The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-12-13

So SOo& MNl& NUSN Na6 oA. not N2, MT HaStOraanl that bis boss sent two yolrectsves to an Hearst edi~
 tors within two weeks. Run Rum voN Daily No Cuts Some esa@
 tors apparently didn't get lt She first time, 90 the Chief wired aeainS Run Eanyon Daily No Cuts No- matter What Serious Pieces You Have eo Onastl'
 Damon carraed those Hearst meTnoS proudly, Not to show of. Just te show to Len. Jimmy and walter when we started oSNcgan',
 One ef tMe sterees many of his intisnates didn't know was this one I read it an a margarine over a year ago. Then I saS0s ~Loosa here, Daddy, How come you never told me I helped discover the new Runyons That piece about you makes me feel good. Popl" Damon merely ShraGged T wrote 1t because needed some mo0ey," he explained Never thleSS it was his Inst fiction and it led @ countless others |. Movie scenarios, books, plays. an thologieS etc. An of which totalled more than a million smackerS. But Just before he wrote that first piece Damon Runyon believed he was washed up, done, through, dry.
 H seaxtea this way I mean I read it in that piece about him Damon (after Q few decades af the typewriterl suddenly felt that The Parade Was Passing Him By That newcomers were better That he was haS-been. etc, An this was in the early Sos
 about 1881 or S2 perhaps He couldn't sit down and write about the fights at the Garden or else where-oecause T can see what's coming next" He hated the phony wraSSling matches. the guys who said the same things before each event and so on He ap- parently was tired of the strain the sameneSs-or just being a sports wTater-even though he was rated champ of his division. He want ed to reach out And write Q book or Q show He had con- trihuted handsomely to literature with his verse about Jockey Sande: Gimme Q handy guy like Sande bootin' those winners homeg" a. Was it home or ine I'm not sure.
 Anyway, Damon U1m quoting that mag story. don't forgetl just couldn't write" 6 column. line or anything He stayed out ot print for many weeks. Just sat around Ilndy's or went to a movie or kihitz'6 Q card game or swapped opinions with the midtown wisen- heimers He couldn't write" anymore. He was sure he couldn't He even stopped trying.
 Then enc 3 CT in the yawning Crestless in the hayl he got up and went to his portable In ar hour or so he finished the first piece Of copy he had started in sev- eral months He wasn't sure how good Cor badl it was He liked it because he had fun doing it But he wouldn't lay the odds that it would click with any editor So he sent it to his friend Van Loan-then boSsing Cosmopolitan. a Hearst mag .I Tell me what you think. Van, memo'd Damon. Its the first fic- ton I ever tried. But don't kid me, pleaseI"
 Van Loan phoned him at once. Do a dozen of those a year for CosmoI" he said excitedly. I'm sending over a check for $1.000." CHe wound up getting t5.0Oo an ar ticleO
 Runyon sat there (pflone off the hook) da7ed with joy He need ed that ''G", too. He had settled ''all he had" on his first wife. and was broke Incidentally. the last few items came from Damon didectly when we discussed this new Runyon'O The title of that first piece is: Romance of the Roaring Fortses" It is hilarious short-short about a Broad way columnist (who got caught fool ing around a gangster's dollD .. .. The name of Runyon's columnist- hero is Waldo Winchester.
 You can find that very comical story in most of the Runyon book collections I'm sure it is in the Damon Runyon Omnibus" and Blue Plate Special" because I wrote the foreword to the latter best-seller He wrote so many pieces - they have been published in le of his booksl Do your self . big favor, MT. Guy or Miss Doll Go right out and buy any Runyon book-and put it on your night-table :. You will laugh yourself to sleep every time.
 R0bbing Paul ao Pay Paul: "It seems a good place to recognize the things Eddie Walker and Paul Small did for Runyon during the time he was unable to talk. They took turns being his voice; they an- swered his phone. and did the endless things that were necessary.
 Their loyalty to . pal was cut from the same bolt of cloth from 1 which Runyon's loyalty to his many l
 How SONOTONE
 dOGbies your chances of
 nETTw@ ErE AnYAT(