ABSTRACT
A trade union founded in 1896 under the name American Federation of Musicians (the current name was adopted in 1965). The union engages in collective bargaining with firms in the recording, radio, television, and film industries. Its most historic action in the recording field was a strike called by federation president James C. Petrillo in August 1942, effecting a ban on record making by all instrumentalists (except harmonica performers). The dispute, inspired by Petrillo’s concern that jukeboxes were putting live musicians out of work, brought most American record production to a quick halt, so that hit songs from Broadway and Hollywood went unrecorded except for curious arrangements by all-vocal groups trying to sound like orchestras.
