University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Yackity Yack (Chapel Hill, NC 1925), 435, DigitalNC, https://library.digitalnc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/yearbooks/id/612/rec/1, accessed on Nov. 6, 2018
This advertisement, featured in the Yackity Yackin 1925, is for Gooch’s Café—a popular restaurant in Chapel Hill that opened in 1903. As the advertisement explains in its “letter” to students, the restaurant started as a “seven seated café.”[1]By 1922, the restaurant had grown enough to hold up to fifty people and the next year opened the “first exclusive banquet hall in state.”[2]Gooch’s grew as the University grew in students, so by 1925 they were able to serve up to 180 people. Often referred to as “Carolina’s Night Time Playground,” Gooch’s Café stayed open every night until 2:00 A.M. and a popular place for students to eat and spend time together.[3]It was especially successful since the ability to go to a restaurant after a late night of studying or hanging out with friends is very important for any college student.
Although this advertisement showed the comradery and fellowship students were able to have while eating at Gooch’s, it is also a great example of the inequality for women that still occurred in America even after the passing of the 19thAmendment. The note written is only directed towards the “boys” of the Class of 1925, which was similar to many other male-focused advertisements released by Gooch’s Café around this time. North Carolina as a whole was very late in giving rights to women. In fact, when the Susan B. Anthony Amendment got to 35 out of the 36 needed states to ratify in 1920, North Carolina still voted it down and Tennessee later became the 36thstate that year. One Democratic candidate for governor of North Carolina “compared women’s suffrage to socialism” and a former University of North Carolina president claimed women would only vote for who their husbands told them to, so it would “merely double the vote of married men.”[4]Although women were still given the right to vote that year, society still clearly repressed women during this time. Amazing strides were made for women’s rights in the early 20thcentury, yet male dominance was still very present—even through subtle references in the media like this advertisement.
[1]University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Yackity Yack (Chapel Hill, NC 1925), 435, DigitalNC,
https://library.digitalnc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/yearbooks/id/612/rec/1, accessed on Nov. 6, 2018
[2]“Abreast of Times and Ever Onward.” The Tar Heel, March 28, 1925. http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073227/1925-03-28/ed-1/seq-2/#index=1&rows=20&proxtext=Gooch%27s+1925&searchType=basic&sequence=0&words=1925+Gooch&page=1
[3]“When Gooch’s was a Seven Seater.” The Daily Tar Heel, April 30, 1927. https://universityofnorthcarolinaatchapelhill-newspapers-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/image/67920252/?terms=Gooch%27s%2BCafe
[4]Christensen, Rob. “North Carolina was Late on Women’s Right to Vote.” McClatchy – Tribune Business News, Sep 05, 2010. http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/docview/749530119?accountid=14244.