[78-L] re The Petrillo we loved to hate

[David Lennick]

Not quoting Rodger's entire post, but Petrillo also banned musicians from 
playing any live music on pre-1948 TV. Variety shows had to feature singers 
miming to their own records for a couple of years, which meant not much 
variety! This is covered in "Please Stand By", the pre-history of television.

dl

Rodger Holtin wrote (and I've cut this back):

Petrillo's Big Ban Era

Some of you will find this as fascinating as I did.  Reading stuff like
George T. Simon's big band books, and almost any other books or articles on
the big bands, one would conclude that James Caesar Petrillo was a first
class jerk and his strikes in 1942 and 1948 were simply foolish.

With that as backdrop, I went looking for articles that would share all the
positive things that came about as a result of Petrillo's strike against the
record companies.

History re-writes are popular and so are conspiracy theories.  I've
wondered, since it worked out so sweetly, if there had been a conspiracy to
hamper the record business so that the government could step in as the hero
with the V-Disc.  Let me hasten to point out that I don't believe that for a
moment, but it does sorta fit and just knew I'd find modern takes on the
1942 strike concluding that it was a good thing and portraying Petrillo as a
hero, and this might work right into that silly conspiracy framework.

Found it, although it falls way short of suggesting the conspiracy angle,
unless calling the strike "an overwhelming success" includes the creation of
the vinyl V-Disc, because it was a direct result of the strike.  The AFM
Local 802 in New York published a story in July of this year, portraying
Petrillo as a champion.

In fact, they published two stories about him this summer.

The first, from July, lionizes Petrillo

http://www.local802afm.org/2016/07/the-silence-was-deafening/

The second article, however, from September, uses the same primary and
secondary resources and forms an opposite opinion, and takes us right back
to what George Simon said all along.  I've pasted it in its entirety below.
Even the rebuttal doesn't really refute it.

http://www.local802afm.org/2016/09/another-take-on-james-petrillo/