Beauty Shop

Mary Denby, 94, owned West Side beauty shopMary Denby, a former beautician and beauty shop owner, died of pneumonia Saturday at Maryland General Hospital. The West Baltimore resident was 94.From the mid-1930s until 1975, Mrs. Denby owned Mary's Beauty Salon on Laurens Street in West Baltimore.A Baltimore native, the former Mary Jones married Fred Denby in the 1930s. He died in 1978.Services are planned for 11: 30 a.m. today at Leroy Dyett Funeral Home, 4600 Liberty Heights Ave.She is survived by three cousins, Sidna Gaskins, Wilbur Jones and Samuel Harriday, all of Baltimore.

An exterminator called to a downtown Baltimore building to get rid of a maggot infestation found a bound and decomposing body on a vacant upper floor yesterday afternoon, city police reported.The exterminator -- called to the building in the 400 block of W. Saratoga St. by the owners of a downstairs beauty shop -- found the partly clothed body on the fourth floor.Homicide Detective Lynette Nevins said the body appeared to be that of a woman, but the race could not be determined.Employees at the beauty shop had noticed a foul smell for about a week, she said.

On Friday mornings at Senior Connections, an adult day care center in Owings Mills, a call can be heard ringing throughout the halls: "Time for the beauty shop."For the past two years, some of the elderly clients at Senior Connections have loaded up in its van for their end-of-the-week trip to the Maryland Beauty Academy in Garrison Forest Shopping Center.While most day care facilities offer on-site beauty services, Senior Connections clients get the twofold treat of a small indulgence and a short field trip.

With voices that can stop shoppers in their tracks, four women who call themselves the Beauty Shop Quartet are adding a -- of holiday harmony to the season of mall madness.Their audience comes loaded with bags full of goodies. Some shoppers are frantic in search of that elusive perfect gift, even bumping and tripping over each other -- until they hear the melodious voices ringing out the familiar (and some not-so-familiar) songs of Christmas."They're just absolutely wonderful," said Connie Bunja, 41, whose 5-year-old daughter, Catherine, so enjoyed the music she decided to skip the shopping and follow the quartet as it caroled its way around Towson Town Center on a recent Friday night.

The Carroll County Board of Zoning Appeals has given a Taneytown woman permission to open a one-chair beauty shop in her home.The board said the addition of the small business, to be operated by Sharon L. Garber at her home in the 3800 block of Kump Station Road, would not alter the residential character of the property.FIRE* Taneytown: Engines from the Taneytown station responded to a brush fire in the 4100 block of Ruggles Road at 8:20 p.m. Sunday. Units were out for 42 minutes.

For a hilarious look at the beauty business and a fun evening of a capella harmony, come to Linthicum Park at 6 p.m. Sunday.The "Beauty Shop Quartet," a female barbershop quartet, will present two, 40-minute shows as part of the Concert in the Park summer series.The first half of the performance will consist of parody songs, gags and outlandish costumes as the quartet addresses topics such as hair, tanning booths, salon customers, taxes, dieting and other topics.The second part of the show will include a large noncomedy repertoire of show tunes, music from the 1940s, jazz and blues.

Women are the highlight of this week's column, and beauty is the main focus."I like to sing, and I love to see people smile, especially when we go to nursing homes," said Theresa Fries of Linthicum, a member of the Beauty Shop Quartet. Fries and fellow members Adrienne Terenzoni, Barb Whitford and Jen Hunt have put together a comedy show that is a parody of "Life in the Beauty Shop."Dressed in white shoes, pink smocks and wild, colorful wigs, the group pokes good-natured fun at beauty parlors.

'Beauty Shop Part 2'"B eauty Shop Part 2 (The Laughter Continues)" -- the sequel to Shelly Garrett's comedy, "Beauty Shop" -- opens a one-week run at the Lyric Opera House on Tuesday. The original "Beauty Shop" played to a total of more than 10 million theatergoers; "Beauty Shop 2" is currently on a 50-city national tour.Show times are Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m., with matinees Satur- day and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $11.50-$25.50. For more information, call (410)

The Carroll County Chamber of Commerce is developing a "Hats Off" program to showcase new businesses as well as promote older ones that have attained a milestone anniversary, added a product line or completed an expansion.The program -- to begin in September -- is patterned after the Hanover, Pa. chamber's Salute to New Businesses and will introduce new business people to the community.Non-profit organizations can also use the program to announce reaching a capital campaign goal, said Terri Meushaw, chairman of the chamber's public relations committee.

Lillian F. Grasser, a retired beauty shop owner, died Sunday at Franklin Square Hospital after a stroke and heart attack in July. She was 90 and lived on Belair Road in the Gardenville area.A mass of Christian burial for Mrs. Grasser was being offered today at St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church, 4414 Frankford Avenue.From 1954 until they retired in 1979, she and her husband, Charles G. Grasser Sr., operated a beauty shop at their Belair Road home, with special services such as transportation and low prices for elderly clients.

