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A Short History of the CU Program Council
Records, Rumors, and Foggy Memories
The UMC opened in October 1953 as the State’s Memorial to its War
Dead from World Wars I and II and as the Student Union Building. There
was a committee called the Student Programs Committee, probably a remnant
of the old Student Union operations. The committee served to help organize
the opening ceremonies, dedications, and celebrations for the new building.
The official festivities were, by published accounts, appropriately solemn
and respectful. Unofficially, members of the Programs Committee and others
invited famed Ecdysiast (striptease artist) Tempest Storm to campus. Some
recollections refer to Homecoming activities, but an early member of the
UMC staff and a student of the times, recalls that Miss Storm was invited
to the UMC after touring campus in “the backseat of a convertible
Cadillac” and enjoying the enthusiastic greeting of the male students.
In the UMC, Miss Storm reportedly performed a “short and tasteful”
dance upon a table in the Roaring Fork Grill. Program Council’s
forays into controversial and edgy programming had begun.
Through the 1950’s and into the 1960’s, the Programs Committee,
then the Programs Commission brought a mix of dances, films, speakers
and other entertainment to the UMC and CU campus. Campus activism, born
of the Civil Rights Movement, the Feminist Revolution and the politics
of the Vietnam War, had an impact on the student government and students
at CU. Student activism prompted a radical change in the structure of
student affairs, and the current Joint Boards system was incorporated
into the system of student governance at CU. Joint Boards were enormously
powerful and effectively independent from the general administration of
the University. After a series of conflicts, demonstrations, sanctions
and lawsuits, CU students wrested control of the student fee from the
administration. One of the joint boards, the Cultural Events Board emerged
as an enduring feature of campus events. The Cultural Events Board, the
ASUC Entertainment Committee and other groups shared common membership
and a fluid concept of what programs would be presented and by whom. The
Program Council now established as the promoter of a campus film series
and producer of dances and concerts became the entertainment arm of the
Cultural Events Board.
In 1968 CU Professor David Bowen coached CU’s College Bowl game
to an undefeated championship on television’s GE College Bowl Program.
Upon returning to Boulder, Bowen felt that a parody of that competition
featuring useless information—Trivia, if you will—would provide
a fun and popular competition for students. With the assistance of his
teaching assistants and students, Bowen organized and wrote the questions
for the first CU Trivia Bowl which was staged in the UMC’s Indian
Grill. (The Grill was renamed Alferd Packer Grill to honor a cannibal
in 1969) By the end of the first year, the Trivia Bowl had outgrown the
Grill and moved to the Glenn Miller Ballroom. Program Council pitched
in to help with the Bowl during the second year, and contributed funding
and production expertise and by 1972, PC was the Bowl’s permanent
sponsor. The Trivia Bowl became the largest non-athletic event at CU and
was featured in countless magazines and international publications and
was featured on network news programs, television’s That’s
Incredible, The Wonderful World of Disney, and was modified slightly in
an ABC Wide World of Entertainment Special. The Bowl flourished for twenty
odd years before audiences dwindled in the nineties.
In 1969 Program Council accidentally provided the court test that firmly
established that the University was a State agency and therefore exempt
from Boulder city ordinances and County regulations. The occasion was
the Program Council’s scheduling of the very controversial X-rated
film, I am Curious, Yellow. Now considered no big deal by any standard,
the movie did cause a stir in Boulder as in many other cities across the
country. It was such a controversy, that then District Attorney, Stan
Johnson ordered it seized. Boulder Police officers entered the Chem 140
projection booth and confiscated the film. Program Council Chairman Jeff
Friedland prompted the University to challenge the City’s action
on first amendment grounds, and the University administration found itself
in the uneasy position of defending possible pornography because of the
underlying principle of jurisdiction. Ho Hum, end result, Program Council
won its case and sold out 8 showings of a pretty poor film. The jurisdiction
victory would prove important to Program Council in future years when
Stadium Concerts and the noise issue became a new source of conflict with
the City.
The 1970’s saw Program Council enter the big-time arena of Rock
and Roll with a splash! In 1972 the Cultural Events Board and Program
Council (With Doug Brunkow at the helm) penned a deal with Concerts West
(a California promotion firm) for three concerts at Folsom Field. The
first of these was the Grateful Dead on September 3rd of that year. Planning
was made difficult because of previous poor relationships between Program
Council, the Athletic Department and the CU and Boulder Police Department.
