The Rochester I Know; 215; Bill Beeney

[Music] [Music] [Host] He began his career in newspapers in the middle of the Great Depression. It was a time when each of the few local murders made banner headlines, a time when city police were known to look the other way at the more than two dozen illegal betting parlors. It was also a time that he grew into a career that over the course of more than 50 years looked primarily at the sunny side of Rochester streets. Despite wars, more violent crime and a gradual loss of innocence, readers found in his column warmth and humor, and a rare but welcome trip from cynicism. Today,

Bill Pierce talked with Bill Beeney about the Rochester he knows. [...really, for a 50-cent bet? Yeah.] [Bill Pierce]" Bill Beeney, great to have you here. We're going to talk about the Rochester you know today, and you know it better than, I think, anybody because you've been on every beat. I think that the newspapers, the Gannett newspapers overhead and now still with the Wolfe papers. [Beeney] Yes. But first, before we get into that, were you born in Rochester? [Bill Beeney]: Yes, I was. Curiously enough, yeah, I'm one of the few home-bred people, I guess is where it's at. [Pierce]: Where were you born, where did you live when you were -- [Beeney]: On Boardman Street, which is just off Main St-- Monroe Avenue, east of Field Street... west of Field Street. [Pierce]: Ah, okay. Right there-- [Beeney]: I think Field Street was the end of the world then, as far as I know. [Pierce]: Really? [Beeney]: Yeah, yeah. [Pierce]: So when you were growing up there, that was the, the country started there, is that right? [Beeney]: Well, yes, but I only lived there for about 4 years when I- then I moved to Utica, and then came back here when I was about 11 or 12 years old an lived here ever since, but I was born here. [Pierce]: And when you came back at age 11, where did you live? [Beeney]: Then on Shepherd Street, which is off

Monroe Avenue, and on Pinnacle Road, which is also off- you know, cuts around Monroe Avenue to, uh,- [Pierce]: Pinnacle, that's right under the... right under Pinnacle Hill there, at the city line. [Beeney]: Yep. [Pierce]: So that's your neighborhood. [Beeney]: Yeah, that that was-- that's where I was. [Pierce]: Where did you go to school, then? [Beeney]: I went to Monroe High School one day-- just one day, because I had gone to school in Utica, and when I came in here, they said well you're in the Monroe High School district, so you have to go there, and it was kind of a funny thing. First, when I-- as soon as I went there, they said you're going to take a civics course, and we're having an examination tomorrow. I said, "Well, how in the heck can I take an exam? 'Well, you're going to have to go through with it.'" [Pierce]: You're there one day, you take a test? [Beeney]: One day. I knew one name of one person in Rochester, that was George Eastman. So whenever they had-- they had a hundred questions on this test or something, like who's the mayor, who did this, who did-- I just put down George Eastman's name for every single question. I told them there was no sense of me taking it. I had one answer right, I guess they said, "Who ran Kodak?" and I had George Eastman. So, then I went to East High School the following day and stayed there until I graduated. [Pierce]: East High

on Alexander Street? [Beeney]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [Pierce]: That's where WXXI, where this station started. [Beeney]: That's right, yeah. [Pierce]: In the basement, in the girls'-- in the girls' gym, at East High on Alexander. Yeah. What were those days like? [Beeney]: Those were pretty good, because I had to walk all the way from Shepherd Street to East High every morning, and you know, you got used to the neighborhood and it was nice over there. Albert Wilcox was, uh, the principal at that time, and a lot of older people now that're-- you know, you forget about, but it was a, it was a pleasant area. [Pierce]: East High School was quite famous for all the-- for the number of people who came from East High who went on to provide leadership for this community. [Beeney]: Yeah, that's right. I guess there were only two high schools then, East and West, and then a little while later, just a couple years later, Ben Franklin opened up. I think that was around 1931 or 2, somewhere around there. [Pierce]: Yeah, East and West had identical floor plans, I guess they saved money by building two schools exactly-- exactly-- exactly alike. [Beeney] Yeah. [Pierce]: Served the city a long time. [Beeney]: They had quite a rivalry in the sports thing, I know, and then

