VT and Cale kick off the brand new weekday series at Seanchai Library. This first session will feature two stories by American author Damon Runyon: The Old Doll House" & "A Piece of Pie."
Runyon was best known for his short stories celebrating the
world of Broadway in New York City
Brooklyn or Midtown demi-monde. The adjective
"Runyonesque" refers to this type of character as well as to the type
of situations and dialog that Runyon depicted. He spun humorous and sentimental
tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, few of whom go by
"square" names, preferring instead colorful monikers such as
"Nathan Detroit", "Benny Southstreet", "Big Jule",
"Harry the Horse", "Good Time Charley", "Dave the
Dude", or "The Seldom Seen Kid". His distinctive vernacular
style is known as "Runyonese": a mixture of formal speech and
colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of
contractions. He is credited with coining the phrase "Hooray Henry",
a term now used in British English to describe an upper-class, loud-mouthed,
arrogant twit.
that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a
"Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the
Runyon was best known for his short stories celebrating the
world of Broadway in
Live in voice.
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