The Damon Runyon Theatre
The Damon Runyon Theatre turns the writer’s Broadway underworld into radio: gamblers, showgirls, small-time hustlers and sentimental crooks speak in Runyon’s famously formal street vernacular, where even a threat can sound like etiquette.
Where to Start
Researched entry points from recordings already in the Golden Radio Hour archive.
Tobias the Terrible
This is an early surviving broadcast in the GRH holdings and gives a useful point of comparison within the surviving material.
Episode details →Big Umbrella
This is a middle-period broadcast in the GRH holdings and gives a useful point of comparison within the surviving material.
Episode details →Dream Street Rose
This is a later surviving broadcast in the GRH holdings and gives a useful point of comparison within the surviving material.
Episode details →Program History
Radio adaptations of Damon Runyon's Broadway stories, narrated by the character 'Broadway' and populated by gamblers, gangsters, show people, dreamers, and other colorful figures of Runyon's New York.
Syndicated anthology dramatizing 52 Damon Runyon short stories. Story numbers 1-52 are stable, while two documented market/distribution schedules place the same numbered programs about thirteen weeks apart.
The run breaks into several distinct periods: Earlier syndication schedule (October 3, 1948 to September 25, 1949) and Later syndication schedule (January 2, 1949 to December 25, 1949).
Names that turn up again and again in the surviving run include Damon Runyon (author), John Brown (performer), Richard Sanville (director), Russell Hughes (radio adaptor and writer), Vern Carstensen (production supervisor and performer), Frank Gallop (announcer), and Jeff Chandler (performer).
Across its run, the surviving broadcasts are tied to Mayfair.
The stories often return to Broadway and New York nightlife, show business and performers, romance and courtship, loyalty, friendship and obligation, gangsters and criminal underworld, and horse racing and racetrack culture.
The show also sits in a wider radio history that includes Postwar transcription syndication, Posthumous adaptation of Damon Runyon stories, Runyonesque Broadway vernacular on radio, and Independent Hollywood-star production.
If you are following the same actors and creative circles, related programs worth opening next include Lux Radio Theatre, Screen Directors Playhouse, The Whistler, Box 13, and Broadway Is My Beat.
All Episodes & Recordings
Search this program or browse in its validated catalog order.
Tobias the Terrible
A timid Pennsylvania shoe salesman comes to Broadway to become tough enough to win back his sweetheart and accidentally earns a fearsome reputation.
Little Miss Marker
A hardened bookmaker's life changes when a bettor leaves a young girl with him as collateral for a losing wager.
Romance in the Roaring Forties
A Broadway tough's romance is disrupted by a gossip columnist until a forced wedding produces an unexpected revelation.
The Lemon Drop Kid
A broke racetrack tout tries to swindle a wealthy invalid, only for love and tragedy to transform his scheme.
A Nice Price
A boat race, a young woman's romance, and an old rivalry become entangled in a typically elaborate Broadway wager.
The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown
A notorious gambler stakes his money and reputation on winning the heart of a deeply religious mission worker.
For a Pal
A man's effort to remove his blind best friend from a romantic triangle leads to sacrifice and surprising truths.
Princess OHara
Broadway characters borrow a champion racehorse to help a young cab driver, launching a wild adventure and chase.
Butch Minds the Baby
A safe-cracking job becomes far more complicated when the expert criminal insists on bringing along the baby in his care.
Breach of Promise
An assignment to recover embarrassing love letters develops into romance, betrayal, and unexpected legal trouble.
Dancing Dans Christmas
On Christmas Eve, a gangster dressed as Santa encounters stolen jewels, generosity, and a killer hunting him.
Pick a Winner
A cynical gambler tries to fool a psychology professor, but his own fiancée turns the con back on him.
Hold Em Yale
Four New York hustlers at a Yale-Harvard football game unexpectedly risk themselves to help a young woman.
The Brain Goes Home
A wounded Broadway figure known as the Brain reveals a deeply surprising idea of where he truly belongs.
Blood Pressure
Orders to avoid excitement become impossible when a reckless friend drags a man through a night of escalating comic chaos.
Old Ems Kentucky Home
A devoted owner takes his hopeless racehorse back to Kentucky, where an unexpected reunion changes his outlook.
Blonde Mink
Loyalty to a dead friend sends a Broadway character on a dangerous and bizarre hunt for a blonde mink coat.
Leopards Spots
A desperate fight manager recruits an innocent country boy as a substitute boxer, creating a love triangle and very unusual bout.
All Horse Players Die Broke
A ruined horse player attempts one last comeback to reclaim the woman he loves and is forced to face his past.
The Hottest Guy in the World
A notorious fugitive returns to New York and becomes involved with an escaped gorilla, a baby, and the people he left behind.
A Piece of Pie
Broadway bettors risk a fortune on a giant eating contest, but their champion's romance threatens the supposedly certain wager.
Barbecue
A reformed man's effort to win back his former wife becomes a wild Florida adventure during a violent storm.
Lonely Heart
A food-loving bachelor seeking a quiet farm wife meets a peculiar widow whose history hides something much darker.
Broadway Complex
A mild master of ceremonies with a strange fixation on Broadway is manipulated by a scheming actor.
Madame La Gimp
A former dancer hiding her past from her aristocratic daughter inspires an elaborate Broadway masquerade involving a fake husband and celebrity reception.
Baseball Hattie
A devoted baseball fan makes a drastic decision when her star-pitcher husband considers deliberately losing a game.
Big Umbrella
A deposed king turned boxer discovers both love and courage when confronted by the dictator who drove him from power.
Earthquake
A relentless New York detective pursues a powerful criminal all the way to a violent confrontation in the Central American jungle.
The Bloodhounds of Broadway
A softhearted Broadway character is implicated in a shooting when bloodhounds are used to track him, revealing an unexpected truth.
The Lily of St Pierre
A Broadway tough recounts a tragic story of love, betrayal, and vengeance as an old associate faces judgment.
It Comes up Mud
A perpetually unlucky horse owner stakes everything on his long-shot animal in a bizarre road to the Kentucky Derby.
Broadway Financier
Following her dying father's cynical advice, a young woman becomes a powerful financier but learns the personal cost of ambition.
Bred for Battle
A promoter searching for a champion in a famous fighting family uncovers a secret and forces a fearful young man to redefine courage.
So You Won't Talk
A drama critic becomes convinced that a parrot can identify the murderer of a society playboy.
Social Error
A tough guy's elaborate effort to impress a woman produces misunderstandings, revelations, and an unexpected shooting.
Cemetery Bait
A condemned safecracker tells a strange tale of loyalty, betrayal, and a surprisingly public-minded act.
Melancholy Dane
A critic's feud with an actor changes when the two are trapped together on a North African battlefield.
Brakemans Daughter
A suave Broadway womanizer is caught in a gangster's deadly joke involving the mysterious Brakeman's Daughter.
The Lacework Kid
A captured card sharp wagers his survival in a high-stakes wartime gin game against a Nazi commandant.
Maybe a Queen
A woman's determination to escape poverty conflicts with her lasting love for an ordinary shoe salesman.
Cast, Crew & Contributors
Every relationship below is backed by the current Golden Radio Hour smart index. Open a profile, or use the broadcast count to see the exact recordings connecting that person to this program.
Damon Runyon
Jeff Chandler
Gerald Mohr
Frank Lovejoy
William Conrad