they stopped playing football at one time for some reason. There'd been some kind of a problem, and it was many years before they started it again. [Pierce]: Uh-uh. Now you're at East High, and that's the high school you graduated from, and then what did you do? [Beeney]: Then I went to the University of Rochester. But in the meantime, I went to work at the Democrat and Chronicle as a copy boy and the guy who was the managing editor said, "You better go to college at the same time," so I went to the university while I was going-- working at the paper, and I was also the correspondent, campus correspondent, they called it. And so then when I got through there I just automatically went right into work. [Pierce:] Marvelous. Now the U of R-- were you going out to River campus, or downtown? [Beeney]: Yeah, no, the River River campus. Although I did have one class, a Spanish class, I remember, on the University Avenue campus. That was pretty good-- and you'd go from the River campus to the other one in a limousine! There were only about four of us who had classes on the other, so they'd bring a big limousine one day-- one day a week or whatever it was, and they

drive you over there, yeah. [Pierce]: What would you-- do you remember what tuition was then? [Beeney]: I remember at one point, it was 300 dollars per semester. Six hundred-- [Pierce]: For everything? [Beeney]: Yeah, that was the whole thing. [Pierce]: That included the limousine? [Beeney] That is, that's right. Yeah. Can you imagine that difference in cost now? [Pierce]: Yeah. Amazing. [Beeney]: And I think you learned as much, too. [Pierce]: And you got a good liberal arts education. [Beeney]: I would think so! [Pierce]: What was your major then? [Beeney]: History, curiously enough, I don't know why. [Pierce]: That seems a good foundation for-- for journalism. [Beeney] Yeah, but I thi-- I wish I'd taken economics or something like that. [Pierce]: Now you started as a copy boy at the Democrat and Chronicle. [Beeney]: Mm-hm. [Pierce]: In the building where the D&C is now? [Beeney]: No no no, at the one that was on Main Street, just across the street from Front Street. It was on Main Street, it's-- uh-- well, it's no longer there. But it was uh, right there on Main. And as a matter of fact, it-- [Pierce]: Near Lawyers Co-op? [Beeney]: Yeah, yeah. But on Main Street, because Lawyers Co-op was on Aqueduct Street there, and the copy, whatever you would write, stories or stuff, would get shipped over to the composing room, which is where the building is now-- on Broad Street-- in pneumatic

tubes, under-- went under the river or somewhere, you'd put the thing in and turn the thing and [whooshing sound] away that stuff would go. Once in a great while, it would be a collision underground somewhere, and it would all be lost, and I don't know how the heck they ever got it out of there. But it was quite the stuff. [Pierce]: Now what did you do as a copy boy? You're going to college, and you're a copy boy at the D&C. [Beeney]: You got 7 dollars a week as a copy boy. [Pierce]: Wow, which was probably a big sum. [Beeney]: Yeah, pretty big. But anyway, well, you'd take the copy from the one desk and take it over to the edit-- other guy, and you'd run out for food for him-- and then-- [Pierce]: so, kind of a gofer, in many ways. Yeah, that's about what it was. And the main thr-- the biggest thrill that I ever had was, there was a guy-- and you know him, I know you remember him, Dr. Howard Hanson-- [Pierce]:Oh, yeah, yeah. [Beeney]: --of the Eastern School of Music, he wrote an opera, called... Marymount. I just remembered it, I hadn't remembered it before. And it had its debut in the Eastman Theater, on such and such a date, I've forgotten when it was, while I was a copy boy. And 'cause we made such a big thing of it,

