Producers of bootleg Caesars recordings sue union

Grace Leong

Thursday, March 21, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

Two California music record producers filed a lawsuit disputing claims by a Las Vegas chapter of the Musicians' Union that they failed to compensate its musicians when they marketed secretly recorded audio recordings of performances at Caesars Palace by legends such as Frank Sinatra.

Concord Records Inc. and Halcyon Entertainment Inc. sued Local 369 of the Musicians' Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Musicians AFL-CIO/Canadian Labor Council, and Frank Leone, its president and a member of Caesars' house orchestra, in Clark County District Court last week.

Halcyon, which said it negotiated with many of the music legends' representatives to get clearances for the commercial release of the recordings, said it also began negotiations with the union's national office last April over the compensation of Caesars' band leaders and orchestra musicians -- which comprised Local 369 members performing under a collective bargaining agreement -- for use of their performances.

Eva Garcia-Mendoza, the union's attorney, could not be reached for comment on why the union needs to be reimbursed for its efforts when the musicians whose music is actually on the recordings may no longer be working. The recordings were made in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Halcyon, which said Caesars agreed to license its trademark in 2000 to the producer for distribution of the recordings, said it began production of 20,000 copies of the compact discs called "Live At Caesars" that feature performances of Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Andy Williams after the union "made specific representations as to what would be acceptable for an agreement."

The suit said Dave Rogers, a sound engineer at Caesars' Circus Maximus showroom, had recorded -- without the knowledge of Caesars' management -- more than 25 years of performances at the resort-casino. The existence of these private recordings came to light after Rogers' death in 1998 when his stepson, Gilbert Cebollero, sought to produce commercial albums of the tapes with a third party.

The plaintiffs, which said they were wrongfully accused by the union of failing to compensate musicians at the time the copies were made and failing to contact musicians regarding the release of the copies, said they were falsely accused of stealing the recordings after Caesars, "in an administrative error," offered the compact discs for sale in mid-August 2001.

Caesars, which had allegedly agreed to not sell the compact discs until an agreement between the plaintiffs and the union was finalized, pulled the compact discs from its shelves after realizing its error, the suit said.

But the union, which managed to buy several of 29 copies that were sold before the copies were pulled from the shelves, was accused of making false statements that it had initiated a grievance report against Concord because of the sale of the compact discs.

Abraham Rudy, the plaintiffs' attorney, said the compact discs now aren't available for sale.

The suit said the union falsely claimed that Concord would have sold the copies, if not for the union's alleged intervention, without any regard to the rights of the music legends or the Caesars' musicians.

Leone, whom the suit said had spoken to the press on Aug. 20 about Caesars' sale of the recordings, was accused of refusing to explain any of the underlying facts regarding the months of negotiations between the union and the music record producers and the already-reached agreements between the producers and the music legends.

The plaintiffs claimed they became "victim to union politics" when Leone allegedly "took a hardline negotiating position with the plaintiffs to look good to the union members when election time arrived in fall of 2001" by stalling negotiations and raising its demands for compensation to $260,000, "more than 10 times the amount contained in the union's deal memo."

Meanwhile the union, which sued Caesars owner Park Place Entertainment Corp., Cebollero, Act III Communications, Halcyon, Concord and its subsidiary Neon Tonic Records in September, dropped its copyright claims against Park Place and Cebollero in October. The union is still litigating its claims against the remaining defendants.