Damon Runyon

Next time you find yourself grumbling about a broken elevator, consider Nick Wirsching. On Sunday, the 22-year-old West Chicago man climbed the stairs at the Sears Tower four times—that's 8,436 steps —voluntarily. The feat set a record for...

Damon Runyon's colorful characters brought to musical life by composer Frank Loesser's 1950 hit Guys and Dolls remains high on most lists of great Broadway musicals. It seemed a safe bet that this timeless show about gamblers done by a lively young cast...

Money lifeline? You bet By Bill Ordine There are very few horsemen who would choose to rely on slot machines or other alternate forms of wagering to preserve their industry and an agrarian-based culture that predates the Industrial Revolution. However,...

True Crime An American Anthology Edited by Harold Schechter Library of America: 816 pp., $40 THE TITLE of this massive anthology, "True Crime," is misleading. Within these pages the reader will find nothing of the rich American literature of the...

Phyllis Welch MacDonald From Broadway to one film role Phyllis Welch MacDonald, 95, an actress whose brief but successful career took her from Broadway to Hollywood, died Sept. 26 of natural causes at her caretaker's home in San Mateo, Calif., said her...

A small envelope would come once in a while, familiar Evanston return address on the outside, familiar insight on the inside. Any word from Jerome Holtzman was welcome. He was a gruff man but a gentleman, a newspaper bulldog but an old softie, a U.S....

WE think we know Damon Runyon, and we might think we're pretty jaded about him, but a fat new anthology, " 'Guys and Dolls' and Other Writings" (Penguin: 636 pp., $18 paper), introduced by Pete Hamill and edited and annotated by Cornell professor Daniel...

Windy City By Scott Simon Random House, 419 pages, $25 The brief period in 1987 immediately following the death of Mayor Harold Washington, when Ald. David Orr temporarily replaced Washington, and Establishment candidate Eugene Sawyer and liberal...

Nellie May Madison got off on the wrong foot in life. She eloped at 13, married several times, chain-smoked, drank whiskey and, she'd later say, shot husband No. 5 in the back because he'd abused her. Convicted of murder, she was sentenced to death. In...

Events schedules frequently change. It's best to call the venue before you go. Annie Russell Theatre The theater is on the campus of Rollins College, 1000 Holt Ave., Winter Park. Season tickets are $50 and $60 for general audiences, $47 and $57 for...

"60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley, who won 19 Emmys over the course of his career, has died at the age of 65. The newsman died Thursday morning (Nov. 9) of leukemia at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, reports CBS. Bradley was with the critically...

"700 Sundays" began as a sad calculation. Right before my 50th birthday, I found myself thinking about how life has been like an express train whizzing by as I stand on the platform watching the blur, the wind and noise almost knocking me over. I...