Runyon on Broadway - All the stories from More than Somewhere / Furthermore / Take it Easy

by Damon Runyon

Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880[1][2] – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short story writer.[3]

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.[4] 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.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Humor, Crime, Historical, Comedy, Classics

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Such volumes as Guys and Dolls (1931), the basis for a musical of the same name on Broadway, collect stories of known American writer Alfred Damon Runyon about the underworld of New York.

A family in Manhattan, Kansas, reared this newspaperman. His grandfather, a printer from New Jersey, relocated to Manhattan, Kansas in 1855, and his father edited his own newspaper in the town. In 1882, people forced father of Runyon forced to sell his newspaper, and the family moved westward. The family eventually settled in 1887 in Pueblo, Colorado, where Runyon spent the rest of his youth. He began to work in the newspaper trade under his father in Pueblo. People named a field, the repertory theater company, and a lake in his honor. He worked for various newspapers in the area of the Rocky Mountains and let stand a change in the spelling of his last name from "Runyan" to "Runyon."

In 1898, Runyon enlisted in the Army to fight in the Spanish-American War. The service assigned himto write for the Manila Freedom and Soldier's Letter.

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 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." Runyon wrote these stories in a distinctive vernacular style: a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of contractions.

Runyon was also a newspaperman. He wrote the lead article for UP on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidential inauguration in 1933.

Runyon died in New York City from throat cancer in late 1946, at age 66. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered from an airplane over Broadway in Manhattan by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker on December 18, 1946. The family plot of Damon Runyon is located at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, NY. After Runyon's death, his friend and fellow journalist, Walter Winchell, went on his radio program and appealed for contributions to help fight cancer, eventually establishing the “Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund” to support scientific research into causes of, and prevention of cancer.

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Runyon must have one of the most distinguishable voices in literature: any sentence we read is wholly identifiable as his. And it's this voice which really makes these stories. Set in Broadway in the 1930s with Prohibition and chorus girls, bookmakers and gangsters, where all the men are guys and all the women dolls, these stories are old-fashioned yarns brought up to date by their linguistic vibrancy and the vividly-realised milieu.

It goes without saying that Runyon was a comic genius, but the tales are lit by a romantic streak as we find tough gangsters brought to their knees with undying love for a doll, and plenty of melodrama that, in Runyon's hands, becomes oddly moving (take a look at 'Earthquake', as an example).

This omnibus comprises three story collections and may well get a bit samey if read back-to-back - but spread out, a few at a time, they conjure speakeasies and delis, home-made liquor and cheap diners, and all the essence of slightly sleazy, slangy, full-of-low life New York.

[Paul Brazill · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know you’ve made it as a writer when your name is used as an adjective: Runyonesque. Damon Runyon is probably best known for the film adaptations of his stories such as Guys and Dolls and The Lemon Drop Kid. He created his own world with a number of pithy short stories set amongst the low lifes of New York’s Broadway during the 1930. These yarns, sometimes shaggy dog stories, are peppered with gaudy, fast talking characters and smart punch lines. The language and the style is Runyon’s own. Much copied –think of the film Some Like It Hot – and never bettered

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to describe Runyon's stories? Let's start with the simple part - On Broadway is three collections of short stories brought together, housing 47 (I think) stories within its voluminous pages. Despite being an easy read, this is such a large book that you can't really carry it around with you.

I'm not usually a fan of short stories, mainly because they are just whetting my appetite when they stop. But Runyon's short stories are interconnected, each one told by the same narrator and often featuring or mentioning familiar characters, so even though the story itself may be over, you never have to leave the world in which it lives. I've twice started making a list of all the recurring characters, but I always get distracted.

The stories are set across the twenties and thirties, during and after prohibition, and follow the unnamed narrator, who can usually be found gambling on the horses, eating in Mindy's restaurant or drinking in Good Time Charley's speakeasy. Most of the stories take place around Broadway in New York but there are a fair few that cover Miami and even some European countries. Our narrator doesn't have a job, never has any money and despite claiming to have little morality or compassion, he is seen as harmless and helpful by absolutely every gambler, thief, bootlegger, hitman and stripper on Broadway, who will either drag him along on an adventure, or dump their life story on him.

