Guys and Dolls, a CurtainUp review

Short story writers flourished during the 1930s and 1940s but Damon Runyon, one of this form's most prolific and successful practitioners, is not much read these days. Yet, his name has been integrated into our language. Colorful characters, especially if connected to gambling, petty theft or show business, are described as "Runyonesque" — and, thanks to the ever-revivable Guys and Dolls which is very loosely based on two Runyon stories, "Runyonese" continues to be spoken and sung, not just on Broadway, but on high school, college and regional theater stages.

So who was the man who inspired book writers Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling and composer/lyricist Frank Loesser to turn , "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure" into a musical super hit? These stories, later collected in a book entitled Guys and Dolls, weren't Runyon's first Broadway stories. They were written four years after the first, "Romance in the Roaring Forties," published in 1929 by Cosmopolitan where many of his later stories appeared. The book was actually less Runyon than Burrows and Swerling for whom the "based on" was less a case of adaptation than writing in the Runyon style.

Vital Statistics
Alfred Damon Runyan i was born in 1884, in Manhattan— that's Manhattan, Kansas— and grew up in Pueblo, Colorado where he learned the newspaper trade from his father. It was while working at one of several Colorado newspaper jobs that someone printed his by-line as Runyon, which he decided to stick with. It was not until 1910 that he arrived in New York's Manhattan as a baseball and boxing reporter and underwent a further name change, this time the elimination of Alfred.

Runyonese Explained Even as a journalist his style was characterized by the slangy lingo that was eventually dubbed Runyonese. But his punchy, low-brow sort of lingo came to full bloom through the characters in his short stories who made him one of the 1930s most popular humorists. These characters were wise in ways that had little to do with high-brow pursuits and any detours from Broadway's nightclub district were Brooklyn and the race track, not a college campus.

Tituss Burgess the current G&D's Nicely-Nicely Johnson notable for such Runyonese wisdom as "Deft will beat Daft any day of most weeks (except in leap year)."

Some favorite Runyon nomenclature: shiv for knife, snoot for nose; and, of course, girlfriends and wives were dolls, as well as Judies, pancakes and tomatoes. Most Runyon guys and dolls favored descriptive names over shorter, plainer ones. Nathan Detroit, Harry the Horse Thief, Nicely-Nicely, Good Time Charley, Dave the Dude and the Seldom Seen Kid represent just a small sampling of amusingly named Runyon guys.

The denizens of Guys and Dolls, the musical, were inspired by characters who cropped up repeatedly in the Runyon fictional universe that celebrated the world of Broadway seeded by the Prohibition era. They humorously evoked the world of gangsters, gamblers, actors and hustlers. Their favorite hangout was a restaurant called Mindy's --as in Lindy's. G&D's Nicely-Nicely, whose choicer words of wisdom included "deft will beat daft any day of most weeks (except in leap year)," became the betting stake in an eating contest in "Piece of Pie" At times, Runyon's close friends served as character role models, a case in point being the mobster accountant Otto Berman who showed up in several stories as Regret, the horse player.

Whatever their connection to the author, the citizens of Runyon's world spoke a lingo that was a unique mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, usually in the present tense and with a complete disregard for contractions. A passage from a story called "Tobias the Terrible" is a memorable example:
" If I have all the tears that are shed on Broadway by guys in love, I will have enough salt water to start an opposition ocean to the Atlantic and Pacific, with enough left over to run the Great Salt Lake out of business. But I wish to say I never shed any of these tears personally, because I am never in love, and furthermore, barring a bad break, I never expect to be in love, for the way I look at it love is strictly the old phedinkus, and I tell the little guy as much."

Another Runyonesque gem is this tidbit from "Blood Pressure" in which a character named Charley comes across a pretty redhead: " At first I think she is a very cute sight indeed, and then I see something in her eyes that tells me this doll, whoever she is, is feeling very hostile to one and all."

Runyon's guys and dolls also landed their share of quick one liners, for example: "Always try to rub up against money, for if you rub up against money long enough, some of it may rub off on you" ("A Very Honorable Guy" 1931); "I long ago came to the conclusion long ago that all life is six to five against." ("A Nice Price" 1935); " A freeloader is a confirmed guest. He is the man who is always willing to come to dinner ( "Free Loading Ethics" 1946).

