Learning Matters: Exploring history of a local barber shop

What can we learn in a barber shop? What light might a barber shed on a young person thinking about careers? Those are the questions I’ve been mulling since the day I found myself face to face, shopping cart to shopping cart, with my Los Angeles Times columnist hero, Steve Lopez.

“Are you…are you, Steve Lopez?” I sheepishly asked, and he nodded. I then blurted out how much I like his column and how, as a new columnist myself, I marvel at all the stories he finds (as I wondered, “Why is he shopping at our Ralphs near Adams Hill? He lives in Silver Lake!”).

“Well, I’ve got a column for you,” he genially replied, and told me about his Glendale barber, Vaughn Vasquez, who’s gearing up to celebrate the anniversary of the barber shop his dad opened in 1955, Rudy’s of Glendale.

Lopez has written about Rudy’s on other occasions, but he told Vasquez he thought the anniversary would be a good subject for a Glendale writer, particularly since it might require some research. Turns out Vaughn, who started working with his father, Rudy, in 1983, and took over the business after his father died, wasn’t sure just when in ’55 his dad opened the business. Lopez suggested I might help him find out.

Of course, I cheerfully accepted the assignment, and a few days later, I walked through the door of Rudy’s. “Here for a haircut?” asked the man at work behind the first chair in this busy establishment. “Well, no, I’m not…,” I started, at which point he broke out in a big grin that suggested he was the man I was looking for. “You’re from the News-Press. Steve Lopez said you’d be coming.”

Without skipping a clip on his customer’s head, Vasquez introduced me to his shop-full of customers and barbers. “She’s going to write a column about us,” he announced, to nods and smiles.

Lesson one: Rudy’s is a friendly place, a good quality for any small business, and for barber and beauty shops, in particular, where customers want especially to be at ease. Speaking to Vaughn and the other barbers, I guessed the spirit of camaraderie comes, in part, from the fact they enjoy their work.

“I like what I’m doing,” Vaughn told me. In high school, he’d wanted to be a firefighter. But he started working with his dad after graduating from Crescenta Valley High School, liked earning the money, and stuck with it. He’s glad he did.

“I like coming here and having fun with everybody,” he said.

After realizing early on — and convincing his dad — he preferred saving weekends for sports, Vaughn has kept a Monday-through-Friday routine for himself, leaving the shop’s Saturday hours to his colleagues.

“But come Monday, I get to come to work again,” he said.

He has taken to heart the message many students heard at their graduations: Work at something you enjoy.

Vasquez says another factor in maintaining a positive atmosphere comes from the lessons his father taught him.

“My dad was a great teacher,” Vaughn said. “Treat everybody exactly the same, never talk politics or religion, and don’t take checks,” are rules he follows. Current graduates will likely find those rules work well in all sorts of career paths.

The good spirits at Rudy’s are augmented by the sense of history on display in a collection of framed newspaper clippings (including a Lopez column). Most in evidence are the photos of Rudy Vasquez as “Fighter of the Year” in 1948, champion featherweight and lightweight. One column calls him “The Thrill Fighter.”

Rudy switched to working as a barber, alongside his brother and fellow boxer, Andy, after deciding he’d taken enough blows in the ring. Rudy opened his own shop in the old California Hotel on North Brand.

I’ve been searching for the date of Rudy’s business license, or news of the opening — so far to no avail. Glendale Economic Development Director Phil Lanzafame emailed that a lot of the old records are not in city archives.

Exploring Glendale Public Library’s Special Collections and peering at 1955 issues of the News-Press on microfilm, I discovered the hotel barbershop was operated for several years by Oliver and Roy Van Antwerp, brothers who had joined their father in the business, evidently the last in a long family line of barbers.

The closest I’ve come to a clue of Rudy’s opening is the report that the elder Van Antwerp died in June 1955, and my guess is that’s when Rudy stepped in. I told Vaughn I think it makes sense to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Rudy’s as a Father’s Day event.

We could celebrate Ernie’s Barber Shop, too, while we’re at it. It’s another family-legacy barber shop, started in 1955 by Ernie Lind and still going strong with the help of his grandson, Zach. My husband goes to Ernie’s, but when I told him about Rudy’s boxing history, he realized he’d gone to Rudy’s brother, Andy, for years when we first moved to Glendale.

Lesson two: there are fewer than six degrees of separation when it comes to barbers in Glendale. I didn’t mention that Vaughn first worked at Hair & Now, the La Crescenta shop where I get my hair cut.

That leads to lessons three and four for today’s career seekers. Barbers can’t be outsourced, and their work is akin to social service.

Happy Father’s Day to all. Rudy’s of Glendale, 109 W. California St., will be celebrating 60 years with circa 1955 60-cent haircuts on June 20. First-come, first-served. Vaughn will be there in honor of his dad.

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JOYLENE WAGNER is a former member of the Glendale Unified School Board. Email her at jkate4400@aol.com.