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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 1962)
MEDFOBD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON THURSDAY. DECEMBER 20. 1962 D Petrillo Fails in His Bid for Reelection to Musicians Union (Editor't not: A giant ot ihe American labor move mant tail thit month whan Jamet C. Petrillo failed in hit bid for realaction at praiidant oi lha Chicago local ol ihe Amarican Fed eration of Muticiam. The following diipatch looki back upon the hiitory of the boy from Chicago'i Wait Side who called hii country't tune.) By BARNEY SEIBERT United Pren International Chicago - IUP1) - His middle name ia Caesar. The laie Sen. Arthur Van denburg called him a "musi cal Hitler." The late dictator Benito Mussolini gave way before his wrath. But James Caesar Petrillo, 70, whose barbed-wire person ality for 40 years caused tremors from Hollywood to Tin Pan Alley, from the con cert stage to the corner tav ern, is a beaten man today. He was shorn of the power which once made him the na tion's highest paid labor lead er, a man who could defy a president of the Ui.ited States. Jimmy Petrillo is still rich. But his hopes of a labor dynasty which would survive him are husks of dreams, gnawed clean by the ballots of those he had led with mu tual profit for three genera tions. The chair Petrillo held since 1922 as head of the wealthiest union local in the U.S. - Chicago's Local 10 of the American Federation of Musicians - became the prop erty Dec. 4 of Bernard (Bar ney) Richards, obscure society dance band leader who had never before held union of fice. Petrillo's son, James J., was voted out of his post as financial secretary of Local 10 and custodian of its $5 mil lion treasury. Of the eight Petrillo henchmen up for re election, only two survived. For the first time in 43 years, Petrillo, who spurned a $20,000 a year pension from the American Federation of Musicians four years ago and a $26,100 annual pension from Local 10 last year, was off the union payroll. Jimmy Petrillo had bull dozed his way from behind a beer spigot on Chicago's West Side slums to become one of the most powerful la bor bosses in U.S. history. Born March 16, 1892, he was one of five children of a poor Italian immigrant sewer digger. When he was 8, Jimmy's parents scraped together enough money to buy him a trumpet. They hired a neigh bor in the melting pot area around Jane Addams' famed Hull House settlement to give Jimmy music lespons. When Jimmy Petrillo was 14. he organized his own eight-piece orchestra and play- Smart Sideline u ml 9013J V Li 10-20 ' Have you noticed that the best -looking casuals empha size a side - buttoned look? Make it your look - make this ttrp-in of flannel or jersey. Printed Pattern 9013: Misses' Kizes 10, 12, 14, 16, 18. 20. Size 16 requires 2'a yards 54-inch fabric. FIFTY CENTS in coins for this pattern - add 10 cents for each pattern for first-class mail. Send to Marian Martin, Mcdford Mail Tribune. Pat tern Dept., 232 West 18th St.. New York 11. N. Y. Print plainly NAME, ADDRESS with SIZE and STYLE NUM BER. FIRST TIME EVER' Glanv orous movie stars wardrobe plus 110 extciting styles to sew in our new Fall-Winter Pattern Catalog Send 33c. ed for weddings. By the time he was 18 he had "lost his lip" and could no longer play a good trumpet. He tried his hands at drums without suc cess. Gelt to Fourth Grade Jimmy Petrillo had spent nine years In school without getting beyond the fourth grade. Approaching manhood, he ran an elevator, drove a delivery cart, ran a cigar store, ran a saloon. In 1941, when he was 22, Petrillo was elected president of the old American Musici ans union (independent). He was defeated for reelection in 1917 and joined the rival Chi cago Federation of Musicians (Local 10). Prohibition took Petrillo out of the saloon business. He concentrated on organiz ing the musicians in Chicago's Chinese restaurants and an aged to double their salaries and in 1919 was rewarded with a union vice presidency. In 1922, Petrillo becat s presi dent of Local 10 at $100 a week. That was big money in 1922. Raises Membership When Petrillo became ac tive in Local 10 it had 4,000 members. Most of them earn ed $12 a week. In his 40 years of leadership he raised membership to 12,000 and made Local 10 musicians the nation's highest paid. One of his first tests came in 1927 when Chicago movie theaters tried to replace their pit bands with pipe organs. After a brief strike, the thea ter owners surrendered. In 1931 Petrillo forced Chi cago hotel owners to sign un ion shop contracts by threat ening to call a strike on New Year's Eve. The same year Chicago's Italian consul hired a non union band to play for a fes tival for the Italian-American colony. Petrillo dispatched a wrathful cablegram to Musso lini. Mussolini