by Charly Mann

Woodstock was not the first great three day music festival; it was the University of North Carolina's Jubilee. Beginning in 1963 and continuing through 1971, Jubilee was a spectacular marathon of music, joy, and love that featured the top musical acts in the world at the peak of their popularity.

Crowd on McCorkle Place watching the second Jubilee, April 1964

It all started in the spring of 1963 when the Student Union wanted to bring the Four Preps, one of most popular groups on college campuses at the time, to perform free for the entire student body at Memorial Hall. The problem was Memorial Hall only held 1600 people and was way too small to accommodate everyone. The idea was hatched to have the concert outside under the trees on a stage in front of Graham Memorial. Soon the concept was expanded to become a three day open air party of music, dance, and film called Jubilee, with the slogan "A Salute Spring." The festival was held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 26-28. The stage was placed at the center of McCorkle Place not far from Franklin Street. Students and their dates were the only people that were supposed to attend, but there were no gates, security, or ticket takers, and many townspeople, including myself, then a 13 year-old boy with a passion for music, were also there. (I attended all but one of the nine Jubilees)

The Four Preps performing the first night of the first University of North Carolina Jubilee

From 2PM to around 10PM folk and pop-jazz groups performed on the main stage. The Four Preps concert on Friday attracted more than 5,000 people sitting on blankets almost as far back as the Old Well. On each day of Jubilee major motion pictures were shown for free at 6:30, 8:30, and 10:30 at Graham Memorial. At the close of performances on the main stage, the party simply got larger and expanded into five separate stages around campus where rock combos (a term used to refer to rock bands in the pre-Beatles days) performed almost until dawn. Those stages were in the Planetarium parking lot, in Y-Court, behind the Ackland Art Museum, in Steel Hall's parking lot, and directly in front of Graham Memorial. The headline act for the closing night was The Chad Mitchell Trio whose repertoire contained several songs that mocked right-wing thought and promoted integration. This was at a time when many businesses in Chapel Hill did not allow blacks, and the majority of the state and much of Chapel Hill was politically conservative.

Politcally irreverent folk group The Chad Mitchell Trio, final act of the first Jubilee

Beautiful coed enjoys Four Preps singing their hit song 26 Miles to Catalina

The first Jubilee at UNC was a huge success, and by the following Monday as bleary eyed students returned to classes, the student union began plans for a second Jubilee in 1964. Amazingly, the total cost for the first Jubilee was only $4,000. Jubilee become an annual tradition until 1971. For the next four years the concert continued to be held in McCorkle Place, and headline acts included The Serendipity Singers, Flatt and Scruggs, and Petula Clark in 1965, who chose Chapel Hill as the first place in America to perform her #1 song, Downtown.

James Taylor sings Carolina in My Mind, UNC Jubilee April 1970

As the University's enrollment increased and rock replaced folk as the preferred music on campus, UNC's Jubilee expanded into a major rock festival. In 1970 the event was held at Kenan Stadium and featured, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, then the biggest act in America with three top ten hits, as well as Grand Funk Railroad, Sweetwater, the Bar-Kays, Pacific Gas and Electric, and James Taylor, just months after the release of his Sweet Baby James album. The crowd particularly enjoyed his renditions of Fire and Rain and Carolina in My Mind. The highlight act though was Joe Cocker with his huge Mad Dogs and Englishmen ensemble that featured Leon Russell and Rita Coolidge. That year's crowd was far different than in 1963. Almost everyone was on some mind altering substance especially pot which permeated the air. LSD was also a popular drug of choice. The group that surrounded me enjoyed some amazing marijuana brownies. The UNC athletic department was unhappy with their football stadium being used in this manner, and in 1971 Jubilee was moved to Navy Field (which sits below Fetzer Field). That was the final year of Jubilee, and featured the Allman Brothers with Duane on lead guitar, Alex Taylor, Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Spirit, and the J Giles Band.

Crowd at Kenan Stadium UNC Chapel Hill Jubilee 1970

By 1971, I recall many of those in attendance looked more like members of a motorcycle gang than UNC students or Chapel Hill hippies. This group was responsible for a number of fights, vandalism, and the serious injury of a security guard. That was enough for the administration and the Student Union, and Jubilee Music Festival at the University of North Carolina, perhaps the best outdoor music celebration of all time, came to an end.

