Word: caesarism
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Wearily, Mr. Trammell said that he, representing RCA Victor, and CBS (Columbia Records) were now ready to sign. His cupid's face lit with cupidity, Little Caesar said he would go to New York immediately. He suggested, with spider-like politeness, that Mr. Trammell come to his office...
...recordings by Columbia and victor, producers of two-thirds of the nation's 150,000,000 new records annually. The ban had begun in August 1942, when Petrillo demanded that the record companies pay his union treasury a small tribute on every record made. Since then, Little Caesar had won every battle. He had split the solid record-company front by signing up Decca (and 100-odd small-fry companies) a year ago. Then he defied the War Labor Board, boldly ignored an appeal by President Roosevelt. Suddenly, Violinist Jascha Heifetz switched from RCA to Decca. Victor and Columbia...
...Slaveowners." Two days after the phone call. Caesar Petrillo sat in another of his offices, this time on the 34th floor of Manhattan's General Electric Building, surrounded by his henchmen. In filed the representatives of Victor and Columbia. For five hours they struggled over the exact contract language. Finally, Caesar handed them a pen and the woe-to-the-vanquished terms he had given Decca: a fee on every record, ranging from ¼? to 5?. the money to be paid into a special Musician's Union fund...
This accomplished, Caesar telephoned the Manhattan press to announce his victory...
...Caesar Petrillo was not a graceful winner. The companies, he said, had resorted to "bitterness, injustice, trickery and reactionism which would do justice to slaveowners"; they had engaged in a "vile, indecent, malicious and filthy campaign of libel, slander and vilification." Crowed the Czar: "Honesty and fairness had now triumphed over falsity and fraud. ... If they, the companies, fail to change [their past course], the A.F.M. will not hesitate to break off relations and leave them to die by their own nefarious schemes...