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-
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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
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