by Charly Mann

On March 23, 1968 I had the pleasure to see Steve Gillette, a phenomenal Southern California singer-songwriter, perform at The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In spite of not yet releasing his first album Gillette was already a legend in my circle of friends. In 1965 his now classic song Darcy Farrow had appeared on Ian and Sylvia's monumental Early Morning Rain album, and several of his compositions were already staples around campfires and in the sets of several other great folk singers including Gordon Lightfoot. His fame was further cemented in 1967 when he dueted and played guitar with Linda Ronstadt on his song Back on the Street Again. In 1968 it seemed like everyone was covering his songs and Back on the Street Again was a national hit by a group called The Sunshine Company. I, along with most of the crowd around me, was awed by his performance that evening. He proved to be as a good a showman and singer as he was a songwriter. I had always admired a good song no matter what the genre, but to see a composer with such a great voice effortlessly ease through a set of his own songs with good humor made the show a transcendant experience. At the end of his performance the applause seemed to go on forever.

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Steve Gillette performing in 1968

Since that day in Chapel Hill Gillette has gone on to become one of America's most consummate songwriters. He has released a steady stream of great albums, and written multi-platinum songs for artists as diverse as John Denver, Waylon Jennings, Jennifer Warnes, Kenny Rogers, Nanci Griffith, Tammy Wynette, Anne Murray, and Garth Brooks. He has also continued to improve as a singer and musician as he creates wonderful music that resonates with all generations.

Steve Gillette's most recent album The Man (2010) is rooted in the music of the 1920s & '30s and intertwines a fascinating narrative with great songs of that era as well as several stunning new original songs. This was an exciting and innovative time for American music and culture known as the Jazz Age, and through an ingenious blend of song and storytelling Gillette recreates the flavor of the time as he takes the listener on an enlightening musical journey. You may have thought that the days of the Great American Songbook ended in the 1950s, but this album shows that Gillette has turned the page and another great chapter has been written. Gillette is one of the few great songwriters who have consistently gotten better with age.

Cindy Mangsen and Steve Gillette with my daughter Kathryn (in the center) at her home in November 2011

Today Gillette performs throughout the world with his wife, Cindy Mangsen, an accomplished singer and musician in her own right, who especially shines on the concertina. Gillette has also written a great book for aspiring songwriters called Songwriting and the Creative Process. Next year he is inviting fans to join him and Cindy on a seven day cruise that includes private performances from Amsterdam around the coast of Norway. The dates of this adventure are August 10-17, 2012.

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by Charly Mann

When I was a young boy in the 1950s I often spent delightful afternoons at the farm of the Reverend Clarence Parker located off Mt. Carmel Church Road not far from where it intersects with 15-501. Father Parker, as most people called him, was a retired Episcopal priest who was in his early 80s. He was the kindest and most gentle human being I have ever known. Surrounding his rustic house was a field that contained a number of large hickory and maple trees. Running free through this expanse was a large number of farm animals including chickens, goats, ducks, cows, and turkeys.

I was particularly fond of the turkeys on the Parker farm, which I always thought of as pets and could never envision someone might think of killing one for a Thanksgiving dinner. One male turkey (who I called Tom) was an especially good friend. He loved when I pet him and enjoyed following me around as I walked around the farm. At night he would roost on an oak tree branch near the Parker’s house. Tom and I remained friends for years and he always seemed to recognize me. He eventually died in 1959 at the age of 10. Years later I learned that most turkeys live on factory farms in cramped pens until they are slaughtered when they're just 5 months old.

Charly Mann, left, and baby goat at the Parker's farm March 1955. Terry Golden, who lived on Stagecoach Road, is my friend on the right. Mrs. Parker is standing above us. I would often ride my bike from my home on Old Mill Road to the Parker Farm.

I remember the female turkeys were called hens and would usually build their nests just beyond where the yard ended and the woods began. For a week or more they would lay their eggs, and when there were around ten they would begin sitting on them until they hatched. Several times Father Parker placed unhatched Turkey eggs that a hen had an abandoned in a chicken’s nest. Once the turkey was hatched the mother chicken would raise it as if it was one of her brood.

The great Tom the turkey at the Parker farm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina 1958

I learned from the Parkers that turkeys have full-color vision just like us, and that baby turkeys are called poults, and stay with their mothers for the first five months of their lives (in a free range setting like their farm). Mother Turkey hens were very sweet and tightly bonded to their offspring, and would courageously defend her family from predators such as hawks and owls.

