Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer Part 1

Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer.

by William Knoedelseder.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For their aid and encouragement, I would like to acknowledge the following:

My agent for life, Alice Martell, who has been my dear friend and champion for nearly thirty years.

My most excellent editor at HarperCollins, Hollis Heimbouch, who should start a brewery with a name like that;

Adolphus IV, Billy, and Trudy Busch, and Lotsie Busch Webster, and Lotsie Herman Holton-members of a great American family who shared their story on the record;

Gary Sgouros, who shared his memories of Gussie's last days at Grant's Farm;

Former Anheuser-Busch executives Denny Long, Andy Steinhubl, and my brother-in-law Mike Brooks, who helped make a great American company what it was;

Former Pima County deputy sheriff Ron Benson and former St. Louis Police detective Nick Fredericksen, who did their jobs;

All the dozens of other people who contributed to this narrative but prefer to remain anonymous;

Glenn Jamboretz, PR consultant par excellence, who helped every time I called (and sometimes when I didn't);

Pat Crane, Nancy Cason, John Crotty, and Suzanne Otto-old St. Louis friends who did likewise;

Michael London, John Sayles, Barbara Wall, Kevin Beggs, and all the good people at Lionsgate Television, who believed in this book even before it was finished.

John Mettler, Deborah Rybak, Jeff Kwatinetz, Bill and Nancy Cason, and Dennis McDougal-members of my finance committee, who made it possible for me to eat regularly and sleep under a roof during the writing process.

Father John Rechtien, Don Crinklaw, and, especially, Irv Letofsky-who set me on the road to a writing career years ago and inspire me to this day;

Dennis McDougal, a fellow traveler on that road who deigns to talk to me every morning;

Matthew, Colin, and Halle Knoedelseder, my three astonis.h.i.+ng, creative children, who keep me young at heart and hopeful about the future.

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

BUSCH FAMILY TREE

PROLOGUE: "AUGUST IS NOT FEELING WELL"

1 "BEER IS BACK!"

2 THE ALPHA BUSCH

3 "BEING SECOND ISN'T WORTH s.h.i.+T"

4 "THE MAN WHO SAVED THE CARDINALS"

5 THE MAGICAL BEER KINGDOM

6 THE PRUSSIAN LIEUTENANT

7 THE OLD MAN AND THE KID

8 GUSSIE'S LAST STAND

9 CHOOSING SIDES

10 CAMELOT'S END

11 "WE ARE AT WAR"

12 REBIRTHING BUD

13 "TELL ME I'M A HORSE'S a.s.s"

14 WARNING SIGN

15 "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"

16 "I PROBABLY FEEL WORSE ABOUT THIS THAN YOU DO"

17 "HEY, PAL, YOU GOT A QUARTER?"

18 HERE COMES THE SON

19 "WAY, WAY, WAY BEYOND TIGER WOODS"

20 "A BAD APPLE AT THE TOP"

21 THE LAST WATCH

22 "THEY DIDN'T JUST DROP OUT OF THE SKY"

EPILOGUE: AN AMERICAN DREAM