by Pauline Williams 

February 25,1973, married just two days I arrived in Chapel Hill from Athens, Georgia, ready to promote peace and the end of the Vietnam War with music. Athens was the home of Underground Records, and I met Richard Carter when I purchased Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 1. Owner Eric Brown envisioned a hippie record empire with stores in all college towns warehoused by him in Athens. To allow low pricing one practice was the absence of advertising though I often drew flyers which I posted in the UNC dorm elevators. In Eric's employ was a hard working teenager named Pepper.

Richard Carter and Pauline Williams in May of 1973 shortly after opening Springfield Records

Richard and I left Athens with a rental truck full of records, carpet and shelves. I drove my green Chevy Nova by which we procured a loan from FUNB for more record stock. Springfield Records named for Buffalo Springfield opened for business February 26, 1973, upstairs over Soundhaus Stereo in a large room painted black and lined with a wall of south facing windows. In a small front room just off the stairs Stu Martel had a great business making custom leather sandals, so Springfield Records enjoyed immediate hippie and student clientele. We lived for the first several weeks in the back room of the store which had a large hinged board in the rear wall opening onto the roof overlooking The Village Green of He's Not Here. This became important when we let the space to the original Trail Shop. The owner, a former Vietnam helicopter pilot, used the window to move canoes in and out of The Trail Shop. Later when Springfield moved to Franklin Street the record boxes slid easily down a ramp to the alleyway. We woke very early each day to the sound of the garbage truck lifting and redepositing the dumpster outside.

The group whose name gave Chapel Hill two of its best record stores

The Record Bar on Henderson Street was not to be deterred. Charly Mann was already selling below The Record Bar prices at Record and Tape Center in the NCNB Plaza, but Springfield Records was able to undercut Record and Tape by $1. i think there was a second Record and Tape store on West Franklin a short distance from the main block. Kemp Battle Nye sold records on the north end of Henderson Street in the basement of his store. University Mall was not yet built, and cars still parked at angles downtown. People jaywalked everywhere as traffic was relatively slow. Downtown Chapel Hill was rockin' with nightly bands at The Town Hall promoted by owner Michael Strong. South Wing led by Ed Ibarguen and Scott Verner with soundboard by Jeff Harrison played The Grateful Dead. Springfield Records was selling many discounted albums at that time including New Riders of the Purple Sage, Dylan, Crosby Stills and Nash, The Grateful Dead, James Taylor, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. We had an expanding niche, and business was good.

Friendly competitors: Charly Mann of the Record and Tape Center and Richard Carter of Springfield Records

To increase stock Richard took on as partner David Bourke, a friend from Charlotte who had recently returned from his tour of duty in Vietnam where he drove a jeep, a dangerous job in 1972. The draft was still in effect. To make ends meet I took a second job in the building across the alley on the west side of North Columbia Street turning out immaculate theses copies on an original Xerox copy machine to which loose granular toner was carefully added from a supply box. The business was Adam and Eve, Planned Parenthood, and I sold condoms and made Xerox copies. too. Bo Porter, our accountant, became the third partner, and I wondered what had become of my store. Bo bought out Richard and David soon after Springfield Record Company moved to its location on East Franklin Street upstairs over Lacock's Shoes and Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Store near The Shrunken Head. Bo later became the owner of The Cave after Springfield closed in 1975.

Richard Cater co-founder of Springfield, Buffalo, and Schoolkids Records, with Poindexter, and Madonna Bentz 1975

Knowing we should have had a better plan Richard and I reorganized calling up Peter Brown, Cathy Jones, Barbara Harris, and Pam Ramsey from Athens to open Buffalo Records in the old bank building next to The Carolina Theater in the spring of 1975. We ordered custom shelving from John Lindsey so that the overstock could be quickly accessed as we were moving boxes of 50 of certain new releases. We stocked all the pricey classical imports in the bank vault, and the jazz section was located behind the tellers' counter. Peter was responsible for the extensive jazz collection having worked for The Record Bar in Athens and having a deep appreciation of jazz. Richard would special order any lp the customer wanted. Buffalo Records was playing music, burning incense and displaying the colorful art of album covers from 10 AM to 9 PM and Sundays. We allowed customers to use headphones to listen to albums in the back room before purchasing. We had very little markup.

Richard and I would drive 5 hours to Athens and back overnight in our Chevy van to compete with The Record Bar which was readily stocked by the reps of the music industry. The Record Bar moved from its location on Henderson Street to the north side of East Franklin just across the street from Buffalo Records. Richard would buy all their stock of a new release when they priced lower than we could buy wholesale. Eric couldn't supply us fast enough, so we had to go outside the Schoolkids warehouse system buying from a one-stop in Charlotte to provide new releases before The Record Bar. First day sales were extremely important. We were losing ground to The Record Bar chain. Eric sent Pepper to Chapel Hill to open Schoolkids Records in Kemp's old location on Henderson Street.

Two of the great women of the Chapel Hill music business, Pauline Williams who co-founded Springfield and Buffalo Records with her friend Barbie Harris who worked at Buffalo Records and then went to work in advertising for the Record Bar

By May of 1976 I had to make the decision to close Buffalo Records putting my friends on unemployment and liquidating the remaining stock which we were unable to return for credit in a huge sale. Richard had taken up golf. Our daughter was born in late May at 5 PM, her weight being proudly displayed on the leader board at the new Chapel Hill Country Club members golf tournament. Shortly thereafter Richard Carter bought Schoolkids Records Chapel Hill store from Eric and reopened in the space next to Jeff's Confectionery, proprietors Jimmy and Paulina Mousmoules; their fountain cokes were made to order. Richard kept Schoolkids going until after our divorce when it was sold back to Eric in 1978. Pepper opened Pepper's Pizza in that location, and Schoolkids reopened next to Julian's and The Little Shop.