they were going to run copy from the opera back to the paper that night, so I did it, and then the next day I said "Gee, I wonder, could I write a story?" and they let me write it, and it was the first byline I ever had, it said "Copy Boy Goes to the Opera," told how I was running up and down the street with Dr. Hanson's stuff. [Pierce]: Yeah, Howard Hanson is one of the outstanding figures in this community. [Beeney]: That's right. [Pierce] Yeah, it's always amazing to me when I visit other cities I invariably see his name somewhere in other places. [Beeney] Yeah. [Pierce]: I think we lose sight of the fact that he was an internationally known, you know, composer. [Beeney]: That's right. He had some-- I don't remember the story, but didn't he have some connection with an island up in-- when he was... he had an island up off the coast of Massachusetts or somewhere, and he was called upon by the people of Washington to do something... I've forgotten the details. It was quite exciting, though. You He's quite a character. [Pierce]: Yeah, he contributed a lot to the music of this community. Now, you're a copy boy, and you're a gopher for all these folks in the city room, you're across from Front Street-- now the Front Street that I've heard about, fabled in story and

song, [Pierce scoffs] now replaced, I guess, by the Rochester Plaza-- it was right along the river. [Beeney]: Right. [Pierce]: Where-- between Main Street... [Beeney]: Between Main Street and Andrews Street. [Pierce]: Andrews Street, yeah. So it was about a-- one long block there, or maybe it was a couple of blocks. [Beeney]: Well, it was a couple of blocks because it went across Central Avenue. [Pierce]: Ah, all right. [Beeney]: And then down as far as Andrews. What was in that block? [Beeney]: Oh, there were pawn shops, and chicken stores, you know, where you'd go in and buy fresh chickens and ducks walking, and a lot of secondhand stores, and guys would-- they'd hang their clothing out on in front of the place and grab you by the lapel to get you in there when you walked by, and there were beer joints, and People's Rescue Mission which was run by the Reverend Tom Richards, I remember, at that time, and that was a very... and there were a couple of parking lots, but-- and meat markets Louie Jacobson's meat market... [Pierce]: Bookies? [Beeney]: Bookies! Yeah. [Pierce]: Many bookies? [Beeney]: Well, at least two. Mike Troy was on one side of the street and.uh, Tom Henehan was over there too. And that was, uh... [Pierce]: So, two bookies

being operated openly? [Beeney]: Oh yeah. [Pierce]: Even though it was illegal. [Beeney]: Yup, they were among twenty-six illegal bookie working in Rochester at that time. [Pierce]: Really. [Beeney]: All different areas. [Pierce]: Now this was before betting parlors were, were legal. [Beeney]: Before there were any OTB. [Pierce]: Only, only a few years ago when OTB was... [Beeney]: You know, OTB's only been going, what, about 15-20 years, something like that? [Pierce]: Yeah. So prior to that, bookies, or places you could go in and place a bet without going to the track, were illegal. [Beeney]: Oh yeah, you weren't supposed to do that. But-- [Pierce]: And you could be arrested. [Beeney]: You could be arrested, yeah. [Pierce]: Were you ever arrested? [Beeney]: No, but I came close! We had a-- apparently there was something going on with the people in Rochester, the police and everybody, the politicians, wanted to impress Governor Rockefeller with what a clean city we had, so they were going to raid the bookmakers. Now, these bookmakers were always paying off the cops, too, you know, so they knew what was going on. [Pierce]: Well, with twenty six-horse parlors somebody had to get it paid off. [Beeney]: That's right. But the one on Front Street, on this particular day, I don't remember the year exactly

but I remember it was a Friday the 13th. [Pierce]: Oh, boy. [Beeney]: And it was in October, and I had gone in there to, let's say just to look around, but actually I'd gone in to make a bet. One of my 50-cent bets, you could bet 50 cents in those days. So I went in there, and it was-- there were a lot of people, about 90-- between 90 and 100 people, you know, customers, and then all of a sudden, in through the front door burst the cops, and announced that this was a raid, and leading the charge was Deputy Chief Harold Burns. He had all of his uniform on, he was a big, impressive-looking guy. So he came in, he said, "Alright, this is a raid, everybody is under arrest." So I just ran up to him and said, "OK, Ch--" and I'd had a piece of paper in my pocket like this, and took it out, and my pencil, and I said, "Alright, Chief, tell me what's going on." He said, "How did you get in here?" I said, "I came right in, the back of you." He said, "Get the hell out of here, I'll talk to you later." I got out, believe me. [Pierce]: You bluffed your way out of that one, or you would've been arrested with the rest of them. [Beeney]: That's right, and then, when I got out, I turned around and looked and you see, the Democrat & Chronicle building was right at