The stories are mostly tales of romance or revenge (sometimes both) and always have a twist, or punchline, some little kick at the end. So obviously if you read 47 of these in a row, you pretty quickly pick up on the pattern. Although that's not to say that I can guess how each story will end, just that I know there will be some kind of turnaround. Sometimes Runyon gives you pretty clear clues early on by mentioning a gun or something for no reason. It's kind of like listening to a really long joke and looking forward to the payoff. There are a few stories in this collection that are very similar to each other, almost like 'whoops' similar, but on the whole they all bring their own enjoyment. There's a theme of honour in most of the stories, which is weird considering that the characters are mostly lowlives and murderers, and the events are often horrific, yet you're left feeling satisfied at the end.

As for the style, that's where Runyon lights up. His narrator and therefore all the other bums on Broadway speak in this bizarrely formal, polite and euphemistic manner, making the stories of mob wars etc become delightfully quaint. Added to his use of the present tense, no contractions and endless slang, the dialogue is always hilarious.

There were maybe four or five stories out of the lot that I didn't enjoy as much - those with a darker tone. Quite a few of the stories are tragic but also funny, whereas a couple go for out-right heartbreaking, which isn't my scene. And then there are a couple that are downright horrible - usually Runyon's euphemisms can carry you through but some stories are a little more graphic and while the content is handled in a whimsical manner, what they are actually talking about would make Goodfellas blush.

But overall, Runyon's stories are great fun because of his absolutely crazy style. I'm pretty sure he was a genius.

[Gerald Sinstadt · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are the stories that gave rise to that best of all musicals, Guys and Dolls. Damon Runton's unique way with the English language brings vividly to life his chosen milieu - the 1930s Manhattan of minor crooks and their molls.

In today's politically correct environment, the book could never have been published - and we would be the poorer for that.

The enormous pleasure to be derived fromm the audio version is entirely due to a narrator who always seems to be telling a story, not reading from a printed page. The match is perfect.

[Marco Ocram · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of short stories narrated by a shady character living in 1930's New York. Each story is self-contained, usually with a clever plot and a surprise ending, but there are some characters that crop up from story to story, almost all of them comic gangsters.

Exemplary style. Written almost entirely in the present tense, with considerable deliberate repetition, and yet a delight. Read this if you want to broaden your appreciation of style while enjoying twisty story-lines and plenty of laughs.

[Anthony Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not many people have Runyon’s talent to give their every story a neat, largely unexpected twist – unexpected at least by this reader, who was focussing on the story rather than the art - that lifts the spirits at the end.

In this respect, together with the tone of humour-in-adversity, these are hugely enjoyable stories about ‘low life’ in New York’s gambling joints, bars and nightclubs and a variety of race tracks across the nation during the Depression years. It helps if you know a thing or two about racing, handicapping, betting etc, and although Runyon explains his terminology from time to time, it’s not to be relied on. However, it doesn’t altogether matter, just as it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the slang: the gist is intelligible, but more importantly the tone created by the cant and Runyon’s peculiar and dramatic use of the present tense is consistent and another-worldly. Thus he creates his individual, quasi-folkloric urban universe.

Nevertheless, I was not always easy in myself when from time to time the fiction seemed to lose a few layers and come close to the underlying misery of resilient but desperate characters. Suicide is not infrequently narrated as an option under consideration, and on the rare occasions it actually takes place, it felt no longer okay to laugh. Several times it took me a little while to realise I was reading euphemisms for hitmen, kidnappers and extortionists, and to understand that although sometimes those so involved were a bad lot, often enough they were just guys trying to turn a penny, honest or dishonest.

I also found myself wondering how these stories are read now by women. Runyon’s male narrator habitually refers to women as Judys, and the terms for those he finds unattractive are just as unattractively pejorative. He also tends to cast an eye over women as he would over the horse flesh he depends on to provide him with winnings on his bets. Nevertheless, he is unfailingly complimentary when a pretty face or a generous smile or a big-hearted character crosses his path, exhibiting an old-world gallantry. Whether this cuts any ice with female readers, I do not know.

Indeed, most stories involve the interaction between some hardboiled Broadway denizen and a woman by whom he is besotted, and most stories reveal that all these hardboiled guys want is a decent domestic life with an ‘ever-loving’ doll. Much of the action is, of course, determined by the ruses which the guys devise to try to turn a few dibs, but much of it is also inspired by the lengths to which they will go to attract and maintain the attention of the doll of their soft-hearted, sentimental dreams.