hedged at first. Then he ordered a union band. Highest Paid in Labor In 1940 he was elected president of the American Federation of Musicians. The new job plus his old one as head of Local 10 gave Petrillo a salary of $46,000 a year, then highest in the American labor movement. "Hell, when I need any thing, I just tell the boys and they give it to me," he said. Petrillo's first tilt with one of the nation's great came when the late Vice President Charles G. Dawes, a -hicago banker, persuaded a group of Hungarian musicians to play at a Chicago hotel. Petrillo forced the hotel to employ stand-by musicians from Local 10. In 1937 John L. Lewis, head of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, offered the American Musicians Union a CIO charter. Petrillo counter ed by offering to take in members without the $100 initiation fee. He never for gave Lewis. No Mention of John , "There will be no mention of John L. Lewis, friendly or unfriendly, on any Chicago stage as long as I am running this union," Petrillo said, and he enforced his words. Five days after his election to head the American Federa tion of Musicians, Petrillo fired the opening gun in his seven-year war with the radio networks. He barred name bands from Columbia Broad casting System and National Broadcasting Co. stations in an attempt to force them to hire stand-by musicians. That same year - 1940 -Petrillo insisted that union musicians serve as canoneers on the Pennsylvania National Guard artillery pieces for an outdoor concert at P" ''adcl phia of Tschaikowrky's "1812 Overture." Blocks Record Making Later that year he blocked the Boston Symphony from making recordings because he said the orchestra was non union. It was also in 1940 that Petrillo forced concert musi cians to join his union. "Heifctz plays a fiddle just like the guy down at the cor ner tavern." Petrillo raid. f . . fTXi ".''-" JAMES C. PETRILLO Fails in Reelection Bid In 1942 he banned radio broadcasts from the National Music C a m p, Interlochen, Mich. Sen Vandenberg of Michigan accused Petrillo of begining a "battle with the school children of America." In August, 1942, Petrillo ordered a musicians' ban on recording dates. It continued until Nov. 11, 1944, when record companies agreed to make royalty payments to the union. Petrillo became one of the few individuals who has been the specific target of congres sional legislation. The Lea I act, outlawing forcible hiring of stand-by musicians by ra dio stations, is often called the anti-Petrillo bill. A provision of the Taft-Hartley law which outlaws record company roy alty payments to the Musici ans Union also was aimed at Petrillo. He is a man of contrasts. Since the death of one of his sons following a football accident, he has had a fear of germs. He refuses to shake hands (but he'll hook little fingers), won't touch money, won't open doors, won't ac cept cigarettes from a pack age opened by another, won't even touch his own desk if he can help It. Tailor-Mad Suits He is a bespectacled little round man, 5'v feet tall and weighing nearly 200 pounds. He likes loud tics and $300 tailor-made suits. He sports a 2'2 caret diamond ring giv en him by Local 10. He gives liberally to charity, especially to veterans groups. For many years he was the star salesman for Chicago's annual newsboys' benefit. For 25 years he has used union funds to subsidize Chi cago's Grant park summer concert series, open to the public without charge. Four years ago, tears cours ing down his cheeks, Jimmy Petrillo retired as head of the American Federation of Musi cians. He planned to live out his days as head of Local 10, grooming his son to succeed him. The last time he had faced a serious challenge for lead ership of Local 10 was in 1933. He won handily. Bitter Contract Diipute Last summer mei. bcrs of the Chicago Symphony orches tra got into a bitter contract dispute. Some symphony members became embittered at Petrillo, accusing him of yelling out. They became an grier when Petrillo banned outside work by symphony musicians. Symphony musicians were in the forefront of opposition to Petrillo at the Dec. 4 elec tion. One of the defeated candi dates for the local's board of directors. Leon N. Lichtcn feld, said, "Jimmy thought he had it in the bag and his boys just didn't get out the vole." Petrillo was defeated, 1,690 to 1.595. AND POULTRY g Phone 773-8497 FITTS THE DANMOORE HOTEL 1217 SW.Morrlion St. PORTLAND, OREGON Monthly ratei available for short or indefinite ftay. $85.00 and up. Private bath. Children Under Seven No Charge o 131 West Main Street FOR YOUR HOLIDAY FEASTING Smoked Albacore Tuna ,..$1.49 Eastern Oysters Fresh Shipment pints Hilt Pints Bulk STEAM CLAMS 3 lbs. $1.29 OYSTERS Extra Smill Pacific lb. 95c SALMON Fresh! 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