All the trimmings

Monday, Feb. 21, 2000 | 8:32 a.m.

Neighborhood barbershops have always been popular places to learn about current events.

But in the Huntridge neighborhood it's a great place to learn about past events as well.

For more than 40 years -- no one seems quite sure precisely how long -- the Huntridge Barbershop has been a gathering place for old-timers who come by for their monthly clips and conversation.

The older old-timers have seen Las Vegas grow from a wide, dusty spot in the road where there were a few gambling joints into a metropolis of mega-resorts.

They have seen their quiet neighborhoods change from friendly places where you didn't have to lock your doors to combat zones where you put bars on your windows and don't venture out at night.

The barbershop on South Maryland Parkway has changed hands a few times over the decades and changed locations a couple of times before moving into a former real estate office around 1960.

Some say the shop may be the oldest at one location in Las Vegas.

It's a place where tonsures of the past meet tonsures of the present, sometimes with jarring effects.

Many of the old-timers like the flattops and crew cuts that were popular when they were young men, but today the styles also are popular with some young women.

Seventy-two-year-old Ed Roebling has been getting his hair cut at the Huntridge since it opened, never changing his style. His son, Ron, 42, a sheet-metal worker, got his first cut there and has been coming back ever since. "But for his time in the service, I don't think Ron has ever got it cut anyplace else," Roebling said.

He proudly points out that his son never went through the long-haired hippie phase when he was growing up. "I would have thrown him out of the house," Roebling said. "I even hate to see men with those ponytails. I'd like to yank them out of their head. I'm from the old school."

Roebling, a retired jet mechanic, is one of the old old-timers.

He comes from five generations of professional gamblers, but chose not to follow that profession because of the uncertainty of employment.

His father and grandfathers were card dealers and pit bosses who worked riverboats and other gaming locations around the country. Before settling in Las Vegas in 1939 Roebling's father worked on gambling boats off the coast of Southern California.

He said his dad was one of the first employees at El Rancho hotel-casino, which became the first casino on what is now the Strip when the resort opened in 1941.

One of Roebling's closest friends is Michael Goodwin, 57, who is confined to a wheelchair. Roebling has known Goodwin all his life and faithfully wheels his friend to the shop for a cut whenever he needs it.

"I was there in Long Beach (Calif.) when Mike was born," Roebling say. "Some joke and say he's my son, but he's just a close friend."

Goodwin has never had his hair cut anywhere else since moving to Las Vegas. His father and grandfathers knew Roebling's father and grandfathers. The ancestors became acquainted on the gambling circuit. Goodwin's grandfather also was one of the first employees at El Rancho.

The two men are also neighbors. They have lived in the Huntridge area since their arrival. "Vegas was just a small town when I came here in '39," Roebling said. "There weren't but between 5,000 and 8,000 people in the whole valley."

He used to know just about everyone in town and all of the customers at the barbershop. Now people come and go too fast. "I've seen a zillion people come and go. I used to know all the customers, but I don't know hardly anyone anymore. I just come in and have Ann (shop owner Ann Gallegos) cut my hair," Roebling said.

Roebling remembers pumping gas for 25 cents an hour on Fremont Street in 1945. "Vegas was just the downtown area back then. Charleston was a gravel road. South of Charleston was desert. The only casinos on what is now the Strip were El Rancho and the Frontier. The only thing Vegas had was gambling and the railroad," Roebling said.

A haircut at the Huntridge is $9 for senior citizens (ages 65 and over) and $10 for everyone else.

When Roebling was growing up he paid 25 cents for a haircut at Buck's barbershop on Second and Fremont. Those were the days when you slept with your windows open and doors unlocked at night.

"Our neighborhood has gotten bigger and there's more crime. I'm scared to go out after dark now. Someone will hit you on the head," Roebling said. "And there's so much traffic I don't walk to the shop anymore, I drive."

Bob Boardman, 82, is one of those who is faithful to the flattop. The retired office machine repairman and salesman has been coming to the Huntridge for about three years -- since his barber, Terry Gale, 63, started working there.

Gale has been barbering for 36 years and, until three years ago, owned his own place. Boardman went to him faithfully for about 25 years. "Terry cuts my flattop straight up and down," Boardman said. "Other barbers screwed it up. They've cut it at a slant or crooked or like a Mohawk. But Terry gets it perfect every time. When I found out he was selling his shop I called him personally at home and asked him who was going to cut my hair now. He said he was."

Gale decided to continue cutting hair one day a week. "I enjoy talking to my old customers," he said. "I don't want to lose contact with them."

Gale has lived in Las Vegas since 1948 and is a graduate of Las Vegas High School's class of '54. He's seen a lot of hair styles come and go. "Now the kids like a 'fade,' a fading out of the hair. Some kids like flattops. Mostly, people like regular cuts," he said.

Boardman, who spent most of his life in Southern California before moving to Las Vegas in 1970, has had a flattop since 1948. "I started wearing it this way when I took up water-skiing," he said.

Boardman's father, who was a pharmacist, taught him how to take care of his hair. "I brush it 100 strokes a day and massage my scalp every morning," he said. "That keeps the circulation going."

But the technique won't revive hair for those who are looking for a cure for baldness. "Once a follicle is dead, it's dead," Boardman said.

Boardman's main hobby used to be racing cars, beginning in 1933 and ending in 1972. His son and grandson have carried on the tradition, he noted.

Like most of the old-timers, Boardman has interesting stories to share with those who are waiting to be shorn. "I was in the Air Force (Army Air Corps) with Broderick Crawford, Gene Autry and Clark Gable," he said. "Gene would come in at night and play the guitar and sing for us for an hour or so."

Boardman and Gable were gunners in the 303rd Hells Angels. "I spoke to him maybe once," he said.

While technology is changing the world, it has not had much impact on barbering. Clippers, scissors and combs are still the tools of the trade.

Ann Gallegos bought the three-chair shop three years ago from Gary Reber, who owned it for more than 35 years. "When I took over the shop the clientele were mostly senior citizens, now it's about half and half," Gallegos said. "A lot of older people have moved away, and they rent their homes to young families."

At this old shop, customers young and old can still get a shave as well as a haircut, and conversations about the past and present.

"Our clientele includes everyone from children who are getting their first cut to one who is 98 years old," Gallegos said. "We had one who was 99 who passed away last year."

Recently a 68-year-old customer came in for a shave -- head and face. Huntridge is one of the few barbershops where you can have your face shaved, as well as your head. "At $10 for a shave, we're one of the cheaper ones," Gallegos said.

Many of the older customers don't feel they've had a clean cut unless the barber uses a razor to cut around the ears. And there are those who treat themselves to facial shaves. "It's very relaxing," Gallegos said.

She, too, has seen a wide variety of cuts: flattops, crew cuts and John Johns, among others. The current fad is the Ricky Martin on Caesar's cut -- the hair is cut short and combed forward with a flip in front.

Bob Stevens, Gallegos' other employee, is popular with the ladies who come in for a cut. "He does a lot of women who like the flattop effect," she said.

Gallegos has been barbering for more than 30 years. Most members of her family are barbers -- her husband, children, nieces, nephews and in-laws. "At family reunions, they call us the hair family," she said.

Gallegos was working as a secretary for the Nevada State Barber's Association when she learned that Reber was going to sell.

Gallegos and her husband own another shop in town and have owned shops in the past, but this was her first venture on her own.

"It's a stable shop," she said. "Many move away, but they still come back here for their cuts."

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