Guys and Dolls
by Damon Runyon
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You can count on Guys and Dolls being revived at least once every ten years, and on and on, probably as long as there is an America. For the stories of Damon Runyon, from which came what many authorities think is the greatest musical ever created, are as American as apple pie. You'll savor the spice and richness in these thirty-two tales, a perfect sampler of the Runyon genius. Here you will read about Runyon's most fabulous - that is to say - Runyonesque characters. Start with "Broadway show more Complex", featuring a doll named Miss Florentine Fayette and such assorted guys as Bib Nig the crap shooter, Regret the horse player, Upstate Red, and Nathan Detroit, who runs the crap tables. In "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown", the story that directly inspired Guys and Dolls, you'll meet Obadiah Sky Masterson, a crap shooter of some repute, Brandy Bottle Bates, and Miss Sarah Brown, "one of the most beautiful young dolls anybody ever seen on Broadway, and especially as a mission worker". Go on and savor such classic stories as "Little Miss Marker", which became Shirley Temple's first movie; "A Piece of Pie", starring possibly the greatest eater alive, Nicely-Nicely Jones; "Blood Pressure", an encounter with the likes of Rusty Charley, Sleepout Sam Levinsky, and Lone Louie from Harlem; and "Situation Wanted", starring Asleep, a guy madly in love with Miss Anna Lark, who dances behind bubbles at the Starlight restaurant. A made-up cast of thousands comes out of the fertile mind of Damon Runyon In stories that will make you smile and giggle and yearn for the Broadway that was. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
A very entertaining, but very seriously dated set of twenty humorous tales set in the 1920's and early 30's in New York. A very big Broadway musical hit in its day but it can now be seen as historical rather than contemporary. The musical was drawn principally from two stories.
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Author Information
139+ Works 2,216 Members
Alfred Damon Runyon (1880-1946) was an American newspaperman and short story writer who lived in New York City. He is best known for his humorous depictions of unsavory and hedonistic characters during the Prohibition era. His writing style incorporates lots of colorful slang to give his characters life and authenticity. His work inspired modern show more Broadway works like Guys and Dolls. show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Guys and Dolls
- Original publication date
- 1932
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA
- Related movies
- Guys and Dolls (1955 | IMDb)
- First words
- It is along toward four o'clock one morning, and I am sitting in Mindy's restaurant on Broadway with Ambrose Hammer, the newspaper scribe, enjoying a sturgeon sandwich, which is wonderful brain food, and listening to Ambrose ... (show all)tell me what is wrong with world, and I am somewhat discouraged by what he tells me, for Ambrose is such a guy as is always very pessimistic about everything.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"I am afraid," Regret says, "that Big Nig will think himself to the conclusion that Nip and Tuck are tracking me instead of the shooter, as many evil-minded guys are already whisperig around and about, and that he may get the wrong idea about the trail leading to Maud Milligan's door."
- Disambiguation notice
- There seem to be many different collections of Damon Runyon's Broadway tales with this title. The 1956 Penguin collection (Penguin 1179) has 20 stories in it.
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Statistics
- Members
- 298
- Popularity
- 107,963
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.93)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, Swedish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 7