Father Parker was a tall, thin man who was charitable, jovial, and brave. When I knew him he was an old man and his hair was white. He was also the only white Chapel Hill minister that was actively involved in supporting the civil rights and anti-war protests of 1960s. I remember him in 1962 going to The Pines Restaurant in his clerical collar and black vests with several blacks and asking for a table. At that time The Pines was the most upscale restaurant in Chapel Hill and forbade service to Negros. The manager of the restaurant told the group they were not welcome and should leave the premises immediately. Instead Father Parker and his black friends sat down in the lobby and refused to leave. The manager called the Chapel Hill Police who arrested Father Parker and physically carried him and his friends out to awaiting police cars and he was placed in jail overnight.

Father Parker's home was often used as safe house for non-violent civil rights and anti-war leaders who were under subpoena to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Throughout the 1960s and early 70s there were dozens of marches through downtown in support of integration and ending the war in Vietnam. Father Parker was at the head of most of them until he was almost 90. Father Parker died in 1973 and is buried in Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery between Fordham Blvd. (US-15-501 Business) and Legion Road. His love for animals lives on in me today.

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by Charly Mann

From 1955 to 1958 I was part of a Chapel Hill gang of young cowboys called "The Good Guys"

Chapel Hill was once inhabited by a large number of cowboys. They were all very young men and women who had been mentored by Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, Wild Bill Hickok, and Annie Oakley on Saturday mornings. They learned from their heroes to always be polite, and that it was their duty to protect the weak, as well as rid Chapel Hill of any outlaws and villains. As old fashioned as it may sound today, Chapel Hill's cowboys and cowgirls believed that families always stayed together, and that courteous and well-groomed people were almost always good.

On the top is me, Charly Mann, as a cowboy at the age of three in 1952. Below it is a picture of me at the age six during my days in the Chapel Hill "Good Guys" cowboy gang. I never got the cowboy out of me, and have lived for the last twenty years in cowboy country near a herd of free-range buffalo, hundreds of wild horses, as well as many coyotes.

Morality, and what we now call family values, were held in high regard by Saturday morning television cowboys in the 1950s. This was also consistent with the way most Chapel Hill families lived. Almost everyone attended church, and honor and hard work were virtues instilled into most children by their parents.

I was named after my grandfather and he was a huge influence on me. This is a mural of Roy Rogers from Portsmouth, Ohio, the hometwown of both my grandfather and Rogers. 

I was part of a small gang of 6 to 8 year old cowboys whose homes were in Greenwood, Glen Lennox, and Morgan Creek. We called ourselves the "The Good Guys". I still keep up with all but one member of the group today. Four are now physicians, and one is a well-known singer-songwriter. There were kids I would call bullies who used intimidation and sometimes violence to get what they wanted, but all of us got what we wanted by being assertive. While most of the bullies, as well as passive kids, I knew have not fared well in life (most are in fact deceased), my gang of cowboys are all alive and well. Like our cowboy role models we saw that you got what you wanted by speaking up and being confident.

Happy trails to you.

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by Charly Mann

Recalling life in Chapel Hill when I was a young boy can be a challenge. Every time I begin to write a about a place, person, or event, an array of images and voices begin floating through my consciousness on that subject that I try to pick up before they go by. I wish I had the eloquence to describe these things better, but how does one capture in words the vibrant smell of Franklin Street in the 1950s, or the taste of the amazing selection of foods served in the downtown restaurants or UNC dining halls in the 1960s? There is a long list of things I thought about trying to describe today, but in an age where an e-mail is rarely longer than a paragraph I do not want to exceed my audience’s attention span. Finally, I encourage readers to submit articles that will hopefully capture a more faithful record of life in Chapel Hill.

The most amazing store on Franklin Street in the 1960’s was Huggins Hardware. It was the anchor business of Franklin Street and Chapel Hill for more than twenty-five years. Its selection and service brought more people downtown than any other retailer, and it was second only to the downtown post office as the most important place in town for community interaction. Huggins was where you always ran into friends and neighbors and it contributed significantly in making Chapel Hill one of the best places in the United States to live. 

Today most people I talk to think a small downtown hardware in the 1950s or 60s was probably like a miniature version of a Lowe’s or Home Depot, but Huggins was so much more than that. It was a great hardware store, but also had an amazing selection of housewares including china, crystal, kitchenware, bar accessories, stainless steel flatware, Sunbeam kitchen appliances, glassware, and cutlery. They also had a fine selection of high end clocks, including imported cuckoo clocks, and was the best place in town to purchase art supplies.

Huggins Hardware at 107 East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill as it looked in 1964

Huggins was also the most popular gift shop in Chapel Hill, offering an array of exciting, unusual, and useful gifts including Stuart Nye hand wrought jewelry, cards, gadgets, candles, and collectable figurines. They would even wrap and mail all gift items you purchased.

