A touch of Hollywood in Sault Ste. Marie (6 photos)

In Sault Ste. Marie, if you hear the name ‘Joe’ and ‘Hollywood’ in the same sentence, you’ll automatically think of Joe Giordano, the subject of this week’s SooToday Midweek Mugging.

Not only is Joe a proud father, but he has also ‘fathered’ other businesses, bringing a touch of Hollywood class to the Sault, as well as creating jobs.

Joe launched Hollywood Beauty Salon, its Cambrian Mall location now owned by son Gerry, its Station Mall location now operated by son Marcel, along with Hollywood Airport Shuttle & Limousines, run by son Joey.

After a long career as a local hairstylist and entrepreneur, Joe first retired from the hair salon industry in 2005, but returned to work to open Hollywood Joe’s in 2012.

“I missed working, so I started the business again,” Joe told us as we presented him with a pair of complimentary SooToday coffee mugs.

Hollywood Joe’s, at 524 Great Northern Rd., across from Home Depot, while taking professional care of hairstyling needs for ladies, also offers a club for men, with members able to enjoy special prices for haircuts.

The store is spacious and bright, well stocked with hair care products for men and women.

Joe’s shop also has many interesting photographs behind the front counter, including one of Joe during his military service, another taken shortly after his arrival in Canada in 1958, others of his sons Gerry, Marcel and Joey, and another of his granddaughter, Sistina Giordano, a glamorous actress and New York-based TV talk show host, with Sopranos actor James Gandolfini.

Joe, now 83, was born in Alife, in the Italian province of Caserta, his father a hairstylist, young Joe first learning the business in his father’s salon at the age of 10.

At 15, Joe enrolled in a formal hairstyling school in Naples, soon obtaining his diploma.

In 1955, at 20, Joe joined the Italian military for mandatory military service.

Joe said when he moved to Canada after leaving the military, settling in Sault Ste. Marie in 1958, there were few professional hair salons in the city (that, of course, has since changed dramatically).

Early in his career, Joe purchased a building on Queen Street East, a two storey structure in which he operated a downstairs salon billed as more exclusive, along with an upper floor salon offering haircuts at lower prices.

Subsequent hair salon ventures Joe launched (and he still proudly keeps many old business cards to prove it) included First Lady Beauty Salon, situated across from the former Woolco store, followed by Algoma Beauty Salon on James Street (near the current Spadoni’s Furniture and Appliances, Joe recalled), a beauty salon across the street from the old Memorial Gardens, a wig shop on Queen Street near the old Burton pharmacy and the Capri Beauty Salon near the corner of Gore and Albert Streets (which he operated with his brother Carlo).  

From hair care, Joe then went to billiards, opening Monte Carlo Billiards.

“That was in the 1960s. The older people know all about that, younger people don’t have billiard halls,” Joe said (though Sault youngsters still enjoy pool within bar environments).

Italian food is phenomenal as we all know, so Joe, in keeping with many other Italian and Italian-Canadian entrepreneurs, purchased another building and launched Mama Mia Pizzeria on Great Northern Road.

It was then Joe brought in his sons to work in the pizzeria, to get them used to working in a family-owned business environment.

Joe also launched a limousine service in the 1990s, taking passengers to Kewadin Casinos every hour on the hour from 6 a.m. to midnight.

Joe invites everyone to visit his shop for great hair care.

You can’t miss Hollywood Joe’s, Joe’s classy Rolls Royce with his personalized licence plate parked outside the salon.