PHILIP LOBEL. Born 1956. TRANSCRIPT of OH 2055V This interview was recorded on September 20, 2015, for the Maria Rogers Oral History Program. The interviewer and videographer is Sue Boorman. The interview was transcribed by Susan Becker. ABSTRACT: This interview is part of a series about three football games known as the Hairy Bacon Bowl, which occurred during the early 1970s. Participants included University of Colorado students who identified with hippie culture and/or anti-war sentiment, versus campus and Boulder police officers. The games were seen as a way to address tensions between the two groups. The idea for the games originated with the Program Council office at CU. Phil Lobel became involved with Program Council in 1973 and then led the program from 1976 to 1979. He touches on the concept of the Hairy Bacon Bowl, but by the time he was Program Council director, the days of the Hairy Bacon Bowl competitions were almost over—he describes the change in culture at that time from the tense, seriousness of anti-war protests to a light-hearted one exemplified by the practice of streaking. Much of the interview focuses on the transformation of Program Council into one of the most successful student organizations of its kind in the country (culminating in Program Council winning the 1978 Billboard Magazine College Talent Buyer of the Year Award) and how Mr. Lobel’s work for Program Council paved the way to his long career in entertainment public relations. He provides a fascinating window into the workings of Program Council and into the music scene of the 1970s. KEYWORDS: 1970s (decade) 1970s (music) Barry Fey Colorado Music Hall of Fame CU Events Center Feyline Folsom Stadium Hairy Bacon Bowl Macky Auditorium Mary Ripon Theater Program Council rock and roll streaking university entertainment programming University of Colorado (Boulder) KEY PEOPLE: Crowder, Eddie (1931-2008) DiStefano, Philip P. 1 Fey, Barry Michael, George (1963-2016) Miller, Glenn (1904-1944) NOTE: The interviewer and narrator are identified by their initials when there is a change in speaker. Added information appears in brackets. [00:00] SB: Okay. So we are here today at UMC—is that what it's called?—the UMC building at the University of Colorado— PL: Yes, the University Memorial Center—UMC—at the CU Program Council Office. SB: CU Program Council Office— PL: Formerly the Colorado Daily office. But that's another story. SB: That's good to know. And it is September 20, 2015. I'm here to interview Phil Lobel about the Program Council, and also about the relationship with the Hairy Bacon Bowl that the Program Council had and [pause]—I think that's it for the intro. Phil, what's your date of birth? PL: 4/17/56. SB: Okay. Thanks. So—hello, Phil. PL: Hi. How are you? SB: Good. How are you? PL: Good to see you. Very fortuitous that I happened to be in town for this interview. SB: It really was. I contacted Phil a couple of weeks ago, and you were just coming into town for a game— PL: For the game, and also I'm on the Colorado Music Hall of Fame founding board of directors. Our grand opening at our new home, Red Rocks Amphitheater Trading Post, is on Monday, September 21, 2015. So all the exhibitions of our five-year-old Hall of Fame of Colorado musicians are being moved—or have been moved—there from the Broomfield Center so that they'll be open to the public 363 days a year at the Trading Post—except Christmas and Thanksgiving. SB: So that's going to be—where is the Trading Post? PL: The Trading Post is at the bottom entrance road to Red Rocks. 2 SB: I know where that is. Interesting. PL: So if you haven't gotten to see the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, definitely go. There's a lot of great music history there and wonderful inductees that are now being recorded and memorialized in the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. SB: Yeah, and thanks to you for your help in doing that. PL: And by the way, it's cmhof.org. [02:12] SB: Thanks. Okay. So you got your start in life—where did you—just to get some history on you—where were you born? Where did you grow up? PL: Born in the Bronx, New York City. Seven years there. Moved to New Jersey, northern New Jersey. I had never been to a concert in my life. It was the kind of a family that would take us in to Manhattan for theater and shows, from the Nutcracker to the Sound of Music. Had a few pop records to my name from Cher's Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves to Blood, Sweat and Tears’ Spinning Wheel, but on 45s. And that was really it. I had never been to a concert in my life before I came to Boulder and CU. SB: And how did you—in growing up, what were some influences—you said—musical influences—were there influences in your life? PL: Yes, musical influence—for me, definitely, were The Beatles. I vividly remember that moment, transfixed in front of the television set on a Sunday night, watching The Beatles come on the Ed Sullivan Show. And, of course, I came from a world of crew cuts, so I remember asking my parents, "Is that hair real? Or are those wigs?" And so I remember that. I remember The Rolling Stones also in the mid-'60s making their first appearance with "Satisfaction" on the Ed Sullivan Show. So, mostly I got that from television. I used to watch Dick Clark's Bandstand—American Bandstand—on Saturday mornings. But still, it wasn't until I came to CU in Boulder in September of '73—Leon Russell was performing at the stadium. He had a big hit then with a remake of The Rolling Stones "Jumping Jack Flash." And it was Leon Russell, Mary McCrary and Little Feat. I was in a triple at Farrand Hall on campus in Boulder. My roommates were going to the show. I had never been to a concert, as I said. I went over there. Eventually I snuck in. There were 35,000 people here for this event—smoking pot, and drinking—and I had never participated in any of that. I was just transfixed. Literally, everybody in the stadium exited the stadium—I was still sitting there on the sideline wall, because I didn't have a seat—when a security guy came over to me and said, "Kid, you got to leave." And I was just in awe, and I was just like, "Well, how did this happen? Who does this? Like how does this take place?" And he goes, "Some group called the 3 CU Program Council. They're in the student union. But really, you gotta get out of here now. Nobody's here. They're tearing down the stage." And that was it. That was that transformative moment when, the following week, the second week of my freshman year, I came into the UMC, went up to UMC 424—I remember the room that was our office—the Program Council office—and volunteered to hang up posters. And that was the start of my five-year career with the Program Council. [05:10] SB: How did you sneak in to that concert? PL: Well—interesting. Very observationally. I notice that—at that time there was very much an antagonism between the police and the students. The long-hairs—the hippies—versus the pigs, the cops. And groups would form in front of the tunnels, and literally would crash through the gates ten at a time. And I would just stand and watch this. And I watched students being arrested as they were climbing the Folsom Stadium walls—scaling the walls. I noticed also at one point in time some student was trying to come out to go back to his dorm room, and the guy, arguing, said, "You can't go." And he said, "I have to go back to my dorm room for some medicine." And the security guy said, "Okay, leave me your ticket stub and give me your driver's license." And he let him out. So I stood around a little bit longer, and after another group crashed through the gate, I stepped inside the gate, and the guy turned around. The ticket-taker looked at me and said, "What do you want?" And I said, I have to leave. Well, I had picked up a stub from the floor outside the stadium. He said, "You can't leave." And I said, "Well, here's my stub. Can I give you my stub and my driver's license? And I'll be right back." And I gave him my stub and my driver's license. It's called misdirection, which I learned many years later, working with David Copperfield. And he said, "Okay. Just come right back to this gate." And I came back ten minutes later. And he gave me that ticket stub that I'd picked up off the ground and my driver's license. And I went in very peacefully—not part of the crashing groups—and watched the rest of the concert. And that was how it happened. [06:49] SB: That’s great! I love that! How did you end up coming to Colorado at all for college? PL: I was going to major in journalism. I had been editor of my junior high school paper.