Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer Part 37

Gussie Busch at age thirty-seven, a budding beer baron serving restlessly under his older brother. He took control of Anheuser-Busch in 1946, when Adolpus III died of stomach cancer, and led the company to heights his grandfather Adolphus had never imagined. Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis

August A. Busch Sr. (center) and his sons, Adolphus III (left) and August Jr. ("Gussie"), packing the first case of post-Prohibition Budweiser for shipment to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. August A. took over the brewery when his father, Adolphus, died, and guided it through Prohibition and the Great Depression. Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis

August Busch Jr. and August Busch III raising a stein of beer in celebration of the 10 millionth barrel of beer from Anheuser-Busch, as captured by staff photographer David Glick on December 15, 1964. Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis

Gussie and Trudy Busch with their children in the great hall of the mansion at Grant's Farm in the early 1970s. Standing, left to right: Adolphus IV, Gussie, and Peter. Seated: Andrew, Trudy, Gertrude, Christina, Billy, and Beatrice. Courtesy of the Busch family

Trudy with Christina, the baby of the family, whose death following a car accident in 1974 marked the beginning of the end of the "Camelot" years at Grant's Farm. Gussie would never fully recover from the loss of the little girl he called "Honeybee," and neither would his marriage to Trudy. Courtesy of the Busch family

Octogenarian Gussie, "the Big Eagle," as St. Louis Cardinal fans would always remember him, urging on both the crowd and his beloved Clydesdales before a championship game. David Glick, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

August Busch IV in the spring of 2008, raising a bottle of Bud to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of Prohibition. Having finally completed his rise to CEO, he began his rapid descent. He would be the last King of Beer. Courtesy of Whitney Curtis Photography

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

William Knoedelseder spent twelve years as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, where his groundbreaking coverage of the recording industry for the newspaper's financial section resulted in the critically acclaimed book, Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia. Knoedelseder has also been a television executive, creating, managing, and producing news programs for Knight Ridder, Fox, and the USA Network. At USA, he was vice president of news. His most recent book, I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Standup Comedy's Golden Era, has been optioned for film by actor Jim Carrey. He lives in Woodland Hills, California.

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