"Cinderella Man" origin?; More "Big Apple" specialists?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 02:16:42 EDT, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

>CINDERELLA MAN
>...
>_http://www.imdb.com/find?q=%22cinderella%20man%22;s=all_
>(http://www.imdb.com/find?q="cinderella%20man";s=all)
>_The Cinderella Man_ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0007795/)  (1917)
>...
>I haven't seen the movie CINDERELLA MAN, but was the  nickname influenced
>by the 1917 movie of the same title?

As mentioned in numerous reviews of the movie, Damon Runyon gave Jim
Braddock the "Cinderella Man" nickname. See also Jeremy Schaap's new book
_Cinderella Man: James Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in
Boxing History_. I checked the book using the Amazon search feature but
didn't see an exact quote from Runyon. Schaap simply says that in the
leadup to the title fight with Baer in June 1935, Runyon, covering boxing
for the _New York American_ "had recently dubbed Braddock the Cinderella
Man" (p. 240).

No idea if Runyon nicked the nickname from the 1917 movie.


--Ben Zimmer