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Any Jean Shepherd fans around? (Original Post) bedazzled Oct 2020 OP
I liked his travel show on PBS and some of his books. Buckeye_Democrat Oct 2020 #1
He was very talented! You might like the radio show bedazzled Oct 2020 #4
I'll look for them! Buckeye_Democrat Oct 2020 #8
If you like the past you might enjoy it bedazzled Oct 2020 #11
i subscribe to Old Time Radio and sometimes listen to him as I drift to sleep.. samnsara Oct 2020 #2
He still lulls me to sleep bedazzled Oct 2020 #3
This message was self-deleted by its author Thunderbeast Oct 2020 #5
Excelsior, you fatheads! rsdsharp Oct 2020 #6
I think a lot of his playboy stuff ended up in his books bedazzled Oct 2020 #7
Was there another reason to read Playboy? rsdsharp Oct 2020 #12
Seltzer bottle! SeattleVet Oct 2020 #13
That's where I first found him, too. dixiegrrrrl Oct 2020 #14
We had him come speak at my high school (ca. 1968) ! fierywoman Oct 2020 #9
He was great, back in the day. RelativelyJones Oct 2020 #10
There are a ton of his shows available on The Brass Figlagee podcast. SeattleVet Oct 2020 #15
What a terrific story! bedazzled Oct 2020 #16

Buckeye_Democrat

(14,846 posts)
1. I liked his travel show on PBS and some of his books.
Sat Oct 24, 2020, 01:54 PM
Oct 2020

And the iconic movie, A Christmas Story, which made me aware of him long ago.

Very funny! Reminded me of a modern-day Mark Twain in some ways.

bedazzled

(1,727 posts)
4. He was very talented! You might like the radio show
Sat Oct 24, 2020, 01:57 PM
Oct 2020

He did a broadcast the night Kennedy was assassinated. Heartbreaking. He was mostly funny, tho.

bedazzled

(1,727 posts)
11. If you like the past you might enjoy it
Sat Oct 24, 2020, 02:08 PM
Oct 2020

You can hear the original tale of the frozen tongue. He did a show about ball lightning that had me hysterical.

Response to bedazzled (Original post)

rsdsharp

(9,035 posts)
6. Excelsior, you fatheads!
Sat Oct 24, 2020, 01:59 PM
Oct 2020

I used to love reading his stuff in Playboy. A teacher recommended Wanda Hickey’s Night Of Golden Memories when I was a junior in high school. I almost peed my pants reading it.

bedazzled

(1,727 posts)
7. I think a lot of his playboy stuff ended up in his books
Sat Oct 24, 2020, 02:01 PM
Oct 2020

I am a female and never read playboy, even for the articles! 😀

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
14. That's where I first found him, too.
Sat Oct 24, 2020, 02:39 PM
Oct 2020

Last edited Sat Oct 24, 2020, 03:52 PM - Edit history (1)


I gave my husband annual subs to Playboy just so I could read people like Shephard, and see the
Gahan Wilson cartoons. Centuries ago, it seems.
"since when do we use red thread on a green monster?" for some reason cracked me up for years.

Here's the toon on this page:
https://whosouttherecomics.wordpress.com/category/panel-cartoon-cornucopia/page/3/

Ohhhh.....tricked by 59 year old memories....the artist was Bernard Kliban.....my bad. The toon is the same, tho.

SeattleVet

(5,468 posts)
15. There are a ton of his shows available on The Brass Figlagee podcast.
Sat Oct 24, 2020, 03:19 PM
Oct 2020

I was listening to them a few years ago and suddenly heard my own name come out!

Here's the backstory...

I'm this kid, see, growing up just north of NYC in Mount Vernon, a short 5-minute walk to the end of the line of the subway in the north Bronx. It's the late 60's, and we're doing all of the usual kid stuff that 7th & 8th graders did...building and flying model rockets, goofing off, milling around, exploring out little piece of the orbiting dirtball. I had discovered Shep one night while tuning around on the radio, and I heard this weird music, then I listened as this guy came on and told the most wonderful tales. I turned my friend onto him.

One night on his show he announced that he was doing his "Second Annual Name Show". All you had to do was send in a postcard with your name and hometown, and he'd read them on the air. That was it...he's just read the names and hometowns. We got a couple of postcards and sent them in. Of course, being rebellious youth we also added to the requested information. "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash" had been out for a while, and I asked when his next book was coming out. My friend knew that Shep was a private pilot, and mentioned "I fly, too" (we were cadets in the Civil Air Patrol, and would regularly be flying a Cessna around the area, with an adult in the left seat while we took the controls.)

So here I am, 40+ years later, on the opposite end of the country (I had moved to Seattle by then), and I'm listening to a radio show that someone had recorded half a lifetime and ago, across the continent. Shep's reading the names, I've got the earbuds in and am half-listening while I work, and all of a sudden I hear my name come out, along with, "When's your next book coming out?" (He was working on it.) The next card was my friend's. Name, and "I fly, too!", and Shep responds with, "Well, yeah, but I use an airplane, kid." I sit there, totally stunned. Sending the postcards had been totally forgotten over the intervening years, but in one flash, for a moment, I was transported back to the summer when it all happened.

If you get a chance, pick up a copy of Eugene B. Bergman's "Excelsior, You Fathead! The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd". It wasn't all fun and games and great stories...like most of us, there were some major flaws in Shep's character, but he rarely ever let any of it come out in his on-the-air persona.

bedazzled

(1,727 posts)
16. What a terrific story!
Sat Oct 24, 2020, 04:10 PM
Oct 2020

What a gift that you happened upon that episode! I had heard shep was a bit challenging. I will.have to pick up that book. Thanks for sharing!

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