The dolls are portrayed very much of two kinds, the homely and the goodtime. The latter are usually on the make and take, interested primarily in the money that the guys can provide, and their loyalty will always lie with the fellers who bring in the ready. They receive the presents that admirers send them and they hold out for the most they can get. They are not admired by the narrator.

And this is where Runyon has us in his hand. He is describing shady goings on in a world of safe-breakers, thieves, bootleggers, nightclubs, racecourse touts and handicappers, bank robbers, gamblers, and Mafiosi, but his world is one where there is such a thing as honour and decency. It is as if he is saying that in spite of everything the Depression and circumstances can throw at you, helping someone out and retaining a heart capable of noble acts is the path to salvation. Three stories in this vein I particularly liked were ‘Earthquake’, ‘The Three Wise Guys’ and ‘Madame la Gimp’.

Some stories, however, are just delightful and ‘A Piece of Pie’ is undoubtedly one of them in which Runyon’s narrator describes an eating competition. In ‘It Comes Up Mud’, Little Alfie, an utterly unsuccessful horse owner/trainer, saves the day and gets the break of his life thanks to a hopeful heart and mud. And Spider McCoy, whom the narrator acknowledges to be ‘as good a teacher as there is in the world, especially of the punch that is called the one-two’, constantly on the lookout for the ‘next heavy-weight champion of the world’, trains an ex-king, Jonas, and finds his love in the doughty sister of the General who ousted Jonas from his throne.

Sometimes, Runyon writes as good a comic creepy tale as you’ll find anywhere, and ‘Lonely Heart’ about a serial husband-killer who collects on the life insurance, and ‘Too Much Pep’ in which Ignaz the Wolf meets his match, touch on the Gothic and surreal.

Overall, I think it’s very difficult not to like these stories. They are effervescent, the style is beguiling – you are in the presence of an expert storyteller and yarner – and they generally celebrate the indomitable spirit of men and women of no fixed employment – the precariat of 100 years ago – making the best they can of life. This is the laughter of the survivor who can click his fingers in the face of destitution, look to his friends for assistance, and face disaster with fortitude. As Unser Fritz, the septuagenarian horse player says after losing $100,000, ‘“Well’, he says, ‘it is horse racing.”’

[Andrew Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just brilliant. Sadly he's much neglected these days, but he's one of the funniest guys ever tom pound a typewriter.....read him, you won't be sorry. Awesome short stories.

[ErnstG · Rating 5 out of 5]

An old old friend, after all these years still as interesting. As the Introduction memorably puts it -- in all the volumes there is only one use of the past tense, and that is thought to be a mistake.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Each story is a little gem.

[Joey Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

In fact, I love me some Runyon.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wonderful. I can't believe how few reviews there are, is he out of fashion? So funny, so clever, so consistent in style, I wish he'd written more. I can't recommend Runyon highly enough.

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than somewhat amusing
I found this collection some time ago at a jumble sale, and took it along to read on a trip to New York last month. It's an easily-read compendium of three collections of humorous short stories about the low-life of 1930's Broadway, written in Runyon's startlingly idiosyncratic style. This includes the use of an unnamed narrator who's a bystander to the action, the avoidance of the past tense and contractions such as "don't", a generous assortment of slang, and the repetition of mock Homeric epithets such as "his ever-loving wife" and "the proud old Spanish nobleman". This is so marked that I was initially reminded of the argot of A Clockwork Orange , particularly in passages like this (p39):

"Well, she makes out as if she is going to slap Dave in the face with her left hand, and Dave naturally pulls his kisser out of the way. But instead of doing anything with her left, Lola Sapola suddenly drives her right fist smack-dab into Dave the Dude's stomach, which naturally comes forward as his face goes back.

I wish to say I see many a body punch delivered in my life, but I never see a prettier one than this. What is more, Lola Sapola steps in with the punch, so there is plenty on it."

The humorous effect comes from the juxtaposition of slang and mock-pomposity in his style, together with his gift for a memorable simile. My favorite example of the latter is in "The Bloodhounds of Broadway" (p79), which describes a nightclub "where there are many beautiful young dolls who dance around with no more clothes on them than will make a pad for a crutch", although the "little Judy with about as much bathing-suit on as will make a boxing glove for a mosquito" in "A Job for the Macarone" (p553) runs it a close second.

