Damon Runyon

Career overview

Alfred Damon Runyon was an American newspaperman and short-story writer known primarily for his writing and short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City. His tales grew out of the Prohibition era and focused on the lives of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, who often used colorful monikers rather than square names, such as Nathan Detroit and Benny Sout. To New Yorkers of his generation, a Damon Runyon character evoked a distinctive social type from the Brooklyn or Midtown demi-monde, while the adjective Runyonesque came to refer to those specific characters, situations, and dialogs depicted in his humorous and sentimental works.

According to archival records from The Movie Database, Runyon had 34 known credits in the writing category. His biographical details place his birth in Manhattan, Kansas, on October 4, 1884, and his death on December 10, 1946, at the age of 62. His written works also served as the basis for other productions, such as the radio or dramatic presentation Joe and Ethel Turp in 1943, in which Art Carney played the role of Billy Oldham.