Above is a Sunbeam mixmaster I bought for my mother in at Huggins Hardware in Chapel Hill in 1962. I was then twelve and made money by delivering the Chapel Hill Weekly twice a week, and selling UNC pennants and pins at UNC football and basketball games. Some weeks I made as much as $25, which was a fortune in those days. This item had a list price of $39.95 and Huggins had it on sale for $24.88. In those days Sunbeam was the top quality brand of kitchen appliances. 

Huggins Hardware was located at 107 East Franklin Street where Pepper’s Pizza is today. They had a cheerful and knowledgeable sales staff, and in most cases you had a helpful employee assigned to you during your entire time in the store whether you were buying lawn and garden supplies, having keys made, purchasing a lamp, getting house numbers or a mailbox, or even finding pet supplies.

Besides their main entrance on Franklin Street, you could enter Huggins through their back door which was conveniently located next to a large free parking lot where you could always find a space. (Today that same lot exists, but for more than three decades it has been paid parking, and rarely are spaces available during prime hours.)

This is a 12-inch carved wood Buddha that I bought for myself at Huggins Hardware in 1969.

One more great service Huggins offered was free delivery and phone ordering. Several times when I was young I would order an item like a thermometer or a flashlight, and it would arrive within a few hours, and I would simply pay the driver for the item.  

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by Charly Mann 

This week a memorial commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King will open in Washington, DC on the 48th anniversary of his inspiring "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington on August 28th, 1963. I, along with about 50 other intrepid Chapel Hillians, were there on that day to be participants and eyewitnesses to history.

This is part of the Chapel Hill, North Carolina contingent to the 1963 March on Washington soon after arriving in the nation's capitol on August 28th, 1963

The purpose of the March on Washington was to gather about 100,000 people from every state in the nation to march in support of legislation that would end segregation in all public schools, as well as prohibit racial discrimination in hiring in both the public and private sector. Another objective was to raise the minimum wage to $2.00 an hour. (By the way, six years later I had a "good job" where my salary was $1.60 an hour.)

This is me, Charly Mann, in the center carrying the sign, along with other people from Chapel Hill marching from the Washington Mounument to Lincoln Memorial at the 1963 March on Washington. My chaperon on the trip was Dick Lamanna, a sociology graduate student, who was active in the civil rights movement in Chapel Hill from 1961-1963. He left Chapel Hill in 1964 and had a long career as a professor at Notre Dame. All of the photographs in this article, except the last four, were taken by him.

I was 13 years old at this time, and had been active in the civil rights movement since 1960. I was especially galvanized for this demonstration because I had recently learned that in the 100 years since the Emancipation Proclamation, which ended slavery in the South, not one piece of civil rights legislation had been enacted to guarantee the same rights for blacks as for whites.

This is the view that the group from Chapel Hill had of the speaker's podium at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. We were lucky to be so close.  

We boarded what we called our "freedom bus" to Washington in darkness at about 5:00 AM in front of a black Baptist church on the west side of Chapel Hill. Throughout the week the press had carried reports of threats by the Ku Klux Klan and other racist organizations to those who tried to go to Washington that day, but we were not deterred. In 1963 only short sections of I-85 and I-95 were completed between Chapel Hill and Washington, so much of our journey was on secondary roads. I remember as the sun was coming up near where we entered Virginia there was a group of several dozen white men at an intersection with racist signs shouting at us.

This is a photo of the Chapel Hill group sitting in the shade next to the Lincoln Memorial shortly before the speeches began.

By the time we were 20 miles outside of Washington we had become part of a seemingly endless caravan of buses headed to the march. We arrived in Washington at about 10:00 AM and headed toward the Washington Monument where the march was to begin. The march had very little support among American whites, and even President Kennedy urged the organizers to cancel it. The Washington Daily News paper reported that most people felt we were like "the Vandals coming to sack Rome". Even Lawrence Spivak of NBC's respected Meet the Press program said he believed "it would be impossible to bring more than 100,000 militant Negroes into Washington without incidents and possibly rioting." The American government was so afraid of blacks coming to Washington to demand equal rights that they not only ordered all liquor stores closed in the city (thereby preventing angry blacks from getting drunk and violent), but also told federal employees that they did not have to come to work that day. This was especially annoying to me since almost all the violence I had seen during my time in the civil rights movement was white people lynching, beating up, bombing, and shooting blacks who were protesting racial injustice by non-violent means. Furthermore, none of the organizing groups or leaders of the March on Washington had ever advocated violence. (The more militant black Nation of Islam led by Malcolm X did not support, nor were they part of, the March).