Thus ended my part in the Chapel Hill Record Wars. Peace and love, Pauline Williams

Photos are from Charly Mann's collection. 

by Charly Mann

It was not very long ago when almost half the stores in downtown Chapel Hill included the name of the owner, and every store and restaurant offered extraordinary personal service to their customers. For me, 1973 marked the beginning of the decline of this epoch. Today there are few locally owned and managed businesses on Franklin Street. While the downtown used to attract almost everyone who lived in Chapel Hill, it is now catering primarily to UNC students with an array of  t-shirt stores and many bars and restaurants oriented to college students.

Downtown Chapel Hill 1973

Franklin Street, 1965

There was a time when Chapel Hill had the best downtown in America. There were hardware stores, clothing stores for women and men of all ages, a wide spectrum of dining choices for every taste ranging from semi-elegant to fast-food. It was the best place you could imagine to find books, records, appliances, gifts, stationary, jewelry, toys, and magazines. The best part of it was wherever you went you saw your friends and neighbors, or people who you did not know by name but who were very familiar because you had seen them dozens of times before. It was more authentically American than Route 66 or the Grand Canyon.  Nowhere in the world was there another downtown so quaint and charming and also so accommodating to such a wide diversity of  individuals.

Bank of Chapel Hill 1965 (current site of NCNB Plaza)

Thanks to Wayne Spransy for supplying the 1973 Chapel Hill Coloring Book from which this was created (additional coloring to be completed later). His late father was the manager of Huggins' Hardware.

Chapel Hill 1 Hour Cleaners and Laundry, 1968

Every evening in 1973 after most stores closed you could find Jim Kuppers selling records along Franklin Street. As of a few years ago Jim still had a business selling used records.

by Bob Jurgensen and Charly Mann

From 1948 until about 1974 Sloan's was Chapel Hill's corner drugstore. It sat at the corner of Franklin and Columbia where Spanky's is today. The business was owned and run by druggist Bill Sloan.

Sloan's had the closest soda fountain to Chapel Hill Junior and Senior High Schools, located where University Square is today. During the school year there was a steady stream of high school students getting fountain cokes at Sloan's. In 1962 they even sold top 45 rpm records from a small box on the counter.  Bob Jurgensen tells a great story of one of Sloan's most unusual customers, Frisky, a wire haired terrier, who was a trained circus dog, adopted by Jo Bissell in the 1950's. Frisky was a rather independent dog who, while obedient to a point, would often walk off and roam the streets of Chapel Hill. Back then dogs roamed freely and no one ever really challenged them. Frisky loved ice cream and he knew where to find it. Sloan's, during the 1950s, operated an ice cream bar near the front of the store (later moved to the back in the 1960s) and back then, in the age of no air conditioning, the doors stood wide open with a ceiling fan running overhead to keep out the flies.

Frisky was a regular customer at Sloan's and would walk in and stand around until someone took mercy on him and gave him a small cup of vanilla. Then Frisky would prance back to his home on Rosemary Street (about a block and a half), waiting patiently for the traffic to stop at Rosemary and Columbia stop light, and cross with the green light to the other side, all the while with this small cup of ice cream firmly in his teeth's grip, having never taken even so much as a lick. Nonnie Bissell, who was Bob Jurgensen's grandmother, owned and operated Nonnie's Beauty Nook out of her home on the west side of Franklin Street across from where La Residence is today. Frisky would curl up in the front yard and eat the ice cream.

Frisky the former Circus Dog who was a regular customer of Sloan's Drug Store in Chapel Hill during the 1950s

The first of every month Nonnie would head down to pay Bill Sloan her monthly tab for medications and other drug store items she would have had delivered to her home throughout the month. One time when Bob was five he went with his grandmother to Sloan's when she paid her bill. That day she got very upset because Mr. Sloan had charged her for several 5 cent ice creams Frisky had "bought". Five cents was a lot of money to Nonnie in those days, and there were quite a few charges for ice cream on the bill. Fortunately Bill Sloan had a sense of humor and removed the charges from her bill, but you can bet Frisky heard about it later that evening.

by Charly Mann

For me the most greatest man ever to live in Chapel Hill was Adam Alexander Kluttz (1857- 1926). He came to Chapel Hill in 1878 as a young man to take the two year medical school preparatory course at UNC, and then went to the New York School of Physicians and Surgeons (now Columbia University) to get his medical degree. He did not practice medicine for long, and instead came back to Chapel Hill to open A.A. Kluttz, Chapel Hill's first general merchandise store, in 1883. Even though he never practiced medicine he was known from the time he opened his store until his death as Dr. Kluttz. There was no person better loved and respected in Chapel Hill history than Dr. Kluttz.

This is the first ad for A.A. Kluttz General Merchandise  from 1893. This is the first year Chapel Hill had a newspaper, and it was published once a week from September through May.

