Final cut: After 47 years, Joe LoBello retires from iconic post as Marshall Street barber
Joe and Linda LoBello plan to spend a good part of Joe’s retirement at their camp at Black Lake. Joe LoBello first started cutting hair at the Orange Tonsorial with his friend Duke Drumm. Doris Huang | Contributing Photographer
During a March Madness tournament in the mid-1990s, a male cheerleader walked into the Orange Tonsorial to get his hair cut. He requested either Duke Drumm or Joe LoBello, two the most experienced barbers on Marshall Street, to shave SU into the back of his head in typical mid-90s fashion.
LoBello decided to let the more experienced Drumm do the shearing and stood aside to watch.
After about 20 minutes of trimming, cutting and shaving, LoBello realized Drumm had been looking in the mirror while working and wrote “US” instead of SU. With a quick look at one another and without alarming the cheerleader, the pair quietly turned “US” into “CUSE.”
Whether or not this is the origin of ‘Cuse is still unknown, but LoBello and Drumm haven’t received any royalty checks from Dick Vitale.
Now, after nearly a lifetime of cutting hair, chatting with customers and giving advice, LoBello turned off his clippers and hung up his scissors for the last time. LoBello retired last week after working on Marshall Street for more than 47 years.
He started cutting hair at the Orange Tonsorial back in 1967 after graduating from barber school. He worked at the Tonsorial for more than three decades next to his friend Drumm, the only person who has spent more time on Marshall Street, and he’s been there since 1960.
When the barber business took a downturn with the long hair hippie craze of the ‘70s, LoBello cut wigs for ROTC cadets to hide their non-regulation locks underneath, and moonlighted as the night manager at Hungry Charlie’s (now Chuck’s Cafe) for six years.
“Joe has always been extremely outgoing and a hard worker. He has put a lot of time in around this campus and a lot of people know it,” Drumm said.
In 2000, the Tonsorial closed after its landlord planned to turn the building into a movie theatre. LoBello and Drumm took their talents and experience to Tony Christopher Hair Design, located above Chipotle.
During the past 40 years, the pair’s scissors have graced the heads of “Planet of the Apes” star James Whitmore; Tommy James & the Shondells’ drummer Jim Payne; ESPN announcer and now bald Mike Tirico, whose curly hair LoBella admits was a pain to cut; and Syracuse University men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim, who has been a regular customer since he was an SU freshman in 1962.
LoBello and Drumm have cut SU Men’s Crew Coach Dave Reischman’s hair for the past 12 years, but they still consider him a newer customer. Reischman originally heard about the pair before he was a Syracuse coach, when he brought Gonzaga University to Syracuse for an Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta in 1990.
“One of the guys went down the street to get a haircut at the Orange Tonsorial and came back talking about Duke (Drumm) and Joe (LoBella),” Reischman said. “I always remembered that, so when I moved to Syracuse I went to check out their shop and have been going back ever since.”
Besides getting a good haircut, the warm atmosphere and good conversation are what brings Reischman back to the shop time after time.
“I think Joe (LoBella)’s biggest asset is that he loves talking to people. He gets to know his customers and that is why he has such a loyal group,” Reischman said. “The past 12 years have been like one long conversation that just picks up the next time I am in the shop.”
Following a bout with cancer and now well into his seventies, LoBello has decided it is time to retire.
“I want to go out on a good note,” he said.
LoBello plans to spend the majority of retirement at his camp at Black Lake with his wife, Linda. He plans to take his boat out to go fishing and, on occasion, go to the local casino when Linda lets him.
Linda, who retired from teaching after 37 years, is happy her husband is joining her in retirement.
“He’s worked hard his entire life and doesn’t need to do it anymore. It is time for a new phase in his life. I’m sure he will find something to do — he always does,” she said.
Retired or not, LoBello doesn’t plan to stay away from Marshall Street for too long. He’s already planning his next visit to the shop. LoBello says he will miss the students the most.
“Some people hate their job. Here, we have a good time laugh and joke around,” LoBello said. “I will miss meeting the freshmen every year. They come in here to get a haircut and we talk to them, give them advice and help them steer clear of trouble.”
