Radio: Forget-Me-Not

Like a persistent June bug, U.S. Music Czar James C. Petrillo hit the ceiling again. What set him off this time was a television performance of Aïda, with the actors pantomiming the words of an offstage record. In his A.F. of M. tradesheet, The International Musician, Petrillo denounced the "televisers who employ live musicians only on a casual basis and have indicated no present inclination to staff their stations with live musicians." The argument sounded fine; the only trouble with it, said the televisers, was a longstanding Petrillo ban against the employment of live musicians in television. Petrillo had apparently forgotten...