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(ALFRED) DAMON RUNYON (1884-1946) - original surname Runyan | |
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American short-story writer and humorist, companion to Al Capone, Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Arnold Rothstein and Walter Winchell - legendary reporter who gained fame with his tales of the gambling, racing and criminal world. Among Runyon's best-known work is GUYS AND DOLLS (1932), based on 'The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown' and written in regional slang. Runyon's style relied on Broadway slang, outrageous metaphors, and constant use of the present tense. "Always try to rub against money, for if you rub against money long enough, some of it may rub off on you." (from 'A Very Honourable Guy') Damon Runyon was born in Manhattan, Kansas, but he grew up in Pueblo, Colorado. His mother was Elizabeth (Damon) Runyan and father Alfred Lee Runyan, a storyteller, itinerant printer, and publisher of smalltown newspapers. When Runyon was seven his mother died. While his father spent his free time in bars, Runyon was left on his own and roamed freely with the town's juvenile street life. Runyon was educated in public schools before being expelled from the sixth grade. At an early age he had followed his father into the newspaper business. By the age of 15 he worked for the Pueblo Evening Press, and gained the status of a fully-fledged news reporter. When a typographical slip rendered his name 'Runyon', he decided to keep it that way. In 1898 he enlisted for the Spanish-American war and was sent to the Philippines. There he wrote for the Manila Freedom and Soldier's Letter. After leaving the army he worked as a journalist on small dailies. He was a sportswriter for the Denver Post and in 1908 he became a director of the Denver Press Club. Runyon began publishing verses and short stories in national magazines such as McClure's and Harper's Weekly. His first book, THE TENTS OF TROUBLE (1911), was a collection of poems. In 1910 he went to New York City to work for the Hearst daily, the New York American. To get material for his column, 'The Mornin's Mornin', he spent much time with the colorful characters of Broadway. Several of his 'Broadway Stories' appeared in book form in the 1930s. In 1912 and 1916 Runyon served as a Hearst foreign correspondent in Mexico. During World War 1 he was also in Europe. In the 1920s Runyon had developed his recognizable stylistic peculiarity, narrating in the 'historical present'. He was especially adept at describing small details and angles that other reporters did not observe. He covered the New York baseball clubs for many years, as well as various other sports venues, focusing on human interest rather than strict facts. Like his father, he was also a gambler, whose famous saying was: "I long ago came to the conclusion that all life is 6 to 5 against." (from 'A Nice Price') Runyon's underworld stories became popular and his feature 'As I See It' was syndicated in the Hearst newspapers across the country. At the peak of his career, Runyon had a daily readership of over ten million - he was called America's premier journalist. In the 1920s Runyon covered for the New York American the infamous Snyder/Gray murder. It became the basis of James M. Cain's novel Double Indemnity, which was made into a film by Billy Wilder in 1944. Ruth Snyder was a housewife, who had tried to kill her husband Albert and failed. Then she met a corset salesman, Judd Gray. They whacked, poisoned, and choked Albert to death. Runyon described the two killers: "A chilly-looking blonde with frosty eyes and one of those marble you-bet-you-will chins, and an inert, scare-drunk fellow that you couldn't miss among any hundred men as a dead set-up for a blonde, or the shell game, or maybe a gold brick - on trial for what might be called for want of a better name: the Dumb-bell Murder. It was so dumb!" In 1932 Runyon's collection Guys and Dolls became commercially successful. Later Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows made one of the stories, 'The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown,' into a Broadway musical (1950), which ran for over 1200 performances. It was adapted for screen in 1955, starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Frank Sinatra. Sam Goldwyn wanted Gene Kelly for the role of Sky Masterson, but he got Brando. Sinatra refused to act his role as written: he liked to shoot scenes with a minimum number of takes, whereas Brando liked to experiment. The best scene between Brando and Simmons is in the Havana nightclub, but otherwise the film lacked the spontaneity of the stage version. In the early 1940s Runyon also worked in Hollywood as a writer and producer. Frank Capra and Raymond Chandler used variants of his idiom, and actors like William Bendix and Mike Mazurki drew on his types to build their characterizations. The archetype of tough, cynical reporter, who mingled with gangster and show people, became part of Runyon's public image. He parodied such issues as police corruption and organized crime, and managed to avoid the criticism easily prompted by realistic writing with a message. His characters, Lemon Drop Kid, Dave the Dude, Harry the Horse, Dream Street Rose, Izzy Cheesecake reflected the colorful side of the city life. Runyon's fiction was natural for the big screen: sixteen stories and one play were turned into movies. The author's sentimental side could be seen for example in the story 'Little Miss Marker' which was filmed in 1934, starring Shirley Temple. In the film a bookie called Sorrowful Jones is forced to adopt a little girl. Adolphe Menjou played the bookie. The film was remade in 1949 under the title Sorrowful Jones, starring Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, and directed by Sidney Lanfield. He also directed another Damon Runyon film, The Lemon-Drop Kid (1951), starring Bob Hope, and written by Edmund Hartman, Frank Tashlin, and Robert O'Brien. The Lady for a Day (1933), directed by Frank Capra, was a story about Apple Annie, who gets help from gangsters to pose as a rich woman, for the sake of her daughter. A Slight Case of Murder (1938) was based on a play by Runyon and Howard Lindsay. In the story one-time bootlegger tries to go legitimate but his house-party is intruded upon by the bodies of four late enemies. The film was directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Donnelly, Allen Jenkins, and Edward Brophy. By the end of the 1930s, Runyon had become a national celebrity. He held nightly meetings with friends and colleagues at Lindy's restaurant. In 1938 Runyon developed throat cancer and in 1944 an operation left him unable to speak. However, Runyon continued his meetings, communicating by written notes. He died two years later on December 10, 1946. His ashes were scattered out of a plane over Broadway, by the First World War air ace Eddie Rickenbacker. For further reading: Broadway Boogie Woogie: Damon Runyon and the Making of New York City Culture by Daniel R. Schwarz (2003); Damon Runyon by Jimmy Breslin (1991); The Men Who Invented Broadway: Damon Runyon, Walter Winchell and Their World by John Mosedale (1980); The World of Damon Runyon by T. Clark (1978); Runonese by J. Wagner (1965); A Gentleman of Broadway by E.P. Hoyt (1964); Father's Footsteps by D. Runyon (1953) - Note: the Oxford English Dictionary describes "Runyonese" as "slang or underworld jargon characteristic or suggestive of that used in the short stories on Runyon." Selected works:
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