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175 Searching for the Pot of Gold ON MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1929, the day after the finale at Wrigley Park, Johnny Salo disappeared. He slipped away, to the annoyance of fans and reporters. By late afternoon, they had found him resting with his wife in the secluded home of some Finnish American friends. A reporter asked him if he would ever consider running a third Bunion Derby. He thought for a moment. “I don’t know whether I would ever run in such a race again.” Then he paused and added, “Of course, you know this running game is somewhat like the fight business: When you finish a tough test you are ready to quit for all time, but after a little rest you are eager to try it all over again.”1 Salo had time to ponder the future; Charley Pyle did not. He was preoccupied by the immediate concern of trying to pay his bunioneers. After the race, the director general told reporters that “these boys will get their money” on Wednesday.2 He would, however, need more time than that to solve a math problem of monumental proportions. He had taken in $6,313 in gate receipts from Sunday’s finale, an amount that fell far short of the $60,000 he needed to pay out in prize money.3 In 1928, he had turned to a business associate and the millionaire father of one of the bunioneers to help him cover the debt. This year, as he teetered on the edge of bankruptcy , no one was crazy enough to lend him any cash. With no outside sources of funds, Charley’s day of reckoning was close at hand. On Tuesday, June 18, Passaic’s Daily Herald reported that Pyle’s timetable had changed, that he could not set an exact day for the payoff but that it would probably be at the end of the week.4 Johnny had planned to return home immediately after the race, but he was now stuck in Los Angeles until Charley paid him the twenty-five-thousand-dollar 176 • 1929 Bunion Derby prize. As he waited, Johnny continued to avoid the limelight, skipping out on a star-studded Hollywood Breakfast Club event with movie stars such as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Gary Cooper and famed American sprinter Charley Paddock in attendance.5 On Friday, Salo was still waiting for his prize money. That night, Johnny, Pete Gavuzzi, and Sammy Richman attended a boxing match at Hollywood’s American Legion Stadium. Salo was called to ringside, where a Legion official presented him with a gold wristwatch in appreciation of his victory in the Bunion Derby. Even then, all three men “seemed cheerfully confident that they would be paid,” wrote Braven Dyer of the Los Angeles Times.6 Pyle told the reporter that he would “satisfy the runners on Tuesday” and that the ceremony would be a private affair.7 In the interim, Gavuzzi and Umek visited San Francisco while Johnny and Amelia went to the mountains for some rest.8 When they returned to Los Angeles, Charley requested no more delays. Harry Berry claimed that when the prizewinners came to collect their money, Charley was flanked by lawyers and accountants and offered promissory notes instead of cash. For the first time in the race, the director general finally told the truth: “It’s no good, Pete. There’s no money.”9 By that time, Charley had been hit by a flurry of lawsuits, formal complaints, and claims from all sides: electricians, race patrolmen, assistants , and even the dancing debutantes.10 As the outcry grew, Pyle was summoned to the Los Angeles city prosecutor’s office and the California Labor Commission to explain why he had not paid his debts.11 While legal storms whirled around him, Charley apparently had enough money in reserve to make a partial payment to some of his bunioneers. He gave the biggest share to Johnny Salo, probably paying him four-thousand dollars of the twenty-five-thousand-dollar prize money he was due, with a note for the remainder of the debt. Pyle even offered to give Salo his Red G Ranch in Santa Rosa, California, but the runner declined the offer.12 Pete Gavuzzi fared far worse: he received $750 of the $10,000 prize money, with most of other prizewinners receiving smaller amounts.13 The disappointed men then began the long trip home. In early July, fifth-place winner Paul Simpson arrived in...

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