Solidarity Forever

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 said. "He used to talk about his art and his God and his fiddle. Then one day when he was supposed to play in Philly, we told the musicians he didn't hold a union card and they walked out. So now, him and his God and his fiddle, they're in the San Francisco local."

Levant, in the Los Angeles and New York locals, apologized and accepted reinstatement glumly. "I am now," he gloomed, "restored to official unemployment."

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