Runyon 4x-xx-xx ep01 Tobias the Terrible

Everyone knows Broadway is in New York. The Broadway, that is, it has a dozen aliases, but whether it's called The Big Drag, The Gay White Way, or Just The Street, it means that bustling stretch of Midtown Manhattan that is at once garish or beautiful, hard-hearted or soft-hearted, cynical or naive, depending on how you look at it or feel about it.

To some people, it can be all those at the same time. One of those people was Damon Runyon. Damon Runyon, one of America's greatest storytellers, knew people and loved them. And because he did, people loved him.

Damon Runyon told his stories through the eyes and mouth of a character who seems to have no name. We call him Broadway because Broadway seems to be his only home, and he is satisfied with it and happy.

He knows all the guys and dogs and they know him. How Broadway makes a living is a mystery and one we'd rather not solve. We accept him, and because we do, we accept his stories as true.

Anyway, here is Broadway. Thanks. One night I am sitting in Mindy's restaurant on Broadway, partaking hardly as some Hungarian goulash which comes very nice in Mindy's, when in pops a guy who is a stranger to me, and sits down at my table.

In short, I do not know this guy. But it turns out later that we are all calling him to bias the terrible. And how that comes about is quite a story, which I will tell in a minute.

And now back to the Damon Runyon Theatre and the famous story, to bias the terrible. As I am saying, I am partaken of Mindy's Hungarian goulash when in pops a guy who was a stranger to me and sits down at my taper.