From Page to Stage, Screen and Radio
Of course, the 1955 stage to screen transfer of Guys and Dolls is the biggie here, with Vivian Blaine reprising her Miss Adelaide role, Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson opposite Frank Sinatra's Nathan Detroit. (Yes, Brando sings). It's still a late night TV and DVD favorite. But the musical that's now once again belting out its hit parade of songs, isn't the only one.

Runyon's "Madame La Gimp" was retitled Lady For a Day for a 1933 flick directed by Frank Capra. It was remade in 1961 under yet another title, Pocketful of Miracles, co-starring Bette Davis and Peter Falk.

Almost as famous as Guys and Dolls was the 1934 film Little Miss Marker, which made curly-top Shirley Temple a star. The title was the same as the Runyon short story on which it was based. Its characters are typically Runyonesqe: A grumpy book named Sorrowful Jones (Adolphe Menjou) who is given the adorable little Miss as debt collateral. Subsequent remakes included Sorrowful Jones in 1949 (with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball), Forty Pound of Trouble in 1963 (with Tony Curtis) and another Little Miss Marker in 1980 (with Walter Matthau, Julie Andrews, Bob Newhart, Tony Curtis). But for DVD watchers the one to see is the one with Temple.

Lesser known screen adaptations include the twice filmed The Lemon Drop Kid (1934 and 1951-- the latter starring Bob Hope); A Slight Case of Murder (in 1938 with Edward G. Robinson and again in 1953 as Stop, You're Killing Me); The Big Street (in 1942, based on Runyon's " Little Pinks"); Butch Minds the Baby (1942) and It Ain't Hay ( in1943 based on Runyon's "Princess O'Hara" ); and Money from Home (a 1953 vehicle for Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis).

The Damon Runyon Theatre. This series broadcast from January to December 1949, was a last gasp for the radio play. It dramatized 52 Runyon stories , including the G&D pieces, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown & Blood Pressure.". Each featured a recurring character named Broadway to introduce each episode. Someone who was privvy to many of these stories, told me they represented the radio drama at its very best.

How Frank Loesser Made Runyon's Vernacular Sing
It's an enormous challenge to write a great show tune. It's even more of a challenge to introduce songs into a text written to be read, and being true to the writer's voice. As luck would have it, the man faced with the task of musicalizing Runyon's distinctive linguistic style was Frank Loesser. From the very beginning G&D turns this challenge into a triumph of text-and-music compatibility. "The Fugue for Tinhorns" that has Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Benny Southstreet and Rusty Charlie each singing "Igot the horse right here" is absolutely brilliant. And there's no let-down in catchy tunes that captures Runyon's flavorful style. "Adelaide's Lament" is a marvelously kvetchy love ballad with a spoken lead-in that makes the rest of the ingenious rhymed Loeser à la Runyon lyrics tuneful yet feel almost spoken "I've Never Been In Love Before" and "Luck Be a Lady " are just a few more illustrations of how Loesser managed to Runyonize his tunes so that they not only embodied Runyon's characters but made them rich and tasty — like Lindy's cheese cake. And while the title song's opening "What's playing at the Roxy?" doesn't evoke memories of that once famous movie place, who cares? It's catchy as ever, with a stick-to-the-ear sound.

Miscellany
Runyon was still a newspaper man when Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president and in that capacity wrote the lead article for United Press on the 1933 inauguration.

Several organizations in Pueblo, Colorado, where Runyon grew up have been named in his honor: Runyon Field, The Damon Runyon Repertory Theater Company and Runyon Lake.

Runyon enlisted in the U.S. Army to fight in the Spanish-American War and while in the service, he was assigned to write for the Manila Freedom and Soldier's Letter.

Runyon was awarded the 1967 J.G. Taylor Spink Award for baseball journalism by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and is a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame.

After Runyon died from throat cancer in 1946, his ashes were scattered from an airplane over Broadway by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and his friend, the columnist Walter Winchell, established the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

Note: I am indebted to Wikipedia for much of the factual material in this essay.-- e.s.

Some Thoughts on Damon Runyon: The Chronicler of Broadway's Hustlers, Gamblers and Showgirls