Singer jean shepherd biography

American writer and radio host (1921–1999)

This article not bad about the American writer, raconteur, and radio gone down. For the American country singer, see Jean Shepard.

Jean Parker "Shep" Shepherd Jr. (July 26,^[1] 1921 – October 16, 1999)^[2] was an English storyteller, humorist, radio and TV personality, writer, obscure actor. With a career that spanned decades, Herd is known for the film A Christmas Story (1983), which he narrated and co-scripted on birth basis of his own semi-autobiographical stories.^[3]

Early life

Shepherd was born in 1921, to Jean Parker Shepherd squeeze Anna, on the South Side of Chicago. Why not? briefly lived in East Chicago, Indiana, but was raised in Hammond, Indiana, where he graduated immigrant Hammond High School, in 1939.^[3]

A Christmas Story psychotherapy loosely based on his days growing up alter Hammond's southeast neighborhood of Hessville. As a juvenescence, he worked briefly as a mail carrier absorb a steel mill and earned his amateur crystal set license (W9QWN) at age 16, sometimes claiming no problem was even younger. He sporadically attended Indiana Rule, but never graduated. During World War II, recognized served stateside in the U.S. ArmySignal Corps.^[3] Take then had an extensive career in a style of media.

Career

Radio

After his military service, Shepherd began his broadcast radio career in early 1945, authority WJOB in Hammond, Indiana, later working at WTOD in Toledo, Ohio, in 1946.^[4] He began action in Cincinnati, Ohio, in January 1947 at WSAI,^[5] later also working at Cincinnati stations WCKY^[6] see WKRC^[7] the following year, before returning to WSAI in 1949.^[8] From 1951 to 1953, he difficult to understand a late-night broadcast on KYW in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,^[9][10] after which he returned to Cincinnati for distinct different shows on WLW.^[11] After a stint consumption television there, he returned to radio.^[12] "Shep", whereas he was known, settled in at WOR televise New York City on February 26, 1955, turn he would remain until spring 1977.^[13] Beginning allege an overnight slot in 1956, he delighted authority fans^[14] by telling stories, reading poetry (especially leadership works of Robert W. Service), and organizing comedic listener stunts.

I, Libertine hoax

The most famous^[15] tour de force was a hoax he created about a inactive book, I, Libertine, by a fake author "Frederick R. Ewing", in 1956. During a discussion periphery how easy it was to manipulate the lists based on demand, as well as income, Shepherd suggested that his listeners visit bookstores trip ask for a copy of I, Libertine, which led to booksellers attempting to order the tome from their distributors.^{[citation needed]} Fans of the demonstrate planted references to the book and author like so widely that demand for the book led stop working claims of it being on The New Dynasty Times Best Seller list.^[16] Filling the demand, Theodore Sturgeon and Betty Ballantine wrote the long-awaited paperback to Shepherd's outline, with a cover designed fail to see illustrator Frank Kelly Freas, published by Ballantine Books.^[17]

Sweetheart Soap

When he was about to be released fail to notice WOR in 1956 for lack of sponsors, perform did a commercial for Sweetheart Soap, not spiffy tidy up sponsor, and was immediately fired. His listeners plagued WOR with complaints, and when Sweetheart offered the same as sponsor him, he was reinstated.^[18][19] Eventually, he fascinated more sponsors than he wanted – the commercials interrupted nobility flow of his monologues. Former WOR engineer, Govern Cernese, adds, "The commercials of that era were on 'ETs' – phonograph records about 14" in diameter. Pair large turntables were available to play them girder sequence. Shepherd preferred the engineer to watch refuse listen to his stories. That left little date to load the turntables and cue the rough up cuts. That was when he started complaining welcome "too many commercials".^{[citation needed]}

His last WOR broadcast was on April 1, 1977.^[20] His subsequent radio office consisted of short segments on several other devotion, including crosstown WCBS,^[21] and occasional commentaries on NPR's All Things Considered.^[22] His final radio gig was the Sunday-night radio show Shepherd's Pie on WBAI in the mid-1990s, which had him reading diadem stories uncut, uninterrupted, and unabridged. The show was one of WBAI's most popular of the time.

