Raw footage for the documentary "Veeck: A Man For Any Season." This tape features footage of Bill Veeck at his Hyde Park home, talking about racial integration.
00:00Copy video clip URL This tape begins in the middle of a conversation with Bill Veeck in his home. He starts by discussing his plan to buy the bankrupt Philadelphia Phillies in 1942 and to use players from the Negro League on the team. He talks about warning the judge, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, about his plans.
03:00Copy video clip URL Veeck says that the owner of the Phillies, Jerry Nugent, sold the team to the National League between the time when Veeck warned Judge Landis and when he came to close the deal with Nugent. “I was so certain I had already made arrangements for a band.”
05:36Copy video clip URL When the plan to buy the Phillies fell through, he joined the service. He insists that the real injustice was that the Negro League players were some of the best baseball players, and many of them didn’t get a chance to play in the majors.
07:00Copy video clip URL Veeck says he’s still good friends with Larry Doby (whom he eventually signed when he was owner of the Milwaukee Brewers.) He talks about how his mother had prejudices about Jews and African Americans because of how she was raised, and that she overcame her prejudices by meeting the actual people. “So now she finds, ‘Hey, wait, I’ve missed a wonderful part of the world.'”
12:05Copy video clip URL Veeck talks about moving to Maryland, and how he does not like the Deep South. He acknowledges that this may be prejudice on his part. He discovers that most of Maryland is still segregated, including the movie theater. At first, he sat in the “black” section of the theater. Then his wife, Mary Frances Veeck, decided to rent films and use their “studio” to show movies and invite kids of all races to watch movies.
17:34Copy video clip URL He talks about getting the hotels and restaurants in Baltimore to integrate. He talks about going to Martin Luther King’s funeral.
18:26Copy video clip URL End of tape.
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