TIME
It was a big week for the harmonica. James Caesar Petrillo declared that it was a sure-enough, wage-earning musical instrument, and that professional harmonica players would have to join his musicians’ union. Beamed Petrillo: “Now that it’s getting so that people want to hear harmonicas, we’re going to take them in. I’m for the people.”
To the American Guild of Variety Artists, however, Petrillo’s words meant war. The A.G.V.A. had guilded the harmonica long since; it did not want it unionized into Boss Petrillo’s clutches. Said an A.G.V.A. official last week: “We’re like a punch-drunk fighter who’s going in against the champ. But some day, even the champ has to fall.”
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