Sugar Daddy

James' Caesar Petrillo went right on playing the role with which he wowed the House Education and Labor Committee a fortnight ago (TIME, Feb. 2): a rough but kindly man with a heart as big as a molasses bucket. Last week, he called the big men of the radio networks to his Manhattan office and gave them all presents: he agreed to a 60-day contract extension which eliminated the threat of a radio music strike; he dropped his fight to pressure the networks into forcing their member stations to hire more musicians. And he ended his three-year ban against the free use of standard broadcast music on FM programs.

Nobody so much as whispered that Jimmy had lost his grip. Broadway's wise guys simply assumed that Jimmy was too smart to bang his head against the Taft-Hartley Act just for musical effects. They thought he was sprinkling a little sugar in the hope of getting something in return: more money for more network musicians, and a lucrative contract in case he decided to end his three-year ban on the use of live music on television.

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