Evening star., 1946-12-11

the Horse, Little Isadore, Spanish
John, Dave the Dude, Apple Annie,
Light Finger Moe, Broadway Rose,
frankie Ferocious, Feet Samuels,
Madame La Gimp, Joe the Joker,
Meyer Marmalade, Broadway Sam,
Regret, the horse player, and Sor-.
rowful, the bookmaker.
Once when Runyon was i'll, real
life Broadway Sam said: Il am all
broken up. My heart Is broken for
him and everybody along Broadway
Is likewise.
Wrote in Present Tense.
It was that type of speech that
Mr.. Runyon captured and wove into
his lively, humorous, touching writ
ing. His stories invariably were In
the present tense from start to
finish. His dialogue, like his back
ground and action, remote from the
grammatical. carried clear over
tone of sincerity in company with
lightness and breeziness. There was
sincerity behind every split infini-
tive, every mispronunciation} every
slang expression.
Mr. Runyon had his own descrip-
tive style that portrayed such things
as dour expression as castor
oil SMILE" pretty girl as very
tasty looking young doll," no.
good fellow as "a guy consider no
dice" The locale Of many of his
stories was 'Mindy's" restaurant on
Broadway. Sometimes ne would be.
sitting there eating or standing out
side thinking of practically nothing
whatever" when the action started
Was Fashion Plate.
He was author of Guys and
Dolls" Blue Plate Special, Money
From Home" BEST of Runyon," "a
Slight Case of Murder" a play
with Howard Linsay): MY Wife
Ethel" Take It Easy" and MY
Old Man" Earlier he had pub
lished books OF verse.
His success as fiction writer al
lowed him to fulfill an early ambi-
ton to be fashion plate. His
clothing, although somewhat more
conservative, was equally as inter-
esting as that Of his 1ingo-talking
friends. His shirts had no stand
ard buttons wore jeweled studs
that matched his shirt and tie. He
bought and wore fortune in jew
elry. His suits were expensive. And
he never paid less than $48 for a
pair Of shoes.
There d mort story in itself
about his shoes. After buying q
pair he would turn them over im-l
mediately to Hype Igoe, q New
York sports writer who would break
them In and Igoe once recalled,
when I gave them back to Runyon,
If there was anything wrong with
them. he would give them rigti*
back. I've been wearing $50 shoes
for the last Is years and never paid
cent for them"
Name Was Shortened.
When Mr.. Runyon got his sports
writing job on the American he
signed one of his early stories AL
fred Damon Runyon," but his edi-
tor struck out the Alfred and said:
From now on you are Damon Run
yon." And he was.
In 1896 Mr.. Runyon began his
column. Both Barrels" which was
carried in the American. The fol-
lowing year he wrote new column,
"As / See It." which was syndicated
to is Hearst papers. Later King
Features distributed a column under
the title 1.-The Brighter Side" in
which Runyon wrote both serious
ly and humorously on subjects that
interested him.
He signed contract with RKOl
Pictures in l941 as writer pro-
ducer, and some months later
signed another with Goth Century
Fox. The first movie he produced
was ''The Big Street.
Mr.. Runyon was married in 1911
to Ellen Egan and they had two
children, Mary Elaine, now Mrs.
Richard McCann. and Damon. Mrs.
Runyon died in 1881 and the next
year he married Patrice del Grande,
o-.4,