But the real strength of these appealing stories is the characterization and plots: conceived as yarns, being told to you (perhaps out of the corner of the mouth) by a stranger who's taken your arm in a bar on Broadway and illuminated the world in front of you in such an entertaining fashion.

Originally reviewed 12 July 2012

[Evie Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damon Runyon was a short-story powerhouse. His narrative voice is so unique and yet so familiar, like chatting to an old friend over a coffee or something stronger, and the yarns he spins paint a vivid picture of Prohibition-era America that seems to come to life as you read. He can turn the most mundane of personal dramas- a lost child, a domestic argument, a bowl of beetroot soup- into something hilarious and poignant: his stories are made for the screen, big or small. I would recommend this to fans of any genre.

[Eva · Rating 2 out of 5]

באמת שאפילו לא סיימתי את הספר.... אהבתי את סגנון הכתיבה וזה די מה שגרם לי לרצות להמשיך אבל הסיפורים פשוט לא עניינו אותי... כל הסיפורים שם הם על גאנגסטרים לבנים מניו יורק שמתאהבים בבחורות יותר מידי צעירות וגז הולכים לעשות איזה משהו בשבילן..
וואלה איכזב. ציפיתי ליותר

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous collection of short stories about larger than life characters in 1930's/1940's New York. Runyon has a unique voice and style.

The musical "Guys and Dolls" is based on one of the short stories in this collection.

[X · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vivid.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great rump steak of a read stepping back in a wise guys and dolls atmosphere of a 1930s Broadway filled with laughs and good cheer. A great end of the year book. A triump.

[Whistler's Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic stories. TINY print.

Several months ago, a Kindle edition of the Runyon collection MORE THAN SOMEWHAT appeared. It reminded me of how much I love Runyon's classic "Broadway stories" and I set out to collect them all. I discovered that an English publisher (Pan books) printed two books said to contain all of Runyon's stories. I bought the second volume (FROM FIRST TO LAST) and came back for this one.

My other Runyon collections contain 20 stories and appear to be "trade" (library) publications. Since this one contains 47 stories, I was wondering how the publisher got them all into a standard size book. The answer is simple. Tiny print. I have perfect near-vision and I can read it only in strong light. So be warned.

It was a fine idea to collect all of Runyon's Broadway stories in two editions. Many of them are duplicated in some of my other collections, but nine of them are new to me. So I was happy to turn my reading lamp on high and become acquainted with those stories. Especially since one of them turns out to be TOO MUCH PEP, which is now one of my favorite Runyon stories. It shows Runyon's grasp of the complexities of New York City life in the 1920's and 30's. A burgeoning population of immigrants - the older generation clinging to Old World ways and their children becoming "real Americans" - made for a colorful, turbulent mix. Suspicious of the police, they all agree that most matters are best handled privately. But do we do it the new way or the old way? It's a great story.

The inside cover has a picture of Runyon looking like a particularly sour Presbyterian minister. In fact a man who looked as stern and humorless as that would NEVER get a congregation these days. He certainly doesn't look like a guy who grew up in the Wild West and came to New York City to happily rub shoulders with show girls, gangsters, gamblers, crooked politicians, reporters, and other shady sorts. How a writer with such a grim face could have created some of the most hilariously eccentric characters in all of American literature remains a mystery.

The obvious solution to the tiny print problem is a Kindle edition where we can adjust the print. Until then, we have to make do with used books. If you haven't discovered Runyon's work, you don't know what you're missing. He was a fine writer and his stories are American treasures.

[James Carrigy · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/10

A pretty solid Runyon omnibus, that does trail off a bit in quality admittedly as it leans more into farcical humour and shed some of its author's subtle tonal variety and grit. But otherwise, you'll never find a more compelling literary ensemble of silly n'er do-wells outside of Wodehouse. Just a couple of wiseguyssssssssss.

[Ted Rabinowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damon Runyon was a Depression-era O. Henry, and a creator of an entire American vernacular. His short stories are fast, funny, cynical, sentimental, and the precursors to any American gangster, Mob or Vegas story told in the 20th Century, from Jimmy Breslin to Mario Puzo.

[valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glorious , this writer always cheers me up!

5 stars , cos its a great read. Super 1920-30s prohibition era American slang. I loved it 30 years ago- I love it now!

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whole lot of Runyon in one place. What's not to love?