Four decades
spent on the Avenue

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

City Councilman Dan Savage cried the first time he sat in Lorenzo Della Valle’s barber chair. His mother has pictures to prove it.
"I had to give him a lollipop to keep his mouth shut," Della Valle remembers.
It was smiles all around, though, when Savage bestowed his lifelong barber, owner of Lorenzo’s Hair Styling, with a citation recognizing his more than 40 years in business on Frankford Avenue.
As one of his last acts on City Council, Savage (D-7th dist.) read the citation honoring Della Valle and his barbershop as "a cherished part of the neighborhood’s history."
"He’s an awesome guy. I wanted to make sure he was recognized. He’s an incredible entrepreneur," said Savage, whose City Council tenure ends next month.
The councilman’s father, U.S. District Judge Tim Savage, also was on hand for the honors. Della Valle has cut his hair since he was 16 and the barber’s paperboy.
The Savages aren’t the only patrons who continue to seek out Della Valle’s scissors. Many stop in to see him when they’re in the city.
"I’m very blessed to have such faithful customers. Some drive forty-five minutes to an hour," Della Valle said.
"We have a good relationship, a good rapport."
According to his daughter, Gabriella Della Valle, customers would line up outside the shop and wait for hours to have their hair cut by her father.
"He was an innovator in the 1970s, with one of the first unisex hairstyling shops, specializing in women’s precision cuts," she said.
Lorenzo’s Hair Styling continues to be a Frankford institution despite the challenges local business owners have faced over the years, including crime and safety.
"They’ve been good people, good neighbors, no complaints. I’m here to stay," Della Valle said.
He is used to challenges.
Getting to America via a luxury liner was more difficult than he and his father Giuseppe ever imagined. The two left their hometown of Rapino in Southern Italy and traveled to Naples, where they boarded the ill-fated Andrea Doria en route to America to join other family members who had settled in Frankford.
Less than 24 hours from its planned arrival in New York, the 697-foot Andrea Doria collided with another ocean liner, the MS Stockholm, in heavy fog near Nantucket, Mass., just after 11 p.m. on July 25, 1956. The Stockholm, which was returning to Sweden, ripped open seven of the Andrea Doria’s 11 decks.
The impact of the side collision caused the liner to list on its starboard side, rendering half of its lifeboats unusable. Della Valle, who was 19 at the time, jumped into the Atlantic Ocean from an upper deck to save himself. He was later reunited with his father aboard the Stockholm, which provided lifeboats for the rescue effort and was able to return to New York under its own power.
The Andrea Doria, however, capsized some 11 hours after the collision and faded under the surface. Forty-six of its 1,706 passengers lost their lives. There were five fatalities on the Stockholm.
Ironically, while Della Valle, now a resident of Bustleton, sought out a life in the United States, his daughter made her life in Italy, where she teaches English at the University of Siena as a member of the faculty of economics and commerce. ••