FOREWORD

How many times did I drive by the Marvy Company on St. Clair Avenue in St. Paul and not realize what history hid behind those doors? The brick building is an old auto repair shop and seemed like an odd place for a barbershop. I thought even the name “Marvy” was a trumped-up synonym for “marvelous” rather than the real name of William Marvy, who founded the shop to sell the last barber poles in the country. Only when I dared enter did I learn a bit of the history that Curt Brown has uncovered in-depth with his research for this book.

Inside, I learned how the haircutting biz has been cleaned up from the days when barbers doubled as doctors to lance boils, yank teeth and even bleed patients with leeches. The rags to sop up the extra blood were hung outside to dry. As the cloths spun into a spiral in the wind, they served as an advertisement for the services offered inside—even better than the ditty “shave and a haircut…two bits.” Marvy’s modern barber poles cleaned up this image and saved it from oblivion by making it “six ways better” than the passé poles of yore.

So sit back and enjoy the story about the preservation of this great symbol of the barber pole that stems back to medieval times.

ERIC DREGNI

Author of In Cod We Trust: Living the Norwegian Dream, Minnesota Marvels: Roadside Attractions in the Land of Lakes and seven other books