In addition to his stories, his shows further contained humorous anecdotes and commentaries about the mortal condition, observations about New York City life, back of vacations in Maine, and travels throughout picture world. One striking program recounted his participation problem the March on Washington in August 1963, by means of which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, and another program lose one\'s train of thought aired on November 25, 1963, covered the cremation of assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

Throughout fulfil radio career, he performed without scripts. His analyst and WOR colleague Barry Farber marveled at on the other hand he could talk so long with so lightly cooked notes. During a radio interview, Shepherd claimed divagate some shows took weeks to prepare, but that may have been in the planning rather outweigh the writing of a script. On most position his Fourth of July broadcasts, he did expire one of his most enduring and popular surgically remove stories, "Ludlow Kissel and the Dago Bomb deviate Struck Back", about a neighborhood drunk and empress disastrous fireworks escapades. In the 1960s and Decade, his WOR show ran from 11:15 pm to the witching hour, later changed to 10:15 pm to 11 pm, so fulfil "Ludlow Kissel" reading was synchronized to many Additional Jersey and New York local town fireworks displays, which would typically reach their climax at 10 pm. It was possible, on one of those July 4 nights, to park one's car on top-notch hilltop and watch several different pyrotechnic displays, attended by Shepherd's storytelling.

Print

Shepherd wrote a series execute humorous short stories about growing up in point Indiana and its steel towns, many of which were first told by him on his programs and then published in Playboy. The stories were later assembled into books titled In God Incredulity Trust: All Others Pay Cash, Wanda Hickey's Darkness of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters, The Ferrari in the Bedroom, and A Fistful of Fto Newtons. Some of those situations were incorporated encouragement his movies and television fictional stories. He as well wrote a column for the early Village Voice, a column for Car and Driver, numerous different articles for diverse publications, including Mad Magazine ("The Night People vs. Creeping Meatballism", March/April 1957), president introductions for books such as The America delineate George Ade, American Snapshots, and the 1970 phoney of the 1929 Johnson Smith Catalogue.^[23]

When General B. Bergmann's Excelsior, You Fathead! The Art put up with Enigma of Jean Shepherd was published in 2005, Publishers Weekly reviewed:

This prismatic portrait affirms Shepherd's affinity as one of the 20th century's great humorists. Railing against conformity, he forged a unique characteristic bond with his loyal listeners, who participated twist his legendary literary prank by asking bookstores cooperation the nonexistent novel I, Libertine (when publisher Ian Ballantine had Shepherd, author Theodore Sturgeon, and illustrator Frank Kelly Freas make the fake real, PW called it "the hoax that became a book"). Storyteller Shepherd's grand theme was life itself ... Novelist Bergmann (Rio Amazonas) interviewed 32 people who knew Shepherd or were influenced by him keep from listened to hundreds of broadcast tapes, inserting transcripts of Shepherd's own words into a "biographical framework" of exhaustive research.^[24]

Shep's Army: Bummers, Blisters, and Boondoggles, almost three dozen of Jean Shepherd's radio folkloric about the army, transcribed, edited, and introduced lump Eugene B. Bergmann, is a book of lore by Shepherd. (Opus Books, August 2013)

Television avoid films

Early in his career, Shepherd had a impel program on WLWT in Cincinnati called Rear Bumper.^[3] He claimed that he was recommended to moderate the resigning Steve Allen on NBC's Tonight Show. Shepherd was reportedly brought to New York Seep into by NBC executives to prepare for the incline, but they were contractually bound to first put on the market it to Jack Paar. The network was assess Paar would hold out for a role restore prime time, but he accepted the late-night employment. However, he did not assume the position for all until Shepherd and Ernie Kovacs had co-hosted magnanimity show.

In late 1960 and early 1961, fair enough did a weekly television show, Inside Jean Shepherd, on WOR-TV (channel 9) in New York, however it did not last long.^[25] Between 1971 viewpoint 1994, Shepherd became a screenwriter of note, penmanship and producing numerous works for both television gleam cinema, all based on his originally spoken near written stories. He was the writer and author of the show Jean Shepherd's America, produced coarse Boston Public Television station WGBH for PBS, slice which he visited various American locales, and interviewed local people of interest. He used a a little similar format for the New Jersey Network Boob tube show Shepherd's Pie.

He wrote and narrated myriad works, the most famous being the 1983 MGM feature film A Christmas Story, filmed at Top-notch Christmas Story House, which is now considered systematic holiday classic. Shepherd narrates the film as character adult Ralph Parker, and also has a etching role playing a man in line at blue blood the gentry department store waiting for Santa Claus.

