C. C. Pyle

Charles C. "Charlie" Pyle (March 26, 1882 – February 3, 1939), sometimes derisively referred to as "Cash and Carry Pyle," was a theater owner and sports entertainment promoter best known for his touring exhibitions featuring American football star Red Grange and French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen.

Pyle was the founder of the New York Yankees football club in 1926, owning it until the team's demise at the end of the 1928 season.

Biography Early life

Charlie Pyle was born March 26, 1882, in Delaware, Ohio, the son of a Methodist preacher. He was large and athletic, standing about and weighing in his prime, and he participated in boxing as a boy.

Pyle dropped out of Ohio State University and headed west, where the loquacious and ambitious young man became involved in a series of business ventures and money-making schemes — selling Western Union clocks, starting a modest travel agency, and dipping his toe into show business as an advance man for a touring Margarita Fischer vaudeville road show. He started his own small touring company and in 1908 became involved in the movie business, buying a projector and a few films and taking the show on the road. — as well as a third in Kokomo, Indiana. The contract, signed by all four individuals on March 27, 1925 — that is, before the start of Grange's 1925 senior season at Illinois — was to take effect immediately following conclusion of the collegiate football year and included revenue generated by personal appearances, revenue from appearances in film, "professional football exhibitions," and use of Grange's name in advertising. Pyle and his associates agreed to take no public actions that might jeopardize Grange's amateur college athletic status before Thanksgiving Day 1925. Term of the contract was three years.

Grange later recalled that at the time "I did not have the slightest idea of playing professional football and intended to get into some commercial business and I know that at the time Pyle wasn't thinking about the National League. In fact he didn't know anything about it, having been in the theatrical game all his life." Under terms of the contract, signed in November 1925, Grange would join the Bears as soon as the college football season concluded and would play for the team for the rest of the season, to be followed by a post-season barnstorming tour that Pyle and his associates would help arrange. In return, Grange — a superstar of the day — and his managers would receive a 50% share of gate receipts. Although Grange's cut was only 40% due to the onerous terms of his management contract, the payout of just over $100,000 to Grange massively dwarfed that of any other football player of the era, in which a quality back might expect to receive as little as $125 or $150 a game. Pyle's 25% share came to just over $63,000.

Pyle also used his Hollywood connections to get Grange into pictures, with the handsome Illini hired to play the leading role of "'Red' Wade" in a fictional 1926 football film, One Minute to Play.

Founding the New York Yankees football team Pyle saw to it that his name on the poster of the 1926 Red Grange silent film, One Minute to Play.

Grange's contract with the Bears expired at the end of the 1925 season. Despite the deal's massive payout to the star player and his managers, Bears owners George Halas and Dutch Sternaman had also profited epically through the association and an interest was expressed in renewing the previous season's 50-50 deal. It was at this point, however, that Pyle overplayed his hand, demanding in addition to the revenue split, a one-third ownership stake for Grange in the Bears franchise. Flush with success and loaded with cash from the successful 1925 Grange barnstorming tour, Pyle once again attempted to execute a power play by obtaining a 5-year lease for use of Yankee Stadium for football, booking every Sunday from the middle of October through the end of December.

In this era of a struggling league with anemic attendances and no alternative revenue stream to dollars coming through the gate, Mara firmly rejected the idea of another NFL franchise playing its games less than a mile from his home stadium. Pyle obtained an office in the plush Hotel Astor in New York City as the base of operations for his new organization. Pyle said that he carried 21 men on the roster, although only 18 were eligible in a given week due to league rules. Two years later, he inaugurated the first Trans-American Footrace, known as the "Bunion Derby", an ambitious, 3,455-mile-long foot race from Los Angeles, California, to Chicago, Illinois, to New York. Pyle lost money on the 1928 race when many towns along the route defaulted on their sponsorship fees. The next year, Pyle organized a 1929 "return" along essentially the same route from New York to Los Angeles.

Later years and legacy

After managing the "Ripley's Believe It or Not" exhibit in the Chicago World's Fair, Pyle married comedian Elvia Allman Tourtellotte in 1937. He became president of the Radio Transcription Company, a position that he held until his death of a heart attack in Los Angeles, February 3, 1939.

A play based on his life, C.C. Pyle and the Bunion Derby, was written by Tony Award winner Michael Cristofer and directed by Paul Newman.