Veeck: A Man For Any Season

<v Bill Veeck>By the banks of the great gray, green, greasy Limpopo River, all bordered by <v Bill Veeck>fevre trees and the rat colored python, he wrapped <v Bill Veeck>his tail around the rock and through clenched teeth pulled. <v Bill Veeck>And the little elephant paw and the rat colored python pulled and pulled and he <v Bill Veeck>said, young man. <v Bill Veeck>That's how the elephant got his trunk. <v Bill Veeck>And so he went back home and he spanked all his uncles and aunts with <v Bill Veeck>his newly discovered trunk.That's <v Bill Veeck>kipling. <v Speaker>And this is Bill Veeck. He's a legend in baseball. <v Speaker>He's also a one of a kind man. <v Speaker>He's a dreamer who is not satisfied until his dreams come true in front of a full house. <v Speaker>For 50 years Bill has dreamed up thousands of different schemes, always aimed at <v Speaker>delighting, the paying customers. <v Speaker>He put a midget, Eddie Gardell, up to bat. <v Speaker>He put the players in shorts, installed a shower in the bleachers, landed Martian's on

<v Speaker>the field and built the world's first exploding scoreboard. <v Speaker>But Bill has had his ups and downs operating ball clubs. <v Speaker>In Cleveland, the world champion 1948 Indian set a league attendance record <v Speaker>that still hasn't been broken, but he nearly went broke five years later <v Speaker>with the St. Louis Browns. The 1959 White Sox won a pennant. <v Speaker>But in the 1970s, it was a different ballgame. <v Speaker>Living out his fantasies in baseball reflects just one facet of Bill Veeck's spirit. <v Speaker>He's written three books, hosted TV and radio shows for 40 years and helped raise nine <v Speaker>children. <v Speaker>Bill is bounced back from major surgery 33 times. <v Speaker>He's a writer, a storyteller, a passionate gardener, a mobile maker <v Speaker>and wood craftsman. The longer he lives, the more he opens himself up to <v Speaker>people. This program is about a complex man who never quits. <v Speaker>A man who knows how to have a good time and provide it for others. <v Speaker>Bill Veeck, a man for any season.

<v Ed Murrow>Good evening. I'm Ed Murrow. <v Ed Murrow>The name of the program is Person to Person. <v Ed Murrow>Tonight, we'll be going to Chicago for a visit with the president of the White Sox <v Ed Murrow>baseball team. Bill Veeck, junior and his wife in baseball, Bill Veeck <v Ed Murrow>has become synonymous with excitement, action, color and nonconformity. <v Ed Murrow>Bill, who was born forty five years ago in Chicago, learned the tricks of the trade from <v Ed Murrow>his father, a former baseball writer who later became president of the Chicago Cubs <v Ed Murrow>and started his son on a baseball career at about the age of eleven. <v Ed Murrow>Helping out in the ticket office. <v Bill Veeck>My daddy taught me a wonderful lesson. <v Bill Veeck>Very important lesson. <v Bill Veeck>When I was about 10, 11 years old, I guess. <v Bill Veeck>And he said, come here now I want to show you something. <v Bill Veeck>And it was all this money and more money than I'd ever seen in one time. <v Bill Veeck>And he said, look at that.

<v Bill Veeck>And I said, that's a lot of money, and he said, well, what does that mean? <v Bill Veeck>And I knew he had something in mind. <v Bill Veeck>I tried desperately to think of what was the right answer, but <v Bill Veeck>couldn't because I would never wanted to disappoint him. <v Bill Veeck>And he said, I'll tell you. <v Bill Veeck>He said, you can't tell who put that money in the box office. <v Bill Veeck>Can ya? You can't tell who's money that was. <v Bill Veeck>And he said that's important. <v Bill Veeck>He said that's something you want to remember. <v Bill Veeck>It all looks the same. <v Bill Veeck>And he taught me a lot of things. <v Bill Veeck>He was the nicest man I've ever met. <v Bill Veeck>I've been in baseball, all my life, I was hustling bar pop around the ballpark <v Bill Veeck>in Chicago when I was about eleven years old. <v Bill Veeck>And I worked on the ground crew and worked behind the concession stands <v Bill Veeck>for tickets, sold tickets, funny, maneuvered my way up the office where I didn't

