In today's fast-paced and turbulent business world, seeing a business survive under the same name and owner for several decades or more is quite rare.
Surviving for far longer periods of time—say eight decades—might strike some as a near miracle.
In the case of the family-run Marinello Hair Styling Salon in Hailey, doing so has been all in a day's, or rather, 80 years' work.
Opened in the 1920s by Winnie Brooks—a Wood River Valley native born in Gannett—the Marinello salon has operated out of five separate Hailey locations during its 80 years in existence. From the first site where Shorty's Diner exists today to the present and final location just east of there at the intersection of Croy and Second streets, the Marinello salon has literally hopscotched its way across town over the past eight decades.
Along the way, the salon became a fixture in the community for many longtime area residents accustomed to its reliable presence.
So, it was perhaps with a little less fanfare than it deserved when the doors to the Marinello salon closed for the last time Feb. 13. Its closing ends a long-running chapter in the history of the Hailey business scene.
In recent years, the salon has been under the supervision of Becky Brown and Betty Brooks, both of whom are granddaughters of Winnie Brooks and have worked off and on in the salon since the early 1960s. The two sisters acknowledge the salon's closing may upset some Hailey residents more than it does them. They think that may have something to do with the salon's unique status in the Hailey business community.
"More people are sadder than we are," Brown said.
Still, the sisters admit to some sadness at the business's passing. "It's kind of sad," Brooks said. "We're the last originally owned (family-run) business in Hailey."
Winnie Brooks came up with the name for her salon after she received her education at the Marinello Schools of Beauty, a separately run and still operating nationwide system of beauty schools. At the time, business names couldn't be patented.
In addition to running the salon, Winnie Brooks also operated her own beauty school upstairs from the salon for many years. She also hosted the first cosmetology conference in Sun Valley in 1954, Brown said.
The Marinello Hair Styling Salon isn't the only family-run business a Brooks family member has started up, owned and/or operated in Hailey.
Betty and Becky's great-uncle Sam Brooks was the original founder of the circa-1930 Liberty Theatre in Hailey. He also owned the Hailey-based Brooks Tavern and the Brooks Hotel.
The sisters' father, Bill Brooks—who passed away at his Gannett home in 2005—took over the Liberty Theatre from Sam Brooks in 1956. Bill also owned the Liberty Rock Shop in Hailey and worked as a barber for many years.
Although the Brooks family sold the Liberty Theatre in 1972, they won't be doing the same with the Croy and Second street site of the Marinello salon. "We're going to keep it in the family," Brooks said.
The building was actually the childhood home of Winnie Brooks, she said. "This was her home in Gannett," Brooks said. "She brought it up here in the '40s."
The sisters are now seeking a new tenant to lease the building for an undetermined type of business.
Before that can happen, however, they will have to sell off the older accumulated salon-related odds and ends and more recent beauty products.
"We've got to get the stuff out of here," Brown said. "It's hard to get rid of everything that's been in here for 60 years."
Winnie Brooks, third from right, started the Marinello Hair Styling Salon in Hailey in the 1920s. On the far right is salon employee Ina Shafer with customer Mrs. Broyles (sitting). Photo courtesy of Betty Brooks and Becky Brown
