ORANGE – Gennoro “Hank” Mascolo, a barber who cut hair in Old Towne for more than half a century and was known as the honorary mayor of the Plaza, has died after a five-month bout with stage four lung cancer. He was 92.
Mascolo died last week peacefully at his home in Orange in the arms of his wife.
“Everybody came to the barber shop,” said his wife, Renee Mascolo, 82. “He was Mr. Orange. No matter what it was with Orange, he loved Orange.”
Mascolo was born in San Pedro in 1922. The son of Italian immigrants, he was the youngest of seven children. His father was a commercial fisherman, and he joined his father on fishing trips starting at age 9.
In 1943, he joined the Navy. Among his roles was training war dogs at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. After the end of World War II, Mascolo stayed on as a reserve for a couple of years.
He later decided to go to barber school. In 1955, he opened the Plaza Barbershop at 30 Plaza Square, in the area also called the Traffic Circle, after a stint cutting hair in a building around the corner.
“I must have cut over 65,000 heads of hair,” Mascolo said in an interview in November during a moment of lucidity as his health waned.
His client list ranged from Rams and Angels players to local politicians to neighborhood kids.
Jack Nanigian, 64, a retired Orange police officer, starting getting his hair cut by Mascolo when he was 16 years old. Nanigian remembered the barbershop as akin to Floyd’s barbershop in the “Andy Griffith Show.”
Mascolo was a father figure, Nanigian said, doling out advice and acting as a trusted confidant. As Nanigian grew up, his relationship with Mascolo grew into a more-even friendship. Nanigian and his wife would go over to Mascolo’s for Fourth of July barbecues and other events.
“He was the best Italian cook,” Nanigian said. “His mostaccioli was the best.”
Outside the barbershop, Mascolo was active in the community. In the late 1990s, when the City Council proposed putting parking meters back in the Plaza, Mascolo was among the merchants who fought the plan and won.
He was the vice president of the Orange International Street Fair for more than 20 years, entertaining fair-goers one year by jumping out of a cake and another year by dressing up in a “Star Wars” costume. He was active in the Elks Lodge, once belly dancing at a variety show.
His marriage to Renee was known as the “Romance of the Plaza.” When she opened up Renee Jewelers in 1980, she was advised to go see “Hank the Barber” if she wanted to be introduced to others in town.
“I would go by the barbershop, and he was telling everybody he was going to marry me,” Renee Mascolo recalled. “He told my banker he was going to marry me, and by god, he did.”
In 1991, he sold the barbershop to another barber. In 2005, he left the Plaza Barbershop to go cut hair at a salon on Maple Avenue.
Even after he officially retired, he continued cutting hair out of his home. He cut hair for his longtime clients and friends up until last year.
Mascolo is survived by his wife, his stepson, an older sister and numerous nieces and nephews. Per Mascolo’s wishes, there will be no funeral service. A celebration of his life will be private.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3771 or rkheel@ocregister.com
