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Damon Runyon: A Life

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Before there was Jimmy Breslin, there was Damon Runyon: A writer who kept company with gangsters and gamblers, politicians and showgirls, sports figures and cops. Breslin, a very gifted writer, dissects his subject with humor. The heroes of Runyon's world were figments of his imagination. He was enthralled with gangsters, adopting their street language himself. He romanticized the worst among him. He drank heavily and smoked heavily; eventually giving up the booze for waterfalls of coffee. It was too late for the cigarettes. Toward the end of his life, Runyon communicated by writing notes, his vocal chords having succumbed to cancer. This book is a gem. You come away knowing much more about Runyon the person and his times: New York City during the glamorous 1920's. A time made-up by one Damon Runyon. Breslin remains the best at what he does.

At first, this biography on Damon Runyon seems like any other biography: a list of dates, names, people, and places. As you start reading it, though, it becomes a story that puts you right in the middle of Runyon's life, the good and the bad. You'll see Runyon's start in poetry, sportswriting, war reporting, and what he is most well-known for: his short stories. Also, you'll see the people in Runyon's life who he based some of his most Runyonesque characters on, and people who based their lives off of his characters. This book reads more like a Runyonesque story than a biography, which makes it so interesting to read, besides the fact that it gives a glimpse into the life of the very private Damon Runyon.

When I was a youngster in the early 1970's, I picked up Jimmy Breslin's "The Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight". I found it so raucous, so vivid, and so intriguingly funny, that I have wanted to learn about gangsters for the rest of my life.

It has been difficult to locate an affordable, readable copy of his treatise of Damon Runyon. But upon finally reading it, Runyon had to be Breslin's hero. He could write sports, theatre, politics or crime with equal ease and passion. His penchant for the ease with which he could interact with any strata of society and retain his dignity and humor coined the term "Runyonesque".

His access to all levels and strata of celebrity makes his seem omnipresent. He began his newspaper career almost as a child, and worked almost every single day at it for the rest of his life. He had a decency that earned him the respect of almost all.

Breslin brings Runyon to life in his unique writing style. The celebrity characters of the Roaring Twenties remain some of the most vivid in american history, however Breslin almost singularly cuts them down to size against conventional wisdom. Jack Dempsey has always been revered as one of the most fearsome of heavyweight champions. Breslins writes of Dempsey's handlers putting plaster paris shavings in his gloves, which contributed to breaking Jess Willard's ribs and rearranging his face. He calls Dempsey a pedestrian fighter who defended his title only four times in seven years against overmatched and unqualified competition.

He makes other surprising revelations about Fiarello LaGuardia, Primo Carnera, Bill Tilden and Walter Winchell, among others. His story of runyon's interaction with Wally Pipp, the Yankees first baseman who took the day off, and let Lou Gehrig, he of the 2130 game playing streak, is wonderfully captivating.

Breslin has a unique writing style, and although he jumps around, and can be hard to follow at times, he gives a treatise on a wonderful subject.

On the book jacket of DAMON RUNYON: A LIFE there is the line, "Much more than a biography." Actually it is much less. Rather it is a colection of oft told tales of the roaring twenties, secondhand stories with little corroboration, and with little effort being made to set history straight. Runyon is just one of the many characters who captures Breslin's fancy, Pancho Villa, various mobsters, and "colorful polticians all make appearences, with or without Runyon's presence. It's entertaining in the fact that Breslin always knew how to tell a story, but if you're actually looking for a biography...look elsewhere.

Jimmy Breslin's biography of Damon Runyon and the attendant stories of the characters and scoundrels of New York City is very colorful and at times a fun read but the book is so full of factual errors, typos and cynicism that I found it difficult to get through. The most egregious example is the story of Runyon's attempt to solve his cancer problems by using the same doctor that treated Babe Ruth - including the statement that they had met at the Babe's funeral. The only problem is that the Babe died in 1948 and Runyon in 1946! The Rothstein murder alternatively took place at the Park Circle Hotel and the Park Central Hotel and so on. These errors and others had me straining to believe some of the more outlandish stories about Runyon's relationships with Al Capone and Pancho Villa and also cast doubt on the book's authenticity in general. I also thought Breslin's dismissal of all of the athletic achievements of the 20's with the exception of those of a horse, Bill Tilden and Red Grange was over the top. Indeed the book seemed to me to be as much a vehicle for Breslin to get some of his personal predjudice's off his chest as much as it was a book about Runyon.

Alfred Damon Runyon was born October 8, 1880 in Manhattan, Kansas. He grew up in Kansas and Pueblo, Colorado and followed his father into the newspaper business.
He joined the army during the Spanish-American War and spent time in the Philippines and following his stint in the army Runyon came back to the newspaper business in Colorado.
It was 1910 when he moved east to New York. It took almost a year to settle into a regular full time job. He was hired by the Hearst organization to work as a sports reporter on their morning paper The New York American.
Runyon was a prolific writer - wrote about all the big time sports celebrities and events as well as major court cases such as the Lindberg kidnapping case and trial.
He wrote regular columns for the Hearst newspapers while at the same time turning out great numbers of short stories. Damon Runyon's short stories reflected Broadway people he hung out with at Lindy's Delicatessen and those were mixed with characters that met outside Lindy's, and followed a floating crap game.
Many of his sports stories dealt with rich horse owners such as Jock Whitney while on his Broadway beat it was gangsters, touts and gamblers.
Some of the movies adapted from Runyon stories during his lifetime were Lady for a Day, Little Miss Marker, Shirley Temple, and The Big Street with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda.
The best known was a play, which was later made into a Movie, Guys and Dolls, opened on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre November 24, 1950.
The play was directed by George S. Kaufman and was peopled with Runyon's off beat characters Nathan Detroit, Sky Masterson, Sara Brown, Miss Adelaide, Nicely-Nicely, Harry the Horse, Big Julie and others.
The trouble with Breslin's story was that the huge number of minor characters introduced seemed to dominate the narrative while Damon Runyon as a real person was never fleshed out and came off as little more than a sketch.
The reader never gets the chance to meet the real Damon Runyon and that's a shame.
Now if you read the book to research background for Guys and Dolls characters it might be worth your time.
Tom Barnes author of `Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone,' `The Goring Collection,' `The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.'