<v Bill Veeck>have to work so much and ran in front of Ben McCrimmon. <v Bill Veeck>Charlie Grimm, who you may remember is manager of the Cubs and currently managing <v Bill Veeck>Milwaukee. We got a few bucks together. <v Bill Veeck>We went to Milwaukee and bought a ball club. <v Bill Veeck>We've pedaled enough players around who will be able eventually to buy the <v Bill Veeck>Cleveland Indians, bought those about five years ago. <v Bill Veeck>And we were pretty fortunate. <v Bill Veeck>We had a fella, a bit of a Boudreaux who in 1948 won a world championship for us. <v Lou Boudreau>There is no one that is more knowledgeable in the game than Bill. <v Lou Boudreau>And I think Bill introduced entertainment to baseball. <v Lou Boudreau>With his different ideas of putting on entertainment for the fans. <v Lou Boudreau>He was actually in the fans corner at all times. <v Harry Caray>He's the only owner I've ever run across who really thinks about the <v Harry Caray>enjoyment of the fan. <v Harry Caray>He always thinks in terms of what can he do to make the fan more fun at the ballpark <v Harry Caray>than they normally would have.

<v Bill Veeck>There's nothing to giving everyone in a ballpark <v Bill Veeck>an Eskimo pie. <v Bill Veeck>But to give one person thirty thousand Eskimo pies. <v Bill Veeck>Now that causes some interesting thought. <v Bill Veeck>What are you going to do with them? <v Bill Veeck>What happens when they start to melt? <v Bill Veeck>You know, they got how fast are they going to pass him around? <v Bill Veeck>Are they going try and eat 'em, themselves? <v Bill Veeck>You see, that's the thing that makes it promotional work, incongruity. <v Speaker>Giving away Eskimo pies is just one of the promotions bill came up with. <v Speaker>He originated that day, jacket day, capped day, music day and many others. <v Speaker>He was criticized by the other owners for some of his innovations, like putting names on <v Speaker>uniforms, but they didn't hesitate to copy the ones that worked. <v Speaker>Of course, a few schemes were one-time-only like Grandstand Managers Day <v Speaker>when the decisions were made in the seats instead of the dugout. <v Speaker>And many of the ideas started at Wrigley Field.

<v Bill Veeck>This is a wonderful ballpark. <v Bill Veeck>You know, you it's really the <v Bill Veeck>along with Fenway and Comiskey. <v Bill Veeck>Detroit, the last of the ballparks. <v Speaker>And actually, I did some things right in this ballpark. <v Speaker>I did some wrong too. <v Speaker>In the 1930s, Bill worked for Philip Knight Wrigley and helped create <v Speaker>beautiful Wrigley Field. <v Speaker>He built the bleachers, designed the scoreboard and planted the vines. <v Speaker>He now calls the world's best known horticultural display. <v Speaker>What's behind your theory of showmanship in baseball? <v Speaker>Well, I happen to have a very ridiculous theory, according to Brady. <v Speaker>Many ballclub operators that it should be fun. <v Speaker>You know, I don't think that baseball is such a grim, serious thing. <v Speaker>Sure. I don't want to interfere with the game, but I do want everyone who comes out the

<v Speaker>ballpark to have fun. And look, let's face it, often the ballgame is not the most <v Speaker>exciting thing that ever happened. <v Bill Veeck>I have always operated on the feeling that your <v Bill Veeck>fans who are customers or patients. <v Bill Veeck>But more nearly our friends should be treated exactly the <v Bill Veeck>same way in a ballpark as far as is humanly possible. <v Bill Veeck>As if they were in your home. <v Bill Veeck>In reality, they are guests <v Bill Veeck>with one exception. <v Bill Veeck>Really? Maybe you're the guest. <v Bill Veeck>The ballpark belongs to them. More accurately than it belongs to you. <v Bill Veeck>You're merely the custodian of their ballpark. <v Bill Veeck>So I've tried to operate it that way. <v Steve Stone>I think, Bill Veeck is baseball. He means more to this game than almost anybody around at <v Steve Stone>this point. I think he's a visionary. <v Steve Stone>I think he's one of the real clear thinking baseball people. <v Steve Stone>It's a shame that he's not still in the game.

