Damon Runyon

Damon Runyon

Damon Runyon , actually Alfred Damon Runyan (born October 4, 1880 in Manhattan , Kansas , †  December 10, 1946 in New York City ), was an American journalist and writer.

Life

Runyon came from a "newspaper family". His grandfather ran a newspaper printing company in New Jersey and moved it to Manhattan (Kansas) in 1855. His father came to be seen there as a newspaper publisher. 1882 his family sold the newspaper, and in 1887 they settled near Pueblo ( Colorado down). Runyon spent his childhood and youth there. When he began working as a freelancer for some newspapers as a schoolboy, they misquoted his family name; he took over and called himself from then on Alfred Damon Runyon .

In 1898 Runyon enlisted in the United States Army and fought in the Spanish-American War . During his service, he was a regular contributor to Manila Freedom and Soldier's Letter . After the war he returned to Colorado and worked there as a journalist for some time. In 1910 he went to New York and was soon able to make a name for himself as a sports reporter. Mostly he wrote about baseball ( New York Giants ) and professional boxing . In one of his first publications his first name Alfred was omitted, and he also took this over and called himself Damon Runyon from now on .

He was hired by William Randolph Hearst in 1911 , and Runyon had been the Hearst Corporation's baseball specialist for years . In addition to his sports coverage, Runyon was also interested in political issues. He went to Texas on his own and met the revolutionary Pancho Villa there . In 1916/1917 he accompanied the Mexican expedition .

Back in New York, he married Ellen Egan and had two children with her, Mary and Damon junior. Since Runyon smoked and drank a lot during this time, this wedding almost never happened. One of his best friends in New York was the mobster Otto Berman , whom Runyon immortalized in some of his stories. When Berman was shot dead on the occasion of an assassination attempt on Dutch Schultz in the fall of 1935 , Runyon tried to restore Berman's honor in some newspaper reports.

In 1928 Runyon was left by his wife after she found out that he had a relationship with the dancer Patrice Amati del Grande in Texas / Mexico and that she had now come to him in New York. After the separation he lived with del Grande until 1946; then she left him for a younger man.

Damon Runyon died of throat cancer in New York a few weeks before his 66th birthday . According to his last will, he was cremated. Edward Vernon Rickenbacker , a war hero, scattered the ashes from the plane over Broadway . The Runyon family grave is in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx .

reception

In addition to his widely acclaimed and praised reports on baseball and boxing, a considerable oeuvre of short stories has emerged over the years. Many of these stories were brilliantly filmed or adapted for theater. Most of the stories take place in the underworld - or demimonde - of New York and are ultimately not about bad people. The narrative style is pseudo-autobiographical, the narrator is always unnamed. The large number of slang expressions used in the underworld, the military, etc.

Honors

• In Pueblo (Colorado) the Damon Runyon Repertory Theater and Runyon Lake were named in his honor.
• 1967 Induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame ( Cooperstown ).
• Induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame ( Canastota ).
• His colleague, radio host Walter Winchell founded the Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund .
• The Damon Runyon Elementary School was named in his honor.
• Alice Cooper alludes to Damon Runyon in the Department of Youth song .

Works (selection)

Poetry

• Tents of trouble. Ballads of the wanderbund and other verses . Fitzgerald Boks, New York 1911.
• Rhymes of the firing line. Poems . Fitzgerald Books, New York 1912.
• Poems for men . 1947.

stories

• Heavy boys & easy girls. Broadway stories . Haffmans Verlag at Zweiausendeins, Leipzig 2018.
• Heavy boys, easy girls. Broadway grotesques ("Guys and dolls"). Rowohlt, Hamburg 1956 (former title: In Mindy's Restaurant ).
• Broadway stories . Krüger Verlag, Hamburg 1957.
• On Broadway. Containing all the stories from "More than somewhat" "Furthermore" and "Take it easy" . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1990, ISBN 0-14-018361-2 .
• More than somewhat . 1937.
• My old man . 1939.
• The Best of Damon Runyon . Hart, New York 1940.
• Damon Runyon Favorites . Pocket Books, New York 1942.
• In our town . Creative Age Press, New York 1946.
• The three wise guys and other stories . Avon Books, New York 1946.
• Trials and other tribulations . Xanadu Publ., London 1991, ISBN 0-947761-61-6 (reprinted from the Philadelphia 1947 edition).
• First and Last. Containing all the stories not included in "Damon Runyon on Broadway" . Penguin Books, London 1990, ISBN 0-14-018360-4 (reprint of the London 1954 edition).
• More guys and dolls . 1950.
• The turps . 1951 (former title: My wife Ethel ).
• A treasury of Damon Runyon . 1958.
• The bloodhounds of Broadway and other stories . Morrow, New York 1981, ISBN 0-688-00725-2 .
• Romance in the roaring forties and other stories . Beech Tree Books, New York 1986, ISBN 0-688-05421-8 .
• Guys and dolls and other writings . Penguin Books, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-14-118672-6 .
• The Damon Runyon Omnibus. "Guys and dolls", "Money from home" and "Blue plate special" . Blue Ribbon Books, New York 1940.
• Short takes. Reader's choice of the best columns of America's favorite newspaperman . Somerset Books, New York 1946.