the end of the street, and my boss and all the other people were looking out the window at the raid, because there were just hundreds of people around there now. So I just-- obviously he couldn't hear me, but I just waved my hand, I said, "I'm covering it, it's all done, don't worry about it," and I took off. That was the end of that one. [Pierce]: With-- with the newspaper you're right at the-- at the end of the street, overlooking, I presume, the bookkeeper-- did the newspapers ever do an exposé on the horse parlors? I supp-- or were every-- was everybody at the newspaper betting? [Beeney] Not everybody was betting, but enough guys were. No, they never made exposés in those days, I don't know why. Later on there were a couple of halfhearted attempts at exposés, but not on the Front Street one. Yeah, I never could figure it out-- as a matter of fact, even today, you know, they all know that betting on, let's say football and baseball, so far as we know, is illegal, unless you're in Las Vegas. Yet every week, they post the odds of the football and baseball games. So how do you equate that with, you know, I don't know. [Pierce]: There must be betting going on. [Beeney]: Something. [Pierce]: Well, it--

it goes with journalism, doesn't it, doesn't it go with reporting? [Beeney]: Theoretically! [Pierce]: With, with betting?[Beeney]: Well, no. [Pierce]: You- we, we [Beeney]: went ahead a little bit, you were a copy boy, how did you get a full-time job? [Beeney]: Well, it was almost understood that-- because I was working as a correspondent and a copy boy, it was almost understood that as I went to the university, when I came out, I would automatically go on the staff. And I started right out on the police beat, but I had see, then I was working summers too, all the while I was there, and, uh, on my days off from the university I'd go in, so I knew the police beat and I knew the people around. And so it was just kind of automatic, and I went on the police beat for a couple of years, then into the federal-- federal building, and general assignments, and covered openings of horse shows and, uh, burlesque shows, movie critics, all kinds of stuff-- because it wasn't just specialized in those days as it is now. [Pierce]: So you changed your beat-- that was a policy of the newspaper chain at the time? [Beeney]: That's right, they wanted you to get used to

everything, yeah. [Pierce]: So, in, in knocking around in all those beats over the years, you know, are there certain-- were there certain beats you liked better than others, and..? [Beeney]: I think I kind of liked the police beat about as well as any of 'em, yeah. Because you're dealing, basically, with people. You know, when you got into the courtroom, or courthouse beat, you had to be a little bit more careful, cause if you made a mistake, you know, you could get sued or something, and I never ran into that. But the police beat was, uh, I don't know, you, you met people, and it was easier. [Pierce]: What was the police beat like then? [Beeney]: It was-- well, the police station, of course, was on Exchange Street. [Pierce]: Uh-huh. That was headquarters. [Beeney]: That was headquarters, and then you had a little press room there, which was a dirty, dingy little place, but you were in touch all the time with the police operator, the telephone operator, and the detective bureau was right next door, and the-- so you know, you knew what was going on. The complaint bureau was in the building, so you could go in there and get the files and everything-- we could walk right in and take them out by ourselves if we wanted. [Pierce]: So you knew all the-- you knew the cast of characters. [Beeney]: Yeah. [Pierce]: What were the crimes?

[Beeney]: I'm just trying to think. [Pierce]: In this year, 1991, we seem to be having almost a murder or two a week. [Beeney stammers] [Beeney]: If you had two murders a year, it was big, really, and then you know-- if it was any kind of a thing... very seldom did you have murders, and burglaries, you'd have burglaries-- you'd have stickups of liquor stores and things like that, they'd have a wave of those. But heavens, now they have bank holdups every day, and the liquor store-- it was totally different, there weren't any muggings that I remember, it was... [Pierce]: So? Now, what was considered-- was there considered a dangerous part of the city at all? [Beeney]: Well, theoretically Front Street was supposed to be dangerous, but it really wasn't. That's where all the bars and the bookies- [Beeney]: Yeah, but it wasn't- there was no real problem, and in the black sections, of-- down around Joseph Avenue and Nassau Street, in that area, that was no problem, they had a place called The Cotton Club and we'd go down there after work to midnight, two o'clock in the morning. Never had any difficulties at all. And

