Comments on: HV067- Jean Shepherd 1

By: Eugene B. Bergmann

Eugene B. Bergmann — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:36:33 +0000

Many hundreds of complete Jean Shepherd broadcasts are available free on iTunes (podcasts= the brass figlagee) The one about the code school is from 4/13/65, and it’s also on the 2-hour NPR tribute, “A VOICE IN THE NIGHT.”
Also find hundreds of his broadcasts on ebay under his name, and from http://www.oldtimeradio.com of Max Schmid.
Anyone wanting a 500 page description and appreciation of Shepherd’s work, try my book EXCELSIOR, YOU FATHEAD! THE ART AND ENIGMA OF JEAN SHEPHERD.
Shepherd is alive and well at the flicklives.com site and on the shep@yahoo.com email discussion group, as well as in his books andin his videos such as Jean Shepherd’s America. His movie creation, A CHRISTMAS STORY, can be seen for 24 hours straight starting Christmas Eve on Turner’s cable TV.
EXCELSIOR!

By: gary heiden

gary heiden — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 07:32:10 +0000

Jean Sheperd was one of a kind. if you started to listen to one of his stories you couldnt stop listening and once you listen to one of his stories you had to hear them all. he was habit forming. there is no way you can talk about american culture in the 1950 & 60′s without mentioning his astounding wacky sense of humor and eye to detail.

thanks for all the memories shep.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:01:22 +0000

Started listening to Jean when I was 12 in my summer place: Amagansett, L.I. A boy named Mike McCleary told me about him. I was hooked right away and so were my parents. I listened for as long as I could (years), but eventually married and moved to VA and couldn’t hear WOR. Saw Jean at the Limelight once. I still listen to tapes of his show.
Mike – if you’re still out there somewhere, Thanks! Leave me a message at: 212-462-9043.

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:32:13 +0000

Thank You – this is great!

By: Gail

Gail — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:40:31 +0000

Turned on WNPR last night to find Jean Shepherd telling me a story to ease me to sleep, just like in high school. I was probably the only kid who went to bed by 10:15 to hear him. Flick lives!

By: JM in San Diego CA

JM in San Diego CA — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:20:06 +0000

I learned about Shep from my 8th grade English teacher, which means 1956/57. I actually met him once, sort of. He did a Saturday morning show for a while and did a remote from a store about three miles from where we lived. Oddly, he had no PA, so hearing him was an effort, but I managed to catch much of what he was saying into the mike. At a couple of points I smiled in reaction to what he said and he looked to me for reaction, smiling in return. It is a solid, if fleeting memory. I could not stay to the end of the broadcast, to actually meet him, but I got close enough.

I joined the Navy in 1962 and thought I’d have to give up Shep. No, I was stationed in Virginia and Maryland, two years each. I could get the WOR signal fairly well in both places. He also had “Jean Shepherd’s America” on PBS in the early 70s, I think.

Excelsior!

By: John Rehm

John Rehm — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:39:45 +0000

Like Bob Krist (above), I listened to Jean Shepherd in the dark in my bed with a LAFAYETTE transistor radio under my pillow. I loved his stories. In high school, Bill Scheuerman and I would swap these stories and our reactions the next day, if we were not poking each other with our pencil points.

The theme song came back to me in an unusual manner. I was running a field test on a well, I was sitting in a chair under a tall bush. I was about to ham it up for a digital video that I was going to make for my kids and for a few appreciative friends. I took off with silly riding gestures and the tune became Shep’s theme song.

By: Maureen

Maureen — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:19:33 +0000

My dad worshiped Jean Shepherd. I found ‘Wanda Hickey’ in his bookshelf at about age 12 and devoured it and anything else by Mr. Shepherd that I could find at the library.
When A Christmas Story hit HBO a few years after its release, I watched it and kept thinking ‘There is something VERY familiar about this story!’. Well of course there was.
Now I have a daughter of my own and each holiday season we have a traditional Xmas wrapping night with Ralphie and family on the tube. I’ll have to send my dad the URLs for these rebroadcasts – it will make his day! Thanks Harry!

By: Barry Levy

Barry Levy — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:22:59 +0000

Unlike many of Shep’s listeners who were city raised, I was a kid in the late ’50s down the Jersey Shore, way down the Jersey Shore, that is, in a quiet town of 3,000 or so on a small barrier island, Brigantine. The expanse of open sea and sparsely populated islands between WOR’s transmitter and my bedroom radio made reception possible, if the skies were clear and the wind was northerly. It was a hit-or-miss affair most nights, the signal wavering in and out, too often out just as one of his great stories was winding to a conclusion and my eyelids became ever heavier. I especially liked and remember best his stories about his time in the Army, service highlighted by duty in a Mess Kit Repair Battalion. His was a great voice in the night for a 12 year-old, sorely missed and so fondly recalled by a 65 year-old living now on a far distant coast.

By: Art Gertel

Art Gertel — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:42:51 +0000

Like others who have written in, I listened to Shep on my old tube radio every night on WOR. Saturday nights were special, as he broadcast live from The Limelight in Greenwich Village. I learned of Jean Shepherd from my Mom – a big fan, and for my 8th grade graduation(1967), she took me and 2 friends to The Limelight to see him live. This was an absolute highlight. Also saw him for many years at Richardson Auditorium at Princeton U., where he performed at the annual reunions. He is sorely missed.