 Duane Allman performing as the last act of the final UNC Jubilee May 1, 1971 (photo by Ric Carter)

by Charly Mann

June 25, 2009 was the last day of operation for the iconic Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill. Its last features were The Hangover and The Brothers Bloom. The Varsity stood at the heart of downtown Chapel Hill in the Sorrell building for almost sixty years. For most of its history optometrist Dr Kohn's office was on its left side and Jeff's Confectionary (popular with men for being the only business in town that sold "adult" magazines) was on the right. While the theater in recent years has established a reputation for showing top quality independent and foreign films, during the majority of its operation it was home to low budget B movies. The Carolina Theater across the street, in most cases, showed the major Hollywood releases. The Varsity occasionally got a major movie like A Streetcar Named Desire or Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, but this was because the Carolina passed on them due to their controversial content. The Varsity's typical fare in the 1950s was science fiction, horror, and westerns, and by the late 60's shook things up by showing soft-core porn such as Mamie Van Doren's Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt and Jayne Mansfield's Promises Promises.Throughout most of the 1950's the Varsity also had a children's movie every Saturday morning for an admission of between 10 and 25 cents. Occasionally the admission was six bottle caps from Coke or Pepsi Cola bottles, which often sponsored the shows.

Ad from January 1952

Showing in June 1963 (This movie had been shown at The Carolina Theater a year earlier)

The mid 1970s was the pinnacle of popularity and prosperity for the theater, due primarily to it getting the rights to show the first Star Wars movie in 1977. (At the time of its release it was looked on by theater owners as another low budget science fiction film). From 1978 to 1985 it was home to a highly popular weekly audience participation showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Mickey (Hurysz) Mann, now an accountant in Austin, Texas, worked at the Varsity in 1969. She is a 1971 Chapel Hill High School graduate, and was a regular at the Varsity's showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show before graduating from UNC in 1978.

Lynne (Hursyz) Harmon, Chapel Hill High School Class of 1972, now a retail store manager in Springfield Missouri, worked at the Varsity from 1970 to 1972. She was 15, and a sophomore in high school when she started. Lynne recalls Frank Zappa's 200 Motels and the pornographic cartoon, Fritz the Cat, as being two of most popular movies during her time at the theater. Ticket prices in those days for adults were $1.50 and 50 cents for children. Matinee prices were $1.25 and 25 cents respectively. She reveals that they never actually popped their popcorn, but simply warmed it, since it came in large plastic bags. The Varsity from the 1950s through 1983, when it was converted into two separate theaters, was literally the coolest place in town because its air conditioner was set to literally chill its patrons.

Playing July 3, 1969

Showing July 1972

The Varsity closed because it was losing money. This was caused by a number of factors. First, parking is hard to find and is expensive in downtown Chapel Hill. Second, many of the potential customers for its films felt uncomfotable and unsafe in the downtown area. (Chapel Hill Memories has had at least a dozen recent e-mails complaining about the street life and the odors and graffiti in the alleys downtown). Finally, for economic reasons there are far fewer high caliber independent and foreign films being made, and also far fewer UNC students are interested in these types of films than in past generations.

by Charly Mann

In January of 1952, Dr. Isaac Taylor left his job at Harvard Medical School in Boston to become an assistant professor at the UNC School of Medicine. Ike and his wife Trudy, along with their four children, moved to the outskirts of Carrboro to a two story farmhouse off Old Greensboro Road near University Lake. The family was made up of three boys and one girl each born one year apart from 1947 to 1950. In birth order their names were Alex, James, Katherine, and Livingston. (An additional son was born later at Duke Hospital in 1952 – his name was Hugh).

Alex, James, and Kate with Livingston on Ike Taylor's  lap - June 1952 - Carrboro

From anecdotal information it seems that all of the Taylor children loved music from an early age and were somewhat precocious in their talent. For two of the kids, James and  Livingston, there was one contributing factor that may have put them on the road to musical stardom. It was the fact that the first song each leaned was the commercial jingle for Tube Rose Snuff. Liv says "I sang along in my crib with the Tube Rose Snuff commercial which was popular on the radio in the South…." James, as the recording you can listen to here claims, it was he, and not Liv, that was indoctrinated by this song. We can not say where the truth in the contentious controversy lies, but speculate that without their exposure to the Tube Rose Snuff song it is very possible that James and Liv might have followed their Dad into a medical career instead of becoming professional musicians.

James and Livingston Taylor's Tube Rose Snuff 

Lest you think that the snuff commercial dispute has created a schism between the two brothers, the additional interview you can listen to here, as well as a duet Livingston and James performing City Lights at Martha's Vineyard in 1981, indicate the rift has been healed.

For you snuff commercial fans I can tell you that when I was young, (I am the same age as Kate Taylor), I recall hearing the Tube Rose Snuff jingle many times on the Arthur Smith Show which was broadcast on WFMY, Channel 2, in Greensboro during much of the 1950's. Arthur Smith and his band, the Crackerjacks, would perform the song at least once every show. As I recall, the Smith show was actually taped in Charlotte and re-broadcast on WFMY. In addition the show was recorded for radio and broadcast from Durham.

