The Best Little Movie House in Vancouver

ABOVE: Greek immigrant George Chronopoulus arrives in Vancouver in 1960.

NOSTALGIC VANCOUVER I was the first barber in Vancouver to offer razor cuts and hair styling for men. Jack Wasserman wrote about me in the Vancouver Sun newspaper. One of my customers was Ken Stauffer who owned the Cave Supper Club. It was through Ken that Jack found out about me and that led to a nice write-up in the Vancouver Sun. For the first two weeks, I didn’t do much, no styles, just cutting. When I finally started doing styles, they put me in a back chair, the last chair in the salon, behind a curtain. In those days they considered it embarrassing to see a man getting a blow dry and a style. For a while I worked behind a curtain doing razor cuts, Perry Como style or Hollywood style. Then, after two weeks, Gus threw the keys down in front of me and said, “Here, you look after the place.” So here I am, no English, no friends, just a hot-blooded Greek but my brain was working. Before I knew it I was established in Vancouver. Bad guys, good guys, big business people, all came to me through word of mouth. There was no one else in Vancouver doing what I was doing. I was in the right place at the right time.

My partner in my new barber shop was Tony Farina, an Italian boy. Tony was really good at bringing in new clients whenever things slowed down. He asked his mother, “Can you loan us the money.” “Yes,” she said, “as long as George pays me back.” So we opened our new salon at 650 Seymour Street under the Bay parkade. I was surprised that I could find such a good location downtown. It was not too far from the Waverly. I didn’t want to open close to the Waverly but this spot came available. I gave Gus three weeks notice but he let me go immediately. He was more embarrassed than unhappy because someone had spread the word that he was gay. He thought that I had done it.

Everyone dropped by our new salon. It went very well right from the start. All my co-workers from the Waverly wanted to come with us but I said no out of respect for Gus. We hired two barbers, one from England named Jimmy and one from Ireland named Kevin and we had most of the establishment coming to us. Thanks to Sid Golden, guys from the Jewish community became my clients: Max Fugman, Syd Belzberg, Roy Cantor, Joe Cohen, Irving Kates (I was invited to his house just a couple of weeks ago (September 29, 2013), to celebrate his 85th birthday); guys from the Richmond Golf & Country Club. Practically every CEO in town came by: Jimmy Pattison and Mr. Rogers of B.C. Sugar. We called it the Riviera Barber Shop. My partner liked the Buick Riviera and that is where we got the name. I had a painter paint a mural on the back wall of the salon. It cost us about $1,000. We were making $100 a week to start and later more. That was a lot of money in those days. -excerpts from My Greek Barber’s Diary.

Life on Seymour street was exhilarating! All sorts of people came into our new salon. One time I bought a briefcase with a combination lock and left it on my desk. Before long it had disappeared. There were lots of thieves around in those days. I had a client named Vince who I thought might be able to help. “What’s happening?” I said to him. “Are we stealing from the family now?” “What happened?” “Someone stole my briefcase.” “Oh, I know who did it,” he says. “Don’t worry, in one hour the briefcase will be back.” The briefcase came back but it was a different color. It had been stolen from somewhere else. I couldn’t argue the point anymore. It was hilarious!

Security at the Bay across the street would often catch crooks with stolen merchandise. The Seymour Street entrance to the Bay was open in those days and anyone could gain access to the cars parked above through the skywalk. One time the appliance manager on the fourth floor told me, “There were two guys with white uniforms. They had pencils on their ears and little boards. They were looking at our best refrigerators and stoves. One guy would say, “This one, what’s the number? Take it!” They took two stoves and two refrigerators downstairs and put them on a truck. They would be sure the license plates were covered by a cloth which hung down from the appliances above. It hung just low enough to cover the numbers. Then they left. Just like that. Sometimes it would be televisions.”

One day a guy came into the salon. He was well dressed and it was raining outside. “George, can I talk to you in the back?” “Okay!” “I have a Patek Phillipe watch and some gold cuff links worth over $1,000. You can have them for $100.” “No, I don’t want them.” “Okay, can you open the back door for me?” “Sure.” I opened the back door and the police were waiting with their guns drawn. How lucky was that? My instincts were correct. Guys would try and sell me cameras and Rolex watches. It was crazy! One time I said to one of the thieves, “Why you do this kind of work?” “Eighty percent of the people who come into your place would buy stolen merchandise from me and resell it for a profit. They look respectable but they are not.” “Are you kidding?” “Sure, they buy it from me for $100 and then sell it for $500.” This is why later on the laws changed and the buyer became as guilty as the seller.

The Lion’s won the Grey Cup. It was a big deal. The office of the B.C. Lions was located a little further down Seymour where the entrance is to the Bay parking lot. We had all the players dropping in for a hair a haircut: Joe Capp, Lonnie Dennis, Dick Fouts, Willy Fleming and Tom Brown. Tom Larscheid, their color announcer (one who fills in with background material during breaks in the play), and Jim Cox both came down as well. Tom still comes into the salon. Later on Tom was the commentator for the Canucks games for thirty years. -excerpts from My Greek Barber’s Diary.