I didn’t know anything about the Busch family or the history of the Anheuser-Busch company, until I read this book. The title is spot on, as Billy tells the story how the company got started and then the fall when it got brought by another company. I also didn’t know that the company tried and most of the time succeeded on controlling the supply chain for their products.
This book was written by one of the many sons of the Busch family. I have to be honest, and tell you that at some points throughout the book, I was confused as to which Busch was being referred to as most of them had the same names! I had to go back several times to figure it out.
I googled an image of the place they lived at, Grants Farm, and man, that mansion is humongous! They even had other homes throughout the United States. The kids, and there were a lot (as the patriarch was married three times), had Nannie’s and chauffeurs. A fairy tale life indeed!