in the black section on the west side, around Jefferson Avenue and Rennells street that was all right. It was totally different. There wasn't wasn't any feeling of tension, as far as I could see. [Pierce]: The city has changed somewhat. [Beeney]: I would say so. The only thing that's stayed the same is it always seems as though they're constructing something on the streets. [Pierce]: Yeah. Now, over the years, you've had all these beats, you saw, you know, every manner of politician come and go, you saw county managers become county executives, to head-- city managers, you know... Any of those people particularly colorful? [Beeney]: I think all of them were, yeah-- even now, even Lucien Morin, whom I saw today for the first time in quite a while, he was a colorful and a very good political figure, I thought. [Pierce]: Now, he was a county manager? [Beeney]: Yeah. And, uh, Gordon Howe was- was a very capable guy, you know. Gordon Howe shook so many hands, one time I used to say to him, I think it's your wrist is getting kind of like-- on a hinge, and he said yes, he thought it was too. George Aldridge I never knew, but Tom Broderick was, he was a colorful-- [Pierce]: Now, who was George Aldridge? [Beeney]: He was

the f-- early Republican leader, and I never knew him-- [Pierce]: Before Gordon Howe? [Beeney]: Before Gordon Howe, and before Tom Broderick, and he wound up eventually as the controller of the port of Rye, where he-- he lived or died in Rye, the controller of the Port of New York or something like that, which was a big political job. But, uh, and Al Skinner, of course, was a big political figure, the sheriff and quite a- , u-uh, really notable guy. His biggest thing was he'd go out and make all these political speeches and all he would do is get up and say "Thanks very much," and sit down. He got more votes that way than any of these political guys get for speaking for an hour. [Pierce]: Yeah. Do you think we still have that same kind of tough leadership, if I could use that word, today? [Beeney]: I don't really think so, I don't know. [Pierce]: Gordon Howe really kind of ruled the county, didn't he? [Beeney]; Yeah. Oh yes, he did. I never knew-- I suppose there were people who didn't like what he did, although he was smart enough to make his appearance well liked in most places. So, I never knew anything bad that he did.

[Pierce]: Well, you saw the, you know, the great migration to the suburbs, I'm sure, [Beeney]: Yeah. over your lifetime. You lived in the city, and- , uh, when did the suburban spread start, when did it really come to your attention that people were leaving the city? [Beeney]: Right after World War II, and at that time Bill Lang was the head of, you know, of the transit company, and at that time some of us could foresee that there was going to be a heck of a problem of people moving around in these suburbs, and we used to talk to them and say, "What are you going to do with the bus system to get out there?"-- Well, he said, "That'll all work out." Well, obviously, it hasn't worked out. I don't know what they could have done differently, but at one time, you know, we had the subway downtown which was a short thing. [Pierce]: Where did the subway run, from where to where? It ran to from a place called Rowlands, in Brighton, down through Monroe Avenue, past Monroe YMCA, in back of the YMCA, on what is now 490, that was the thing. And it ran all the way down to, uh, uh, Delco practically.

[Pierce]: So it went through the city and out past- out past downtown. [Beeney] Yeah, yeah. [Pierce]: So it, it had a stop, or it originated in Brighton, which was a suburb at the time, [Beeney]: Yeah, yeah. [Pierce]: a built-up suburb? [Beeney]: Yeah. [Pierce]: Now we're-- now the subway lasted until when, the 50s? [Beeney]: Till the 50s, and then they decided to use it for the, for the 490. And you know, it ran right in back and underneath the library, the Main Library over on South Avenue and, uh, I don't know whether they used it-- utilized it properly, but I guess they did. They made a heck of a road out of it, that's for sure. Otherwise they wouldn't have had that right-of-way to get in to, uh, to make 490 that way. [Pierce]: How long did the trolleys run? Not how long, but when did-- where did they run, did they run into the suburbs, and when did they stop running? [Beeney]: You mean street cars? [Pierce]: Street cars, or trolley cars, or street cars. [Beeney] I guess-- I guess they ran into the-- I don't really-- they didn't go all the way into the suburbs, no. As I remember-- I'm trying to think-- they ran from the Lake, of course, from the beach all the way up, and I'm trying to think out there on the east I have an idea, I can't remember exactly, that they turned around there by Cobb's Hill. I don't think they went out much beyond that. [Pierce]: And that's where the country-- that's where