When he opened his store, Chapel Hill was barely a village. It was a secluded community that few people except for students had a reason to make their way to, and the roads into town were barely accessible even by horse. In 1883 downtown Franklin Street had only half a dozen wooden structures. The only source of water was from wells, and homes were lighted by oil lamps.

Dr Kluttz helping a young boy at his candy counter at A.A. Kluttz in the center of Franklin Street Chapel Hill

Dr Kluttz's store provided Chapel Hillians with virtually everything they including needed candy, magazines, tobacco, stationery, food, clothing, shoes, school books, Christmas cards, umbrellas and patent medicines. (For those unfamiliar with patent medicine these were highly popular remedies of questionable effectiveness that were heavily hyped as cure all for all kinds of ills , and often contained alcohol, cocaine, or some other kind of opiate.)  You would enter Kluttz's through a screen door and find a dimly lit store.

Dr. Kluttz had a drug store in Chapel Hill next to his store in the 1890s that sold medically approved drugs and the then very popular patent medicines

Inside Kluttz's everything was jumbled together. The aisles were all cluttered and made up of heavy tables and counters stacked so high with merchandise that children and medium sized adults could not see over them. To the left side of the entrance was a candy case filled with boxes of Lowney's chocolate that came in boxes decorated with pictures of beautiful women, along with trays of gumdrops, jelly beans, caramels, marshmallows, sour balls, licorice sticks, and peppermints. Further back on the left hand aisle were shelves of used textbooks, followed by tables with college supplies including notebooks, pencils, pens, ink, tablets. On the other side of this row were hundreds of boxes of men's shoes. On the right hand side of the store were a couple of rows of food , including cheese, crackers, sardines, pickles, potted ham, corned beef, and by 1900, Coca-Cola which was an instant hit in Chapel Hill. The middle part of the store was jam-packed with all types of goods including clothing, and bags that overflowed into the aisles containing textiles and yarn. Everyone in Chapel Hill knew that if you hunted long enough at A.A. Kluttz you would find what you were looking for.

This is an A.A. Kluttz ad from 1900. The copy says it all; everything anyone wanted could be found at Kluttz's in Chapel Hill.

Dr Kluttz was a tall man with a handlebar mustache who cared far more about people than money. Even though he was the dominant merchant in town for forty years he prided himself in being the friend of everyone who lived in Chapel Hill. The store was always profitable, but he was not a good businessman. He had much more passion for growing flowers and vegetable gardening. He sold most of his goods on credit and trusted everyone in town. Often poor residents were unable to pay their bills, but he never cut anyone off from getting their necessities. He also employed many students as clerks, and many stole money from the store, but that did not seem to bother " Doc" either. Even though he had no children, he especially loved his youngest customers, and was known to add extra candy to their bags when they came in to purchase something at the candy counter. By 1910 people considered him an old timer and attributed his kindness, love of people, and lackadaisical business practices to being a man of the 1880s and 90s generation. By this time his hair was white and he often preferred staying in the back of his store playing checkers, or talking to a friend, than helping customers. When a customer would walk in the store he would say to the friend he was talking to; " ssh, don't make any noise maybe they will go away." In his heyday Dr Kluttz would enjoy greeting all his customers. After 12PM his greeting was always the same, "good evening", since in those days there was no expression for "afternoon".

   
A.A. Kluttz was the first Chapel Hill merchant to offer muiscal concerts to attract customers to his store. This is from 1907. In the 1930s the downtown cafeteria often had a full jazz orchestra in the evenings. In 1971 I started having concets at my record store on West Franklin Street with artists that included Larry Reynolds and Cindy Gooch.

In  1916 Kluttz built a new two story brick building to replace the wooden store he had operated out of since 1883. It was the grandest building on Franklin Street and sat at the center of the commercial block. Even in that year the town did not have many businesses. Where Four Corners is now was a small wooden building that housed the post office. Next to it was Eubank's Drug Store, then Strowd's Meat Market, McCauley's dry goods store, the Bank of Chapel Hill, and then Kluttz's new store. Above his store were several apartments which he rented to students. Kluttz's store was directly across the street from where the Carolina Coffee Shop is today. In those days it was where Tank Hunter's Livery stable was located. Next to the stable, in a small wooden building, was Gooch's, the town's first restaurant. Directly to the west of Kluttz's was a small store that sold eyeglasses and did photographic portraits that was run by Willie B Sorrell. Next door was the Herndon Hardware store. The last business on the block was a blacksmith shop.

Dr. Kluttz replaced his wooded building with a much larger two story brick buildi n in 1916 that stood in the center of Franklin Street in Chapel Hill until about 1971

Dr. Kluttz retired from business in 1923, but he remained a fixture in town until his death in 1926. In 1912 he bought one of the first cars in Chapel Hill, a Cadillac, and loved to take trips with his wife, Ora Jane, around the state.

This is a rare photo of Dr. Kluttz from 1924. He retired from his business the previous year. He is in the front row second from the left. Cornelia Spencer Love another Chapel Hill legend is first female in the front row right. She was a boarder at the Kluttz home from 1918 to 1929.

