Oh! What a slaughter of prices!

Berkeley Daily Gazette, 30 October 1930
(image courtesy of Steve Finacom)

The headline above is a direct quotation from a 1930 newspaper ad for the Call Me Joe men’s apparel store at 2008–12 Shattuck Avenue.

Founded in 1923, Call Me Joe was a downtown Berkeley fixture for four decades and one of its most thriving businesses during the great Depression. Much of the store’s success can be attributed to the dynamic personality of its founder and owner, Joseph W. Harris (1897–1978), who never shrank from a promotion.

The illustrated article Call Me Joe store ads pays tribute to Joe Harris’s unique brand of advertising, which monthly reached a new level of fever pitch.