Damon Runyon Biography and List of Works

American short-story writer and humorist, companion of Al Capone, Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Arnold Rothstein and William Winchell - legendary reporter who gained fame with his tales of the gambling, racing and criminal world. Among Runyon's best-known works is GUYS AND DOLLS (1932), written in the 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 grew up in Pueblo, Colorado. His mother was Elizabeth (Damon) Runyan and father Alfred Lee Runyan, a storyteller, and itinerant printer and publisher of small town newspapers. When Runyon was seven his mother died. His father spent his free time in bars. Runyon was left alone and he roamed with the town's juvenile street life.

Runyon was educated in public schools before being expelled from the sixth grade. At an early age Runyon 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 full-fledged news reporter. When a typographical slip rendered his name 'Runyon' he decided to keep it that way. He enlisted in 1898 for the Spanish-American war and was sent to the Philippines, where he wrote for the Manila Freedom and Soldier's Letter.

"I long ago came to the conclusion that all life is 6 to 5 against."
(from 'A Nice Price')

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 such national forums as McClure's and Harper's Weekly. His first book, THE TENTS OF TROUBLE, a collection of poems, appeared in 1911. 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 colourful characters of Broadway. Several of these 'Broadway Stories' appeared in book form in the 1930s.

In 1912 and 1916 Runyon served as a Hearst foreign correspondent in Mexico and in Europe during World War I. In the 1920s Runyon's developed his recognizable personal style, narrating in the 'historical present', which was his stylistic peculiarity. He was especially adept at describing small details and angles that other reporters ignored. He covered the New York baseball clubs for many years, as well as various other sports topics, focusing on human interest rather than strictly reporting facts. Runyon's underworld stories became popular and his feature 'As I See It' was syndicated in the Hearst newspapers across the country. At the height of his popularity Runyon had a daily readership of over ten million, and he was called America's premier journalist.

In the 1920s Runyon covered the infamous Snyder/Gray murder for the New York American. 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 beat, 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 gained commercial success. Later Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows made one of the stories, 'The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown' into a Broadway musical (1950), which ran to over 1 200 performances. It was adapted for the screen in 1955, starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Frank Sinatra. In the early 1940s Runyon also worked in Hollywood as a writer and producer.

The archetype of the tough, cynical reporter, who mingled with gangster and show people, became part of Runyon's public image. His characters, the Lemon Drop Kid, Dave the Dude, Harry the Horse, Dream Street Rose, and Izzy Cheesecake reflect the colourful side of the cities life. Runyon's fiction was a natural for the big screen: sixteen stories and one play were turned into movies.

The Lady for a Day (1933), directed by Frank Capra, is the story of Apple Annie, who gets help from gangsters to pose as a rich woman, for the sake of her daughter. Little Miss Marker, (1934), starring Shirley Temple, is about a bookie called Sorrowful Jones who 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, 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. A Slight Case of Murder (1938) is based upon a play by Runyon and Howard Lindsay. In the story a one-time bootlegger tries to go legitimate but the bodies of four of his former enemies intrude upon his house party. The film was directed by Lloyd Bacon, starring Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Donnelly, Allen Jenkins, and Edward Brophy.

In 1938 Runyon developed throat cancer and in 1944 an operation left him unable to speak. He died two years later on December 10, 1946. Runyon's ashes were scattered out of a plane over Broadway, by the First World War air ace Eddie Rickenbacker.

For further reading: Damon Runyon by Jimmy Breslin (1991); 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 of Runyon."

THE TENTS OF TROUBLE, (1911)