No person ever loved Chapel Hill as much as Adam Kluttz. His final words are probably the most prophetic and significant in Chapel Hill's history. On the afternoon he lay dying at his house at 407 East Franklin Street in 1926, his friend and minister of the Presbyterian church Reverend Moss sat next to his bedside to comfort him. It was an especially cold and icy December 20th. Dr Kluttz looked up from his bed and asked Reverend Moss if he thought he would go to heaven. The Reverend quickly responded by saying, "Yes, Dr Kluttz, I think you will." Slowly and deliberately Dr Kluttz then asked, " What do you think heaven is like?" The Reverend Moss, after a long pause said, " Dr Kluttz I believe heaven must be a lot like Chapel Hill in the spring." Dr Kluttz then spoke his final words, " That's good." Since that time Chapel Hill has been known as The Southern Part of Heaven.

by Charly Mann

For baby boomers who grew up or attended college in Chapel Hill there is only one business left on Franklin Street that is still essentially the same, Sutton's. The other core establishments that gave downtown its unique flavor, the Varsity Theater, Julian's (the original store), The Ratskeller, and Jeff's Confectionery are all gone. Jeff's was the first of these landmark businesses to close, and probably the most widely missed because it represented so many things to such a wide variety of people.

Jeff's Confectionery, Franklin Street, Chapel Hill during its prime

Jeff's was opened in 1922 by Jeff Thomas (1898 – 1957), the first in a long line of Greek merchants who would improve the quality of life in Chapel Hill. These included Pete Galifinkas who opened Hector's, a Greek fast food restaurant in 1969, Tommy Mariakakis who brought the first authentic pizza to Chapel Hill in the early 1960s with his Mariakakas Restaurant and Bakery in Eastgate, Leo (whose last name escapes me even though he was my landlord for many years), whose Leo's restaurant was a culinary treasure on West Franklin Street for many decades, and Spero Dorton, who was Jeff's cousin and owned the Goody Shop next to the Carolina Theater. In the beginning Jeff's was primarily a convenience store with a soda fountain. Next door to Jeff's, until 1932, was a much larger business called Carolina Confectionery which sold and made candy and pastries, which is by definition what a confectionery does. Soon after this business closed, Jeff's changed its name to Jeff's Confectionery, though the only major change in the business was that they added a magazine stand that took up most of one side of the store.

The is the original Jeff's on Franklin Street in 1928 which would become Jeff's Confectionery

Jimmy Mousmoules, Jeff Thomas's nephew, took over Jeff's in the early 1950s and became the face of the business until it closed in the early 1990s. Jimmy made the best fountain cokes you ever tasted, and he was especially adept at adding vanilla, cherry, or chocolate flavoring to them. He also offered a tiny sized cup for nickel drinks. For many people, like myself, who worked on Franklin street or students needing a quick and inexpensive meal, getting a candy bar, chips, or Lance crackers with a coke at Jeff's was almost a daily occurrence.

To many others Jeff's was the only place in town that offered a wide selection of men's magazines. In the 50's and 60's these magazines were pretty tame, and kids like myself knew better than to pick up anything on the "adult's only" shelf. For men who were looking for magazines that then would be considered pornographic, I have been told by several of Jeff’s former customers, that those were sold in a separate room in the back. For many women in town Jeff's reputation as a "dirty book store" prevented them from ever entering its doors. While I do not recall ever looking at a men's magazine at Jeff's in my youth, I did spend hours on the floor there drinking cokes and reading comic books. Jeff's had the best selection of comics in Chapel Hill for most of the 50s and 60s, and had a separate swivel rack stand for them.

Carolina Confectionery was a bakery and candy shop near Jeff's in the 1920s

For the majority of Jeff's history it sold beer in cans and bottles to go, and because of its proximity to campus probably sold the most alcoholic beverages in town until Chapel Hill got its first ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Commission) store in the Eastgate shopping center around 1962.

What most Chapel Hillians remember most fondly about Jeff's was not even inside the store, but was the large blackboard on the right side of the door where the s of college games were posted. In the days before the Internet people would often gather around Jeff's on Saturday afternoon in the fall to find out how their favorites teams had done.

Jeff's was also widely known as a place where one could make illegal bets on sporting events, especially Carolina games. Jimmy apparently fronted for a bookmaker in town, and he was often seen with large rolls of cash paying out winnings. Unfortunately, the few friends I knew who placed bets with Jimmy lost far more money than they ever won.

Standing in front of Jeff's Confectionery on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill in 1978

by Charly Mann

Even though the times are always changing, Sutton’s Drug Store is the one place in Chapel Hill that has retained the quintessential element of community, diversity, and comradery that makes our town so unique and wonderful. Little has changed about the business since James Sutton and his partner James Alderman founded the store in 1923. It has always been the only downtown drug store where one could sit down and enjoy a handmade soft drink, shake, or burger. Sutton’s has always been locally owned and operated by a pharmist who focused on providing personalized service. It is not unusual today for the current owner, John Woodward, to drop off perscriptions to his customers after he closes the store.

Sutton's was known as Sutton and Alderman Drug Store for the first ten years of its existence. This ad is from 1926, right after they installed a full-sized soda fountain.

The original owner J. L. Sutton (1891 to1950) was a workaholic like another legendary town duggist, John Carswell, owner of Colonial Drug Store. The store was always open seven days a week, and he was usually there by 6:30 in the morning and did not leave until the store had closed, which was often after 7 PM. Sutton was a stern man who was not particularly warm to his customers, but his wife, Lucy, who there as much as he was always seemed to wear a smile, and was beloved by all of their customers. The couple never had any children. John worked his employess as hard as himself, and in 1936 was found guilty of requiring his female employees to work ten hours a day seven days a week. At that time the North Carolina labor law stated that no female could work more than 55 hours a week, and no one could work more 10 hours in a day without a thirty minute break after 6 hours. John never gave anyone the required break , and he also did not post North Carolina's employee labor rights, which was required by law.

