Footnotes

• Damon Runyon (1880-1946) began his career as a sports writer for Hearst newspapers' baseball and boxing columns; however, his true interest laid in the subculture of gambling that happened around sporting events. While Runyon wrote throughout the teens and twenties, it was during the depression that his work gained popularity. His stories about the gangsters, pick pockets, show girls, and rum runners of Broadway's demi-monde attracted readers due to Runyon's innate sense of humor and flair for colorful language. Two of his stories, "The Idyll of Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure," were the basis for the popular musical Guys and Dolls. After his death, Runyon's good friend, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, scattered Runyon's ashes over Times Square from a plane per the author's request, a fitting end for the unique Broadway writer Frank Capra once dubbed, "the creator of the American fairy tale."
  
  A true icon of the New York literary scene, Runyon bequeathed this rare Cartier watch to a close friend and it was passed by descent to its present owner. The watch is inscribed in an imitation of Runyon's handwriting, "Damon Runyon, New York, American."

Auction Notices

• The case is 36.5 mm long and 20 mm wide.

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Category: Clocks and Watches / Watches

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