An early edit of a documentary about Bill Veeck called "Veeck: A Man for Any Season." Includes some footage not in the final edit.
00:00Copy video clip URL Tape begins with a very staticky old recording, but the quality improves once the footage of “A Man For Any Season” begins. Bars and tone, followed by countdown.
00:53Copy video clip URL Bill Veeck tells the story of how the elephant got its trunk from the just-so stories of Rudyard Kipling. Clips of Veeck’s various baseball “stunts” with placeholder narration by Tom Weinberg.
02:39Copy video clip URL Ed Murrow “Person to Person” interview with Bill Veeck and his wife, Mary Frances Veeck.
03:18Copy video clip URL Bill Veeck talking in his home about the lessons his father taught him. “You can’t tell who put that money in the box office. You can’t tell whose money that was… It all looks the same.”
04:45Copy video clip URL Early television footage of Bill Veeck, talking about his career in baseball, starting in ticket sales, selling pop, and buying the Milwaukee Brewers.
06:15Copy video clip URL Veeck’s philosophy of creating interesting promotions: incongruity.
07:02Copy video clip URL Footage of Veeck sitting in the bleachers at Wrigley Field. “I did some things right at this ballpark. I did some wrong too.”
07:30Copy video clip URL Opening to “Meet Bill Veeck.”
08:00Copy video clip URL Chicago Mayor Harold Washington commenting on Veeck’s optimism. Veeck talks about his own optimism. “Tomorrow never comes. By the time it comes, it’s today… This may not be the best of all worlds, but it’s the best I know.”
09:04Copy video clip URL Bill Gleason talks about Bill Veeck. “Veeck knows everything… because he reads so much.”
10:12Copy video clip URL Bill Veeck talks about reading. “A book, it can be anything you want. A television, someone else predetermines. You have maybe three or four choices.” Footage of Veeck at Kroch’s bookstore. He comments on Elmore Leonard and looks at gardening books.
11:30Copy video clip URL “I think that he is the man of this city. Not only do I love him, but everyone I’ve ever spoken to… He singles each of us out as if we were his personal friends,” a woman comments on Veeck’s friendliness. Footage follows of Veeck greeting people around Chicago.
12:54Copy video clip URL “For Bill, enjoying people sometimes means disagreeing with them.” Veeck argues with John Mengelt about the business of baseball, specifically the Tribune company’s ownership of the Chicago Cubs.
14:39Copy video clip URL Ed Murrow asks Bill Veeck about the Yankees’ troubles. Veeck is thrilled the Yankees are losing, but he does not feel that they’ll be down for long. He cracks jokes at the Yankees’ expense.
15:26Copy video clip URL Veeck talks about beauty from the bleachers at Wrigley Field. “The most beautiful thing is a ballpark filled with people… The next most wonderful thing is a ballpark half-filled with people.”
16:15Copy video clip URL Old footage of Veeck on speech-making. He enjoys making speeches. Footage of Veeck accepting his induction into the Chicago Sports Hall of Fame. Veeck giving a speech at Northeastern Illinois University.
18:20Copy video clip URL Mary Frances Veeck talking about Bill’s introspective side. People don’t see the times when Veeck needs to “refuel.”
19:10Copy video clip URL Veeck talks about living modestly. “Nothing is any better just because it costs more. I think that’s a mistake we’ve made in our society. Correlating cost with value.” He talks about how this relates to baseball players and their large contracts. “How much money can you pay a tulip to bloom?… I wonder what relationship money has to being happy… I think very little.”
20:55Copy video clip URL Veeck on opening day of the baseball season at Wrigley Field. The crowd recognizes him and is excited to see him.
21:42Copy video clip URL Veeck talks about the doctors, nurses, and staff of Illinois Masonic, and how he’s treated them to a baseball game as a “thank you” for their saving his life.
22:32Copy video clip URL “Bill Veeck is baseball.”
22:48Copy video clip URL Veeck on the relativity of time. It seems to pass more slowly when you are young.
25:38Copy video clip URL Veeck on Murrow. Conclusion.
25:52Copy video clip URL Veeck and his wife singing “Take me out to the ballgame” at Wrigley Field during the seventh inning stretch.
1 Comment
I took the last picture of Veeck at Wrigleyin ’85. He boycotted the season going only to 2 games. His reason, that the Tribune Co were selling tickets to the cheap-seats and all games starting in February, and thus making it almost impossible to buy tickets on the day of the game. Thus creating scalpers and making seats selling at many times the price printed on the face of the ticket. I boycotted in 1991 when they raised the price from $4 to 6 bucks. One of his quotes no longer holds true. He said “after roaming the ballparks for over 20 years by inverse proportions of what a fan pays for a ticket was their knowledge of the game”.
Today at Wrigley… They seldom if ever sell bleacher tickets on the day of the game. The average price is $46.and on days for certain games during the season they are $75. That is the same for adults or kids. The reason I became a fan back in 1945, was my dad would say to me on the day of a double header… get some of your friends and we’ll sit in the bleachers. He would take 5 of us by big red streetcars from Kedzie & Lawrence Ave. in Albany Park to Clark and Addison and buy us all tickets and feed us all day long with hot dogs,soda pop,peanuts and cracker Jacks and get us home after hours later and still have change from a $20. bill!