{"id":1160,"date":"2018-12-31T15:58:41","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1160"},"modified":"2018-12-31T15:58:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:58:41","slug":"lone-star-listensauthor-interviews-by-kay-ellington-lsll-publisher-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1160","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star ListensAuthor interviews by Kay Ellington, LSLL Publisher"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Each week Lone Star Literary profiles a newsmaker in Texas books and letters, including authors, booksellers, publishers.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Kay Ellington has worked in management for a variety of media companies, including Gannett, Cox Communications, Knight-Ridder, and the New York Times Regional Group, from Texas to New York to California to the Southeast and back again to Texas. She is the coauthor, with Barbara Brannon, of the Texas novels The Paragraph Ranch<\/span>A Wedding at the Paragraph Ranch.<\/span><\/p>\n

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12.17.2017\u00a0 Lubbock adman and<\/a><\/span> first-time book author Phil Price reflects on a lifetime of marketing and messaging<\/h1>\n

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\u201cIt is easier to write about yourself than getting\u00a0 the facts correct about another person and compiled in a nonfiction book,\u201d<\/span> Lubbock adman <\/span>Phil Price<\/span> discovered five years ago when he undertook to tell the story of a fellow businessman and community leader who just happened to be a black man in majority-white West Texas.<\/span><\/p>\n

On May 11, 1970, one of Texas\u2019s most devastating tornadoes in history hit Lubbock, essentially wiping out the city\u2019s bustling downtown. Price, discharged from the military that same day after finishing his tour of duty in Vietnam, had come home to a country that was less than supportive of the war. Price\u2019s challenges were compounded by the tornado. He had expected to return stateside to a position as vice-president of a Lubbock publishing company\u2014a career that never occurred thanks to the tornado\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\n

Instead, Price went into the ad business. For more than four decades he served as CEO of the company he founded and served the Lubbock community in a variety of civic and volunteer capacities.<\/p>\n

Along the way, he became friends with T. J. Patterson<\/span> the first African-American elected to Lubbock\u2019s city council, who was an activist and community organizer. The biography of Patterson, Equal Opportunity Hero<\/span><\/a><\/span> is Price\u2019s first published book. Get to know these two trailblazers in this week\u2019s Lone Star Listens.<\/p>\n

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: <\/span>Where did you grow up, Phil, and what influence did your upbringing play in your future writing life?<\/span><\/p>\n

PHIL PRICE: <\/span>Hollis, Oklahoma, was my first adventure in the arts. I produced and directed a play for my school. Plagiarism. Hansel and Gretel. The audience stood and applauded. I was hooked.<\/p>\n

In 1972, you opened the Price Group, located in Lubbock, which grew to become one of the most highly regarded advertising agencies in the state. What made you decide to open an ad agency?<\/p>\n

In May 1970, I had\u00a0 been honorably discharged from the Army when the tornado hit downtown Lubbock that same evening. My opportunity of returning to my job as a vice-president of a local publishing company vanished with downtown.<\/p>\n

As a new agency owner, I was fortunate to obtain Malouf\u2019s Gentleman\u2019s Fine Clothing and Gene Messer Ford as clients in the same week. I always believed that advertising was as important as the product itself. As their businesses grew, so did my agency. We had the unusual tactic, at that time, of marketing and branding before those buzzwords were popular. John Malouf and Gene Messer taught me about their businesses. I added the creativity of advertising, and their merchandise sold.<\/p>\n

The early 1970s could probably be described as a golden age of advertising in America. There was no Internet, there was no social media, and there were only three TV networks (and in the Lubbock market, a handful of radio stations). Creative, be it in TV or radio commercials, billboards or print, could make or break a business. What were some of your proudest moments at the helm of the Price Group?<\/p>\n

Some of the proudest moments of my career have been watching my former employees grow. They have moved to different jobs in larger cities, become managers, agency owners, and national award winners. Other employees are still with the Price Group today. When I retired in 2012, two employees bought my agency. They were with the company collectively over forty-five years. They are great people still doing great advertising.<\/p>\n

Since handing over the reins of the Price Group to a new group of owners, you’ve been focused on writing. What sorts of things have you been writing?<\/p>\n

I knew there was a time for my retirement from advertising. I had been writing thirty-second and one-minute commercials for more than forty-two years. I loved it. Upon retirement from advertising, I had five completed book manuscripts, four of them fiction. I thought all I had to do was find an agent that liked one of my books and get published.<\/p>\n

During the course of your tenure at the helm of the Price Group, you became friends with Lubbock news publisher and community leader T. J. Patterson, and now you’ve written a biography of his life. Tell us about Patterson, the \u201cEqual Opportunity Hero\u201d of your book.<\/p>\n

I chose the nonfiction as the direction of my new literary career. Texas Tech University Press was interested in Equal Opportunity Hero: T. J. Patterson\u2019s Service to West Texas,<\/span> a history of local and West Texas segregation and integration. I felt the university press might be my quickest answer to being published\u2026 it has only taken five years!<\/p>\n

What are the challenges of telling someone else’s real-life story?<\/p>\n

Nonfiction is more difficult than a thirty-second or one-minute commercial. You can\u2019t hit the delete button and change a character or story line. Facts are necessary. Names must be spelled correctly, and dates are mandatory. Plus an index\u2026 not so with fiction.<\/p>\n

The challenge of writing a book on T. J. Patterson has been a labor of love and enlightenment. Equal Opportunity Hero is the history of one man who lived through segregation and integration in West Texas. Laws and prejudices were against him, yet, he thrived. He lived those changes. He has made a difference.<\/p>\n

Not only are T. J. and I friends, we enjoyed community service together. One quote that I have remembered someone telling us and that I have kept close to my heart is, \u201cWhen two great men work together, great things happen.\u201d T. J. is a great man and I am proud to work with him.<\/p>\n

I have been acquainted with and enjoyed the friendship of T. J. Patterson for more than twenty years. But in the last five years I have learned who he is.<\/p>\n