As the old saying goes, football is part of the entertainment business, and nobody knows that business better than Charlie Camilleri. After a three-year stint in the athletic spotlight with the Argos, Camilleri went on to have a 35-year career in the musical glare of Columbia Records Canada.
"I think I can take credit for breaking Burton Cummings when he left The Guess Who," said Camilleri, who worked his way up to national promotions and marketing manager, and retired in 1988. During his lengthy tenure at Columbia, Camilleri got to meet the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Janis Joplin, and became good friends with Bobby Vinton and Ricky Scaggs.
"Johnny Cash was the strangest, though; you didn't know what to expect," said Camilleri, who met his wife Peggy in the retail department of the company in Montreal. Their two sons also followed them into the business, with Ron (a former Argo mascot in the 1970's) now a director at Columbia, while Rick is president of Sony Music Canada, and has helped discover more recent acts like Quebec superstar Celine Dion, sweet-voiced newcomer Amanda Marshall and hard-rocking band Our Lady Peace.
Before Camilleri entered the music business, or even stepped on the football field as an Argonaut, he served his country overseas in the Second World War. He was stationed on the destroyer H.M.C.S. Gatineau in the English Channel for 18 months, and admits that "we were almost torpedoed." While in the navy, Camilleri and a few other future Argos hooked up with Ted Morris, who would became their head coach when the war ended.
"The beauty of a lot of the guys that played was that we would gather around the Argonaut Rowing Club (the team's owners at the time) and throw the ball around," said Camilleri. "Once the war was over, there was a big influx of guys."
The best of that influx was chosen to play for the Argos, and the group included the likes of Joe Krol, Royal Copeland, Rod Smylie, Steve Karrys and Camilleri, who alternated with Fred Doty at quarterback. Both QB's were relatively tiny, with Camilleri tipping the scales at a whopping 145 pounds. "I wasn't able to miss (all of the hits)," said Camilleri, who suffered shoulder separations and a fractured pelvis in 1948, which subsequently ended his career. However, he did register a couple of Grey Cup victories before he left football, and he also acquired a national championship in fastball in 1950 for People's Credit Jewellers, who played out of the Beaches.
A multi-dimensional athlete like Camilleri may have had a lot of earning potential if he played today, but back then it wasn't the case. "We played for a box of beer and got out brains beat up," said Camilleri, who figures to have been paid only $300 a year. "There was no such thing as a contract. At the end of the season, they handed out what they thought you were worth."
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