Michael Marion did a very good job booking concerts for a university venue. So did Barbara (Mother) Hubbard.
Marion loved music and everything related to music. So did Mother Hubbard.
Marion is outspoken and highly approachable. So is Mother Hubbard.
They met in 1977 at the Billboard International Touring Forum in Los Angeles at the Century Plaza Hotel. Marion was booking shows at Mississippi State; Mother Hubbard was booking the Pan Am Center at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. What followed was a fast and mutually beneficial friendship that is the essence of the live entertainment business – a business based on relationships.
“I’m 22 years old and I’m in charge,” Marion recalled. “I thought it would be a good idea for me to go [to the Billboard Forum] and stir up some business…which 42 years later, I’m still doing.”
One of the panels at the Forum that year featured four record execs, including Perry Cooper, who was the head of Arista Records at the time. “They’re talking about tour support – remember tour support? That was back in the old days when acts toured to promote albums and Billboard was this big, thick magazine with all the record company ads in it.”
“Me, being me, I’ll ask anything, so I’m asking, ‘Why can’t we get tour support in Starkville, Miss., for the shows we’re doing? We’re Mississippi State, we’re the real deal. Let’s talk about Starkville.’ He was very nice. He didn’t laugh. I was gutsy back then.”
“Later that night, there’s a dinner in the ballroom and this woman walks up to me and says, ‘Hello, I’m Barbara Hubbard.’ She had heard me talk. Of course, she has her students in tow. She’s at NMSU. We’re both in the same line of business, booking college shows.”
Marion was referring to Mother Hubbard’s “kids” in her ACTS (American Collegiate Talent Showcase) program. At NMSU, Mother Hubbard has been helping students passionate about live entertainment get experience and develop relationships that will boost their careers.
After that first encounter where the two very similar professionals were drawn to each other, they would hook up at other conferences both attended and contributed to, including the National Association of Campus Activities. Both were very involved and remain fixtures in the industry. Today, Marion is director of Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, Ark., and outgoing chairman of the International Association of Venue Managers. Mother Hubbard is still booking, consulting and promoting shows around the country and passionate about her newest project, an amphitheater/rodeo arena for Las Cruces.
In 1982, when Marion moved to L.A. to be an agent at the old Regency Artists, which later became Triad, his territory was basically Virginia down to Texas, it included “everybody who talked like I did,” he joked. “Because I had El Paso, I said ‘okay I have Las Cruces, too.’ So I was Barbara’s agent for six years. Any tour that went out, Barbara got a date. That’s the way it was. You would end up in Dante’s seventh circle of hell if you didn’t give Barbara a date.”
For her part, Mother Hubbard would travel to L.A. every year, bringing some students along, and some turquoise (she always brings gifts) and take Agent Marion to lunch.
“Not only was she as good as gold, but you knew the show would be taken care of,” Marion said. “Wit, charm and personality got her in the door, but taking care of business is what closed the deal.”
Negotiating with Barbara Hubbard was easy. She’d been around long enough that “you’re not going to quote her something stupid; you’re not going to insult her. You’d say, ‘Barbara, this is what it takes to get this show.’ She was a good negotiator. If she thought it wasn’t worth that much, she wouldn’t say that’s too much money. She’d have a reasoned argument, based on history and sales. She would pass or say yes. The market sold tickets. As an agent you knew that it would be promoted properly, handled properly and be well-attended. I probably sold Barbara a stiff or two, but I’ve forgotten or I blocked it, one or the other.”
Their relationship is a classic and ageless example of what makes this business tick, what makes it fun and what makes it family.
Barbara Hubbard is a magnet; people see that and think, ‘I need to get to know her.’ But in this case, she sought out a young guy from the middle of nowhere. She can spot talent.
“She just carried on like she was my best friend. She never met a stranger,” Marion said.
When Marion was ready to move back from L.A. to Tupelo, Miss., leaving the agency side of the business to manage the new arena there, he drove across country and stopped in Las Cruces and spent a couple of nights with Barbara and her family in what is still her home.
Two months ago, Marion taught a live entertainment class at NMSU, a class Barbara is championing that meets in The Barbara Hubbard Room.
Their paths cross again in Chicago at IAVM where Marion will present Mother Hubbard with one of his Chairman’s Citations for her outstanding contributions to the industry. And his voice will be one of many in the storybook that is being written about Barbara (Mother) Hubbard and her Kids.
Most of all, this vignette is a living testament to the long-known fact that this is a relationship business and if you are passionate, honest, good-hearted and good company, this is the business for you. — Based on a true story as told to Linda Deckard (who is writing the book about Mother Hubbard.)
Photo: Barbara (Mother) Hubbard and Michael Marion on the circuit – undated convention.
Who knew that I would retire to a place within a stone’s throw of Michael Marion’s current gig.
What a nice article on Mike Marian.