von Ebers mentioned Jean Shepherd in a post responding to my video blog, or “Vlog” which I posted yesterday. He, and later, Seattle Dan heartily endorsed in their comments the movie “A Thousand Clowns”, which I have never seen but which, based on their recommendations, I will most certainly check out because whose opinions are to be more respected than those of theirs? The question is so ridiculous on its face and in its grammatical construction as to be rendered rhetorical and unforgivably silly: The answer is “nobody”! (Except for democommie, of course).
Anyway, for you Jean Shepherd fans out there (he’s best known as the author of “A Christmas Story” in which Ralphie wants a Red Raider Air Rifle for Christmas more than anything else in the world) I’ve got a link I think you will like.
Shepherd spent much of his career doing a daily story-telling in afternoon drive on WOR Radio in New York City. If you follow the link – which is sort of the point of this particular exercise – you will find his telling of the story of his participation in Martin Luther Kings’ march on Washington, D.C. in August, 1963. I enjoyed it as much as anything I have ever heard on the radio – including my own work, and I have to tell you, I am flat-out, head-over-heels in love with the sound of my own voice…
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1414581
Peace out…
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5 comments:
JEAN SHEPHERD (note spelling), the multi-talented radio humorist was obviously the model for the main character in the play and movie "A Thousand Clowns," written by his close friend at the time (until the movie camE out) Herb Gardner. Shepherd not only created the movie "A Christmas Story," but he narrated the entire thing. It's a really good movie, yet doesn't compare to his decades of extemporaneous radio work. Although he may have broadcast a bit in the afternoon in 1955 (nobody has yet claimed to hear or record these programs), his main claim to fame and admiration comes from his night-time broadcasts--the earliest, I believe, being 9:30 P.M., some 10:30 weeknights, and his Sunday night program from as early as 9:05 P.M. to 1:00 A.M.
See the website flicklives.com and my book, EXCELSIOR, YOU FATHEAD! THE ART AND ENIGMA OF JEAN SHEPHERD.
Thank you, Mr. Bergmann. I hate making a fundamental mistake like misspelling a name (I just misspelled "misspelling" but Spell Check caught it). Now I had heard that Mr. Shepherd's extemporaneous story-telling segment came in the 5 o'clock hour but I cannot recall the sourcing for that. I did know that he was the narrator in "A Christmas Story." My main point though, was that the audio to which I linked blew me away and I listen to it from time to time just because it is so good. It's the only example of his work of this kind by Jean Shepherd that I've come across, so I'm excited to check out the sources you've mentioned. And congratulations on your book!
I met Jean Sjepurd (note misspelling) in the pages of Playboy--between the photos of impossibly endowed women who lacked pubic triangles or any apparent external nether region sex organs whatsoever. Bob Guccione fixed the latter problem for me a few years later (well, actually I had already confirmed my suspicions of the apparent dichotomy between male and female anatomy, independently) but I still miss seein a new Jean Chepurt story from time to time.
"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, if the Camel's don't get you, the
Fatima's must!"
Loved Jean Shepard’s bit, by the way. That’s great stuff, and it does the soul good to know a guy like that, from, what, Gary, Indiana or something, was, in the end, a guy like us.
One of my brothers likes to quote a line from the movie Gardens of Stone: “Here’s to us and people like us.”
Thanks for that link, Richard.
Damn. I spelled his name wrong again.
Sigh.
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