the country began, [Beeney]: the country started, [Pierce]: the country started, [Beeney]: yeah, that's right. [Pierce]: at Cobb's Hill. [Beeney]: Yeah. [Pierce]: So they got as far as the hill, that was kind of a natural barrier. [Beeney]: Right. [Pierce]: To contain the city, and then beyond that there is no civilization. [chuckles] [Beeney] That's right. I was talking with a couple younger people, some friends of mine that I know, just the other day, kid named Steve Castle, and a girl, Terri Nicastro, and they were talking about what the change-- I said, I don't understand what changes have taken place in the city in the last 10 years, and they both thought-- which made sense to me after I thought about it-- that the street system, you know with the 490, and the can of worms and all that, and also these elevated things across Main Street, what d'you call 'em, the, uh... [Pierce]: "The elevated things." [Beeney]: Yeah, those walkways. [Pierce]: From building to building, [Beeney]: from building to building, yeah. [Pierce]: without going out on the street. [Beeney]: That's right. [Pierce]: Those are proliferating. [Beeney] That's right, these- where the idea was to bring people downtown, they bring them down, and now they take them right off the street and put them on those walk [Pierce]: Put 'em on the walkway.

What do you think's happening in the city? Do you think it would-- the direction the city's going is going to bring people back downtown? [Beeney] I really can't see it, how the heck-- no, I don't even-- is it going in any direction? I don't-- I think that it all started to change when they made the convention center, but there hasn't been anything to bring them back downtown, that I can see, really. The parking is tough, expensive. [Pierce]: What does the City need, Bill? [Beeney]: I don't know, I wish to heck I did. Well, I think it needs to-- I think that probably one of the things, and I know Andy Wolfe has always been talking about this-- there's better use of the waterway thing, of the river, you know, as an attraction in various ways. I don't know exactly how you do it, I'm not a planner, but I think that they could utilize better the falls, and the... but the average person that I run into in the suburbs says, gee, I don't want to be downtown at night. I don't think that it's because they're afraid of anything, but what would they do down there? Really. [Pierce]: There has to be an attraction. [Beeney]: Yeah. [Pierce]: You write now- you, you're writing now for the Wolfe Publications. [Beeney]: Right. [Pierce]: Which, run by Andy, Andy [Beeney]: Andy Wolfe. [Pierce] Wolfe, who you mentioned. [Beeney]: Yeah. [Pierce]: How long have you been

doing that? [Beeney]: Oh, for... 8 or 9 years, yeah. [Pierce]: 8 or 9 years, yeah? You've always been a people-oriented... [Beeney]: Right. [Pierce]: ...writer, and I guess that's mainly what you've done, that's probably why you like the police. [Beeney] That's, that's right. [Pierce]: Talking and writing about people. [Beeney]: Yeah, you, you don't have to be quite as technical. [Pierce]: You still do that today, talk about people, and their personalities, and-- and the things that they do, and that's marvelous. What-- now, the Wolfe Publications go to, what, all the-- all the suburbs? [Beeney]: Yeah, they have 9 different newspapers, you know, like the Brighton-Pittsford Post, the Henrietta, Irondequoit, Greece, Fairport, Perinton- there are 9 separate papers, and each one of them really serves its own community, and they have a real good-- I don't know precisely what the circulation is, but I know it's a very loyal readership, and they seem to do a good job. [Pierce]: But, and you- but your column appears in all- [Beeney]: In all of 'em, yeah. [Pierce]: In all 9 of them. [Beeney]: Well, once I was able to get on the editorial page, which is where Andy Wolfe is, I said gee, that's good because now I know I'm going to get all of them. That was the way to do it. [Pierce]: That page doesn't change from town to town.