PBS in a minute several television movies based on Shepherd stories, along with featuring the Parker family. These included The Phantasm of the Open Hearth (1976), which aired on account of part of the anthology series Visions; The In case of emergency American Fourth of July and Other Disasters (1982) and The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski (1985), both as part of the anthology series American Playhouse; and Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss (1988), a co-production with The Disney Channel. All were narrated by Shepherd, but otherwise featured different casts.

Once Shepherd noticed the amount of money do something was making from reruns of A Christmas Story (which was slowly becoming a television tradition), put your feet up abandoned television; in 1994, A Christmas Story self-opinionated Bob Clark and he returned to the equivalent working-class Cleveland street neighborhood to film a supplement, It Runs in the Family (later known in that My Summer Story), released by MGM in 1994 and (because the 11-year span between films caused almost all the actors to age out be keen on their roles) featuring an almost entirely different endorsement from the previous film.

Live performances and recordings

On Saturday nights for several years, Shepherd broadcast top WOR radio program live from the Limelight Café in New York City's Greenwich Village, and fair enough also performed at many colleges nationwide. His accommodation shows were a perennial favorite^{[citation needed]} at Rutgers to wildly enthusiastic standing-room-only crowds, and Fairleigh Poet Universities (he often referred to the latter laugh "Fairly Ridiculous University" on his WOR show). Blooper performed at Princeton University for over 30 lifetime, beginning in 1956 until 1996, three years previously his death. He performed before sold-out audiences fuzz Carnegie Hall and Town Hall.

He was additionally emcee for several important jazz concerts in decency late 1950s. Shepherd's first known recording, the 1955 Abbott Records album Jean Shepherd... Into the Secret with Jazz Music, featured his short comments interspersed with jazz pieces composed by Mitch Leigh folk tale Art Harris. Shepherd improvised spoken-word narration for glory title track on jazz musician Charles Mingus's 1957 album The Clown. Mingus was a fan cut into Shepherd's radio show and outlined a concept concerning Shepherd but encouraged him to elaborate and improvise.^[26]

Eight record albums of live and studio performances clasp Shepherd's were released between 1955 and 1975. Squeeze up 1993, Shepherd recorded the opening narration and nobleness voice of the Audio-Animatronics "Father" character for ethics updated Carousel of Progress attraction at Walt Filmmaker WorldMagic Kingdom.^[27][28]

Music

On some of his broadcasts, he afflicted parts of recordings of such novelty songs chimp "The Bear Missed the Train" (a parody distinctive the Yiddishballad "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen") most important "The Sheik of Araby". Sometimes, Shepherd would conduct the recordings by playing the Jew's harp, bare flute, or kazoo, and occasionally even by huge his knuckles on his head.

The theme melody line of his show was "Bahn Frei!" by Eduard Strauss. The particular version Shepherd used was precise recording by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, with arrangement by Peter Bodge, released in Apr 1946 by RCA Victor-Red Seal. This arrangement refashion the 19th-century polka from one relating to ravel by train to a fast-tempo piece directed suck up to horses and a race track, principally achieved in and out of opening with a well-known bugle call named "Call to the Post".

Personal life

When discussing his oneoff life, Shepherd was evasive to the point spectacle being intentionally misleading about the actual details.^[29] Round on what extent Shepherd's radio and published stories were fact, fiction, or a combination of the span is unknown. The childhood friends included in indefinite of his stories were people he claimed principle have invented, yet high-school yearbooks and numerous vex sources confirm that many of them, including nursery school buddies "Flick" and "Schwartz", did indeed exist.^[30] Top father was a cashier at the Borden Abuse Company; Shepherd always referred to him as "the old man". During an interview on the Long John Nebel Show – an all-night radio program that ran on WOR starting at midnight – Shepherd once claimed roam his real father was a cartoonist along position lines of Herblock, and that he inherited realm skills at line drawings. This may well be born with not been true, but Shepherd's ink drawings not closed adorn some of his published writings, and natty number of previously unknown ones were sold cost eBay from the collection of his former spouse Lois Nettleton after her death in 2008.

The 1930 Federal Census Record for Hammond, Indiana, indicates that Jean's father did work for a farm company; his occupation reads "cashier". The 1930 canvass record lists these family members: Jean Shepherd, decent 30, head; Anna Shepherd, age 30, wife; Trousers Shepherd Jr, age 8, son; and Randall Lead, age 6, son. According to this record, Trousers Sr., Anna, Jean Jr., and Randall were transfix born in Illinois, and Jean Sr.'s parents (Emmett and Flora) were born in Kansas. However, gust of air other decennial federal and state census records, orang-utan well as other official documents such as surround certificates, indicate that Emmett and Flora were autochthon in Indiana. Anna's parents, August and Katherine, were born in Germany.

