There are few homecoming traditions bigger than a football game. Harvard and Yale have been playing an annual game since 1875. It’s so steeped in our culture that American icon Damon Runyon incorporated Yale football into a story.

This story, “Hold Em Yale” made it into a syndicated episode of The Damon Runyon Theatre airing out of NBC’s KFI in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 27th, 1949.

The show starred character actor John Brown as Broadway. Brown was born on April 4th, 1904 in Yorkshire, England. He emigrated to New York and began finding work on the stage. His first radio credit was in 1932. By 1949 he was an esteemed veteran.

The Damon Runyon Theatre was one of Alan Ladd's Mayfair productions. Ladd was an admirer of the late-Runyon’s long-running “Brighter Side” newspaper column.

Damon Runyon had passed away on December 10th, 1946. He’d spun fascinating, tongue-in cheek tales of gamblers, actors, gangsters, and beautiful women. He gave his characters colorful names like “Harry the Horse Thief,” “Good Time Charlie,” and “The Lemon Drop Kid.”

Ladd tapped John Brown to play Broadway. Brown was already playing a similar character on My Friend Irma.

The transcribed Damon Runyon Theatre first aired over the independent station KSEL, in Lubbock, Texas.

Because it was a syndicated show, it wasn’t beholden to network lines. It aired over NBC’s KFI Los Angeles beginning in January of 1949. The following June, it began airing over Mutual’s WOR in New York.

Supporting Brown were Hollywood’s radio regulars like Herb Vigran, Jack Moyles, William Conrad, Gerald Mohr, and Anne Whitfield. Richard Sanville directed. Fifty-two shows were produced on records.

Unfortunately for John Brown, just as television was coming in and his career was cresting, trouble was around the corner.