Dear Vance: I recently purchased a photo of a barber shop supposedly located in Memphis in the 1930s. Can you tell me where it was, and how long it survived here? — a.n., memphis.
It must have been a good way to make a living, since more than 300 barber shops were in business in Memphis when the Cotton Boll opened on Union in 1938.
Dear A.N.: Years ago, a reader sent me a yellowed photograph of her beloved grandfather’s barber shop, asking me the same questions you did. After considerable research, I had to reply that the establishment had never been located here, and in fact, he had worked in a small town in Mississippi. It was quite a shock to the family.
So I was a bit reluctant to tackle another barber shop mystery, but my mood brightened when I examined the photo (above, right) more closely and thought the reflection of the building in the window looked familiar. With good reason. I quickly determined that the Cotton Boll Barber Shop was indeed located in this city, at 66 Union Avenue, which placed it right across the street from the landmark Cotton Exchange, home to the lavish offices of this magazine.
Opening a barber shop in the 1930s must have been a good way to make a living, because more than 300 of them were in business when the Cotton Boll opened in 1938. Squinting at listings in Memphis city directories, I noticed that the current trend of giving these places clever names — A Family Affair, Head Hunters, Manestream — hadn’t caught on back then. A few identified their location — the Hotel Peabody Barber Shop, the Exchange Building Barber Shop, and so on — but almost all of the rest were named after their owners. In fact, it seems the Cotton Boll was the rare exception.
It was tucked into a row of shops set into the south side of the three-story Magnolia Building, at the northeast corner of Union and Front. Most of that building was dedicated to cotton-related businesses, but three bays — 66, 68, and 70 Union Avenue — were home to all sorts of enterprises over the years. I’ll mainly stick to the barbershop, if you don’t mind.
The old photo shows two gentlemen sitting in chairs by a large window, apparently laughing and telling stories. Dimly visible is the reflection of a barber pole (mounted to the column next to the window) and through the glass you can barely see at least one barber chair, a wall-mounted clock, and a gentleman holding a towel. The display in the window advertises the Oster “Vibrant” hand massager. I was quite pleased that the photo clearly shows the two owners’ names painted on the window, making my work considerably easier.
The principal owner of the business was Sanford M. Cummins, born in Mississippi in 1888. He first shows up in the local city directories in 1920, working at the Metropole Barber Shop, which was located at 100 Madison Avenue, and living in a rooming house at 209 North Main. By 1922, he had branched out on his own, teaming up with a fellow barber he met at Metropole, and opening Cummins and Bolin Barbers, in the basement of the Wormser Hat Store at 95 South Main. By this time, he was living at 99 South Main, just next door, so he certainly had an easy commute.
In 1926, Cummins met a woman from Arkansas named Laura, and they married and moved into a bungalow at 1020 Court. He continued to work on Main Street until 1938, when he teamed up with another barber named Walter Wood and opened the Cotton Boll Barber Shop at 66 Union. The tiny space had previously been home to a grocery supply company, a restaurant, and an insurance company. This was surely an excellent location in the heart of Cotton Row, right across the street from the bustling Cotton Exchange, with Britling’s Cafeteria and Loew’s Palace theater a half-block away.
Even so, the Cotton Boll faced direct competition, since the Cotton Exchange had its own barber shop, tucked away in the basement.
Despite the nicely painted window, Walter Wood seems to have left the business, and the entire city for that matter, in 1941. Considering his age at the time — he would have been just 25 years old, and with the world at war, I have to wonder if he enlisted in the service and moved elsewhere. If so, it spoiled a convenient working arrangement, because it seems his wife, Leona, was employed as a telephone operator for Goodbody & Company, one of the cotton firms in the Magnolia Building.
In the late 1940s, although Sanford Cummins continued to run the Cotton Boll, old city directories list several other owners or part-owners: William J. Vinson and Woodrow VanCleave were two of them. By 1948, somebody named Ezra Cummins was listed as a co-owner, but I was never able to establish his relationship with Sanford. A son, perhaps?
By 1955, it seems Sanford Cummins had left the business to Ezra, because Sanford was listed working at the Gayoso Hotel Barber Shop, along with his former partner, VanCleave. As best I can determine, the Cotton Bowl remained in business until 1965, when it finally closed, and city directories listed 66 Union as “vacant” for years afterwards. Ezra Cummings took a job with the Summer Center Barber Shop, then located on Waring Road.
Those same directories show that Sanford had retired by 1970, living with wife Laura on Auburn Road in Whitehaven. He passed away in 1975 at age 87. Laura died four years later, at age 86.
And what about the former barber shop location? For years, the address seemed to be jinxed. Although the business next door, at 68 Union, remained a shoe repair shop (the well-known Galtelli’s and then Master Shoe Rebuilders) for almost half a century, city directories no longer bothered to list 66 Union, suggesting that one of the adjacent businesses had moved into the space. It has an address now, but when I took this photo in September, the place was empty. Perhaps by the time you read this, with FOR LEASE signs plastered over the windows, and various improvements planned for the Magnolia Building, a new business will have moved into the old Cotton Boll location.
Merging images of the present day (here) with the window shot of the old barber shop (top of article) shows the building has changed little over the years.
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Email: askvance@memphismagazine.com
Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis magazine, 65 Union Avenue, Suite 200, Memphis, TN 38103
