About

Known credits:
30
Birthday:
1884-10-04
Place of birth:
Manhattan, Kansas, USA
Website:
N/A

Damon Runyon

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short-story writer.

He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the Brooklyn or Midtown demi-monde. The adjective "Runyonesque" refers to this type of character as well as to the type of situations and dialog that Runyon depicted. He spun humorous and sentimental tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, few of whom go by "square" names, preferring instead colorful monikers such as "Nathan Detroit", "Benny Southstreet", "Big Jule", "Harry the Horse", "Good Time Charley", "Dave the Dude", or "The Seldom Seen Kid". His distinctive vernacular style is known as "Runyonese": a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of contractions. He is credited with coining the phrase "Hooray Henry", a term now used in British English to describe an upper-class, loud-mouthed, arrogant twit.

Runyon's fictional world is also known to the general public through the musical Guys and Dolls based on two of his stories, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure". The musical additionally borrows characters and story elements from a few other Runyon stories, most notably "Pick The Winner". The film Little Miss Marker (and its two remakes, Sorrowful Jones and the 1980 Little Miss Marker) grew from his short story of the same name.

Runyon was also a well-known newspaper reporter, covering sports and general news for decades for various publications and syndicates owned by William Randolph Hearst. Already famous for his fiction, he wrote a well-remembered "present tense" article on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidential inauguration in 1933 for the Universal Service, a Hearst syndicate, which was merged with the co-owned International News Service in 1937.

Known for

Writing
2005 Three Wise Guys Writing Writer 58
Average
1989 Bloodhounds of Broadway Writing Writer 58
Average
1980 Little Miss Marker Writing Story 59
Average
1968 Talisman Writing Short Story N/A
N/A
1961 Pocketful of Miracles Writing Story 62
Fair
1955 Guys and Dolls Writing Story 61
Fair
1953 Money from Home Writing Story 58
Average
1952 Stop, You're Killing Me Writing Theatre Play 58
Average
1952 Bloodhounds of Broadway Writing Writer 59
Average
1951 The Lemon Drop Kid Writing Short Story 59
Average
1950 Johnny One-Eye Writing Story 58
Average
1949 Sorrowful Jones Writing Story 59
Average
1943 It Ain't Hay Writing Story 59
Average
1942 The Big Street Writing Story 58
Average
1942 Butch Minds the Baby Writing Story N/A
N/A
1941 At the Stroke of Twelve Writing Writer 59
Average
1941 Tight Shoes Writing Story N/A
N/A
1939 Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President Writing Story 58
Average
1938 A Slight Case of Murder Writing Author 59
Average
1935 Professional Soldier Writing Story 58
Average
1935 Hold 'Em Yale Writing Story 59
Average
1935 Princess O'Hara Writing Story 59
Average
1934 No Ransom Writing Story N/A
N/A
1934 The Lemon Drop Kid Writing Short Story 58
Average
1934 Million Dollar Ransom Writing Story N/A
N/A
1934 Midnight Alibi Writing Story 59
Average
1934 Little Miss Marker Writing Story 59
Average
1933 Lady for a Day Writing Story 60
Fair

Production
1944 Irish Eyes Are Smiling Production Producer 58
Average
1942 The Big Street Production Producer 58
Average