Summary: The Big Umbrella (Aired April 3, 1949) He was born Alfred Damon Runyan in Manhattan, Kansas, and grew up in Pueblo, Colorado, where Runyon Field and Runyon Lake are named after him. He was a third-generation newspaperman, and started in the trade under his father in Pueblo. He worked for various newspapers in the Rocky Mountain area; at one of those, the spelling of his last name was changed from "Runyan" to "Runyon", a change he let stand. After a notable failure in trying to organize a Colorado minor baseball league, Runyon moved to New York City in 1910. For the next ten years he covered the New York Giants and professional boxing for the New York American. In his first New York byline, the American editor dropped the "Alfred", and the name "Damon Runyon" appeared for the first time. Broadcast from January to December 1949, "The Damon Runyon Theatre" dramatized 52 of Runyon's short stories for radio. THIS EPISODE: April 3, 1949. Program #27. Mayfair syndication. "The Big Umbrella". Commercials added locally. Not every heavyweight folds when the going gets rough. Damon Runyon (author), John Brown, Richard Sanville (director), Russell Hughes (writer), Vern Carstensen (production supervisor), Frank Gallop (announcer). 27:53. Episode Notes From The Radio Gold Index.
