The building at the corner of Cedar
and Robbins, where the Elder&Hey drug store was located, was
built in 1929. Photo ca 1955.

Pictured in the barbershop on the lower level
of Elder’s Drugstore is Phil Melillo and unknown customer.

Phil Melillo's barber license.

Pictured L-R: Joe Mordent, Joe Vigorito,
and Philip Melillo. |
Three
Melillo Generations - As told
by Phillip Melillo.
Daily Times, 1967 by Ellison Nye
Probably not too many area men remember when
the refrain ‘Shave and a haircut-Two bits’ was more
than just a catchy musical phrase. But longtime Niles resident
Phillip Melillo does!
Recently retired after a 57-year career as a
local barber, back in 1910, when he opened his first barber shop
on Pratt Street- that familiar phrase was a fact. A shave cost
but 10 cents in those days and a haircut was 15 cents “and
I remember that I usually did more shaves than haircuts for some
reason – maybe men were wearing their hair longer then,”
he reminisces.
“That really wasn’t too bad a price,” he adds.
“Since the rent for my shop was only $8 a month and everything
else was comparable”.
Melillo, whose understandably well-groomed hair
is now white, but still has the expressive dark-brown eyes of
a Neopolitan, was born in Corleto Monferte, Italy near Naples.
He left there as a boy of 16, journeying with others from the
same village by ship to New York City, but traveling alone by
train to the home of his sister, the late Mrs. Andre Vigorito,
in Niles.
After a brief stint working in a brickyard here
and in a boiler factory in Warren, “I just picked up the
barbering trade- you didn’t go to school then to learn it.”
This was a career he has followed, with the exception
of a quick excursion into and out of the restaurant business in
1929, for the remainder of his business years.
He gave up the Pratt Street shop in 1920 to work
for another barber for four years and a partnership arrangement
with still another barber for five years. After six months of
operating a restaurant on State Street, he opened his own barbershop
again in the basement of the Elder and Hey drugstore at the corner
of Robbins Avenue and Cedar Street. He moved to his last business
site at 509 Robbins Avenue (built in 1890) in 1936.
Fifty years ago last December 30th, he married
Miss Rose Bianco of McKinley Heights in Our Lady of Mount
Carmel Church in 1916 when she was 16 and he was 26 and they lived
and raised their family in the roomy house next to and behind
his place of business. Walking to work for Phillip meant merely
sliding open a convenient door connecting his shop with the entry
hall of his home.
That ‘open-door policy’ still exists,
for their eldest son, Frank Melillo, who has been associated
with his father for a number of years, in the operation of the
shop, now manages the business.
Phillip and Rose had five children: Frank,
William, Angie, and Raymond named for his brother Ray who
passed away when he was five years old. Operating the barbershop
in the same location today is Mike Melillo, grandson
of Phillip Melillo and son of Raymond Melillo.
Their only daughter, Angie, opened a
beauty shop in quarters matching the barber shop but on the opposite
side of the porch and entry to her paren's home.
Another son is Major William Melillo,
U.S.A.F., now stationed in Abilene, Texas, and their youngest
son, Raymond Melillo, who was born a few months after
the death of his five-year-old brother and namesake, is a field
engineer for a Youngstown firm.
Over forty years a member of the Barber’s
Union, Local No. 184, Melillo has been a secretary since 1939
of the Bella Napoli Lodge, Niles and is a member of the East End
Club.
Other than an increase in the scope of his usual summer gardening
activities and the possibility of a second trip back to Italy
(his first was in 1947 when he flew over for a three-and-a half
month visit) the veteran barber’s plans for retirement are
to enjoy the time with his friends and family. |

Phil Melillo moved to his last business
site at 509 Robbins Avenue (built in 1890) in 1936.
509 Robbins Avenue, 2020.
|
NILES — Michael R. Melillo,
64, of Niles, passed away Wednesday, November 24, 2021, at the
Cleveland Clinic.
He was born April 6, 1957, in
Warren, the son of Ray and Jean Walden Melillo.
Mike was a 1975 graduate of Niles
McKinley High School and owned and operated the Men’s
Union Barbershop as well as the adjoining beauty shop, Hair
Design by Michael.
Mike deeply loved the city of
Niles, and he was a beloved fixture of the community. For the
last almost 40 years, he could be found daily at his Robbins
Avenue barbershop — an establishment built by Mike’s
immigrant grandfather, Phillip Melillo in the 1930s.
He was a lifelong member of Our
Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Parish in Niles and was a proud
Italian-American. His world revolved around his family and nothing
pleased him more than to be surrounded by his adoring grandkids.
|