<v Steve Stone>But I know one thing. When the annals of this game were written down Bill Veeck's name is <v Steve Stone>going to be very prominent. <v Bill Veeck>I can't remember how much money we made in Cleveland. <v Bill Veeck>I can tell you, we drew two million six hundred and eighty thousand people, and that <v Bill Veeck>doesn't include almost three quarters of a million people who came in free, <v Bill Veeck>women and children. <v Bill Veeck>But I can tell you, we did two million six hundred eighty thousand paid admissions. <v Bill Veeck>But the money didn't mean anything. <v Bill Veeck>You know what, I keep putting my bankroll back. <v Bill Veeck>If it doesn't come out sometimes, then I'm in trouble. <v Bill Veeck>But I get it eventually, but I always invest. <v Bill Veeck>A sole. A House and what's in <v Bill Veeck>Maryland. You know, to buy some land in center field. <v Bill Veeck>In Chicago or a ranch in Tucson <v Bill Veeck>to buy some in St Louis. <v Bill Veeck>Or one in New Mexico and so on.

<v Bill Gleason>Our conversation with Bill Veeck is a rare experience because you always <v Bill Gleason>go away from it with your head hurting because Bill <v Bill Gleason>is so stimulating. Every subject he talks about, <v Bill Gleason>he makes you think. <v Bill Veeck>Today isn't so bad, it could be a lot worse, but tomorrow is going to be great <v Bill Veeck>and tomorrow never comes because you see by the time tomorrow comes, <v Bill Veeck>it's today. So it's the worst could be as it's pretty good. <v Bill Veeck>And if it doesn't come, that would be terrible. <v Bill Veeck>In other words in other words, I've had enough problems physically <v Bill Veeck>to recognize that it's just great <v Bill Veeck>to be around. <v Bill Gleason>There are a lot of people I met, particularly in the newspaper business, who have <v Bill Gleason>knowledge on all subjects, but it's very shallow. <v Bill Gleason>It's about a half an inch thick. <v Bill Gleason>But Veeck knows everything about this subject.

<v Bill Gleason>And the reason is because he reads so much and he can retain. <v Bill Veeck>With a book you can be anything you want. <v Bill Veeck>The television you watch what someone determines, predetermined, you should watch. <v Bill Veeck>And you have maybe three or four choices. <v Bill Veeck>But you can be anything with a book. <v Bill Veeck>You can be in any part of the world, you can be with Marco Polo <v Bill Veeck>and China and you can then the next day be in the South Sea Islands <v Bill Veeck>with all my word, T-P. Herman Melville or you can be Tom Sawyer <v Bill Veeck>or Huck Finn on a raft and there's no other way <v Bill Veeck>can you find that ability to be so many <v Bill Veeck>different people in so many different places. <v Speaker>Do you like your own? I read that. <v Speaker>You read that. Yes, I enjoyed it. Okay. <v Speaker>He can't write anything that isn't good. <v Speaker>Are the, are the flowers book back?

