Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1944)

VICTORIOUS CAESAR PETRILLO TALKS; HOLLYWOOD WAITS MFM Head Speaks Freely After Recorders Agree to Union Payment : FLOYD E. STONE In any event, what isn't passed on to the public? It's always the public who pays — and diij'way, we're a part of the public." His hair newly combed, his face newly shaven —in behalf of visiting photographers — and beaming after a weekend in which his bitter comments about recording companies had received much publicity, and had drawn from the nation's newspapers retorts fully as bitter, James Caesar Petrillo, president of the American Federation of Musicians, spoke freely Tuesday afternoon at his New York headquarters, 570 Lexington Avenue. I Mr. Petrillo had scored a victory over the (Radio Corporation of America, the National iBroadcasting Company, and the Columbia Broadcasting System. For those companies, recordings again could be made ; and were, almost immediately, for RCA Victor began its first recording after 28 months, Sunday, at 1 :43 P.M. 'Companies To Pay Fees Direct to Union For the AFM, the contracts signed Saturday Inight after those 28 months, meant payment 'into the union treasury, for a "special fund," of fees on records, ranging from a quarter of a cent on a record selling for 25 cents, to two jcents for a record selling at $2. ' For the first time in American history, a company pays a union a fee on each manufactured item. I Through an anteroom, the walls of which i contained nothing but newspaper cartoons, all lampooning Mr. Petrillo, and through offices I containing scores more of cartoons, all unfav' orable, this reporter passed Tuesday to interi view Mr. Petrillo, who was already posing for Life. I "Mr. Petrillo is really the sweetest man in I the world," his secretary confided. And in the elevator, the girl operator anI nounced: ■ "Mr. Petrillo is very well liked in this build ! ! Twenty-eight months during which AFM i'musicians obeyed his ban on recordings do not [. constitute defiance of the Government, or of President Roosevelt, Mr. Petrillo believes. "We've taken the position we started this fight before the war, and that we're not in a war industry, and the President said we're not in a war industry, and that we were ■violating no law in the war effort. He ap'pealed to our patriotism, and our patriotism ds as good as anybody's, but to give in would have benefited the companies commercially, and that's all. We have always heeded Government calls for help in the war effort. We haven't refused even once." The reiterated refusal of the AFM to sign a contract with the recording companies on terms less than the union's basic demand for an unemployment compensation fee may or may not set a precedent, for all Mr. Petrillo cares. He said he "couldn't speak" for "other Staff Phutn JAMES CAESAR PETRILLO unions" ; and, answering a question how he regarded newspaper charges that he is "vindictive," he said: "We had a grievance, and we won. "Let me tell you about the newspapers," he continued. "There are about 390 stations owned and controlled by about 390 newspapers. Those newspapers have another 390 or so newspapers who are friendly; and then you have at least that many more who are unfriendly to labor to begin with — and that's your newspaper situation." Petrillo Says the Contract Is Not Punitive The provision in the contract signed Saturday with the three companies, in which artists' contracts with those companies are voided in event of an AFM strike, is not punitive, although it is not contained in contracts signed earlier with Decca and several smaller recording companies, Mr. Petrillo said. "All the contracts should have that provision," he said. "Those artists with the companies were tied down for 28 months. They're, after all, members of the Federation. It's been very unfair. If they hadn't had the contracts WHAT THE NEWSPAPERS HAVE TO SAY NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE: "An appalling precedent. . . . The country is helpless against the arrogant behavior and demands of a labor czar." NEW YORK DAILY MIRROR: "Greatest defeat ever suffered by a nation of free enterprise." NEW YORK WORLD TELEGRAM: "Taxation without representation." CHICAGO NEWS: "Mr. Petrillo's union is 'a racket'. . . . A precedent is established." LOS ANGELES TIMES: "How can Attorney General Francis Biddle justify his failure to use armed forces on Caesar Petrillo?" with the companies, the strike wouldn't have lasted 28 months." No plans for reinstatement of musicians into the many theatres whose orchestra pits they once occupied were disclosed by Mr. Petrillo. "We're always striving in that direction," he said, "and the locals do a lot about it under their autonomy, and the executive board is trying to find means of getting them back, but there's no drive as yet, and I can't say that there will be. "And we haven't discussed a fee on each theatre. In fact, I can't give you any thoughts on this subject — we've just got through a battle, and while the war is going on we don't want to disrupt any industry." He is satisfied with musicians' status in Hollywood only to a "certain extent," Mr. Petrillo said. "But I can point out to you that wages in radio and other classes of our business are better than in Hollywood. "I can also say that if the Federation and the film industry can get together on the terms we have now, I'm satisfied it will take a different attitude than the recorders, who just took the attitude, 'The Hell with you !' " Mr. Petrillo regarded his recording fee as "Just a good start." RCA Victor, Columbia Recording Resume Manufacture of Records Six hours after RCA Victor Victor Sunday, Andre Kostelanetz and his orchestra began recording for the Columbia Recording Corporation. The latter's submission was, in the words of Edward Wallerstein, president of the CBS subsidiary: "We are finally accepting because of the Government's unv/illingness or incapacity to enforce its orders." From James W. Murray, general manager of recordings at RCA Victor, the explanation ran, in part : "We had no alternative but to meet the demands that we make direct payments to the union's treasury or to abandon our record business." Mr. Murray spoke also for NBC, the network publicity representative said Tuesday. The fund established by the fee on recordings would be increabcd $4,000,000 yearly, Mr. Petrillo estimated publicly. He stressed that $115,000 had been received from other companies, that the fund could not be touched for ordinary expenses, and that, after several million dollars had accumulated, the union would determine how they might be used "to spread musical culture and give employment." Hollywood Unions Ask Fees On Basis Similar to AFM Hollywood this week recalled endeavors b}' unions to collect fees on the same basis guaranteed by the new contracts of the American Federation of Musicians. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees last March asked payment by producers of five per cent of the payroll of lATSE studio workers. The Screen Cartoonists Guild is now asking Walt Disney Productions for 20 per cent of all rentals from reissues. Both want payments made to the unions' general treasuries — as welfare funds. Monday, William Pomerance, attorney who presented the cartoonists' case to the War Labor Board, said, "Petrillo's victory makes it seem more plausible that the cartoonists might find support for their claims." .IMOTION PICTURE HERALD, NOVEMBER 18, 1944 13