Flick Lives! Excelsior!

By: Bob Krist

Bob Krist — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:37:05 +0000

Many thanks to Harry Shearer for airing these tributes to Shep.

I grew up in northern NJ in the 60s and my brother and I would listen to those WOR broadcasts in our bedroom most nights, and marvel at this man who spun such great stories.

He is so under-appreciated (the year he passed away, the NYT magazine didn’t include him in their annual memorial issue, even though there were a couple of Hungarian performance artists and others like that who made the cut) that it is great that Harry gave him this hearing again.

I’ve been downloading podcasts of his shows from the 60s and it is amazing how prescient he was about our culture!

By: dan

dan — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:18:35 +0000

Can someone help me track down the date of the original broadcast of the story featured in part I — the one about the ‘slow’ coding class? i want to hear the rest!

By: Ted Lehmann

Ted Lehmann — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:49:57 +0000

I remember driving home with a friend one Christmas Eve from Philadelphia after seeing “Sound of Music” in first run. Shepherd was telling the story of being a G.I. stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey and going to the USO canteen in New York on a cold, wet Christmas Eve, alone and deeply separated from his Gary, Ind. home. We rode home quietly, listening to his hypnotic voice weaving a tale of a lonely soldier and were caught for the entire hour. His shows were often magic to me. Also remember very clearly his recitation of the “Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert W. Service. Great Stuff

By: Dick

Dick — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:35:10 +0000

Having lived in the Bronx in the Shepherd era, Jean was and is one of the greatest memories of that time. I couldn’t wait for his broadcast !!!!
I must have been permanently affected because I have learned from the Master how to think “out of the box”. I only wish I had 10% of the storytelling mastery that Jean Shepherd did. The world would be such a better place if the population could see the world filtered through the eyes of this wonderful giant. I miss him greatly to this very day and am greatful to have NPR continue to stay at the top of the world in my eyes for presenting this opportunity to hear Jean again.
It brings tears to my eyes at the loss of his greatness !!!!!!
R.S.

By: a.j.hughes

a.j.hughes — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:18:43 +0000

Jean had stopped broadcasting the year I came to the US but I heard a him a couple of times in WBAI in NYC and I especially remember the story of the steel mill job which reduced me to a helpless wreck, convulsed in paroxisms of laughter; a near death experience but, in hindsight, not a bad way to go.
gracie Harry, grazie

By: Roberta Strugger

Roberta Strugger — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:10:38 +0000

I grew up listening to Jean Shepherd on my father’s transistor radio tucked under my pillow at night. His stories transported me to a world that took me away from all of my childhood worries. He was one of our great American storytellers and is so sorely missed.

We no longer have people like Shepherd who could wax poetic on almost any topic imaginable.

In listening to this great retrospective, all of the people who were interviewed have nothing but respect and reverence for this man, just like me.

I love radio; it is the medium of the mind. The imagination can soar to a place where you can swear you have been. That’s exactly what Shepherd did; I smelled the red cabbage and meatloaf, I saw the goofy gang of friends, I had the weird parents. Thank you Jean Shepherd. Thank you Harry Shearer for this great retrospective, and most of all thank you NPR.

By: carol brys

carol brys — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 11:52:42 +0000

Like legions of others, I listened to Shep every night while in my teens in the 70′s. My dad was a great fan and introduced him to us. I even had the privilege of meeting Shep at booksignings at the old Brentano’s on 8th St. I cherish my signed copies of Wanda Hickey and The Ferrari in the Bedroom.

Thanks to Harry for bringing this incredible talent to a new generation, and reminding the rest of us of how much he brought into our lives.

By: Roger Kulp

Roger Kulp — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:22:23 +0000

As a child,in the late 60s,and 70s,I used to listen to Shep all the time on WOR.There are those that keep his shows alive in the 21st century,like Max Schmid of WBAI,who always has three or four shows on his website.
http://www.flicklives.com/Mass_Back/index.asp 3

By: Sherrod Bumgardner

Sherrod Bumgardner — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:43:11 +0000

Listened to this broadcast today via Armed Forces Radio in Europe. Many thanks for a wonderful, intelligent show. Am looking forward to part 2!

By: marjorie smuts

marjorie smuts — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:06:07 +0000

I was just introduced to jean sheppard today on HEARING VOICES….what a fantastic storyteller!

thank you,thank you,thank you

By: Ingrid Andersen

Ingrid Andersen — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:20:02 +0000

I listened to your show this morning (8/16) with great interest. I, too, discovered Jean Shepherd in high school. You are right — he made people feel connected through their common humanity. The late fifties & early sixties were a time when I and most young people I knew felt very alienated. There was a big disconnect between how reality was being described by most people and how it really was.

I remember listening to the news when John Glenn orbited the earth and was trying to describe the sight of our planet from space, something probably imagined by every educated human being, but now actually being witnessed by an American for the first time. What a significant occasion for mankind! As an astronaut — a technician, really — he stumbled through some sort of inadequate report and I felt that familiar, disheartening sense deep inside me, a feeling that we were being cheated yet again — “Man,” I thought to myself, “they should have sent a POET up there!” Later that same night, I was vindicated to hear Shep say the same thing on his show…