Our Past Is Present October 11, 2018

October 11, 2018

            You are reading to “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            Damon Runyan was born in 1880 in nearby Manhattan, Kansas.  Runyon gained fame in the 1920’s and 30’s as the author of stories about the colorful characters which peopled New York City’s Broadway Stages in that era.  His show, “Guys and Dolls” became familiar to readers and theatergoers worldwide as Runyon’s stories were published in foreign languages and converted into stage and move adaptations. 

            While a star reporter for the Hearst newspapers for over 30 years, Runyon kept up a steady production of fiction works with which he quickly gained a long lasting and devoted following until his death in 1946.  The Junction City connection was acknowledged in Runyon’s own words.  This came about through the literary success of another native son, Joseph Stanley Pennell.  In 1944 Pennell published a novel, The History of Rome Hanks and Kindred Matters, which enjoyed success, received extraordinary reviews and sold more than 100,000 copies.  It was this novel that prompted a tongue-in-cheek review of the book by Runyon, which was printed in the “Junction City Union” newspaper in 1944. Near the end of the article, Runyon wrote: “ I note that Pennell is a newspaperman and was born and brought up in Junction City, Kansas where he wrote the novel .  This interests me, because my old man once lived in Junction City.  In fact, that is where he married my mother Elizabeth Damon.”

            Damon Runyon died of throat cancer in 1946 and was cremated and his ashes were illegally scattered from a DC-3 airplane over Broadway in New York City by Captain Ernie Rickenbacker.

            And… that’s today’s story on “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.