Runyon’s Legend

Born on this day in 1884, sports writer and noir fictionist Damon Runyon. For whatever reason, Runyon has become one of the best-known little-known famous authors of his generation. That is, many know his name and many know his work but, these days, few manage to put the two together.

When it comes to sportswriting, Runyon’s legend lives on as do, arguably, his contributions to the vernacular. According to Wikipedia, Runyon is attributed with the following “Runyonesque” language: “ever-loving--almost always prefacing ‘wife’; i.e. ‘his ever-loving wife’; more than somewhat--quite a bit, a lot; i.e. ‘he is more than somewhat married’; pineapple--pineapple grenade; roscoe/john roscoe/the old equalizer/that thing--gun; shiv--knife.”

But it is perhaps for his contributions to the movies that we remember him best, as many of his short stories were successfully adapted to film, including: Lady for a Day (1933), based on a short story entitled “Madame La Gimp,” and remade as A Pocket Full of Miracles in 1961, starring Bette Davis; The Lemon Drop Kid (1934); Little Miss Marker (1934 and the movie that launched poppet Shirley Temple to stardom); the Edward G. Robinson vehicle A Slight Case of Murder (1938); and, of course, Guys and Dolls (1955), based on a 1932 short-story collection of the same name.

Third-generation newspaperman Alfred Damon Runyan was born in Manhattan, Kansas, but grew up in Pueblo, Colorado, where he is still remembered as a favorite son. As a young reporter, a typo changed the spelling of his surname, swapping out the “a” for an “o.” Story has it that Runyon liked it that way, and left it.

Runyon died in New York City of throat cancer on December 10, 1946.