The owl-eyed little man in the blue suit and glossy silk tie stood at the rostrum in Philadelphia's Municipal Auditorium and squinted misty-eyed down at the placards waving back and forth. They all trumpeted the same theme: "Jimmy, Don't Leave Us"; "Jimmy, We Need You!" For two minutes James Caesar Petrillo, 66, blew his nose into the first of two handkerchiefs, mopped his eyes with the other. Finally, the words came in a convulsive croak: "Little Caesar is bowing out. Goodbye, Little Caesar!"
To take Petrillo's place as president of the American Federation of Musicians, the assembled delegates elected Little Caesar's own...