Man, what a sheltered life I’ve led.
A couple of weeks ago, a visitor at my I Remember JFK nostalgia site suggested that I write a column about Jean Shepherd.
I went “Who?”
Well, I am now a dyed-in-the-wool fan of this absolutely captivating radio storyteller.
Jean Shepherd was born in 1921. His first radio gig was at a Cincinnati station in 1948. Eight years later, he landed at WOR in New York City, which would be his home for many years. He had a late-night show where he would wax poetic for hours with rambling tales about all sorts of things that his listeners found irresistible.
Shepherd was once fired by WOR for his refusal to allow commercials on his show. Finally, he relented, and endorsed Sweetheart soap. The problem was that Sweetheart soap was NOT a sponsor. He was promptly released, and the public went wild with rage.
The station was besieged with angry phone calls and letters. Even Sweetheart soap offered to become a genuine sponsor. So Shep was rehired and stayed there until 1977.
He narrated a movie based on one of his stories called A Christmas Story that was released in 1983 that was a huge hit, and holds a rating of 8.0 at IMDB.com.
Today’s FamilyFirst pick is an archive of Shepherd recordings that contains many hours of this amazing storyteller’s accounts. My suggestion: Visit the site, load up a track, and continue to surf the web while Shep rolls on in the background.
http://shep-archives.com/
