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Today the HHoF salutes the Ina Hart Institute of Beauty for store design brilliance, signange and scalloped drapery perfection. Extra points are given for the eye placement and the bottles of perfume.
Because we could find not a word about Ms. Hart herself, I - Cookie - challenge each of you to write a short biography about what you think Ina's profile would say.
From a 1971 Yellow Pages, I was able to ascertain that the "Ina Hart Institute of Beauty" was located on the same street as "Isle O' Coiffures!"
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm not making this up.
Thankfully, I managed to just get accepted with an Ima Hogg Memorial Scholarship for Indigent Hairworkers.
ReplyDeleteHave you met her sister Ura Hogg?
DeleteOh, it wasn't always glamor and the bright lights of the Westlake Shopping Center for Ina. Born Inez Maschlowsky, she fought her way out of the hardscrabble east side of Titusville, Pennsylvania and never looked back. After two semesters at the Ashtabula House de Beauté and Cosmetology Academy (and her regrettable first marriage, to Angus Hart, from whom she took only her sign-ready surname). She worked her way up from a single chair at Isle O'Coffures, first to a tiny salon on an iffy stretch of Lackawanna Avenue and then, finally,to the fabulous triple storefront that bore her new name in letters eight feet high.
ReplyDeleteHer cousin Christopher and his friend Lloyd did a terrif job with the décor, which looked just like a spread in Modern Hairdos, her favorite magazine, and on top of that Lloyd was the best tip-froster this side of the Alleghenys.
It hadn't been easy, but by 1970, Ina Hart was sitting pretty.
Muscato wins, BECAUSE HE READS DIRECTIONS!
DeleteThe researcher in me is out of control.
ReplyDeleteI'm lost on the Isle O'Coiffures.
ReplyDelete