he New York writer Damon Runyon (1880-1946) was the man who created that black humor you see in mafia movies directed by Martin Scorcese. He wrote early in the twentieth century in a tradition not dissimilar to what the British writer Arthur Morrison did in his Tales of Mean Street, which was set in London. Like him Damon Runyon used his native dialect and very colorful characters from the lower classes of the big city. Thus he created many of the myths about the New York mafia that we today recognize from the movies.
This is an edited episode of The Damon Runyon Theater, an old time radio show from 1949, with added AI video to set the stage.
