Sellers McKee Hall

Sportsman, star athlete, and businessman Sellers McKee Hall was Pittsburgh’s first African American music promoter.  He brought the biggest names in jazz to Pittsburgh for his popular dances that drew crowds of 1,500 to 2,000 to the Pythian Temple and other venues.  During the 1920’s and 1930s Sell Hall booked Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Billy Eckstine, Cab Calloway, Noble Sissie, Don Redman, Chick Web, Jimmie Lunceford, Andy Kirk, the Alabama Jungle Band, and other swing bands.  Sell also sponsored legendary “Battle of Music” shows pitting national acts like the Speed Webb Orchestra and the Eldrige Brothers against Pittsburgh’s Cotton Pickers, the Komedy Klub, Joy Cloud, the Royal Southerners, and other bands.  In August of 1930 he brought Duke Ellington to the Pythian for his first Pittsburgh appearance and a national radio broadcast.  Under Sell Hall’s management the Pythian Temple offered food, drinks and all night dancing. A typical show would be a double bill like the 1933 show with Noble Sissie band playing until 2 AM followed by Fletcher Henderson’s band.  Sell also booked dances at the New Dreamland Arcade, Harmerville Park, the Japanese Garden Boat, Central Theater, and other venues.  Like his contemporary rivals Gus Greenlee, owner of the Crawford Grill and the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and Cum Posey, owner of the Homestead Grays, Sell Hall also owned and managed the American Giants and Cuban-X baseball teams.

Sellers McKee Hall was born on June 15, 1888 in Pittsburgh the son of George Hall founder of the prestigious Loendi Club.  Established in 1897 The Loendi Club was a private African American social and literary club located at 83 Fullerton Street in the Lower Hill District.  Its membership included Pittsburgh’s African American doctors, lawyers, business owners, and celebrities. The Loendi offered cultural events, such lectures by national speakers and small jazz concerts.  It also sponsored athletic teams.  Sell Hall and Cum Posey, the sons of two of the Loendi Club board members, were outstanding athletes and team mates on the championship Loendi Five basketball team.  They later became rival baseball team owners who competed fiercely for players.  Much of what is published about Sell Hall comes from Cum Posey’s columns in the Pittsburgh Courier “Posey’s Points”.  Cum wrote about his rival friend’s exploits in sports and entertainment.  

"Sell was the Alpha and Omega of Negro baseball for many years in Pittsburgh.  Sell did so many things in his unorthodox manner and did them so effectively that many anecdotes concerning his long career will appear in this column from time to time.” – Posey’s Points Pittsburgh Courier

Sell Hall became a multi-sport athletic star excelling in track, football, basketball, and baseball playing for Pittsburgh’s Central High School.  He was the champion of the 100 yard dash in Pittsburgh. After graduating from high school he took a job at the post office but continued his athletic career playing for sandlot and semi-pro teams in baseball, football, and basketball.  He also competed in independent track meets as a short distance runner and a jumper. 

Cumberland “Cum” Posey Jr. was the son of Cumberland Willis Posey Sr. who owned the Diamond Coke and Coal Company, was a business partner with Henry Clay Frick, served as a three year president of the Loendi Club and was the president of the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper for 14 years.  “Cum” Posey was a star athlete at Homestead High School leading the basketball team to a city championship in 1908.  Cum went on to play basketball for Penn State and Holy Ghost College (Duquense University).  Around 1911 Cum, his brother See and some friends formed the Monticello Athletic Association.   Cum recruited Sell Hall to play for the Monticello-Delany Rifles football and basketball teams.  

Basketball Champ

Sell and his brother Ram joined the Monticello-Delany Rifles basketball team in 1912.  They challenged the top African American team in the country, Howard University, and defeated them in a game in Pittsburgh.  Turning professional they went on to win the Colored Basketball World’s Championship in 1913.  The team changed its name to the Loendi Big Five when the Loendi Social and Literary Club became its sponsor.  The Loendi Five won the Colored Basketball World’s Championship four years in a row from 1920-23.  Posey retired from the basketball team in 1925 to focus on baseball.  Posey joined the Homestead Grays baseball team in 1911 as an outfielder.  He became captain in 1916, field manager in 1917, club secretary in 1918, and bought the team in 1920.  Posey and Sell Hall became rivals and team-mates in baseball.

Negro Leagues Pitcher Star and Club Owner 

Continuing his baseball career Sell Hall became a star pitcher with the independent club team Pittsburgh Colored Collegians in 1913.  His brother Howard ‘Ram” Hall was his catcher.  The Pittsburgh Post Gazette called Sell “the best twirler in the colored ranks”. The Pittsburgh Courier described him as colorful and exciting with a weird assortment of pitches.  Hugo Swartling, manager of the Kansas City Federals said that Sell Hall "had more natural stuff than any pitcher he had ever seen. The Collegians became the chief rivals of Homestead Grays and Cum Posey.  The two teams battled for supremacy in 1916 at Olympic Park in McKeesport.  The Grays won knocking the hard to beat Sell Hall out of the box.  Sell joined the Daddy Clay’s Giants and pitched against the Gray again in April of 1917.  Sometime later in 1917 Cum Posey convinced Sell Hall to join the Homestead Grays.  Sell Hall for the Grays in 1917 and 1918.  According to Posey the confident Sell sometimes addressed the crowds before baseball games with a challenge saying “I can beat anyone in the crowd doing anything they know".  He bet all comers that you could beat them in footrace.  Sell assisted Posey in his role as team secretary helping him to book games and promote the team.  Sell left the Grays at the end of 1918 when he was recruited by Rube Foster to pitch for the Chicago American Giants.  Sell returned to pitch for the Grays in 1938 for an old-timers game celebrating the Grays 25th anniversary.  In a Pittsburgh Courier article in 1943 Cum Posey named Sell Hall one of the best all time Homestead Gray pitchers.