Arthur Smith and the Crackerjacks - The group that sang the Tube Rose Snuff jingle

by Charly Mann

In 1818 there were only two stores and one tavern on Franklin Street along with about a dozen houses. The tavern was called Hilliard’s and the names of the businesses were Trice’s and Tom Taylor’s store. As late as 1898 much of what is now the central business district of downtown Chapel Hill was still farmland. From where the Carolina Coffee Shop is today to Columbia Street and south to where the Ackland Art Museum stands was a farm surrounded by a cornfield. It was not until 1907 that this land was divided up and sold into commercials lots.

This is Spencer Dorm facing the Chapel of the Cross  in 1926. This is the "new"  larger chapel for the church and was built in 1926. Spencer was the first women's dormitory on the UNC campus and had just been built. It was not until the following year that it was named Spencer in honor of Cornelia Phillips Spencer. (This photo was taken from the lawn of the President's house.)

Before 1900 few people would venture out after dark in town. Not only were there no electric lights anywhere in Orange County, but also there was not even a single kerosene lantern on the streets or walkways of Chapel Hill. Finally in 1920 electric lampposts were installed around the UNC campus, and in 1927 twelve similar street lamps were placed from Raleigh Street to Columbia Street on the north side of Franklin Street. That same year the main part of Franklin Street was also paved.

Elm tree along path at the University of North Carolina in 1925 

One of the most beautiful sights in Chapel Hill in the 19th century was a row of elm trees that aligned Franklin Street, but by 1927 there were all dying and were removed and replaced with new trees spaced evenly between the new lampposts.

This is Phillips Hall on the UNC campus which was built in 1920. My father, William Robert Mann (1920 - 2007), was a mathamatics professor at the Univesity, and had his office and taught his classes in this building.This photo was taken in 1926. Behind Phillips in this picture is the original Memorial Hall which was built in 1885 and demolished in 1930 because it was unsafe.

by Charly Mann

1926 saw the birth of famous Tarheel Andy Griffith, as well as Fidel Castro, Marilyn Monroe, and Hugh Hefner. Also in 1926, Chapel Hill welcomed the opening of the first restaurant that offered food that was not traditionally Southern. The name of the restaurant was HARRY’S, and the owner was Harry Stern. Though not an authentic deli or coffee shop, its culinary offerings had a combination bohemian and New York City flare.

HARRY'S ad from 1936 when it was owned by original owner Harry Stern

The first location of HARRY'S was across the street from where Four Corners restaurant is now located. In 1927 it moved down Franklin Street next to the Carolina Theater (now the location of The Gap). Harry Stern's brother-in-law Harry Macklin bought the restaurant in 1939, and conveniently its name still fit. This was a challenging time to get into the restaurant business with the Depression in full swing and most males leaving Chapel Hill after 1942 to serve in World War II. Macklin sold the restaurant in 1944, and it had one more owner after that until it finally closed in 1952.

HARRY's ad from 1943 just before Harry Macklin sold  the business in 1944

In 1954 Harry Macklin reopened HARRY'S on the north side of Franklin Street just a few doors west of the Post Office. In 1960 it moved just a few doors east to the location most of us remember as HARRY'S at 175 East Franklin Street next to the downtown Post Office. Throughout the sixties HARRY’S was the intellectual and radical hub of Chapel Hill. It was at its booths that protest leaders planned demonstrations against segregation, the war in Vietnam, and the Speaker Ban Law which forbid anyone to speak at UNC who had a connection to any left wing organization that was deemed subversive.

HARRY'S in 1957, then in the location that became the Fireside in 1960  

I started eating at HARRY'S when I was eleven in 1960. It was the favorite restaurant of my Godfather, Bob Pace, and had one of the least expensive menus in town. I recall my first meal there being a disappointment though. I saw on the menu something called Salisbury steak which I wrongly assumed was similar to T-Bone steak. Sadly, as I learned, Salisbury steak is much more like plain hamburger. Over the next ten years I was involved in civil rights marches, sit-ins, and even became a UNC campus leader of the anti-war movement. HARRY'S is the only place I ever recall going for a meal with like-minded individuals in those days.

As the 1960's came to a close Harry Macklin's son, Ralph Macklin, became co-manager of the restaurant. Ralph has an effusive personality and a had great gift for culinary creativity. Under his guidance the food at HARRY'S got significantly better and  the sandwiches rivaled those of the best New York City Delis. During this time the patrons became more upscale, and  the long-haired-types began to be replaced by sorority girls, especially from the nearby Alpha Chi Omega house, as well as local architects, and students and faculty from the UNC Department of City and Regional planning.

