The: William Marvy Company of St. Paul: Keeping Barbershops Classic

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They are the last makers of barber poles. In a brick warehouse in St. Paul, Minn., a dozen workers at the William Marvy Company keep churning out the swirling red, white and blue signs that dot Main Streets across the country. Here's the inside story of an innovative survivor. Son of a Latvian carpenter, William Marvy spent the Depression barnstorming the Midwest selling barber supplies out of a panel truck. In 1949, he got an idea. He designed a new lightweight barber pole in his basement -- an innovation that endured 65 years of change. With 88 percent of family businesses failing to make it through the third generation, Marvy's grandkids remain the only manufacturer left of a classic sign that dates back to the Middle Ages when barber-surgeons hung bloody towels to dry in the wind.