 In mid-April, 1849, Hyer appeared in a sold-out performance at Griffin's Mansion House in Albany, New York with his trainer, George Thompson, to perform the play "Tom and Jerry".The play was a theatrical adaptation of the boxing historian Pierce Egan's Life in London.In 1851, Hyer retired from the ring and relinquished the Heavyweight Championship of America, which many at the time considered a world championship.