Render unto Caesar…

Ice Skater Bobby Blake was no musician. But when Blake tootled a couple of notes on the clarinet to set the mood for his act in Holiday on Ice, James Caesar Petrillo soaked him $17 for a card in his A.F.L. American Federation of Musicians. Blake, already a member of the A.F.L.’s American Guild of Variety Artists, mainly a vaudeville union, paid to keep Petrillo’s musicians from walking out on the show.

Bass Fiddler Lee Norman, a member of Petrillo’s union, was no actor. But five months ago, when he began to act as master of ceremonies as well as fiddle at Harlem’s Regent Theater, the vaudeville union socked him $50 for a card. Fiddler Norman also paid, but Petrillo called out the orchestra and closed the act. Said Petrillo: “I am being mercenary . . . We are going to get back that man’s $50.”

Ever since, there has been war between Petrillo and A.G.V.A.’s parent body, the A.F.L. Associated Actors & Artistes of America, whose affiliates cover every entertainment field from circuses to grand opera. Petrillo was accused of signing up any actor who played so much as a musical comb. But he called it raiding when the “Four A” tried to enroll musicians who,. according to Petrillo, only stepped into the spotlight or said two words like,”Hello, hello.” Many entertainers solved matters by belonging to both unions.

Petrillo threw out that solution. Last week he staged a showdown at the Persian Room of Manhattan’s Plaza hotel. There, Pianist Victor Borge, a member of both Petrillo’s union and A.G.V.A., has been burlesquing opera-singing and making fun of music in general. Petrillo was not amused. He sent Borge a terse telegram: leave the A.G.V.A., or play without an orchestra. Borge meekly complied. Said he: “It is easier for me to get along without the A.G.V.A. than to do without an orchestra.”