Sutton's became the town's hangout in the 1940's during the Swing and Big Band Era when it actually resembled a classic American Malt Shop more than a drugstore. Even though their booths had yet to be installed, there were 24 to 28 orange swivel stools and a brighly lit juke box that continually played the current hit songs. In those days their malted shakes were especially popular. Early in the 1950's Sutton's added eight green booths and almost immediately attracted a loyal breakfast and lunch crowd. From the grill behind the counter they have had a number of fabulous short order cooks making the best scambled eggs in the South on a cast-iron skillet. The breakfast crowd is largely made up of older town residents, while the lunch crowd is primarily younger, and made up of UNC students who enjoy their freshly made burgers, fries and shakes. Many of the University of North Carolina's best known sports stars have been lunch regulars including James Worthy, Phil Ford, Bob McAdoo, Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, George Karl, Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Phil Ford, Larry Brown, Billy Cunningham, Sam Perkins, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Lawrence Taylor, and Natrone Means. Sutton's has always provided full service to it's black patrons.

There is no food so wonderful as a well made malted milk-shake. Sutton's made the best in Chapel Hill from the late 1940's through the1950's. This ad is from 1948.

My favorite treat at Sutton's when I was young was their chocolate Coke which was made by combining Coca-Cola syrup, carbonated water, and a squirt of chocolate syrup. Flavored sodas were especially popular at Sutton's from the 1930's through the early 1960's. The people who made these drinks were called soda jerks at other drugstores, but never at Suttons. Cherry Coke was their most popular flavor in the late fifties, followed by vanilla. They cost 10 cents for a medium sized glass, which was not cheap. A similar sized root beer at other places in town was only a nickel.

Throughout its long history, the pharmacist-owner of Suttons has known most of his patrons and their ailments, and was always there to answer their questions and give advice. Today, curent owner and pharmist John Woodward, a Carolina grad, fills perscriptions and chats with customers and employees throughout the day like his predecessors.

Before the Sutton building was built in Chapel Hill in 1923, these two stores stood on the same site. Foister's Camera Store was on the right.

It seems like only yesterday when I would be walking down Franklin Street with a couple of friends after school and one would say, "Are we stopping at Suttons?" Inside, we would usually find more of our junior high school friends drinking fresh squeezed lemonades and orangeades crowded into a booth while waiting for their egg salad and grilled cheese sandwiches to arrive. I would usually stop by the magazine and book stand at the front to pick up a comic book or Mad Magazine to read while I waited to order a drink. The store was always busy with customers buying cigarettes, sunglasses, perfumes, pipe tobacco, thermometers, suntan lotions, newsapapers, and candy bars. There was also a pay phone booth that was always being used.

Sutton's was not always promoting good health. In 1956, they sold White Roll Cigarettes at 14 cents a pack and $1.29 a carton. Major brand cigarettes were then 20 to 25 cents a pack.

In the 1950's and 60's there were four other downtown pharmicies. All but one, Eubanks, had a soda fountain and sold ice cream cones. Village and Colonial drugstores were on West Franklin Street, and Sloan's and Eubank's were downtown. Eubank's, which later became Court's drugstore downtown had a large scale in the front of the store where you could weigh yourself.

by Charly Mann

Kemp Battle Nye was a remarkable and bigger than life human being. He once told me that he lived his life by these words of Lao-Tse, the 6th century BC Chinese philosopher and father of Taoism; “The here and now is all there is. If one wishes to be memorialized, he best be about it while he lives.”

Kemp at his prime in 1958

 
Selling Records by the inch in 1957

Kemp is primarily remembered in Chapel Hill as the personality behind the large record store he ran from 1955 to 1966 that bore his name, on East Franklin Street. Kemp was our most indelible citizen because he was charming, distinguished, handsome, incredibly energetic, gregarious, and flamboyant, a bon vivant, a natural storyteller, and one of the greatest pitchman who ever lived. Remarkably these are only a small part of the extraordinary characteristics that made this man. He also was a daring Asian Adventurer in the 1930s, the assistant to a charlatan mountain doctor, a highly decorated marine officer in the Second World War, and in his last years of life, the author of at least five fascinating and semi-autobiographical books.

Kemp in 1932 after his freshman year of college

 
Kemp's very first sale in 1955 &  1948 ad for Abernethy's which seven years later would become Kemp's and The Intimate Bookstore

Kemp was born in Winterville, North Carolina, a small town south of Greenville, on December 16, 1915. Soon after his birth his family moved to the unincorporated town of Grassy Creek, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, on the Virginia border, where his father got a job teaching Cherokees. There, the family, which included three other brothers and two sisters, rarely had enough money for food. Much of what they ate they hunted or foraged for, including bear, pheasant, and rabbit.

Kemp Battle Nye - Horse Marine in Peking China, 1935

Kemp Stays Open All Night, 1964

At the age of twelve, Kemp went to work as the buggy diver and assistant to a mountain Doctor and raconteur named Doc Waddell. He was paid 25 cents a day with room and board. The doctor, Kemp learned, had five remedies for sickness – iron, strychnine, quinine, aspirin, and more aspirin. Kemp helped him combine these ingredients into eight different colored pills. The Doctor found that at least one of his pills would eventually cure almost all of his sick patients. Years later Kemp would recount his experiences with the Doctor in his first published book, Ripshin.

