The Nome Nugget

Petrillo Bars
Musicians From
Making Records

CHICAGO. (AP) James C. Petrillo's newest edict, banning again the making of recordings by his 225,000 AFL musicians after December 31, was being measured from all angles today for the shape of things to come in the radio and entertainment fields.

The head of the American federation of musicians issued the new directive Saturday, declaring that the members of the union were "destroying themselves" by supplying their own competition in the form of recordings.

"There will never be any more phonograph records or transcriptions made by members of the musicians' union," he said, adding that "unless a (radio) program has live music to offer, there won't be any music."

The order was received in various segments of the radio-recording industry with mixed feelings.

Band leader Ted Weems said it might "boomerang on musicians of this country and result in popular favorites being replaced by foreigners," and in California a spokesman for one recording company suggested the making of master records might be shifted to Mexico.

"We've been expecting this," said one spokesman for a leading recording company. "The whole industry has been recording like crazy for several months."

He added that most of the major record companies have an accumulation of master records "sufficient to keep them going for years."

"We feel that in the final analysis it will be the American people who will determine what they will hear and when and how they will hear it," said Mark Woods, president of the American Broadcasting company.

"Americans love music," he added, "no individual can deprive them of it for long."