Musicians wage war against evil robots
The Jazz Singer was released in 1927 and all bets on live musicians playing in movie theaters were gone. Live musicians were no longer needed, and they became old-fashioned. The American Federation of Musicians launched the Music Defense League in 1930 to combat the recorded sound menace.
The robot was the face of evil in this campaign. The Music Defense League ran ads in newspapers across the United States and Canada for over $500,000. The ads asked the public to insist that humans perform their music in theaters and movie theaters, rather than some unseeable machine. This is a typical advertisement from the New York Syracuse Herald of September 2, 1930:
The Robot is not able to make music, but he does stop those who are.
Source:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/musicians-wage-war-against-evil-robots-92702721/
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