Kemp's Record Store, 1955
Note the sidewalks are still dirt. Next door is the Intimate Bookstore, and The Dairy Bar which had incredible donuts that I think Krispy Kreme copied.

In the late summer of 1931, at age 16, he set off on foot with $50 sewn into the linings of his pants to start school at the University of North Carolina. The 147-mile trip took seven days, and he did almost all his walking at night because of the hot weather. He got his food along the journey from roadside gardens. As a freshman he was known as a great runner, swimmer, and dare taker. He once bet a fellow student that he could swing like a monkey across the trees and vines in Cocker arboretum without touching the ground. Winning that bet got him a week’s worth of free lunches.

By 1932 the United States was at the height of the Depression, and Kemp could no longer afford to go to UNC. Wanting to see Europe, Kemp lied about his age, then seventeen, and joined the Marines. He was sent to China as part of the Horse Marine Guards that protected the United States ambassador in Peking. This elite mounted detachment Kemp said was "trained by the descendents of Genghis Khan, and fought recklessly, loved carelessly, and lived dangerously."

During this period Japan invaded China, and the weakened government of Chaing Kai Check was also fighting a communist insurgency led by Mao Zedong. When the American detachment in Peking was cut off from their supply of American money to pay their troops and employees, Kemp was smuggled through Japanese lines to rendezvous with an American ship off the coast of China. He was given $250,000 in $20 bills, which he placed on the saddlebags of his horse. On the way back he was surrounded by Japanese troops, and only avoided being killed when he got his Mongolian pony to leap over a twelve-foot embankment. Unfortunately, for Kemp, he was shot in the shoulder the next day by friendly Chinese troops who mistook him for a Japanese soldier. Luckily his wound was not severe, and he eventually got back to the American embassy with all of the money.

In 1936 shortly before Pearl S. Buck won the Nobel Prize for The Good Earth, Kemp became her lover. He was surprised that someone as distinguished as Buck would want to have an affair with a young corporal, but in later years attributed it to Agnes Smedly's insight that “Love is just good old raw sex in action.”

For several years Kemp had an Oriental Shop on the right side of his store. By the 1960s it had become the location of Court's Drug Store, which was also destroyed by the 1966 fire.

In 1938 Kemp became a courier for American diplomats and military personal in China. In this capacity he had many long and dangerous missions throughout Asia. At the end of one he went into a restaurant in Saigon for some chop suey, and was seated at a table next to four older Vietnamese men. He noted that a monkey was placed under their table, and saw just the top of its skull emerging from a hole at the center of the table. Suddenly a man took a large knife and whacked off the top of the monkey’s head. The four men then proceeded to eat the monkey’s brain.

Also in 1938 he bought a slave girl at a rural market, and gave her her freedom. She stayed on with him as his cook, then lover, and according to one version of the story his wife. She was beautiful, spoke very good English, and was half American. They had two children, both of whom died at the hands of the Japanese. When Kemp was sent back to America in 1940, he tried to bring his wife, but was unable to get permission to do so. Kemp was never to hear from her again, and said that for the rest of his life he was haunted by her memory.  

Crowds inside Kemp's in 1957

Kemp came back to Chapel Hill in 1940 after his discharge from the Marines and got a job working for “Ab” Milton Abernathy at his Intimate Book Store, which was located across from Graham Memorial. Kemp worked there as a typewriter repairman and clerk until he was recalled to the Marines soon after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. He served in the South Pacific during World War II, participating in some of the bloodiest fighting in the war at Saipon, Taniam, and Iowa Jima where he came under extremely heavy fire. He received two Purple Hearts for wounds he sustained in battles there. He left the marines for good in 1946 at the rank of captain.

Kemp came back to Chapel Hill in 1946, and returned to work at the Intimate as the manager of the store’s record department. By 1950 Kemp claimed it had the largest selection of phonograph albums in the South. Besides running the record shop, he also became a licensed surveyor, joining a firm called Guiterrez, Abernathy, and Nye.

In 1954 the Intimate was purchased by Walter Kuralt, and soon moved to the main part of Franklin Street. Milton Abernathy owned the old dilapidated building the Intimate was located in, and worked out an arrangement with Kemp to turn the entire building into a record store. The name of that store became Kemp’s, the greatest record store Chapel Hill has ever known. Most of us have always thought the business was owned by Kemp, but it seems it was always partly, or entirely, owned by Abernathy, and Kemp was the manager.

Kemp in 1955

Kemp's motto - "Keep Kemp's Green". The Eastgate Shopping Center Store was opened in 1961

Visiting Kemp’s Record Store was always a wonderful experience. The store was filled with records of every style and category, except rock, which Kemp abhorred. He once said he never sold "that Elvis crap". The store always had a mystical aura. There were hand carved jade and ivory figurines displayed in glass cabinets throughout the store, and there was often the smell of incense, and Tibetan or Classical Chinese music playing.  I became enamored with the store and the man when I was six, and bought in rapid succession three albums from him; the motion picture soundtrack of Oklahoma, the Overtures of Rossini, and the Burl Ives album entitled Sings for Fun. For most of the next ten years I became a fixture at the store, and a disciple of the man. I remember him telling me when I was eight that he was a Buddhist, and showing me several Buddhas that were in the store. I became enchanted with the idea of becoming a Buddhist until I was twelve, and I was astonished to find Kemp getting confirmed in Episcopal Church the same time as me.