Plays

• A slight case of murder. A comedy in two acts . In: Richard Nelson (Ed.): Strictly dishonorable and othe lost American plays . Theater Communications Group, New York 1986, ISBN 0-930452-55-0 , pp. 223-328.

in anthologies

• Undertaker song . In: Charles Grayson (Ed.): ... stories for men. At anthology . Garden City Publ., New York 1938.
• Bred for Battle . In: WC Heinz (Ed.): The book of boxing . Total Sports Illustrated, Kingston, NY 1999, ISBN 1-892129-13-2 .
• One down, 713 to go . In: Jeff Silverman (Ed.): The greatest baseball stories ever told . Lyons Press, Guilford, Conn. 2001, ISBN 1-58574-364-X .
• Sense of humor . In: Philip Lopate (Ed.): Writing New York. A literary anthology . Penguin Putnam, New York 1998, ISBN 1-883011-62-0 .

Adaptations

Movies

• Frank Capra (Director): Lady for a day . 1933 (based on the story Madame la Gimp ).
  • Remake 1961: Frank Capra (Director): The lower ten thousand .
  • 1989 remake: Jackie Chan (Director): Miracles.
• Alexander Hall (Director): Die Glückspuppe (Little Miss Marker). 1934 (based on the story of the same name).
  • 1949 remake: Sidney Lanfield (Director): Sorrowful Jones.
  • Remake 1962: Norman Jewison (Director): A Backpack Full of Trouble (40 Pounds of Trouble).
  • 1980 remake: Walter Bernstein (Director): Little Miss Marker.
• Sidney Lanfield (Director): The Lemon Drop Kid. 1934 (based on the story of the same name).
  • 1951 remake: Marshall Neilan (Director): The Lemon Drop Kid.
• David Burton (Director): Princess O'Hara. 1935 (based on the story of the same name).
  • Remake 1943: Erle C. Kenton (Director): It's ain't hay.
• Tay Garnett (Director) Chicago Gangster (Professional Soldier). 1935 (based on the story Gentleman, the king ).
• Lloyd Bacon (director): Vier Leichen auf Abwegen (A slight case of murder). 1938 (based on the play of the same name).
  • Remake 1953: Roy Del Ruth (Director): Crooks with a white vest (Stop, you're killing me).
• Irving Reis (Director): The big street. 1942 (based on the story Little Pinks ).
• Albert S. Rogell (Director): Butch minds the baby. 1942 (based on the story of the same name)
  • Butch takes care of the baby. Directed by Dieter Rohkohl, Radio Bremen 1961 (TV version)
• Gregory Ratoff (Director): Irish Eyes Are Smiling . 1944 (based on a story by EA Ellington).
• Robert Florey (Director): Johnny One-Eye. 1950 (based on the story of the same name).
• George Marshall (Director): The Daredevil Jockey (Money from home). 1953 (based on the story of the same name).
• Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Director): Heavy boys, easy girls. 1956 (based on the musical Guys and Dolls ).

radio

• Damon Runyon Theater . Mayfair Productions, New York 1949.

watch TV

• Leslie H. Martinsoin (Director: Damon Runyon Theater . CBS, New York 1955/56 (39 broadcasts)

theatre

• George Simon Kaufman (Director): Guys and Dolls . 1950 (based on the stories The idyll of Miss Sarah Brown and Blood pressure ).

literature

• Jim Breslin: Damon Runyon. A life . Hodder & Stoughton, London 1992, ISBN 0-340-57034-2 .
• Tom Clark: The world of Damon Runyon Harper & Row, New York 1978, ISBN 0-06-010771-5 .
• Patricia A. D'Itri: Damon Runyon (Twayne's United States Author Series; Vol. 407). Twayne Publ., Boston, Mass. 1982, ISBN 0-8057-7336-3 .
• Clark Kinnaird (Ed.): A treasury of Damon Runyon . Random House, New York 1958.
• John Mosedale: The men who invented Broadway. Damon Runyon, Walter Winchell & their world . Marek Publ., New York 1981, ISBN 0-399-90085-3 .
• Jim Reisler (Ed.): Guys, dolls and curveballs. Damon Runyon on baseball . Carroll & Graf, New York 2005, ISBN 0-7867-1540-5 .
• Daniel R. Schwarz: Broadway boogie woogie. Damon Runyon and the making of New York Culture . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2003, ISBN 0-312-23948-3 .
• Jean Wagner: Runyonese. The mind and craft of Damon Runyon . Stechert-Hafner, Paris, 1965.
• Ed Weinert: Damon Runyon Story . Longmans Green, New York, 1948.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Contains some stories from Blue Plate Special and Money from Home .
2. ↑ Together with Howard Lindsay.
3. ↑ 52 stories that were broadcast as radio plays between January and December 1949.
4. ↑ 1st season: 20 programs; 2nd season: 19 programs.