Jerry Hearn of A&A Barber Shop has so many good stories, it is hard to know which ones to tell. Hearn was featured in our February cover story, about people we see in the neighborhood all the time but don’t really know.
For many years, he was the barber to Joseph Campisi, famous for his Mafia connections as well as the restaurant empire he started. Hearn is not sure why exactly, but he was a favored barber among the city’s gamblers, bookmakers and professional criminals in the 60s and 70s. He didn’t judge them for their professions, and he stayed out of their business.
One of his regulars was Gene Goss, who owned Goss on Ross Tradin’ Hoss, a used car dealership on Ross at Akard. Goss was a legitimate businessman, who parlayed a $10 investment into two successful dealerships. But he had a little bit of thug in him too. He kept a staff of goons who collected late payments, and in the back of his shop, he kept a coffin with a mannequin inside. He’d say, “That guy was two weeks late,” Hearn recalls. Goss died in 1984.
This 1959 news clip is about a trade Goss made for a 1919 Chevrolet touring car.
A lot of the 80-year-old barber’s longtime clients have passed away. They weren’t all gagnsters and scrappy businessmen. One was an American hero. Brig. Gen. Robert Galer, a Medal of Honor recipient, was Hearn’s client until his death in 2005. Hearn says Galer told him he once dated Marilyn Monroe.
All that, of course, is history. Hearn still works four days a week. At one time, he owned his own barber shop in Lakewood, but he didn’t like it. He prefers to be at work on time and be responsible only for himself.
“I’ve worked all my life, and I just don’t mind it,” he says.
In his downtime, Hearn makes these “scrubbies,” using netting and knitting needles:
He sells hundreds of them at cost to a woman who is disabled, so that she can earn a little money from them. He’s also knitted them for fundraisers, including dozens of pink ones for a granddaughter raising money for breast cancer research. He made orange-and-black ones for a Harley-Davidson enthusiast. It’s just a hobby that keeps his hands busy.
“I’ve got to have something to do,” he says.
Hearn has six grand children and nine great-grandchildren. “And he can still knock out 20 pushups,” says Michael Applebee, who owns the barbershop.
Hearn is also quick with a joke. Asked why his clients keep coming back, he says, “I guess they keep thinking they’ll get a good haircut this time.”
Along with haircuts, A&A Barbershop also offers straight-razor shaves and lots of good stories.
