" The Red Key is a great institution.

 

It is part of my own personal history - and many people can say the same thing! My first legendary meeting there occurred in the Christmas vacation of 1954, when I met Ted Steeg to talk about his going to Columbia on the GI Bill. He became one of my best friends in life - we roomed together in Greenwich Village before he got married, and he was the inspiration of the character "Gunner" in my novel Going All The Way. He and I took Ben Affleck and Jeremy Davies to The Red Key the week before we filmed the movie of the novel, and there are two scenes set in The Red Key in the movie. The movie even has the real line from life, when Gunner wants another beer and says 'Hit me again, Russ.' That's part of history!"