These bad feelings stemmed from incidents at Jefferson Airplane and Neil
Young concerts. As a result, Program Council was given only marginal cooperation
and support. The result was an inadequate number of available, restrooms
(concert goers would just “mess them up), limited use of necessary
athletic department facilities, and token presence by hostile police officers
who had not coordinated with concert organizers. Nevertheless, the concert
was remarkably smooth and trouble free. Problems included public urination
(and worse), parking hassles (what’s new), and some damage to the
Folsom Field turf.
The real problems with the Grateful Dead concert came a few days before
the concert. The promoters of the event ran full-page ads featuring the
University of Colorado Cultural Events Board in the Denver newspapers.
The ads featured a checklist for concert goers. It contained several useful
items like, “bring a blanket,” also, “bring something
good to eat.” And the words that spelled trouble for Program Council
“bring your best stuff.” The thinly veiled encouragement of
drug use was a not a wise business move. The University promptly cancelled
the contract with Concerts West and the stadium concert business was back
to square one as PC tried to overcome the hang-over from “too-hip”
promotion.
Concerts in 1974 with Leon Russell and Little Feat and with The Doobie
Brothers and War in 1975 set the stage for more concerts because security
and crowd-management were thorough and incorporated new ideas developed
by Program Council. Additionally Program Council developed a reputation
for excellence in production management thanks in part to the hard work
of Neil Montavon, Program Council’s first production manager and
the architect of a collaborative system which brought together experts
in the trades with well-trained students, all under the Program Council
banner.
Program Council entered a new era with Phil Lobel at the helm. Because
of his ambitious energy and belief in Program Council, Lobel wooed business
from Feyline and other promoters bringing in the hottest acts in the music
business to all venues at PC. In addition to rock and roll, Lobel brought
impressive jazz acts to campus and pumped money into the CU Trivia Bowl.
Lobel also dabbled in Program Council promotions with the creation of
the Glenn Miller Club, a nightclub concept in the Glenn Miller Ballroom
which would book established acts and feature emerging artists. Warren
Zevon, Elvis Costello, Karla Bonoff, and many others visited the Glenn
Miller Club during their freshman tours. Program Council was now nationally
recognized as a student-run promotion force.
Lobel and his successor, Stu Osnow brought hundreds of events to campus
and produced events sponsored by other campus entities. Osnow instituted
free entertainment programs to supplement the commercial offerings and
Program Council was riding high. Riding high until a series of summer
concerts in Mary Rippon were poorly attended and lost some money. An audit
ensued and Program Council was threatened as auditors uncovered financial
“inconsistencies” and “extravagance,” and questioned
expenses and production methods. Although it made for interesting reading,
most charges were explained and real wrongdoing was never proven.
Nevertheless, Program Council’s days of independence were over.
The operations were partially shut down and only allowed to resume after
Dan Caplis, previous Student Body President, consented to take the helm
during a rebuilding process. Caplis restored credibility to the Program
Council which was permanently assigned to the UMC administration for oversight.
The arrangement, memorialized in a ”memo of understanding,”
assured the Program Council’s programming would remain under student
control, but that the operation would have administrative oversight and
business controls exerted by the UMC administration.
Program Council remained self-supporting until access to campus venues
became restricted and the legal age for drinking was changed from eighteen
to twenty-one. This change in liquor laws gave off-campus competitors
an advantage that has crippled campus entertainment. In addition, the
Film Series program, which was once the “bread and butter”
of the organization, was under siege by the VCR and off-campus competition
Finally Program Council under the direction of Dawn Cooper (Gusty) realized
that they must seek support from student fees in order to remain viable.
Cooper constructed a referendum and Program Council received money from
a per-student fee collection that enabled it to continue to produce a
variety of events in spite of the reduction in co-promoted events and
a declining movie program.
Program Council’s funding source became more stable in 2003 when Student Government voted to make Program Council a regularly-funded
department of the UMC. Program Council will not have to return for renewed
referendum reviews, and will continue to operate, but with a more secure
financial footing.
With a history of controversy and major accomplishment, Program Council
is poised to write new chapters in the organization’s diary. We
know where we have come from, but with a dedicated band of students with
new music and entertainment forms to explore, who knows where we may go.
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