After leaving the Grays sell pitched for the Chicago Giants and the American Giants before he went on to own, manage and pitch for the Pittsburgh Giants and the Cuban X Giants. He pitched for 18 years.  Hall and his old team mate Cum Posey competed for players and raided each others rosters. The rivalry became heated in 1923 when they fought each other in the courts. The Pittsburgh Courier reported in 1925 the Posey made other clubs they he played sign an agreement not to play Sell Hall Team.  Posey built his team by acquiring veteran stars from other teams.  Sell Hall developed his teams using young players recruited from Pittsburgh area high schools.  His 1920-21 teams were known as the ‘kid’ team.  In 1920 Sell’s American Giants, also known as the “Green Socks”, played in the newly built Central Park baseball stadium located at Wylie Avenue and Chauncey Street.  Expanded in 1923 the Central Park stadium held 4,000 fans.   Sell purchased the Central Park field in 1924.  It was the first African American owned baseball park in Pittsburgh’s history.  Sell continued to pitch with the Giants until 1925 throwing a four hitter in Warren Ohio.  Sell fielded a team called the Cuban X Giants in 1922 that had several played speaking fake Spanish pretending to be Cubans.  In 1925 when independent baseball had a down turn, Sell sold the Central Park and it became a summer dancing pavilion.  

Jazz Impresario and Businessman 

During his baseball off seasons Sell Hall became a writer, an entertainment venue manager and dance promoter.  He worked as a writer for the Pittsburgh Courier in 1912.  The Pittsburgh Courier hailed Sell Hall as “our local business genius in 1925.  Sell owned and managed several entertainment venues, a music booking agency, a florist shop, a print shop, and a shone shine parlor.  The Pittsburgh Courier reported the Sell first became a music promoter around 1924 when he managed the Temple Casino.  In 1925 Hall booked shows at the old Labor Temple on Webster Street and Washington Avenue where Bill Page Syncopators performed and Lois Deppe formed the Serenaders.  In 1925 Sell Hall was named manager of the New Dreamland Arcade located on Fifth Avenue and Robinson Street.  Sell offered dancing, roller skating, pool, and wedding receptions at the arcade.  Sell’s Temple Amusement Company booked dances and bands.    Bill Page’s Syncopators and Lois Deppe’s Serenaders were two of the bands that he booked.  Sell Hall booked acts for a venue called “Elite Serenaders” in 1927.  Taking over management of the Japanese Garden Boat in 1928 Sell offered river boat excursion dances with the Pittsburgh Cotton Pickers band for 75 cents.  He also booked dances at Harmerville Park beginning in 1928.  The Pittsburgh Courier announced the Sell Hall of the Lando Theater in 1930 where he booked McKinney’s Cotton Pickers.

The Pythian Temple was built in 1928 by The black Knights of Pythias, a national fraternal order,  Designed by African American architect Louis Bellinger the Art Deco style Temple building had a first floor banquet and drill hall of 5,000 square feet.  The second floor was an auditorium that could hold 1,500 for concerts, stage productions, and basketball games.  At the time of its building it was the largest dance venue in Pittsburgh.  Sell began booking dances at the Temple in 1929. Jelly Roll Morton was one of the first to appear in 1929 along with Miss Frances Hereford-Morton, and the Detroit Cotton Pickers.  Sell held his dances at the Temple until 1935 when promoter Bob Ellis took over the lease.  Hit with financial problems by the Depression, the Knights of Pythias sold the Pythian Temple to Harry Hendel in 1937.  Hendel converted the first floor into the New Granada movie theater and continued to hold dances in the second floor calling it first the Hill City Auditorium and then the Savoy Ballroom in 1945.  Both venues closed in 1965.  The shell of the building sits awaiting a historical renovation.

Renaming Harmerville Park to Oak Hill Gardens in 1933 Sell and his partners invested $10,000 to expand the road house to hold 3,000 dancers and to add a swimming pool. Billed as the "largest and finest road house in the country”, Oak Hill Garden held dances on Saturdays from 9 to 2 am and Sunday afternoons at 4.  The band Venre and his Pals performed weekly.  Bus service from and to the Hill District was offered to the patrons.  Sell managed the Central Park Theater in 1939.  In one column Pittsburgh Courier column Cum Posey wrote Sell Hall’s motto is "Tell 'em, then sell 'em.  In an interview with Pittsburgh Currier Sell said he made and lost half a million as a dance promoter.

Sell Hall divorced his wife and moved to Chicago in 1939.  Hall’s assistant Bill Herbert along with his wife Birdie Dunlap took over the dance business when Sell moved. They brought Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and to the Motor Square Garden and other venues.  Birdie later became the owner of legendary jazz club The Hurricane Lounge.  Sell Hall became a deputy sheriff in Chicago in 1941.  He still continued to book dances.  Sell promoted an appearance of the Fletcher Henderson band in New Brighton, Pa in November of 1941.   Like a typical VH1 “Behind the Music” story Sell Hall had his tragic downfall.  In August of 1946 he was arrested in Chicago and brought back to Pittsburgh charged with failure to pay child support.  Owing over $3,000 in unpaid child support he pleaded guilty. He was unemployed at the time waiting for a windfall from a bottle cap invention and royalties from seven songs that he had written and published.  He died at age 62 in New York City on February 13, 1951 after a long illness.  Like Gus Greenlee and his friend Cum Posey he was a leading figure in baseball and musical entertainment,

Monticello Delany-Rifle Basketball Team 1915

Sell Hall standing second from left

Pittsburgh Colored Collegians - Sell Hall in center

Old Labor Temple

Pythian Temple