Damon Runyon, born Alfred Damon Runyan on October 3, 1880, at the family home at 400 Osage, became a newspaperman and writer best known for short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City. He created humorous tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, many known by colorful names such as "Nathan Detroit," "Big Jule," "Harry the Horse," "Good Time Charley," and "Dave the Dude," and wrote in a distinctive vernacular style that mixed formal speech with slang, almost always used the present tense, and avoided contractions. The musical Guys and Dolls is based on two of his short stories, and he is regarded as the father of "Broadway" in New York City. His father edited the Manhattan Enterprise, now The Manhattan Mercury, and after the family moved from Manhattan in 1882, Runyon grew up in various communities, including Pueblo, Colorado, where he began working for his father and wrote for newspapers in the Rocky Mountain area. At one of those newspapers, the spelling of his last name changed from "Runyan" to "Runyon," and he later dropped "Alfred" from his name. He moved to New York City in 1910 and for the next ten years covered the New York Giants and professional boxing. Beginning in 1911, he was the Hearst newspapers' baseball columnist for many years, and his ability to spot the eccentric and unusual on the field and in the stands is credited with revolutionizing baseball coverage. In 1967 he was inducted into the writers' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Gambling was a common theme in his work, and he was himself a notorious gambler, remembered for paraphrasing Ecclesiastes with the saying, "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet." He died in New York City of throat cancer on December 10, 1946, and the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation was established in his honor.