occasional haircut and some company.

“The piano player was the beginning of it,” Wilson said. “He played such beautiful music. Now we have two or three homeless people hanging out here every day.”

The shop has not become a homeless shelter. There are rules.

“Listen, man, if you stink to high heaven, they’re going to be honest,” Turner said. “You’re always welcome here as long as it’s not been days since you took a bath. If Tom says, ‘Look, get clean clothes on,’ I respect and love them enough to do that.”

Nor are the homeless men a repellent to other paying customers. Turner’s tunes--like “Take Five” by Paul Desmond--became more than just a friendly bartering agreement. The music became an attraction.

“We have customers who come in and ask for Russ,” Carcioppolo said.

With the eviction notice, however, the music appears to be fading into the background. The landlord’s Beverly Hills attorney, Justin Lansberg, said neither he nor his client would comment on the eviction or the reasons for it.

Both barbers said the eviction spells the end of the barbershop. Carcioppolo has been trimming locks for 65 years, since he was a little boy in Sicily. Wilson has been wielding the scissors since 1946, when he left the American Barber College in Los Angeles.

“We’re just going to hang it up,” Wilson said. “I just need a little time off to get my teeth fixed, my eyes fixed.”

But those who know the barbers think they are masking their sadness with the barbershop humor that made them popular. Some customers think the eviction smells worse than cheap after-shave.

“It seems to me if they let homeless people in here, it’s their right,” said customer Roger Howard, 67, of North Hollywood. “I don’t know why it would make any difference to the landlord if they are paying rent.”

Even the homeless are less concerned about where they will go than they are about the fate of their barber friends.

“Tom and Jim have never turned their back on me or anybody that has walked in,” Turner said. “It’s not going to do as much to me as it’s going to do to two friends I know.”

After the barbers’ 31-year relationship, Turner added, “it’s almost like being married.”