As the contract photographer for the St. Louis Fire Department, the St. Louis photographer for the UPI news service and the photographer of choice for the current Missouri governor (and a number of former ones), William Greenblatt spends much of his life in his car. “I could be at a check presentation for a nonprofit one minute, and be at a fire in my gear 15 minutes later; then run home and take
a shower and get in my suit because I might be with the governor that night,” William Greenblatt, “I wear many hats.”He’s the “Charlie Hustle” of local news photography and seldom passes up other photo assignments from weddings, bar mitzvahs and reunions.“The way I look at it, people are calling me because they want me, and if I don’t take the money, somebody else is going to take the money. I don’t ever say I’m on vacation,” Greenblatt said.Greenblatt also photographs the St. Louis Blues and St. Louis Rams for UPI and nearly all the Cardinals baseball games for the team and UPI.How did you build your network to include politicians and business leaders?It’s just developed over time. I worked for (former U.S. Dick Gephardt for more than 20 years. That got the political juices flowing. Now almost everyone out there who’s a Democrat is a protegee of Dick Gephardt, and they call me. I worked for former Gov. Bob Holden, the late Mel Carnahan, Roger Wilson and now Jay Nixon, who was a friend in college. I’ve worked both sides of the aisle. (Republican former Gov.) Matt Blunt has used me and so has (U.S. Kit Bond. They’ve all asked me to work for them. I don’t actively go after them.How did you get started in photography?I worked at OJ Photo Supply in Clayton during high school. I met a lot of photographers there, including Fred Sweets, who then worked for the Post-Dispatch. He let me ride around with him, and I thought it was cool. Sweets hooked me up with his parents, who owned the St. Louis American, and I was able to start covering baseball after high school for the paper. I was also working at a radio station, KSHE, when it was still owned by Shelley Grafman. I had these two cool jobs in ‘72-’73, and wasn’t sure which way I wanted to go. Then I went away to University of Missouri-Columbia. To study journalism?I did study journalism, but I went there for the marching band. I’d been in marching band since high school as a drummer. I’m still a drummer. I got my undergraduate degree in English education. Then I got my master’s degree in journalism, in the photo sequence. The marching band kept me down there. After marching for four years, then I was a graduate assistant in the band for six years. I was also working at KBIA-FM, the public radio station affiliated with the University of Missouri, and while still in Columbia I became a stringer for UPI. Columbia can be a hard town to leave, and I became a fireman down there with the Boone County Fire Protection District. I like to say college was the best decade of my life. I returned to St. Louis in 1985 and continued as a stringer for UPI. After the Flood of 1993, UPI made me a staff photographer. I still work there, and have my own business.Where’s the UPI St. Louis bureau now? It’s in my house.Where did the firefighter in you come from?If I had any hobby, it would be firefighting. It’s always something I loved, and I keep up with what’s going on in the business. When I came back to St. Louis, I knew (then St. Louis Mayor) Vince Schoemehl, who asked me if I wanted to be a fireman. I asked him if I could just be the photographer for the fire department. The department had that opening. It’s a contract position. I’m on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I have full gear in my car, and radios, sirens and lights, if I need to use them.Of your thousands of photos, what are your most memorable?One I especially like is from Cardinals baseball. I’m there 75 of the 81 home games. Here’s one from ‘91. (He pulls out a shot of Ray Lankford colliding with Philadelphia Phillies catcher Darren Daulton as the ball falls out of Daulton’s glove). This was one of my first awards — first place in the Baseball Hall of Fame. I shot it when we still developed film and printed pictures in the darkroom and moved one or two pictures (on the wire) from the game.Now if I don’t move 10 to 20 images from the game, it’s like I’m slacking. Now I’m shooting about 2,000 pictures a game instead of two rolls of film. I’m constantly on a computer during the game, sending pictures as we go.What’s your most memorable political photograph?In 2004 when Dick Gephardt was running for president and conceded in Iowa. I was in a packed room and was pushed up in front and was taking his picture. At a party later, Gephardt asked me why I was crying when he was giving his concession speech. I told him he was my last chance to get to D.C. for four years — and be a White House photographer. That has always been something that I wanted to do.Any other shots on the political side?Maybe Melanie Blunt (former Gov. Matt Blunt’s wife) walking down the stairs in her white Eskimo outfit during the inauguration. I got a lot of responses on that. Mel Carnahan’s funeral was memorable because it was so stately.Who besides Sweets influenced you?Art Phillips, who was with UPI for 28 years and retired in ‘92. He taught me over and above anything I ever learned at the University of Missouri. Stan Forman, a photographer in Boston, was a model of mine because he won two Pulitzer prizes back to back. I got to know him by corresponding with him. He was all hard news photography, and I decided that’s where I want to be.Do you shoot studio work?My studio is that red Tahoe out there with 350,000 miles on it. I do all my shooting on location. I bring in lights, backdrops. I’m driving all over the place with the politicians. I’ll work for PR firms, ad agencies, nonprofits. You could hire me. My hourly rate is $195. Phone (314) 554.1000What do you do outside of photography?I’m on the boards of several nonprofits — The Salvation Army, Life Skills Foundation and the USO.What keeps you going now?To keep the ball rolling, and not become a statistic, like a lot of photographers who end up working outside the field or living off of what they did in the past. If I wanted, I could retire right now. With Anheuser-Busch selling, I did pretty well. And your A-B stock came from? My father (Harold Greenblatt) was a vice president of Anheuser-Busch, with Busch Entertainment business. He designed and built Busch Gardens in Tampa and Williamsburg, Va. He was a structural engineer and a personal architect for Mr. (Gussie) Busch Jr. We’d get to go with him for the grand openings. It almost brought a tear to my eye when I heard (the entertainment division) had been sold.What they say:“He’ll do anything for you and then embarrass you — like getting 40 or 50 parking tickets during the Flood of ‘93, which I had to deal with. Politicians in city government always wondered where Greenblatt showed up in our budget. To my knowledge we only paid for his film and materials. They quit asking when they realized we were getting a good deal.”Neil Svetanics, chief, Lemay Fire Protection District; former chief of the St. Louis Fire Department“Bill covers my events so much you would think he’s a bill collector.” U.S. Kit Bond, R-Mo.“He enjoys watching the democratic process, and he saw it all — the highs and the lows. He gets the best shots — and he does the same thing in baseball and his other photography.”Former Missouri Gov. Bob Holden, founder Holden Public Policy Program, Webster University�Premium content from St. Louis Business Journal by Rick Desloge
