In the view of James Caesar Petrillo, trumpeter-boss of the American Federation of Musicians, musicians are simply workmen who make more or less pleasant noises for a living. "What's the difference," he once cried, "between Heifetz and a fiddler in a tavern?" Last week Petrillo set up a little ceremony to pound home his point of view. Before him came Pianist Oscar Levant, penalized with suspension from the union last April for temperamentally failing to honor concert contracts, thus depriving supporting musicians of work. Levant's humiliation reminded Petrillo of another time when art bowed to business. "There was Menuhin," he...
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