<v Speaker>Yeah. Yeah. Back there. <v Speaker>Hi. Fine, thanks. <v Speaker>Nice to see you. Thank you. <v Speaker>It's nice to be around where you can be seen. <v Bertha Mazer>I think that he is the man of this city because not only <v Bertha Mazer>do I love him, but everybody I have ever spoken to has the same <v Bertha Mazer>feeling of love and warmth for Bill Veeck. <v Bertha Mazer>When I see him on television in my home, I <v Bertha Mazer>just think he's coming and talking to me. <v Bertha Mazer>He singles each one of us out as if we were his personal friends. <v Harold Washington>Bill Veeck is kind of difficult to put him in a nutshell. <v Harold Washington>He's a person of so many wonderful qualities that he's a person of spirit and <v Harold Washington>power. <v Speaker>I enjoy people tremendously. <v Speaker>I mean, everyone is interesting in one way or another. <v Speaker>You know.

<v Speaker>[indistinct chatter]. <v Speaker>My head is shrunk. <v Speaker> <v Speaker>Nice to be somebody's hero. <v Speaker>Hey I've been looking for you. I just come in here to see you. <v Bill Veeck>I guess I have seen everything in this country <v Bill Veeck>that is known to be one of the <v Bill Veeck>unusual things of nature, whether it be a Yosemite, an old faithful, <v Bill Veeck>or whether be the Grand Canyon from the bottom or from the top. <v Bill Veeck>I've been Bryce Canyon. <v Bill Veeck>The Natural Bridges. <v Bill Veeck>The Painted Desert. <v Bill Veeck>Even the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.

<v Bill Veeck>I've seen them all. And the most beautiful thing <v Bill Veeck>is a ballpark filled with people. <v Bill Veeck>Other people can have great acts of nature. <v Bill Veeck>That's mine. <v Bill Veeck>And the next most wonderful thing is a ballpark half-filled <v Bill Veeck>with people. <v Speaker>Well, Good. <v Speaker>Fine! You know. <v Speaker>I hope. <v Speaker>Once more, we have another one. <v Speaker> I'm fine, thank you. <v Speaker>Hi. <v Speaker>Here we are back.

<v Speaker>Take your chance. <v Speaker>On opening day 100 of the employees <v Speaker>of Illinois Masonic. The doctors and nurses and technicians and <v Speaker>the guys who push the gurneys and sweep the floors and so on <v Speaker>are going to go with me to the bleachers and taking with them each one of their wives <v Speaker>or or friends or whomever. <v Speaker>Five things, because without them, I wouldn't be there. <v Speaker>You know, it's the only way I can say thank you. <v Speaker>Hey Bill, how you doing? <v Speaker>Fine thanks. <v Speaker>Hi. <v Speaker>Thank you. I'm one of the residents of Masonic we really appreciate it. <v Speaker>I got a couple of friends here. Thank you very much. Glad to see you out here. <v Speaker>Thanks to you, I am here. <v Speaker>Bill can be stubborn, too. <v Speaker>For instance, when he's arguing with his friends. <v John Mengelt>To win it. Wait a minute, wait. Let me finish. Everybody wants the Cubs to win 161 <v John Mengelt>games a year. They'll let them lose one.

<v John Mengelt>OK. But yet they don't want them to be <v John Mengelt>as successful. So sold out every day, John. <v John Mengelt>I mean, I will. I know that. Please. <v John Mengelt>I know that the North Siders made clubs [Veeck: exist. <v John Mengelt>Come on, come on]. Wait. <v John Mengelt>It's the same thing happens with the play. <v Bill Veeck>No, no. Just listen a second. One second. <v Bill Veeck>Bear in mind that the Tribune Company couldn't care less whether <v Bill Veeck>the Cubs win or lose. Except as how it affects <v Bill Veeck>the sale of newspapers and advertising and how it affects the sale <v Bill Veeck>of advertising on WGN TV and WGN <v Bill Veeck>radio. <v John Mengelt>I would say you're very very wrong. <v John Mengelt>I would say you're very wrong. I would say they bought the ballclub because they felt <v John Mengelt>that they might lose a commodity in which they've had for a long time, not because <v John Mengelt>Wrigley was gonna sell. <v Bill Veeck>They had two assets. <v Bill Veeck>They had Wally Philipson radio and they will go to any <v Bill Veeck>lengths to protect his contract. <v Bill Veeck>And they had baseball, cubs baseball on