While beauty-shop camaraderie will appeal more to women than men in the audience of Prince George's Little Theatre's production of Steel Magnolias, the strong friendships and barbed wit that allow us to cope with hardship should have near-universal appeal. Robert Harling's comic play was first produced off-Broadway in 1987 with an all-female cast and ran for 1,126 performances. In 1989 Steel Magnolias became a movie starring Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts in a role that garnered her her first Oscar nomination.

It's Saturday morning in any neighborhood hair salon. Dryers are whirring, curling irons steaming. Amid the machinery, women are gathered - talking, laughing, gossiping, and at times maybe even crying. There are rollers and bobby pins, yes, but more importantly, there's intimacy here. And comfort. The neighborhood beauty shop is a place where stories are told - which is what makes it a perfect setting for a movie. Over the years, many filmmakers have picked up on this notion and set their movies in or around the goings-on in beauty salons.

The stars of the Vagabond Players' production of Steel Magnolias had to learn more than just their lines. Because the entire play takes place in a beauty shop, a number of the actresses had to learn how to style hair, too. In contrast to the popular 1989 film, the play is set entirely in a small-town Louisiana beauty shop -- a warm and open environment that provides its patrons an opportunity to let their hair down. Written by Robert Harling and based on the relationship between his mother and late sister, the play chronicles the story of six charming Southern women who support one another through a series of trials and triumphs.

Beauty Shop wastes an awful lot of talent, both by settling for the ordinary when it should be striving for something more, and by failing to resolve an apparent disconnect between those making the movie and those acting in it. Queen Latifah, reprising the role she originated in last year's Barbershop 2: Back In Business, is Gina, a hairstylist recently relocated from Chicago (where, presumably, Ice Cube and his Barbershop franchise are still holding forth)...

Frances T. Sadler, a cosmetologist who had owned and operated a South Baltimore beauty shop for nearly 40 years, died of cancer Thursday at her son's Glen Burnie home. She was 86. The former longtime Glen Burnie resident who had lived in Berlin since 1998, was born Frances Scarlotta in Baltimore. She was raised on Light Street and was a graduate of Holy Cross Parochial School. In 1947, Mrs. Sadler opened Fran's Beauty Shop in her home at William and Ostend streets in South Baltimore. She retired in 1984.

Dorothy Smith Baker, 79, has owned a beauty shop in her house in Harwood Park, near Elkridge, for 55 years. Seven years ago, she retired and gave the shop to her employee of 30 years, Pat Brummett. Baker, who still lives in the Harwood Park house, was interviewed by folklorist Alison Kahn on May 26, 1999, as part of an oral history project coordinated by Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway Inc. I was born in Baltimore and the first part of my married life, I lived in Hampden, and we decided that we wanted to get out of the city, and my mother-in-law and father-in-law and my husband, we come out here and saw this vacant lot in Harwood Park that was being developed, and we bought it and started building in 1938, and moved in February of 1939.

Mary Denby, 94, owned West Side beauty shopMary Denby, a former beautician and beauty shop owner, died of pneumonia Saturday at Maryland General Hospital. The West Baltimore resident was 94.From the mid-1930s until 1975, Mrs. Denby owned Mary's Beauty Salon on Laurens Street in West Baltimore.A Baltimore native, the former Mary Jones married Fred Denby in the 1930s. He died in 1978.Services are planned for 11: 30 a.m. today at Leroy Dyett Funeral Home, 4600 Liberty Heights Ave.She is survived by three cousins, Sidna Gaskins, Wilbur Jones and Samuel Harriday, all of Baltimore.

An exterminator called to a downtown Baltimore building to get rid of a maggot infestation found a bound and decomposing body on a vacant upper floor yesterday afternoon, city police reported.The exterminator -- called to the building in the 400 block of W. Saratoga St. by the owners of a downstairs beauty shop -- found the partly clothed body on the fourth floor.Homicide Detective Lynette Nevins said the body appeared to be that of a woman, but the race could not be determined.Employees at the beauty shop had noticed a foul smell for about a week, she said.

With voices that can stop shoppers in their tracks, four women who call themselves the Beauty Shop Quartet are adding a -- of holiday harmony to the season of mall madness.Their audience comes loaded with bags full of goodies. Some shoppers are frantic in search of that elusive perfect gift, even bumping and tripping over each other -- until they hear the melodious voices ringing out the familiar (and some not-so-familiar) songs of Christmas."They're just absolutely wonderful," said Connie Bunja, 41, whose 5-year-old daughter, Catherine, so enjoyed the music she decided to skip the shopping and follow the quartet as it caroled its way around Towson Town Center on a recent Friday night.

On Friday mornings at Senior Connections, an adult day care center in Owings Mills, a call can be heard ringing throughout the halls: "Time for the beauty shop."For the past two years, some of the elderly clients at Senior Connections have loaded up in its van for their end-of-the-week trip to the Maryland Beauty Academy in Garrison Forest Shopping Center.While most day care facilities offer on-site beauty services, Senior Connections clients get the twofold treat of a small indulgence and a short field trip.