[Beeney]: No, that's right. [Pierce]: Of all-- you've met a lot of newspaper people over the years, I guess you go back to what, to Frank Gannett, who ran...? [Beeney]: Yeah. [Pierce]: Now, of all those people you met, uh, whither newspapers today, where are they going? [Beeney]: I don't know, I think that, uh, I think Andy Wolfe's papers are doing as good a job, really, as anybody that I've seen in a long, long while. Yeah, at least he seems to stay on a consistent track. Some of these others, unfortunately the Democrat and the Times-Union, they don't live up to what I used to think they did. I don't know why. It's, uh, whether it's because of a changing population, or changing personnel, or whether the management doesn't kind of tie in with the community as well, I think you have to have people who are really dedicated to the community in which they live, and that's the way Andy did it. [Pierce]: Do it working on those papers. [Beeney]: Yeah, yeah. [Pierce]: Now in all the years that you worked for Gannett, which was-- how many years? [Beeney]: Oh, 40-some. [Pierce]: About forty years, you saw any number of-- well, not any number of publishers come and go, but, uh, some publishers come and go, uh.

Mr. Neuharth-- was Mr. Neuharth a local publisher for a while, or? [Beeney]: Well, he was here, you know, he came in here- [Pierce]: and then he went to start USA Today, yeah. [Beeney]: USA Today, yeah. [Pierce]: Is that-- is that does that paper compete too much with city newspapers around the country? [Beeney]: I don't I don't think so, no, I think it's basically for travelers or for people who are on the move from one place to another, or for people just happen to like it. It's pretty good. I didn't like it at all, at first- I've gotten, so I like it once in a while. I don't like it all the while. It's like reading a complete issue of TIME magazine every day, the way I feel. [Pierce chuckles] [Pierce]: It's not a quick read. [Beeney]: No. [Pierce]: You, you, uh, you've been- you've seen a lot of sports figures come and go, in Rochester. Did any stand out in your mind? [Beeney] Oh yeah, well, Johnny Antonelli for one, and I-- I don't know whether everybody realized, remember Bob Keegan, he pitched a no-hit no-run game for, I think it was the Chicago White Sox. [Pierce]: And he was from...? [Beeney]: Sure, he's still here in Rochester. He lives in-- I don't know where, I think it's Greece or Irondequoit. [Pierce]: Now, did he play for the Red Wings? [Beeney]: No, not that I remember, unless he may have played a couple

of games after he retired. I don't really know, uh. And then the golfers, of course, Walter Hagen, heavens, he was something. [Pierce]: Walter Hagen was, uh, what, it was a- [Beeney]: A Rochester guy, golfer. [Pierce]: A golfer from Rochester, and went on to win, what, the Master's and all the big? [Beeney]: He won everything. I don't think they had a Masters then, but he won the British Open, the United States Open, the whole thing. He was-- he was the most colorful, flamboyant golfer of all time, probably. And then he died later on, in I think it was Detroit, a few years ago, but he was-- [Pierce]: Did you know him? [Beeney]: Yeah. Not well, but whenever he came back into town, somebody like ?Carl Hallagh? or someone would have a meeting and we'd all get together and talk with him, you know. [Pierce]: Did you play golf with him? [Beeney]: No, I never played golf with him, no. [Pierce]: But you're a golfer. [Beeney]: I used to be, I got some arthritis in my hip and I can't play anymore. But you know, it's like going to a doctor and saying, if this gets better can I play the violin? And if he says yes, say, well that's great, I couldn't before. [both laugh] [Beeney coughs]

[Pierce]: Bill, Bill Beeney, it's great to reminisce with you about the Rochester you know. Your stories are wonderful, and your newspaper career is marvelous. We still read you avidly in all the Wolfe publications, and we hope you continue to do that for many years. [Beeney] I thank you very kindly. [Pierce]: Bill Beeney, thanks for being here. I'm Bill Pierce see you next time on The Rochester I Know. [music plays] [Music] [Music]

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