Shuffleton's Barbershop: It's All in the Details

"There were details, accidents of light, which I'd missed when I'd been able to make only quick sketches of a setting...where Rob hung his combs,his rusty old clippers, the way the light fell across the magazine rack, his moth-eaten push broom leaning against the display cases of candy and ammunition, the cracked leather seat of the barber chair with the stuffing pointing through along the edges over the nickel-plated frame." (Norman Rockwell, My Adventures as an Illustrator, 1960)

Photograph on which Rockwell based his painting Shuffleton's Barbershop courtesy https://www.visualnews.com/2012/10/04/the-photographs-behind-norman-rockwells-iconic-paintings/.

Norman Rockwell painted Shuffleton's Barbershop in East Arlington, Vermont in 1950 for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.  Rockwell left nothing to chance in his preparation for the painting.  He called on his assistant Gene Pelham to take photographs of the barbershop.

"There were details, accidents of light, which I'd missed when I'd been able to make only quick sketches of a setting...where Rob hung his combs,his rusty old clippers, the way the light fell across the magazine rack, his moth-eaten push broom leaning against the display cases of candy and ammunition, the cracked leather seat of the barber chair with the stuffing pointing through along the edges over the nickel-plated frame." 

One blogger points out more details from Shuffleton's Barbershop (http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com/1950-shuffletons-barbershop.html):

• paint and putty peeling on the windowsill
• crack in the window pane
• red hot coals in the wood burning stove
• a comic book stand
• the cat listening to Shuffleton and his cohorts

Note that classical musicians are playing in the back of the barbershop.  At one time, barbershops were far more than places to get a haircut.  Entertainment was a big part of the barbershop, the birthplace of the barbershop quartet.

Even though Shuffleton's Barbershop was the painter's 233rd piece for The Saturday Evening Post, when Rockwell first unveiled the painting, it only costs 15 cents.  Today, Rockwell's paintings have soared in value.  Just three years ago, three Rockwell paintings fetched 57.8 million dollars at a Sotheby's auction in Manhattan. Americans (and art connaisseurs) are still seeking the old time values that Rockwell portrayed so well in his paintings.

The Saturday Evening Post cover for April 29, 1950 courtesy https://www.visualnews.com/2012/10/04/the-photographs-behind-norman-rockwells-iconic-paintings/.

The Revival of the Barbershop Quartet

The Hamilton District Christian High Barbershop Quartet in Chicago circa May 2016 courtesy https://www.facebook.com/youngandsharpquartet/.

My son, Thomas, joined Hamilton District Christian High's barbershop quartet last January.  They sang at our Christmas and Easter assemblies as well as on a Chicago Music Tour in May.  Thomas and another member just graduated but they enjoy barbershopping so much that they plan on continuing to sing with the quartet.  Thus far, Young & Sharp, their new name, has completed one paid gig, for a group of businessmen, and have a wedding lined up.  They even have a uniform consisting of black pants and shirts, red suspenders and bow ties, and straw-boater hats (https://www.facebook.com/youngandsharpquartet/).

In the course of spreading the word about the Young & Sharp, I have discovered that the barbershop quartet has made a comeback in recent years.  Brantford Collegiate Institute and St. John's College both have barbershop quartets in town.  I wanted to find out more about the phenomenon.

Young black Americans sang in quartets for decades before the barbershop quartet caught on.  They would sing on street corners, in parlors and in barbershops.  Historian James Weldon Johnson said that in Jacksonville, Florida:  "Every barbershop seemed to have its own quartet."

Between 1900 and 1919, the barbershop quartet caught on among white Americans.  Dressed in straw-boaters, white shirts and pants, and striped vests, four men would harmonize a cappella songs such as Sweet Adeline, Goodbye My Coney Island Baby and Shine On Harvest Moon.  The four part harmony consisted of:  a lead, who sung the melody; a tenor who harmonized the melody; a baritone who completed the chord, singing just below the lead.

With the jazz era, and the popularity of radio, barbershoppers declined in number.  Songwriters wrote "more sophisticated melodies" which lended themselves to dancing rather than crooning (http://www.acappellafoundation.org/essay/bbshistory.html).

In 1938, two men from Tulsa, Oklahoma, O.C. Cash and Rupert Hall, met up in Kansas City and reminisced about barbershop quartets.  They formed "The Society for the Preservation and Propagation of Barbershop Quartet Singing in the United States.  While only 26 men attended their first meeting, about 150 attended their third meeting where they ended up harmonizing on the rooftop.  A local reporter, sensing a story, interviewed O.C. Cash who claimed they had chapters all over the United States.  Americans started signing up and by the 1940's, they had a revival on their hands.

Famous barbershop quartets over time include:

• The Hayd'n Quartet (early 1900's, also known as The Edison Quartet)
• American Quartet (first quarter of 20th Century)
• The Buffalo Bills (1950 International Quartet Champions)
• The Suntones (1960 International Quartet Champions, regularly appeared on Jackie Gleason Show)
• The Dapper Dans of Disneyland (appeared as The Be Sharps in Simpson's Season 5, Episode 1)
• The Singing Senators (U.S. Senators)
• Nightlife (1996 International Quartet Champions, Los Angeles based)
• Ringmasters (Swedish Quartet, first BHS Champions from outside U.S.)
• Vocal Spectrum (BHS International Champions, 2006)

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