Manuscript
Collection
CHARLES W.
MCMILLAN
89‑029
ASCAP/BMI WAR SCRAPBOOK.
Physical description:
1 volume.
Dates:
1940‑1941.
Provenance:
Purchased from
R.R. Allen Books, Knoxville, TN, in 1989.
Scope and Content:
This scrapbook, titled by the
compiler "The Battle of Music, ASCAP vs. BMI", documents what Russell
Sanjek, American Popular Music and Its Business,
vol. III, calls "the music war" between the American Society of
Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI),
November 1940‑July 1941, over licensing fees for the use of music on
radio networks. Included are ASCAP press
releases, newsletters and flyers, many of which are reprints from newspapers and
numerous clippings from one or more newspapers in Massachusetts, Ohio, New
York, Oregon, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, California, Colorado,
Arkansas, Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington, Indiana,
Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Most of the
material explains/defends/supports the viewpoint of ASCAP, except for an 8 page
illustrated BMI pamphlet presenting its argument. Included are articles about and
lists of composer/subject songs (e.g. Stephen Foster, Irish, patriotic,
religious) managed by ASCAP that will no longer be available on radio. Items
are occasionally interlined and/or annotated or titled by the scrapbook
compiler about whom no information is available.
Location:
This volume is filed by
accession number with other manuscript collections. A photocopy is available
for research purposes located on top of the Vertical File in the Reading Room.
Related Materials:
The Center holds two ASCAP
documents pertaining to the ASCAP Consent Decree of 1941 filed with other
manuscript collections by accession number 07-001.
EG 1989, updated LPC
March 2008.