HARRY'S from 1966

All good things come to an end, and HARRY’S closed its doors in April of 1972. If you want a small taste of HARRY'S make yourself a sandwich that Ralph invented called The High Rise. Just get five slices of your favorite bread and place a slice of ham, a slice of corned beef, and a slice of American cheese on one layer, then place some hot pastrami, chicken salad, and a slice of chopped liver on another. Finally place some tuna salad and a slice of Swiss American cheese on the last level.

See the following article for a profile of the Harry Macklin family:  http://www.chapelhillmemories.com/cat/2/75

by Charly Mann

What makes Chapel Hill great is the people, and great people usually come from incredible families. The Harry and Sybil Macklin family was one of these. Besides owning and running one of most quintessential Chapel Hill eateries, they produced three remarkable children: Ralph, Arlene, and Rosalie.

Harry (and later Ralph) Macklin House on Noble Street in downtown Chapel Hill

Ralph has made his mark on Chapel Hill in a variety of ways from restaurateur and top-notch poker player, to one of the most lighthearted souls to inhabit the Southern Part of Heaven. I also know several very bright people who knew him well who say he is incredibly smart. Ralph graduated from UNC with a degree in Industrial Relations.

Ralph Macklin, Chapel Hill High School 1957 Senior picture

His sister Arlene is also very bright, but my impression is that she is much more practical and focused than her brother. I started noticing Arlene when I was in the 7th grade at Chapel Hill Junior High School and she was an 11th grader at the High School next door. She made an indelible impression because she had a maturity and seriousness that was years beyond her actual age. She also was one of the best-dressed and most attractive young women in Chapel Hill. These attributes swept a Durham boy named Barrie Bergman off his feet, and they were married just a few months after she graduated from Chapel Hill High School in 1963.

Arlene Sharon Macklin, at 17 in 1962 - Junior Year Photo

Arlene and Barrie opened the Record Bar on Henderson Street in 1963, which was the first of more than one hundred record stores that Barrie would go on to open all over the United States. Arlene and Barrie now live in Santa Barbara.

FRONT ROW: Arlene Macklin - Senior Class Treasurer, Gale Green - Secretary, Eva Blaine - Associate Justice
BACK ROW: George Thompson - Vice-President, David McConnell - President

Arlene Sharon Macklin and other members of 1963 Chapel Hill High School Senior Class. The quote under her name says, "A little word in kindness spoken, a motion or a tear, has often healed the heart that's broken, and made a friend sincere,"  which is from A Little Word by Daniel Clement Colesworthy

Arlene and Barrie Bergman House - 612 Greenwood Road (This house was on my paper route before the Bergman's owned it)

Barrie Bergman – Mr. Arlene Macklin

Barrie Bergman, Arlene’s husband, lived in Chapel Hill most of his adult life. Barrie also long ago switched allegiance to UNC over his alma mater Duke.

Barrie is deservedly a legendary figure in the music business. His vision and hard work created a chain of more than 200 stores, The Record Bar and Tracks, that has never been rivaled in quality, selection, or customer service. Many of my contemporaries incorrectly believe Barrie lucked into the music business because his Dad owned the Record Bar in Durham in the early 1960s. The truth is that it was Barrie's uncle who owned that store, and that Barrie learned the music business from working with him, starting as I recall, at about the age of twelve. Barrie's Dad, Mr. B, as he was known, was a wonderful man who really cared about his customers, but it was Barrie who knew music. When Barrie's Dad took over the record store in Durham, it was already Barrie's intention to make his mark in the music business. I have heard from several people who knew Barrie that he planned to go to New York City in the early 60's and get a job in the music business.  I am confident he would have been very successful at starting a record label that would have rivaled the likes of Atlantic, Electra, and A&M Records. After all he had a passion and an early background in the music business, and certainly had better connections to southern soul, rock, and folk than anyone else in the industry.

As luck would have it Barrie agreed to work for his Dad for a few years to expand the Record Bar, first in Chapel Hill, then to Raleigh, followed by a second store in Durham. Under Barrie’s leadership the company doubled its size almost every year until 1989 when the chain was sold to the Dutch company Superclub for, as I recall, about 200 million dollars. It is true that Barrie got his start in the record business at the best possible time, just as he sold out as the decline of the music business began, but no one else could do what Barrie did so well, and that was running well stocked record stores, primarily in malls, run by people who loved music and loved selling it to others. A unique trait of Barrie’s is his ability to learn and not repeat mistakes. He candidly admits several terrible senior personnel choices he made, but throughout his career he has gained from those experiences and become one of the best judges of business character on the planet.