The stories of Damon Runyon, broadcast from 1948 into the fifties, brought to life all those lovable badies that are so common in the world of Damon Runyon. They were a complete relief from the all powerful Hollywood style dramas that made up most of Radio drama in those days. Not that the Hollywood stuff was bad, oh no, but these were dramas with a difference. Stories like All Horseplayers Die Broke, Butch Minds The Baby, Baseball Hattie and Hold ‘em Yale.
The central character, a guy by the name of Broadway, described everything in a language which suited the street wise dames and palookas of Runyons World.
Broadway, played by John Brown, was a sensitive guy who knew the streets of New York better than any cab driver. A man who brought to life the thugs and touts of Runyons world of guys and dolls and in so doing revealed the innermost feelings of these toughies of the underworld.
Other people who took part in these wonderful stories include Jeff Chandler, Ed Begley, William Conrad, Annie Whitfield, Gerald Mohr, Luis Van Rooten, Frank Lovejoy, Sheldon Leonard, Eddie Marr, Joe Duval, Willard Waterman, Hans Conried, Parley Baer and Sam Edwards.
The Producer was Verne Carstensen. Director Richard Sanville and the show Writer was Russell Hughes.
If you like these stories you will also like the Screen Guild Theater episode Tight Shoes, which was written by Damon Runyon.