01.25.2005 22:54
Jean Shepherd
Before Limbaugh, before sports and call in
shows, before 'A Prairie Home Companion', there was Jean Shepherd.
Broadcasting six nights a week on WOR in New York City (I listened
when the show came on at 10:15), Shep spent 45 minutes Mondays
through Fridays and two hours Saturdays spinning tales of growing
up in Hammond, Indiana, life in New York, serving in the Signal
Corps during World War II, girls, cars, working at the steel mill,
playing the kazoo, and you'd laugh so hard you'd have to bury your
face in the pillow. Nearly every show began and ended with Eduard
Strauss' Bahn Frei polka. Ever since then, I've been partial to
radio for entertainment.
The Shep Archives is a huge free library of his WOR shows, with some interviews and miscellany.
He wrote a couple of books, and while he writes about the same characters and events that he talked about, the printed word didn't carry the same expressiveness as the radio shows did. Shep was at his best ad libbing, with a spontaneity (as in this one for download or listening) completely missing from Garrison Keillor's scripted shows. His television production 'A Christmas Story' (forever remembered as 'You'll shoot your eye out, kid'), since it was visual and verbal, left too little to the imagination. There are different recorded versions. An early version is here for download or for listening here. You have to wait until he finishes some other stories first.
Download the 'Great Indiana Blizzard' or listen here. I'm making my way through the collection.
The Shep Archives is a huge free library of his WOR shows, with some interviews and miscellany.
He wrote a couple of books, and while he writes about the same characters and events that he talked about, the printed word didn't carry the same expressiveness as the radio shows did. Shep was at his best ad libbing, with a spontaneity (as in this one for download or listening) completely missing from Garrison Keillor's scripted shows. His television production 'A Christmas Story' (forever remembered as 'You'll shoot your eye out, kid'), since it was visual and verbal, left too little to the imagination. There are different recorded versions. An early version is here for download or for listening here. You have to wait until he finishes some other stories first.
Download the 'Great Indiana Blizzard' or listen here. I'm making my way through the collection.
