William Reynolds Beal

S/SGT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : HQ & Service Co

Military occupational specialty: 821 (quartermaster supply technician)

ASN#32248076

Born 1914 in NY, Died 1995

Artist

County of residence at enlistment: New York County, NY

Other residence(s): Manhattan, NY; Staten Island, NY; Elmsford, NY; Ithaca, NY; Rockport, MA

United States Army, European Theatre of Operations

Occupation before the war: actors and actresses

College education before the war: Columbia 4 years

Source: 603rd Camouflage Engineer Roster provided by W. Anderson; Photograph 91-14 GALP archive ; Unit Shipment 10143-B, 23d HQ, from le Havre 23 June 1945; Bahnhof flag signature; militaryyearbookproject.org/references/old-mos-codes/wwii-era/army...; photo courtesy Edith Beal Tuttle

Bill Beal was born on New Year’s Day, 1914, in New York City, the older of two sons. His father, Gifford Beal, was an eminent American impressionist artist. From early childhood he spent summers in Rockport, MA with his family, while his father sailed and painted. (He would return to Rockport later in his life.)

Bill graduated from Columbia in 1936; there he was involved with the university’s Morningside Players, a college theatre company. He also studied theatre with the renowned drama coach, Madame Maria Ouspenskaya, who lived in the same building as Bill’s family. In the years after he graduated, he worked on his theatrical career, acting in stock companies and directing civic theatre productions in New England.

He registered for the draft on October 16, 1940 and enlisted on March 10, 1942; at the time he entered the army he was directing at the Jackson Civic Theatre in Jackson, MI. By August 16, 1942, when he married Telka Ackley, he had been promoted to the rank of CPL. Their first child, William III, was born in Laurel, MD in 1943 while the 603^rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion was stationed at Fort Meade.

William Beal signature on Bahnhof flag, 1944

In October, 1944, he was one of a number of 603^rd members who signed a purloined Nazi flag (which is now privately owned). Below his signature he wrote the words: “Give my regards to B’way!” He clearly had his sights on a NYC theatrical career, and he was rewarded with his first Broadway role in a production of A Sound of Hunting, which opened in November, 1945, shortly after his discharge from the Army with the rank of S/SGT. Interestingly enough, the play was about 12 American GIs in a shattered house in Cassino, Italy during the war. Unfortunately, the production closed after three weeks due to poor reviews. Bill wasn’t as lucky with his appearance in that show as another young actor in his first Broadway production. Castmate Burt Lancaster, also a WW2 veteran playing a World War II soldier, drew the attention of an agent during those three weeks, and was whisked off to Hollywood.

Bill bounced back quickly, however, and earned a role as “bellboy” in the national touring company of A State of the Union, appearing in productions around the country. Daughter Jennifer was born in 1946 in Manhattan while Bill was just beginning a 10-month stay in Chicago on that tour, which ended in Pittsburgh in May, 1947. His third and final Broadway role was as “coachman” in a 1947-1948 production of Crime and Punishment with John Gielgud and Lillian Gish in the leading roles.

Bill then left Broadway and went to work at WABC-TV in New York in 1948, starting as a stagehand, then becoming a cameraman, and finally a producer/director in those early days of live TV. Some of the shows he produced/directed included Johnny Jellybean, Tinker’s Workshop, and Joe Franklin’s Memory Lane. The family first lived on Staten Island, where daughter Edith was born in 1949, and then moved to Elmsford, NY, where they lived until 1965.

After leaving ABC in 1963, Bill worked for a couple of years as a freelancer and a member of the staff at WQXR in New York.

In 1965, he was offered a position as a member of the TV/radio faculty at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY, and the family moved there. Daughter Jennifer was a student at Ithaca at the time. Bill taught courses and also served as production manager for WICB, the college’s cable TV station. (Jennifer also worked at the station.)

"Street Scene," a watercolor by William Beal

In 1968, Bill and Telka moved to Rockport, MA where he had summered as a child, and he took up a new career as a painter. He clearly had the genes for it—in addition to his father, Gifford Beal, whose work is housed in all the major US museums, his uncle, Reynolds Beal, was a noted maritime artist.

Bill focused on plein air paintings. Telka, who had illustrated six books by her mother before she was 22, was also an artist.*

During his career, Bill was a member of Actors’ Equity, AFTRA, SAG, and the Directors’ Guild of America. He was an artist member of the Rockport Art Association, the North Shore Art Association, the Academic Artists, and an overseas member of the Bermuda Society of Arts. He was also a member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church and the Sandy Bay Yacht Club.

The Beals would remain in Rockport for the rest of their lives. Bill died on December 17, 1995, and is buried at Beech Grove Cemetery in Rockport.

Portrait of Telka Beal by Keith Shaw Williams, also a Ghost Army veteran, sometime before 1951

*Telka had summered in Maine as a child, and knew Andrew Wyeth (who was only a year older than she) during those years. Telka recalled that she turned down a marriage proposal from the young artist before she married Bill Beal. Telka was also the subject of a portrait, in the late 1940s/early 1950s, painted by Keith Shaw Williams, another artist from the 603^rd.