You know the excitement when you discover an author or great book, and all you want to do is rush home and read? Well, I’m having a bit of that at the moment. Damon Runyon!! How have I never read him? I’m reading the short stories that Guys and Dolls is based on – which I’ve seen, loved, been in – and they are fantastic. The vernacular is so rich and unto itself; there’s practically no tenses and all the women are Dolls or Judys. It’s killing me! Here’s a couple examples:
“But I will say that the doll in the club car is worth looking at, and anybody can see that she has plenty of class, although personally I like them with legs that are not quite so spindly. She is by no means a real young doll, being maybe twenty-five or twenty-six, and anybody can see that she knows what time it is.
Furthermore, she is very stylish, and even if Harry the Horse is a guy who gives dolls a tumble this is about the last doll you will figure him to tumble, because she looks as if she may be such as doll as will holler for the gendarmes if anybody as much as says boo to her.”
and
“She is tall, and thin, and has a first class shape, and her hair is a light brown, going on blond, and her eyes are like I do not know what, except that they are one-hundred-percent eyes in every respect.”
How great is that? Gendarmes? One-hundred-percent eyes? Harry the Horse? I want to go back in time and be a gambler’s doll on Broadway. Sigh. Here’s a clip from the movie; The Sky rolls for souls.
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May 19, 2010 at 9:12 pm
crooks
Schinders: Looking forward to the show Thursday!
June 26, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Jim Farley
Congratulations on your discovery!
I marvel at how it is that you write this in May of 2010 and have never heard before of Damon Runyon, the Bard of Broadway. My Father used to speak to us often in Runyonese. He grew up in the age of Runyon and never thought of a world where everyone didn’t know everything about it. I have “Guys and Dolls”, “Blue Plate Special”, and “Money From Home” on my shelf of regular reads. I am constantly re-reading them.
June 27, 2010 at 5:40 am
admin
oh i’ve heard of him, grew up on guys and dolls, just never read the source material. very cool.