Kemp was not really a music person, but a showman and huckster. He could have sold and promoted anything, and just happened to be in the record business. He always had a sales gimmick to get people into his store, from selling records by the inch, pound, to sales that would run all night. He would often boast if he didn’t have the record you were looking for nobody else would. Unfortunately this was not true. The much smaller album selection at McGinty’s Sports Shop, in the center of Franklin Street, almost always had a better selection of current and popular albums than Kemp's. By the late 50’s rock and roll had replaced folk, classical, and pop vocal as the most popular music in Chapel Hill, and Kemp's never adapted to this change. At the same time 45 rpm hit singles were becoming much more popular than albums, and Kemp only sold 45s for a short time. By 1964, when the Beatles became a worldwide musical phenomena, Kemp’s had become irrelevant. The Record Bar opened a store just a short walk from Kemps that not only sold 45s, but also had a great selection of rock records.

 
The ad on the left appeared on November 22, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated. The ad is also for the Record and Tape Center in Durham, which had just opened. The other ad is from 1955.

A fire heavily damaged Kemp’s on May 6th, 1966. The already crumbling building was condemned, but Kemp continued selling records there until a few months later when another fire set by two teenage girls destroyed what was left of Kemp's. A few months later Kemp began selling records out of a tent he put up on the lot where his store had been, but the era of Kemp's Record Store was over. He tried for a while running the Record and Tape Center in Durham (which was later the first record store I would manage), and later had a small “Hippie” style music and paraphernalia store called Kemp's Ahead Shop.

The July 1966 fire that destroyed Kemp's

The remains of Kemp's and Court's Drug Store (right) after the fire

Kemp's literally rose from the ashes in October of 1966 into a tent on the lot where his store had been. 

Kemp retired from the music business in 1977, and spent most of his remaining years writing books about his daring exploits in 1930’s China, and his youth in the mountains of North Carolina. His book Ripshin was published in 1993. He also assembled a book made up of some of the 15,000 photographs he took in his years in China that he wanted to call A UNC Tarheel in China. Among the photos were those of public decapitations and people frozen to death after fleeing the Japanese to the mountains of China. Kemp died on April 28, 1994. He told me that he wanted his ashes scattered on the Nankow Pass portion of the Great Wall, which is located northwest of Peking.

The Franklin Street Frenchman

Kemp referred to himself as the Franklin Street Frenchman, and often advertised his store as Chez Kemp’s. It was not uncommon to see him wearing a beret in the mid 1950s. He claimed to be a descendent of the great Napoleonic General Michel Ney (Marechal Ney is the French spelling) who served with Napoleon until his defeat at Waterloo. He was known as the bravest of the brave, and perhaps the cleverest of the clever. He was condemned to death and publicly executed for his service to Napoleon in 1815, but according to Kemp and some other serious scholars, his death was staged and he escaped to the United States, where he changed his name to Peter Stuart Nye. He lived near Salisbury, married and raised a family, and died in 1846. He told several people on his deathbed his true identity. Kemp’s own exploits in China, World War II, and in the business world, mirror Ney's traits of coolness under adversity, courageousness, and quick thinking. One of the highlights of his later years was staying at Saint-Paul de Vence, one of the most beautiful villages in Provence, with his wife Nancy.

The Franklin Street Frenchman's Chez Kemp's

Tracks include five classic Milton's radio ads, and a song I produced  in 1978 by  a group from Chapel Hill named The Blazers called "I Ain't Got You" that includes a line about Miltons.

By Charly Mann

 
Milton's ad from June 1971

          Milton's first ad 9-24-1948 (note they are in a temporary location)

Milton Julian is the personification of joy. Of all the people I knew growing up in Chapel Hill from the 1950’s through the 1990’s, no one seemed to enjoy what he was doing more than this Franklin street merchant. His fame is derived from his store, Milton’s Clothing Cupboard, which he operated from 1948 to 1992, selling upscale men’s, and often women’s, clothing. Milton was also always a man just a little ahead of his time, and continued to adapt to fashion trends better than any other store in town. While his brother’s store Julian’s for example maintained the Ivy League look throughout its existence, Milton’s continued to evolve without ever feeling dated or trendy.

Third Anniversary January 1952

Summer Giveaway from July 1972 and Frogstrangler from February 1964

Milton was also a visionary. It was his imagination that created the most original and enticing newspaper and radio ads in Chapel Hill, which you can sample here. He also was the only local merchant to successfully expand outside the confines of Chapel Hill, eventually opening stores in Charlotte, Dallas, and Atlanta.

Heading for Milton's 1971

I am convinced Milton Julian, with his love for people and outgoing personality, would have been successful at anything he would have attempted in life. Fortunately, for us, he decided to open up a clothing store in Chapel Hill.

Milton Julian at 90

Milton Julian and his wife Virginia are alive and well, living on a farm outside of Chapel Hill.

 
From July 1952

Thanks to Gary Edens - radio master, for the Milton's radio spots

by Charly Mann

Fowler's Food Store was the first supermarket in Chapel Hill, and was started in the 1920’s by the Fowler Family. It was located on West Franklin Street. Fowler's had the best selection of frozen foods and produce in Chapel Hill, until the early 1970s, when large grocery chains began opening larger supermarkets. It was particularly famous for its high quality fresh meats and outstanding butchers. From time to time the store carried a small selections of other items, including popular 45-rpm records. The  town’s only record store throughout the 1950s and 60s, Kemps, never carried 45s, or much selection in rock and roll LPs. I bought my first Elvis Presley record there in August of 1956, Hound Dog backed by Don’t Be Cruel.

