By Bill Christine
When I applied for the job working for J.B. Faulconer at the Thoroughbred Racing Assns. in New York, there was a pro forma vote by the 49 directors whether I would get the job. J.B. and Baird Brittingham, president of the TRA at the time, wanted me, and that was supposed to be good enough.
The vote was 48-1. Cella was the only director who voted against me. Later, I asked J.B. about this.
“It was Cella,” he said. “He voted against you.”
I was indignant. “How could he do that?” I said. “He's from St. Louis, and I'm from East St. Louis, but I've never met the guy.”
“Something about how you hadn't paid your dues,” J.B. said.
“What the hell does that mean?” I said. “This from a guy who mucked out stalls for one day at his father's track, when he was 12 years old, then the next day they made him president.”
I was exaggerating a little.
So I got the job, and Cella and I got to be good friends, and we would joke about the vote over the years. I would see him coming and say, “Here's 48-to-1 Cella.”
One year, he sent me an Oaklawn Park necktie for Christmas.
When Cella was in Manhattan, one of his favorite haunts was Jimmy Neary's Pub on the East Side. One night I was in there with Charlie and Cliff Wickman, the former FBI guy who was the head of the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau.
To the left of the bar were several dining tables that had high hooks on the wall behind them, for hats and coats.
We were at that end of the bar, and it was very late. Charlie and Cliff were wearing fedoras. They decided to flip their hats in the direction of the first hook, to see who would pay for the next round. One of them missed the hook and hit the customers at the table, right in the middle of their dinners.
They complained, and Jimmy Neary came over and quietly asked Charlie, one of his favorite customers, to cease and desist. One round later, Charlie and Cliff decided to do it again. Again, one of them missed the hook and the hat hit the customers.
Neary came over again and this time he escorted us out the front door.
“You guys got a one-day ban,” he said in the cold New York air.
Little-known fact: Charlie danced in the chorus when Oklahoma! was on Broadway. He did it hatless.
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