Today in World War II History—August 1, 1942: The American Federation of Musicians begins a yearlong strike . Permanente Hospital opens in Oakland, CA, for employees of Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond.
So reports Sarah Sundin's blog.
She also reports that the Japanese set up a puppet government in Burma on this day.
I had no idea of the yearlong American Federation of Musicians strike over royalties by recording companies. Union members were not allowed to record for a commercial recording company, although they could appear on the radio. The strike took several months to have an effect due to a backlog of recordings, but it ultimately did, and the full strike lasted until 1944.
The strike did not affect vocalists, who continued to record. This resulted in an increase of vocalist's popularity, and it became one of the contributing factors to the decline of the big bands.
Dealt with elsewhere, the Permanente Hospital item reflected a shift in how healthcare was being provided to workers that would accelerate during World War Two, giving rise to the current insurance based American healthcare system.
2 comments:
It could be said that the musicians strike made Frank Sinatra's career, or certainly gave it a significant boost. There is some contradictory history about Old Blue Eyes's discography and when it first started making a dent in the hit parade, but if I may risk drawing on a quote from Wikipedia: One reissue that was especially successful was Columbia’s release of Harry James’ "All or Nothing at All", recorded in August 1939 and released when James' new vocalist, Frank Sinatra, was still largely unknown. The original release carried the usual credit, "Vocal Chorus by Frank Sinatra" in small type. It sold around five thousand copies. When Columbia reissued the record in 1943 with the now famous Sinatra given top billing, and "with Harry James and his Orchestra" in small type below, the record was on the best–selling list for 18 weeks and reached number 2 on June 2, 1943.
Tom
Sheridan, WY
Indeed, it's surprising to look back and realize the extent to which music was dominated by instrumentals, rather than vocals, prior to the 40s.
It's also surprising to think of a strike of this type taking place during World War Two, when labor strife was deemphasized due to the war.
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