<v Bill Veeck>on television. <v John Mengelt>That doesn't mean they don't care whether they win. <v John Mengelt>I disagree with that. <v Bill Veeck>They, they bought the ball club with one idea of ensuring <v Bill Veeck>a longevity to this asset. <v John Mengelt>I agree with that. All right. [Veeck: No, wait.] But I don't agree they don't care <v John Mengelt>whether they win or not. <v Bill Veeck>Wait a second now. <v Bill Veeck>They care they win as it affects the value <v Bill Veeck>of what they bought, not for the dollars that come through the gate, <v Bill Veeck>but the dollars that are generated <v Bill Veeck>by television commercials. <v Speaker>Bills non-conformity and strong opinions are not limited to sports. <v Bill Veeck>We're opposed to the program in <v Bill Veeck>Central America. We're opposed to the programs in South <v Bill Veeck>America. We're opposed to the missiles. <v Bill Veeck>We're opposed to the idea that the Russians by birth

<v Bill Veeck>are villains. We're, we believe that <v Bill Veeck>there is a way to have a dialog with <v Bill Veeck>humans. <v Bill Veeck>If we would just give it a chance. <v Bill Veeck>So we're on the wrong side of everything <v Bill Veeck>that Reagan stands for, including good movies, <v Bill Veeck>because he never stood for those or stood still for them. <v Bill Veeck>His greatest effort was the Grover Cleveland Alexander <v Bill Veeck>story. <v Bill Veeck>He didn't even know that Alex was a drunk lady outside. <v Bill Veeck>That's what I feel. <v Speaker>Bill, I suppose, in your job. <v Speaker>You have to do a certain amount of speechmaking. <v Speaker>You find this much of a chore? <v Bill Veeck>Oh kee, quite the contrary. I find it most enjoyable. <v Bill Veeck>I make, probably all 300, 350 speeches a year.

<v Bill Veeck>And I enjoy every one of them. <v Bill Veeck>I'm really not very often at a loss for words. <v Bill Veeck>As a matter of fact, I've kept from working all these years with my mouth, <v Bill Veeck>but I am really extremely honored to be <v Bill Veeck>to be included in this Chicago Hall of fame for athletes. <v Bill Veeck>Because in my case, that's really stretching a point. <v Bill Veeck>But, you know, I kind of like to talk about <v Bill Veeck>bad ball clubs.

<v Bill Veeck>I like to talk about the St. Louis Browns because I know none of you ever saw them. <v Bill Veeck>We played secret games for a crowd this large in <v Bill Veeck>St. Louis we'd have played a double header. <v Bill Veeck>Not too well, but enthusiastically. <v Bill Veeck>It was a weird operation. I remember one night <v Bill Veeck>when I owned the club, I was selling tickets at a large and extensive organization <v Bill Veeck>and somebody came up me wanted to buy eight seats. <v Bill Veeck>Well, I knew he came from out of town. <v Bill Veeck>I said, where would you like to sit? He said, We'd like this as best seats in a house. <v Bill Veeck>I said, Would you like to sit at second base? <v Bill Veeck>We're not using it this year, he says. <v Bill Veeck>He says, What time's a game? I said, What time's convenient? <v Bill Veeck>I know we'll play at your house if you'd like. <v Speaker>The public sees is totally real. <v Speaker>It's just. Well, the way I describe it is that there are so many facets to him. <v Speaker>So many people don't know the introspective part of Bill. <v Speaker>We're both people who need refueling, and I think everybody does.

