November 11, 1944: The Musicians’ Strike Ends

November 11, 1944: The musicians' strike that began on July 31, 1942, prohibiting members of the American Federation of Musicians from making commercial records, ends. It remains the longest strike in the history of the American entertainment industry.

The strike did not affect musicians performing on live radio shows, in concerts, or, after October 27, 1943, on special recordings made by the record companies for V-Discs for distribution to the armed forces fighting World War II, because V-Discs were not available for sale to the general public.

However, the union did frequently threaten to withdraw musicians from the radio networks to punish individual network affiliates who were deemed "unfair" for violating the union's policy on recording network shows for repeat broadcasts.

The strike had a major impact on the American musical scene. At the time, union bands dominated popular music; after the strike, and partly as a result of it, the "Big Bands" began to decline, and vocalists began to dominate popular music. It was the dawn of the "Hit Parade" era, which lasted for about 10 years, until the dawn of rock and roll.

Shortly after the strike ended,, Les Brown & His Band of Renown, with Doris Day on lead vocal, record "Sentimental Journey." They would also record a song that would be a Number 1 hit for The Platters in 1958, "Twilight Time." 

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November 11, 1944 was a Saturday. These notable college football games were played:

* The big game of the day, as it would be many times in the pre-television era, was Army, on this occasion ranked Number 1 in the country, against Notre Dame, this time ranked Number 5. In front of a crowd of 74,437 at Yankee Stadium, coach Earl "Red" Blaik's West Pointers walloped Frank Leahy's Fighting Irish, 59-0.

* Number 3 Navy beat Cornell, 48-0 at Municipal Stadium in Baltimore. Three weeks later, at the same stadium -- which was converted into Memorial Stadium in 1954 -- Army and Navy played for what amounted to the National Championship, and Army won in front of 70,000 people.

World War II meant that the service academies -- not yet counting the Air Force, which wasn't separated from the Army until 1947, didn't get its own Academy until 1954, and didn't start playing football until 1955 -- got better players than it normally would, this time including 2 future Heisman Trophy-winning running backs, Felix "Doc" Blanchard and Glenn Davis, a.k.a. "Mr. Inside" and "Mr. Outside," respectively. It also meant that military bases put teams together, and the NCAA let them play college teams on an equal basis.

* One of those military bases was Randolph Field, based near San Antonio, Texas. Their team was ranked Number 4, and they played the team from Maxwell Field, outside Montgomery, Alabama. Randolph Field won, 25-0 at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio.

In 2010, Randolph Air Force Base was merged with Lackland Air Force Base and Fort Sam Houston to form Joint Base San Antonio.

* Number 6 Bainbridge Naval Training Station was based at Port Deposit, Maryland, and its home games were played at Tome Field. They played Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, based in Havelock, North Carolina, and won, 50-7. Bainbridge NTS went undefeated in 1944. The base, near the Army's Aberdeen Proving Grounds, was closed in 1976.

* Number 7 Iowa Pre-Flight, like the University of Iowa located in Iowa City and playing home games at Iowa Stadium, later renamed Kinnick Stadium, played at home, and won, 12-10, over Bunker Hill Naval Air Station, based not in or near Boston, like him might expect, but in Kokomo, Indiana.

* Number 9 March Field, based in the Los Angeles suburb of Riverside, California, beat the University of Washington, 28-0 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* Number 14 Great Lakes Naval Training Station, playing at home, at Ross Field in Great Lakes, Illinois, north of Chicago, and coached by former Ohio State coach and future Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown, played Morris Field, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Great Lakes won, 12-10. Their baseball team, which once included Bob Feller and several other major leaguers, was so good, they were called "the 17th major league team."

* The Coast Guard Academy beat Dartmouth, 19-0 at Memorial Field in Hanover, New Hampshire. The Academy, based in New London, Connecticut, now play in NCAA Division III.

* Number 2 Ohio State beat the University of Pittsburgh, 54-19 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State won the Big Ten Conference title, and finished the season undefeated. They did not, however go to a bowl game, and so only some minor polls named them, rather than Army, the National Champions.

* Number 8 Michigan beat Number 10 Illinois, 14-0 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

* Number 11 University of Southern California were idle that week. USC won the Pacific Coast Conference title.

* Number 12 Wake Forest were upset by Number 20 Duke, 34-0 Duke Stadium (later Wallace Wade Stadium) in Durham, North Carolina. This decided the Southern Conference title.

* Number 13 Georgia Tech beat Tulane, 34-7 at Grant Field in Atlanta. Tech won the Southeastern Conference title, but, instead of the Sugar Bowl, as the SEC Champion usually does, they accepted a bid to the Orange Bowl.

* Number 16 Tennessee were idle. They were invited to the Rose Bowl, where they lost to USC.

* The University of Alabama were unranked, but beat the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), 34-6 in a game played, for some reason (wartime travel restrictions, perhaps?) at Murphy High School in Mobile, Alabama. 'Bama went to the Sugar Bowl, where they lost to Duke.

* The University of Tulsa beat Southwestern University, 51-6 at Skelly Field in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa went on to beat Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl.

* Texas Christian University beat Texas Tech, 14-0 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. TCU won the Southwest Conference title.

* Oklahoma A&M (which became Oklahoma State in 1957) beat Texas, 1308 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. A&M won the Missouri Valley Conference title, and beat TCU in the Cotton Bowl.

* Penn State beat Temple, 7-6 at Temple Stadium in Philadelphia.

* In a major rivalry, Georgia beat Florida, 38-12 at Fairfield Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida.

* And in a rivalry no one outside Kansas cares about, Kansas State beat Kansas, 18-14 at Memorial Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. (KSU's home field at the time. KU's home field was also, and remains, named Memorial Stadium.)

* Among the New York City teams, Fordham had suspended its program for the duration of The War; Columbia lost to the University of Pennsylvania, 35-7 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia; New York University (NYU) lost to Swarthmore, 21-0 at Ohio Field in The Bronx; and City College of New York (CCNY) lost to Bucknell, 78-0 at Memorial Stadium (since renamed for the school's most famous graduate, Baseball Hall-of-Famer Christy Mathewson) in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

* And among the New Jersey teams, Rutgers lost to Lafayette, 39-0 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway; and Princeton beat Muhlenberg, 16-6 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 at the old Madison Square Garden. And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings were not scheduled.