Members Jeff Leites Posted August 28, 2009 Members Share Posted August 28, 2009 No, not the singer, the guy that had a talk show on WOR (New York), broadcasting stories of his youth and his observances of mankind. Probably most noted nation wide for his Christmas Story. [YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE] If you were a fan, and want to take a trip back in time, you can download hundreds of his old radio shows here: http://jeanshepherdpodcast.blogspot.com/ I've loaded up my mp3 player, and listen to the old shows while going for long walks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members halfnote Posted August 28, 2009 Members Share Posted August 28, 2009 I remember that cat, though not that well. Sorta Spalding Gray but with less superciliousness...or Garrison Keillor but with... Thanks! Here's some more stuff... http://www.keyflux.com/shep/ http://www.metafilter.com/32044/The-Jean-Sheperd-Archives Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted August 28, 2009 CMS Author Share Posted August 28, 2009 Didn't he also write a monthly column for one of the car magazines in the 60s and 70s? Or was that a different Jean Shepherd? Or someone else entirely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flemtone Posted August 28, 2009 Members Share Posted August 28, 2009 yep, listened to him religiously, read his books, caught the movies based on his works. I think I liked 'Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories' best, though 'In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash' was hysterical at times. Excellent writer, great narrator - unfortunately, kind of a prick in real life. I have a friend who's been working on a Jean Shepherd site for several years: Flick Lives! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff Leites Posted August 28, 2009 Author Members Share Posted August 28, 2009 Didn't he also write a monthly column for one of the car magazines in the 60s and 70s? Or was that a different Jean Shepherd? Or someone else entirely? That was probably him. He also wrote a few articles for Playboy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Eugene B. Bergm Posted August 28, 2009 Members Share Posted August 28, 2009 Yes, Jean Shepherd wrote a column for Car and Driver for several years. He also wrote for a jazz magazine and a jazz column for an audio magazine. He was a jazz musician in words--improvising his nightly program--no script, almost no guests (only 4 in 21 years), little music. He was named by a jazz magazine, "jazz personality of the year," and improvised his narration for Charles Mingus' "The Clown." His first recording was JEAN SHEPHERD INTO THE UNKNOWN WITH JAZZ MUSIC. He wrote the liner notes for his best friend Shel Silverstein's first record, HAIRY JAZZ. He wrote 23 short stories for PLAYBOY MAGAZINE and also did their Beatles interview for them. The best site for info on him is www.flicklives.com where you'll find that my above info about him is but the tip of the glacier. My book, EXCELSIOR, YOU FATHEAD! THE ART AND ENIGMA OF JEAN SHEPHERD is the only one written about him. He was a multi-media genius. The movie A CHRISTMAS STORY, which he created and narrated (as fine as it is) is one of his lesser creations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff Leites Posted August 28, 2009 Author Members Share Posted August 28, 2009 :thu: Eugene - Did you personally know him? I never met him, but I got to see him do a life show once, around 1970 at a high school in Bucks County. One of my ham buddies got to talk to him on the radio, but I was never so lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Eugene B. Bergm Posted August 28, 2009 Members Share Posted August 28, 2009 I only saw him in person once, at a gathering (a "mill" as he called it) at the Horn and Hardart Automat in 1957. He signed my copy of his hoax book, I, LIBERTINE and I poped a photo flashbulb in his face. the resultant photo is in my book along with about 3 dozen others. By the way, he was also the emcee at numerous major jazz concerts in the late 1950s, including several with Billie Holiday. Actually, he said on a broadcast that he was to be emcee at a Central Park concert that included Holiday, and I did see him and Holiday there, but I was about 100 yards or more away from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Eugene B. Bergm Posted August 28, 2009 Members Share Posted August 28, 2009 The photo of him on my book cover is the ultimate, classic shot of him. I can't even think of him any other way--but over the years he changed his look so dramatically so many times in photos that he seems to be at least a dozen people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Eugene B. Bergm Posted August 29, 2009 Members Share Posted August 29, 2009 Regarding Jean Shepherd's strong jazz-oriented talk and sound on radio, the holy grail is his very laid-back, jazzy style when he was on from one in the morning until five-thirty at least five times a week. This was from January until mid-August, 1956. Some remember hearing him then, but no one has come up with audios. We Shep-kooks seek recordings of his programs from this period. Anybody have clues where these might be found? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted August 29, 2009 Members Share Posted August 29, 2009 Wow... I read a few of his collections, including 'Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories' and 'In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash' -- which struck me as hilarious. I'm pretty sure I got on to him through Playboy which was allowed on the coffee table of my house in the 60s when I was growing up. Of course, it was a much different magazine then, filled with great articles and fiction and relatively tame and amusingly silly soft porn. And I think I knew vaguely about him writing about sports cars and racing. But some of these other details are new to me. Wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Eugene B. Bergm Posted August 29, 2009 Members Share Posted August 29, 2009 Besides all the stuff already noted, his "mills," in which people just gathered quietly, then dispersed, were forerunners of recent "flashmobs." He perpetrated a great literary hoax with his listeners, in which they requested from bookstores an imaginary book, I, LIBERTINE,(1956) by an imaginary writer, Frederick R. Ewing. Reportedly it became a "best seller" without even existing, the media began talking about it, people "discussed" having read it at cocktail parties, etc. and it was eventually written by Shepherd and SciFi writer Theodore Sturgeon, becoming a real best seller with more than 200,000in print, mostly in softcover, with a smaller hardcover printing, plus Great Britain hardcover and paperbacks. Shepherd is the model for the Jason Robards character in A THOUSAND CLOWNS (written by his friend Herb Gardner), undoubtedly also the inspiration for the Jack Nicholson character, a late-night radio talker in THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS, and Shepherd's bit involving listeners putting their radios on their windowsills while Shep yelled out an "invective" is the inspiration for the deranged newscaster in the film NETWORK telling his listeners to yell out their windows, "I'm mad as as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." Shepherd, who frequently complained that people thought he was a woman because his name was spelled JEAN, is the inspiration for his best friend Shel Silverstein's song, A BOY NAMED SUE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jeff Leites Posted August 29, 2009 Author Members Share Posted August 29, 2009 Shepherd, who frequently complained that people thought he was a woman because his name was spelled JEAN... I just recently listened to the recording of the show where he explained that. His father, also "Jean", was named after Jean Valjean, a character from Les Mis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Eugene B. Bergm Posted August 29, 2009 Members Share Posted August 29, 2009 I'm not aware of the connection between the Bahn Frei Polka and the length of a horse race. Shepherd said from time to time that he chose it because it was so terrible--I love it! Hearing it indicates that Shep is near. Keith Olbermann, MSNBC broadcaster, is a big Shepherd fan--he used to sign off sometimes with the Shepherd saying "Keep your knees loose," but now his tribute to Shep is in his silly little video clips near the end of the show when the sometimes-hard-to-hear background music is indeed Bahn Frei. The flicklives.com website for Jean Shepherd is indeed extensive and wonderful-- but it's not mine, it's maintained by Shep fan Jim Clavin all these years. He does a great job. I've contributed various materials to it from time to time, so you'll find my name as "courtesy of" or similar here and there. He also kindly gives info about my book, for which I'm especially grateful. I'm delighted with any and all questions and comments about Shep, so don't hesitate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flemtone Posted August 29, 2009 Members Share Posted August 29, 2009 Now, if someone would only do a Klavan and Finch website... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.