Stanley M. “Red” Mahan opened his barber and beauty shop in 1927 in the space next door to what would later become the Strand Theatre. Red’s wife operated the beauty shop in the back of the building and the barber shop was in the front. In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, the women’s “bob” hairstyle was all the rage, so Red started calling his business “Red’s Bobher & Beauty Shoppe."
The ad you see here for the Bobher Shoppe is from a 1930 edition of the Alabamian, the Alabama College campus news magazine. The wooden bench out front under the awning gave a group of elderly gentlemen a shady place to gather each day to escape their own households and enjoy each other’s company.
Red was active in the early days of the Montevallo Volunteer Fire Department and also served on the City Council. As a young man he developed a reputation for being quite a dancer and he was also well known locally as a gifted square-dance caller. His shop on Main Street was a Montevallo institution for nearly 50 years.
The exterior of Mahan Barber Shop got a fresh coat of paint in the early 1960's and Red Mahan's son, Mike, who was the campus photographer for Alabama College at the time, shot this picture of the store while it was looking new and pristine.
Many thanks to Clay Nordan, Vice-President of the Montevallo Historical Society, for sharing this information!
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