A beautiful shot of the crowd along the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial. In the front sitting down are members of the Chapel Hill group including me, from behind, in the blue hat.

The march began at 11:30,  and we marched together black and white, almost 300,000 strong, down both Constitution and Independence Avenues to the Lincoln Memorial. 75% of the marchers were black, and the vast majority of them came from the North, as fears of violence from southern racists had frightened many people in the South from coming. Nevertheless, the march was the biggest demonstration up to that time in Washington's history, and attracted three times more participants than the organizers had hoped for.

This is me, Charly Mann, in front of the Chapel Hill "Freedom Bus", shortly after arriving in Washington on August 28th, 1963

Our walk to the Lincoln Memorial was only a mile long, and the Chapel Hill group was in the first third of the march, so we were close enough to see the speakers and performers well. While the remainder of the marchers found places to sit and stand along the Reflecting Pool in front of the Memorial, we were entertained by performers including Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, and Mahalia Jackson, as well as a reading from the great black writer James Baldwin by actor Charlton Heston. (Today many think of Heston as a conservative because of his leadership of the NRA, but in the 1950's and 60's he was one of the few Hollywood stars who regularly spoke out for equality and civil rights legislation.)

Martin Luther King at the Lincoln Memorial after delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28th, 1963

The speeches began at about 2:00 PM and culminated around 5:00 with Martin Luther King's eloquent “I Have a Dream" speech that beautifully advocated an America of racial harmony and justice. I had been fortunate to meet King in 1960, and remember thinking as I heard him speak what a wise old man he was. Today I realize that when I first met him he was 31, and on this momentous occasion only 34.

This is my program of the events at Lincoln Memorial during The March on Washington on August 28th, 1963.

After the speeches concluded we walked back to our bus and returned to Chapel Hill at about 10:30 PM. Martin Luther King and several of the other civil rights leaders who spoke that afternoon went to the White House after the event to lobby President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson to strongly support the civil rights legislation they were advocating. Within two years those goals were met with the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

After returning from the March on Washington I wore the above pin for several weeks which angered many of my friends and other people I knew in Chapel Hill. Most of my friends' parents were UNC professors, merchants, and professionals. I got many threatening notes, was beaten up once, and several times groups of my former friends threw rocks at me. Primarily because of this I never attended Chapel Hill schools afterward.

When I got back to Chapel Hill I proudly wore my March on Washington button for the next several weeks. Though a sizable minority of whites in Chapel Hill supported eventual integration, most did not favor protests or immediate desegregation. Most of the friends I had were furious with my involvement in the civil rights movement, and even though I spent the majority of the next 25 years of my life in Chapel Hill, none of them ever spoke to me again. There was also a large group of Chapel Hillians and UNC students who supported segregation, and had bumper stickers of the confederate flag on their rear car bumpers. I was called many unpleasant things by these people, and several times groups of my peers threw rocks at me. I also began receiving racist phone calls and anonymous notes; all somewhat scary to a 13 year old. I am sure though that this was nothing in comparison to what local black youths and adults were experiencing. I remember the two most common epithets hurled against me were "nigger-lover" and "race-mixer".

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by Charly Mann

In my mind, almost everyone I knew in Chapel Hill was a star. I have recently compiled brief bios on 223 people I knew in town who I not only admired but who also inspired me. I was fortunate to keep a fairly detailed diary from an early age, and used it as my primary source for these profiles. Over the decades most of these characters also made numerous appearances in the journals I wrote, which have helped me describe the personality and remarkable attributes of these individuals. I also had dozens of personal letters from many of these people that were often a better source than my diaries for capturing their spirit.

In 1960, when I was 10, I started writing letters to political and civic leaders I admired. Herbert Hoover was President of the United States from 1929-1933. Few know that before he was President he was considered one of America's greatest humanitarians, and this is what I admired him for. We corresponded for almost three years, and I got to visit him briefly in the summer of 1962 at his suite in the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

When I was ten I developed a keen interest in politics. I began corresponding on a regular basis with a number of current and former political leaders. This eventually led me to meet a handful of these people including Martin Luther King, Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, and Robert Kennedy. I also got to know four North Carolina governors including Luther Hodges, Terry Sanford, and Dan K. Moore. Also because of a mutual friend I got to meet Jimmy Carter, and by pure serendipity for six years lived next door to George Walker Bush prior to his becoming president of the United States. Over the last few decades my interest in politics has significantly waned. When I was young I was one of the most liberal people living in Chapel Hill, but the rhetoric and anger of both my side and the right never appealed to me, and I found too much information was skewed by each side of the political dialogue. I began to see that people's political ideology could become their religion, with both liberals and conservatives so convinced they were right and virtuous that the other side was often labeled "evil".

Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She was an early supporter of civil rights and inspired my interest in the cause. She also helped arrange a short meeting for me with Martin Luther King in 1960.

I also always had a great love for music. Chapel Hill was an ideal place to grow up with this passion. I was mentored by people like Kemp Battle Nye of Kemp's Record Store and Orville Campbell, who besides publishing the Chapel Hill Weekly (Newspaper) owned the highly influential Colonial Records that launched the careers of several major artists including Andy Griffith, George Hamilton IV, Billy "Crash" Craddock and John D. Loudermilk IV.

While producing the Robert, Rory, Ricky album in 1978 I met Dale Krantz Rossington. These were great guys who I still keep up with. The album sold well for about a year. In 1980 I sold the album to Allen Collins and Gary Rossington of Lynryd Skynyrd (Dale's boyfriend and soon-to-be husband). The Rolls Royce convertible on the album cover was supplied by my friend Geoff Eade. He now owns the Bentley dealership in High Point. 

Hanging out with Kemp I got to meet a slew of well-known songwriters and poets who frequented his store including Burl Ives and Carl Sandburg. By the time I was 19 I was managing a record chain headquartered in Chapel Hill which allowed me to get to know many of my favorite artists at the time including Gordon Lightfoot, Linda Ronstadt, and several members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Over the years I went from being a roadie for The Doors to producing albums, managing a handful of national acts, promoting concerts, and producing and directing a live music television show. Because music, television, and movies have become so intertwined in the last several decades this also led me to get to know a number of top movie directors as well as a handful of leading actors and actresses. A funny thing though, most people seem to think celebrities are somehow more interesting than regular people. Most of the time, they are not. I care far less about the politics, likes and dislikes of my famous acquaintances than of most other people I know. To me a celebrity is just someone we pay attention to because of the media attention they garner. I feel embarrassed when I am having a meal at restaurant or walking down the street with someone that is recognized just because they had a hit song or were in a movie or television show. I think - what is the big deal? In most of the cases I know these people well enough to know they have the same kinds of faults (often more of them) as everyone else I know. I just find it hard to grasp that we treat some people differently simply because they are famous.

This is a picture Dale Krantz gave me when she was staying with me in Chapel Hill in 1979. We had even toyed with the idea of doing a solo album, and having her use the stage name of Dale Clover.

This morning I heard an acapella version of a song made famous by a well-known group which has a member that I got to know well in Chapel Hill. That story begins in 1978 soon after I signed a group from Georgia to my record label, Cream of the Crop Records. I brought them up to Chapel Hill to record the album and they suggested a female singer from Jacksonville, Florida named Dale Krantz to sing harmony vocals on some of the record. She was beautiful, and had an incredible voice. She had also just finished touring with Leon Russell. Over the next few months she and I became good friends and I visited her and her wonderful sister in Jacksonville. Soon after that she decided to come stay with me in Chapel Hill. We had a delightful time together, even enjoying a thrilling UNC-Duke basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium that my good friends and Record Bar co-owners Bill and Lane Golden gave me. One thing we had in common at the time was that we were both involved with other people. After a few weeks we each unsuccessfully went back to our other relationships. Dale came back up to Chapel Hill with her sister a few months later, and even though she was staying with me again, I had little time to spend with her as I was busy ending a relationship with my girlfriend.

This is a note Dale and her sister left me during their last visit to my home in Chapel Hill in 1979.

Dale went on to have an incredible life and career. A few months later she joined .38 Special as their female vocalist. The following year she joined the core of the former Lynyrd Skynyrd to form the Rossington-Collins Band. Less than two years later she married Gary Rossington and they have had a long storybook marriage that produced two wonderful daughters. Rossington, by the way, is also the co-writer of the two rock classics, Freebird and Sweet Home Alabama. Since 1987 she and Gary have been a part of the re-formed Lynyrd Skynyrd band.

The last time Dale came to stay with me she left a number of her momentos, including her autographed program from Leon and Mary Russell and all the other members of the group she had performed with in 1976 and 1977. One member of that band was her friend Teddy Jack Eddy who is better known as Gary Busey. The year Dale and I were friends, Busey played Buddy Holly in The Buddy Holly Story.

In 1981 I took a sabbatical from the music business to help start a chain of video stores and teach computer programming. During this time I sold the master of the album Dale sang on to Lynyrd Skynyrd members Gary Rossington and Allen Collins.

This is a copy of the check Gary Rossington and Allen Collins paid me in 1981 for the rights to the album Dale Krantz (Rossington) had sung on.

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