Roosevelt hearings
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Chairman James Roosevelt

In 1959 Congressman James Roosevelt held a series of  hearings concerning  ascap's payment  methods and the powers of the board of directors.
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The failure of the Celler and Smathers hearings fueled ASCAP's continued resentment toward BMI. Despite legal and legislative losses ASCAP never wavered from its sense of cultural superiority. It was very clear by Billy Rose and others before the two committees, Oscar Hammerstein II kept charging broadcasters with bypassing better ASCAP music for infer BMI product writing "the public has a right to hear the best music, not what the communications directors decided."

But two events finally put ASCAP on the defensive. The first was yet another congressional investigation. At issue was ASCAP"s treatment of members system of payment and power of the board of directors. Composer Hans Lengsfelder charged the board acted in its own best interest at the expense of the members. Lengsfelder filed a civil suit that caught the attention of the House Subcommittee on Small Business.

In 1959, congressman Roosevelt began the first of a series of public hearing demands on the justice department to take corrective action new terms were discussed with the dissents, who learned the government didn't agree with them on the matter of a straight payment system ascap and the justice department finally reached a tentative agreement on an amended consent order and final hearings were announced for october 1959.

Chaired by James Roosevelt the committee heard testimony that hinted ASCAP leaders had violated the trust of its membership.

The charges weren't new going back to 1941 when ASCAP operated as an exclusive club. Shut-out composer and publisher Perry Bradford referred to ASCAP then as "run by a perpetual board of me, myself and I directors. I vote for you and you vote for me." By 1957, this had only improved only so far as dictated by the consent order governing ASCAP's activities. Membership had gotten much larger, but the old ways that royalties were divided was still run by the old board of director methods. By 1957, this had improved only so as far as that ordered by the consent decree governing ASCAP's activities. A revolt erupted in 1957  at a general meeting when an unhappy member brought his own stenographer after being denied access to the minutes of the last meeting. The unrest of the board's secretive nature was what led to  the Lengsfelder lawsuit.

Though Roosevelt was less sympathetic than Cellers or Smathers, ASCAP still took the opportunity to knock  rock and roll and BMI. ASCAP  attorney Herman Finkelstein said writers of rock and roll were only after a quick buck and if they were truly interested in becoming professionals they'd join ASCAP. The Roosevelt hearings did little more than allow for a public airing of grievances against ASCAP's manner of handling its affairs, revelations of power exercised in a greedy way.. Again the consent decree precluded the committee from taking any action. But the revelations of the way ASCAP operated put it on the defensive, forcing them to realize that Congress wasn't an unwavering ally.

Antitrust Subcommittee Judiciary did introduce a bill limiting the amount of stock broadcasters could own. 

The other issue was more disturbing disclosure. Several ASCAP publishers were implicated in the quiz show scandal. They were charged with taking kickbacks from producers who used their music as program themes. The same producers were being investigated by Congress on charges that their get rich extravaganzas were crooked.

ASCAP and its allies quickly worked shift back attention to BMI. Burton Lane president of American Guild of Authors and Composers ASCAP submitted a memo  to the quiz show investigators citing reports of pay-for play, implicating a number of disc jockeys and radio stations, virtually all that played rock and roll.  variety reported that Lane was clear when he said "musical records the public surreptitiously induced to buy" it was known that he was referring to rock and roll, most of which were licensed by BMI. The committee took Lane's accusations seriously enough to look into them once the the quiz shows hearings were over several disc jockeys were called as witnesses.

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