http://www.metafilter.com/tags/JeanSheperd Posts tagged with 'JeanSheperd' at MetaFilter. Sat, 27 Mar 2004 10:10:20 -0800 Sat, 27 Mar 2004 10:10:20 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/32044/The%2DJean%2DSheperd%2DArchives <small><em>10:15 P.M. The WOR news and weather are out of the way. A bugle sounds, and a sprightly theme song comes trotting on the air. The theme has a double meaning: it is the one that calls the horses to the gate at Aqueduct, and it is the Bahnfrei Overture, composed for an operetta by Eduard Strauss, the only member of the Strauss family who did not make good. Presently, Shepherd's clear, rowdy voice intrudes. "Okay, gang are you ready to play radio? Are you ready to shuffle off the mortal coil of mediocrity? I am if you are." There is a noise like a mechanized Bronx cheer (Brrapp!)- it is Shepherd blowing his kazoo. At other times he twangs his Jew's-harp (Brroing!). "Yes, you fatheads out there in the darkness, you losers in the Sargasso Sea of existence, take heart, because WOR, in its never ending crusade of public service, is once again proud to bring you--(Erocia Symphony Up)-- <a href="http://www.keyflux.com/shep/shepharp.htm" title="Jean Shepherd: Radio's Noble Savage">The Jean Shepherd Program</a>!"</em></small><br><br> A man no longer known for much besides <em><a href="http://www.ivillage.com/books/print/0,,603234,00.html" title="I imagined innumerable situations calling for the instant and irrevocable need for a BB gun, great fantasies where I fended off creeping marauders burrowing through the snow toward the kitchen, where only I and I alone stood between our tiny huddled family and insensate Evil. Masked bandits attacking my father, to be mowed down by my trusted cloverleaf-sighted deadly weapon. I seriously mulled over the possibility of an invasion of raccoons, of which there were several in the county. Acts of selfless Chivalry defending Esther Jane Alberry from escaped circus tigers. Time and time again I saw myself a miraculous crack shot, picking off sparrows on the wing to the gasps of admiring girls and envious rivals on Cleveland Street. There was one dream that involved my entire class getting lost on a field trip in the swamps, wherein I led the tired, hungry band back to civilization, using only my Red Ryder compass and sundial. There was no question about it. Not only should I have such a gun, it was an absolute necessity!">A Christmas Story</a></em>, Jean Sheperd was the greatest radio raconteur ever. Here is the greatest Jean Sheperd fansite so far--<a href="http://www.keyflux.com/shep/shepmain.htm" title="Jean Shepherd was a writer, humorist, satirist, actor, radio raconteur, TV & film personality and an American original. He was a master story teller in the league of Mark Twain, S.J. Perlman and P.G. Wodehouse. Taking bits and pieces from his own life, he weaved tales of the joys, humor, intrigue and angst of growing up. His youth in Hammond, Indiana, his adventures in the Army Signal Corps and stories of the obscure and infamous were all fertile sources for his tales. For almost three decades, he told these stories to eager radio audiences. In Cincinnati between 1950 and 1954 Shep did a DJ show from Shuller's Wigwam on WSAI and a nightly comedy show on WLW called ''Rear Bumpers''. This led to a television version at KYW in Philadelphia. In 1956 Shep moved to the Big Apple on WOR New York where for 21 years listeners all over the Northeast were treated to a nightly dose of genius. His shows were a menagerie of comments, silly songs, jokes and other digressions all orbiting around a central tale. For 45 minutes you laughed and wondered if he would remember to conclude the story at hand. He always made it! His other great radio enterprise was live broadcasts on Saturday night from The Limelight, a nightclub in Greenwich Village. Marshall McLuhan once called Shep ''the first radio novelist.''">Flick Lives</a> and, treasure of treasures, here are <a href="http://shep-archives.com/netjuke/login.php" title="The Shep Archives truly rank among the Best Of The Web">The Shep Archives</a>--oh, you'll have to spend a minute or two to register to hear them but what the hey?--with hundreds of Sheperd broadcasts and records in streaming mp3s. <small><em><br>But Wait! There's More!</em></small> tag:metafilter.com,2004:site.32044 Sat, 27 Mar 2004 10:10:20 -0800 Americana Classic JeanSheperd Raconteur Radio TalkRadio y2karl