Pulling tricks out of thin hair

Ernie Lind’s barber shop offers customers more than just a haircut. Lind has been a barber in Glendale for more than 60 years, and in between cutting his customers’ hair, Lind entertains them with magic tricks.

He mostly enjoys performing card tricks, and he’s careful not to tell his secret.

“You’ve got to be good with your hands,” Lind said.

Lind grew up in Lodi, Calif., during World War II. He has always loved playing sports, and remembers that he was begging his older brother to play a game of football with him when some friends drove up to tell them that Pearl Harbor had been bombed.

Shortly after that, many of his Japanese friends were taken to internment camps, while others enlisted in the service.

When Lind turned 15, he broke his leg and realized that his athletic career was over. He decided to drop out of school and become a merchant marine.

Lind worked for a year transporting goods up and down the western coast before tiring of life on a boat. He hitchhiked south from San Francisco to move in with his stepfather in Glendale.

At his stepfather’s suggestion, Lind attended barbering college and eventually opened his own shop in 1955 on the corner of Chevy Chase Drive and Glenoaks Boulevard. He began playing sports again, joining a local baseball team started through the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

Today, Ernie’s Barber Shop still sits at the same location, and Lind does not plan to retire or close the shop any time soon.

He continues to learn more magic tricks and enjoys sharing them with customers.

What do you like about being a barber?

What’s good about barbering is the people you meet.

Who usually comes into the shop?

In barber shops, you’re always dealing with rich people, poor people, all kinds of people.

What do people usually talk about?

Since I’ve been in sports so much, a lot of my customers like to talk sports, and quite a few of them like to talk to me about magic.

What do you like about magic?

Everything.

Because people can’t figure out what happened.

Are you planning on retiring soon?

I have no reason to leave here. I just like cutting hair.