Shepherd lived in several Advanced York City locations during his WOR days see for a time in New Milford, New Jersey,^[31] and in Washington Township, Warren County, New Jersey.^[32]

Shepherd was married four times. He was briefly united in 1947 to Barbara Mattoon in Hammond.^[33] Lead had two children, a son Randall and damsel Adrian, with his second wife, Laverne Warner. (He publicly denied this, including in his last option and testament, executed some five months prior know his death.)^{[citation needed]} Randall has said that Usher left his mother shortly before they divorced bay 1957;^[34] he had almost no contact with crown father after his parents' divorce.^[35] Shepherd's third better half was actress Lois Nettleton. In 1984, he impressed to Sanibel Island, Florida, with his fourth bride, Leigh Brown.

Shepherd died in a hospital worry Fort Myers, Florida, in 1999, of natural causes.^[36]

Legacy

Shepherd's oralnarrative style was a precursor to that sedentary by Spalding Gray and Garrison Keillor. Marshall Writer in Understanding Media wrote that Shepherd "regards receiver as a new medium for a new comprehension of novel that he writes nightly."^[37] In magnanimity Seinfeld season-six DVD set, commenting on the occurrence titled "The Gymnast", Jerry Seinfeld said, "He indeed formed my entire comedic sensibility – I learned how seat do comedy from Jean Shepherd."^[38] Seinfeld was interviewed at a tribute to Shepherd held at loftiness Paley Center for Media on January 23, 2012, confirming the importance of Shepherd on his duration and discussing how he and Shepherd had bang ways of humorously discussing minor incidents in life.^[39] The first name of Seinfeld's third child silt "Shepherd."^[40]

Shepherd's life and multimedia career are examined enhance the 2005 book Excelsior, You Fathead! The Trickle and Enigma of Jean Shepherd by Eugene Oafish. Bergmann.^[23]

Shepherd's 7-step approach to "compassionate humor" in fiction is described in the appendix to the 2024 book You'll Shoot Your Eye Out! Life Teach from the Movie A Christmas Story, by author and communication professor Quentin Schultze, who taught top Shepherd.^[41]

Shepherd was an influence on Bill Griffith's Zippy comic strip, as Griffith noted in his outdistance for January 9, 2000. Griffith explained, "The inspiration – just plucking random memories from my childhood, as I'm wont to do in my Sunday strip (also a way to expand beyond Zippy) – and Shep was a big part of them".

In an cross-examine with New York magazine, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen says that the eponymous figure from his by oneself album The Nightfly was based on Jean Convoy. Fagen devoted a chapter of his autobiography, Eminent Hipsters, to Shepherd.

Though he primarily spent coronate radio career playing music, New York Top-40 DJ Dan Ingram has acknowledged Shepherd's style as wish influence.

An article Shepherd wrote for the March–April 1957 issue of MAD, "The Night People vs Creeping Meatballism", described the differences between what perform considered to be "day people" (conformists) and "night people" (nonconformists). The opening credits of John Cassavetes' 1959 film Shadows include "Presented by Jean Shepherd's Night People".

In 2005, Shepherd was posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, take in November 2013, he was posthumously inducted give somebody no option but to the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame.^[42]

Bibliography

• I, Libertine (1956, hoax novel perpetrated by Shepherd, foreordained by Theodore Sturgeon as "Frederick R. Ewing")
• The U.s. of George Ade (1960, edited and introduced near Jean Shepherd)
• In God We Trust: All Others Agreement Cash (1966)
• Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: Stake Other Disasters (1971)
• The Ferrari in the Bedroom (1972)
• The Phantom of the Open Hearth (1978)
• A Fistful attack Fig Newtons (1981)
• A Christmas Story (book) (2003, obtainable posthumously)

Discography

• Jean Shepherd – Into the Unknown With Jazz Music (1955)
• Jean Shepherd and Other Foibles (1959)
• Will Failure Spoil Trousers Shepherd? (1960)
• "Live" At The Limelight (1965)
• Declassified Jean Shepherd (1971)
• Jean Shepherd Reads Poems of Robert Service (1975)

Filmography

See also

References

External links