James C. Petrillo

James Caesar Petrillo (March 16, 1892 – October 23, 1984) was the prominent leader of the American Federation of Musicians, a trade union of professional musicians in the United States and Canada.

Petrillo was born in Chicago, Illinois. Though, in his youth, Petrillo played the trumpet, he finally made a career out of organizing musicians into the union starting in 1919.

Petrillo became president of the Chicago Local 10 of the musician's union in 1922, and was president of the American Federation of Musicians from 1940 to 1958. He continued being the prime force in the Union for another decade: in the 1960s he was head of the Union's "Civil Rights Division", which saw to the desegregation of the local unions and the venues where musicians played.

The round-faced, bespectacled Petrillo dominated the union with absolute authority. His most famous actions were banning all commercial recordings by union members from 1942–1944 and again in 1948 to pressure record companies to give better royalty deals to musicians; these were called the Petrillo Bans.

Petrillo joined the orchestra at WBBM in Chicago, Illinois, in 1937. Before that, he had played trombone in the orchestras of Paul Whiteman and Vincent Lopez, among others. For a decade, he had been assistant conductor and orchestra member at three Chicago theaters. In 1940, he became the conductor of the WBBM orchestra. In 1943, he was promoted to music director at WBBM, "supervising all live and recorded music on the station."

Petrillo died October 23, 1984, at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago. He was 92.

Petrillo was well known to the US and Canadian general public, especially during and after the 1942-44 recording ban and was frequently referenced in pop culture of the era. For example, Phil Harris, the band leader on the Jack Benny radio show, claims on the show to have been married to his wife, Alice Faye, by Petrillo. When Jack Benny asks how Petrillo could do this, Harris replies "Why not? My dues was paid up!" On another occasion Rochester is asked to blow the car horn by putting it in his mouth, and he replies "Petrillo won't let me!"

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