UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #572
EBERHARDT, HERBERT

EBERHARDT, Herbert (1924-1990)
Owner of Cardinal Beauty Shoppe

Interviewed: 1985	
Interviewer: Marie McCabe
Length: 1 hour, 28 minutes

Childhood and education; Tuberculosis; Inheriting his father’s business; Marriage and children; Business during the 1960s and 1970s;  Effect of Sterling Hall bombing on downtown business; Student styles of hair and clothing; Student customers; Diversity of clientele; State Street businesses; Madison City Council; Closing remarks.

Interview Session (April 4, 1985): Tape 1

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:23	Herbert Eberhardt (HE) talks about his childhood.  He discusses his parents and their decision to emigrate to the U.S. from Germany.  He also discusses his two uncles who already lived in the U.S.  

00:04:11	HE talks about his father and the beauty shop he bought upon locating in Madison.  While discussing the location of the shop he also describes the houses he has lived in, all in Madison.  

00:09:01	HE talks about his elementary education at St. James, a private school.  He attended Campion High School and Edgewood High School.

00:12:38	HE discusses further Campion High School, a military school he attended for one year
	before becoming ill and returning to Madison.  He then attended Edgewood High School 
	for the next two years, he says.

00:14:35	HE tells of his illness, tuberculosis and his stay of nine months in a hospital for treatment.  

00:16:07	The summer before HE was to start college his father died, leaving him to work in the shop.  

00:20:54	HE talks about the training he had to complete before running the shop.  He got a lot of help from the manager who was there before his father died, he says.  

00:22:22	HE wanted to attend UW, but this was not possible due to his commitment to the shop.  He tells about his decision to get a manager’s license and go to beauty school.  He talks about Alma Aaron who ran the shop in HE’s absence. 

00:24:32	HE describes business at the shop after the war.  

00:28:39	HE discusses his marriage to Eunice Endres and the apartments above the shop which were usually rented to students.

00:30:14	HE talks about his five children, four of whom attended UW. 

00:34:30	Competition and state regulations were problems faced by HE while running his business.  HE also talks about the problems encountered with the chemicals used on the hair of customers.

00:37:15	HE tells about the continuous training necessary to be an owner of a business.  

00:40:05	The years of riots in Madison resulted in much lost business, explains HE.  He discusses the riots and participants in them.  

00:45:10	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:45:30	HE discusses the response of UW administration and faculty to the riots.  

00:47:50	During the years of operation, the customer base of his shop broadened, expanding to include male clientele as well. 

00:48:54	HE talks about the clothing students wore during the years he owned the shop.  He discusses the diverse population which frequented his establishment. 

00:52:54	HE talks about the aftermath of the Sterling Hall bombing incident and the problems it caused for downtown Madison.  

00:57:31	HE discusses the effect the business of malls had on his business.  He talks about meetings he attended to talk about the new malls.  He discusses the student business and how hard it was to depend on their patronage.  

01:00:53	HE tells of the change in prices from when he started and when he retired, as well as ever-changing hairstyles.  

01:06:58	State Street was closed to automobile traffic while HE’s shop was in operation and he discusses the effect of this action on State Street businesses.  HE attended the meetings of a State Street businessmen’s organization to discuss issues such as traffic and competition. 

01:10:28	HE discusses his retirement.  He sold the beauty shop and it is now a new clothing store, he recalls.  He talks about his future managing the apartments and taking care of his mother.  
	
01:15:35	HE talks about Madison as a place to live and work. 

01:16:52	A lack of free time prevented HE from joining many organizations, though he did enjoy his tree farm. 

01:23:41	He describes his frustration with the Madison City Council for the way it handles the city’s finances, though he continues to enjoy life in Madison.  

01:28:26	End of side.  End of tape.

END