Spencer Wallace, who managed the hotel from 1963 to 1971 and then was a consultant to it for the next 20 years, said the barber shop closed in the 1970s when the hotel began struggling financially.

The Big Russ Barber Shop in Harlem, N.Y., recently gave its basketball-themed interior a personal touch. There's no mistaking now which place is owned and operated by the father of former ...