[Veeck: A Man For Any Season raw #2]

Raw footage of an interview with Bill Veeck at his home in Hyde Park, Chicago, IL. This footage was shot for the documentary, "Veeck: A Man For Any Season."

00:00Copy video clip URL This tape begins with a black screen, color bars, and tone.

00:31Copy video clip URL Open on Bill Veeck at his work area making a mobile. Veeck is asked about the number of ceilings he thinks he’s covered with his mobiles. He says that he once had a list that said he had made over 160 pieces. Veeck also talks about some of the meaning behind his mobile making. “You hope that people will enjoy them, and even if they didn’t, you don’t–if they don’t, they don’t and so, you know, not everybody is going to like it so if they throw them away, you really don’t, it doesn’t matter because you’ve had the fun of making it. And so you’re ahead of the game no matter what happens, which is one of the reasons I suppose that they are fun to make.” Veeck continues to talk about his love for mobile making.

03:44Copy video clip URL Cut to another shot of Veeck at his work area making a mobile. We watch as Veeck continues to work on a new mobile.

04:11Copy video clip URL Veeck is asked about his love for reading. Veeck says that he’s always been a reader and attributes it to his childhood upbringing. Veeck talks about his father reading to both him and his sister when they were young. He recounts some of the books he read as a child. “With a book, you can be anything you want. Television you watch what someone determines, predetermines you should watch, and you have maybe three or four choices. But you can be anything with a book. … No other way can you find that ability to be so many different people in so many different places. So I think that reading is probably the greatest single present anyone could have or gift that they could be given.” While Veeck is expressing his love for reading, his phone rings and he answers the call.

07:41Copy video clip URL After getting off of the phone, Veeck explains that he wrote a piece on the future of baseball and keeps getting calls to appear on radio to talk about it. He then continues to talk about the joy of reading. Veeck talks about his interest in best sellers, books on things he doesn’t know anything about, and books about subjects that his children are involved with. Veeck talks about his children and what they do for a living. Veeck makes a few comments based on his new found knowledge of painting and anthropology, the two areas of work his children are involved in. Veeck eventually goes into detail about America’s infrastructure and environmental problems. He also states that the U.S. is more interested in profit these days. “You don’t find the same degree of excellence that you used to. There aren’t cabinet makers, there are wood butchers.” Veeck then talks about his interest in refinishing furniture. He says that he regrets not being able to become more of a skillful cabinet maker. “You’d like to be able to do all sorts of things. Almost everything that you see is intriguing, but you have to settle I’m afraid for far less than you’d like.” Veeck then speaks about his love for gardening. The tape ends shortly afterward.

17:10Copy video clip URL Tape ends.