<v Speaker>Somehow the more involved you are with people either in work or in your play, <v Speaker>the more you care about people, the more important it is to have these times, the <v Speaker>introspective times. <v Speaker>It's part of what gives him the energy, the strength to give people so much. <v Bill Veeck>We've lived nicely. Mary Francis and I. <v Bill Veeck>We don't live expensively. <v Bill Veeck>We live nicely. We do what we want to do. <v Bill Veeck>We aren't deprived of things. <v Bill Veeck>But on the other hand, we don't. <v Bill Veeck>We don't have free cars. In fact the cars we got are old, <v Bill Veeck>you know, we don't have several houses. The one we live is very modest. <v Bill Veeck>Our wants are very modest. <v Bill Veeck>Maybe because. <v Bill Veeck>Nothing is any better just because it costs more. <v Bill Veeck>And I think that's a mistake that we've made in our societies because <v Bill Veeck>correlating cost with value and cost with <v Bill Veeck>return.

<v Bill Veeck>And they have no correlation. <v Bill Veeck>And I guess you learn that because you see a ballplayer, <v Bill Veeck>who gets a million dollars <v Bill Veeck>who can't play. <v Bill Veeck>You know. <v Bill Veeck>At one hundred thousand dollars, he would be stealing. <v Bill Veeck>And the fact is you pay him a million dollars doesn't make him that much better. <v Bill Veeck>And it doesn't mean that you've gotten that much greater return. <v Bill Veeck>And that's true of. <v Bill Veeck>Well. <v Bill Veeck>How much money can you pay <v Bill Veeck>a tulip to bloom? <v Bill Veeck>You know. <v Bill Veeck>And how much more can you pay <v Bill Veeck>a song to hum? <v Bill Veeck>So I wonder, I wonder what relationship <v Bill Veeck>money has to, to being happy to enjoying

<v Bill Veeck>your world and your life. <v Bill Veeck>I think very little. <v Speaker>Hi, I'm Bill Veeck. <v Bill Veeck>Time, of course, is purely relative. <v Bill Veeck>Time can seem endless to a youngster. <v Bill Veeck>The night before Christmas, when you were five years old <v Bill Veeck>waiting for Santa never passed. <v Bill Veeck>A summer day when you were a youngster seemed endless.

<v Bill Veeck>It seem to add time to infinity. <v Bill Veeck>But when you get older, you first recognize <v Bill Veeck>the, the limitations of time. <v Bill Veeck>And you also recognize that you can't really <v Bill Veeck>stretch time yourself. <v Bill Veeck>So it is no longer endless. <v Bill Veeck>It is finite, rather than infinite. <v Bill Veeck>So being finite. <v Bill Veeck>As you get closer to what is accepted as a general <v Bill Veeck>terminal point, you find you find <v Bill Veeck>without question that that time becomes more precious <v Bill Veeck>because there's less of it. <v Bill Veeck>Maybe that's the reason that elderly people, <v Bill Veeck>which I don't class myself as one, although I fit into the time

<v Bill Veeck>category. <v Bill Veeck>Elderly people don't sleep as much because maybe <v Bill Veeck>that allows them. They say, well, they don't need as much sleep, but maybe that allows <v Bill Veeck>them to maximize the time that they have that is conscious <v Bill Veeck>and babies sleep almost all the time because it doesn't matter. <v Bill Veeck>So you see here you have these two extremes and <v Bill Veeck>they're approaching each other and you don't really <v Bill Veeck>recognize with what great speed they're approaching until you get near the end <v Bill Veeck>and then you have a greater appreciation of what is going to happen that you may miss. <v Bill Veeck>I might say I mentioned something and probably embarrass me, but. <v Bill Veeck>The greatest fear I had in the Illinois Masonic Hospital was not getting to <v Bill Veeck>see her again. <v Bill Veeck>If something should happen to me and it looked at the time as if something

<v Bill Veeck>were going to happen to me. <v Bill Veeck>And that worried me. <v Bill Veeck>It made me appreciate more the value of time. <v Bill Veeck>That was nice. <v Speaker>Thank you very much. Mary Frances, thank you. <v Speaker>Bill Veeck. And good luck in the ball game tonight. <v Speaker>Thanks, Chad. That's what we need to know. Thank you. <v Speaker>Thank you very much. Good night. <v Bill Veeck>This is the epitome of pleasure.