                         Fowler's AD from 1963

Fowler’s had a great home delivery service, which many people used from time to time, including my family. You simply called in your order, and it would soon be delivered to your home. The Fowler family sold their store and got out of the grocery business in the mid-1970s.
 

by Charly Mann

Early Ad for Lily Pad Waterbeds

Lily Pad Waterbeds was a phenomena. It was the first waterbed store in Chapel Hill when it opened in 1971, and was an instant success. It started in the basement of the Record and Tape Center, and soon moved next door to a separate location. It was owned and operated by Larry Carswell, a lifelong Chapel Hill resident whose father owned Colonial Drug Store for more than half a century.

By the mid seventies Lily Pad had opened a larger store that also sold furniture on the 15-501 bypass. Carswell made many of the custom frames and headboards for the waterbeds he sold. By the mid 80s the waterbed fad faded and Carswell tried his hand at several other businesses. Larry was a genuinely nice guy. He died at age 54 in April of 2008.

I once managed the record store over Lily Pad waterbeds. Late on Christmas Eve in 1971, James Taylor came in the store with his then girlfriend, Joni Mitchell, after our store had closed, to do Christmas shopping. While James shopped, I took Joni downstairs to talk and sit on one of Larry’s ultra-comfortable waterbeds. 

by Norman Hunter

I had the great good fortune of managing the Chapel Hill Record Bar on Henderson Street for approximately 2 ½ years between 1972 and 1974. Not only that, I lived less than a block from the store in a totally cool third floor apartment situated above the import store / head shop run by the legendary Kemp B. Nye. Just writing these words brings back a flood of memories.

My strongest memories of living above Kemp's are waking to the sounds of Indian music and the fragrance of incense burning in the court yard outside his shop. Kemp was truly a unique individual with a zest for life, and the ladies, that was a pleasure to behold. I have no idea how old he was, probably in his 50's, but I remember thinking of him as living proof that one can age without getting old.

It's been over five years since I've been back to "The Village", but I'm confident it has continued to drift away from those elements that made that nickname so appropriate. Back in the day before parking garages, strip centers, malls, and big box stores came to town, Chapel Hill was a small town oasis still reflecting the atmosphere and vibes of the 1960's.

Norman Hunter

By the way, my personal prejudices have always considered the 60's to be more about a state of mind and outlook than simply a decade with years numbered from 1960 – 1969. As a I contend that the 60's began with the Beatles first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show (February 9,1964) and ended with Richard Nixon's resignation (August 8,1974). For me this was the beginning and end of an incredibly optimistic time when anything seemed possible.

The music of this era was new and exciting, with vitality, creativity, and culture changing impact. This was a time when buying records (vinyl long players, 8-track tapes, and cassettes) was a central part of most college students' lives. There was no competition from video games, DVD's, or computer software to capture their attention, imagination, and disposable income.

As a , many of the store's regular visitors / customers were people who simply wanted to experience the pleasures of hanging out in a record store, listening to the latest releases, and visiting with like minded friends or strangers. And to this day, nothing has ever equaled the pleasure I felt when I was able to turn someone on to a new release or new artist, knowing I had provided some enjoyment for their lives.

At this point I feel compelled to mention the "Cosmic Goodies Rack" we had positioned at the front of the store that featured employee picks. It had twelve slots which contained a mix of new releases and overlooked "must haves". Nearly 35 years later it’s difficult to remember all the records that made the rack, but here are some of the ones that come to mind.

The Who Sell Out
David Bowie – Hunky Dory, Space Oddity, and Ziggy Stardust
Blue Oyster Cult – first album
Grin – first album and 1+1
Kinks – Muswell Hillbillies and Everybody’s In Showbiz
Asylum Choir 1 –featuring Leon Russell
Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks – first album
Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Running the Record Bar gave me a fairly high profile around town which was nearly always a pleasant experience. However I do remember one time when it was a bit of a drag. It had to do with the pending, and long delayed, release of "Harvest", the follow-up to Neil Young's break through solo release "After The Gold Rush". People wanted this record!!

It got to the point where I couldn't take two steps out on the street without being stopped and asked when the album was coming out. With even this minor taste of public recognition I can certainly sympathize with real celebrities and the price they often pay in privacy lost. By the way, I still remember to this day that we sold 149 copies of the album on its first day of release.

Barrie Bergman - first Manager of the Chapel Hill Record Bar (His Dad started the company) 

Music has always played a central role in my life, and managing the Henderson Street Record Bar will always hold a special place in my heart; not only for the incredible music of that era but also for the people who frequented the store and shared their love of music with me.

This is from September of 1957

I think this dispels the notion that today's students are not as bright as their counterparts in the 1950s.

This is an ad for the Pines in 1952, then considered the most upscale restaurant in town

Room rates downtown from 1930

Hard to believe, but Chapel Hill had a 24 hour restaurant in 1930

from 1943 (There were a lot of coeds at UNC during World War II)

Playing at the Carolina Theater September 1927 (Note this is silent Film and Prof. R.B. Suit is playing an accompanying organ) 

This is from 1964 (I do not recall THE HUB staying in women's clothing very long)