Tales of the Shep
Contributor's Stories and Comments about Jean Shepherd & These Pages
Volume 3
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 16:14:21 -0400
From: falc6680@dpnet.net (Richard Falcioni)
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
CC: falc6680@zeus.dpnet.net
Subject: Jean Shepheard
Flick Lives!
Ah yes Jim. Flick lives.And all the other great characters
painted so well in our memories by Jean Shepherd. I was so surprized to
see there were some web sites around. All thru Junior High, and High School, I spent
every evening in South Plainfield, NJ, listening at
10 PM on WOR to Jean Shepherd. About all I managed to find in my attic
was a reel-to-reel tape of Jean telling his traditional Christmas Story over the radio.
I you are able to make some copies of any of the best
ones you have on tape it would be quite precious to me. Let me know if this is possible.
Anyway my name is Rich Falcioni, WB2HMR, and I still visit regularly to my home town.
Thanx for your site!................Rich
From: NYND26A@prodigy.com (MR HOWARD C MOLEFSKY)
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 1996 17:48:35, -0500
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Jean Shepherd's Press Confrence
I too am an old fan of Shep. Started Listening to him ih the late
60's until he went off WOR. I would like to know if anyone was at a
press confrence held for high school and college newspaper
reporters. It was held at the Overseas Press Club West 40th Street
in New York City around March or April 1970. As I remember it was a
great experience to see Shep in person. I took pictures of the event.
I enjoyed his books and the PBS presentations of his works. Again
I would like to hear from anybody who was at the press confrence.
Howard Molefsky
N .Y. .C
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 11:40:59 -0700
From: boblann <boblann@voicenet.com>
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Personal Encounters with Shep
First let me echo all the others who are so pleased to discover that
there are Jean Shepard Web Pages on the Net! What a superb answer to
anyone (not me) who says there's nothing on the Net that interests them.
I would like to propose to each of the page authors a new section about
Shep that I did not find on any of the pages: Personal Encounters with
Shep (or a better name). Many of us have met Shep on his travels and I
think these would make an important contribution for everyone who is a
fan and especially those who think his talent dwarfs the attention and
fame he has received during a thirty-plus year career.
There may never be a biography of Shep and what I know of the man
personally I am not confident that there will be an autobiography. The
personal encounters with Shep I am encouraging you to solicit may be the
best, or better yet the begining, of the only independent account of this
extraordinary man's life.
Now for the warning. If we do have people contribute substantial and
honest acounts of knowing Shep, meaning more than a handshake and a few
words after a show (those would be fine with me too!), it won't be all
pretty. Shep is a complicated guy. He is not a friend of mine. We do not
have any kind of long-term relationship. But I have long studied him up
close and from a distance. My actual story would be entitled "I stayed up
all night with Shep." It's not the only time I have spent time with him,
but that night is the basis for my fundamental understanding of him -
right or wrong. And some of my conclusions will certainly not fall under
the category of unqualified fan adoration. And the responses of those who
disagree with the conclusions of another's will only make this enterprise
better.
But the biographies of all great figures include the warts and they
contribute to a better understanding of the PERSON - not the public
figure.
And of course the Net is such a marvelous way to collect these stories.
We gather here with a common interest - not dissimilar to the way we
gathered around our radios listening to this extraordinary man engage
each of us with
a thirty year "novel" of the tragedies and victories of the common man in
America - disguised as great comedy.
OK. That's enough to plant the seed. Let me know what you think.
Bob Lanning
boblann@voicenet.com
From: MICHAEL COHEN <MC446@delphi.com>
Subject: Jean Shepherd at Princeton
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Jim,
I just checked out your Shepherd web page - fantastic. Thanks for the
concert review. I saw the show in 1995, but I had to miss it this year due
to my sister's wedding. I'm really intrigued by your report that he bashed
radio in general and WOR in particular. Could you give me any more details?
I find almost all commercial radio to be unbelievably boring, and I'm very
interested in Shep's take on it.
Thanks.
Mike Cohen
Sun, 23 Jun 1996 01:47:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: MrDedhed1@aol.com
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Flick.
Any hopes of getting this posted in the Shep mainstream would be appreciated.
I am looking for the original's of these "flick's". They are not available on
VHS, I have looked everywhere.
"The Phantom of the Open Hearth"
"The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters"
"Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss"
"The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski"
Eee gad, someone please help!
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 96 11:31:37 EDT
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
From: Paul Nitzsche <pmn@fuwutai.wh.att.com>
Subject: Jean Shepherd
I enjoyed your Jean Shepherd page. Neat!
Would you know of any way I could obtain video copies of
"The Phantom of the Open Hearth" and "The Great American
Fourth of July..." that were originally aired on American Playhouse?
I have searched and can't find them on video anywhere.
I would appreciate any help you can provide. Thanks.
Paul Nitzsche
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 96 11:41 CST
From: "wva" <CAZREVS@UCHIMVS1.UCHICAGO.EDU>
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Jean Shepherd videos?
I've known about Jean Shepherd for a number of years, ever since he
had a routine done on WFMT in Chicago about the Famous Parade, and
have been enchanted with him, but only recently, in past 3 years, did
I realize he had 2 movies: the one to northern Wisconsin and the Fourth
of July. And now, this AM and last night with friends, I realize that
he's done other films!
My question is: are these films available in video stores, like
Blockbusters, or does one have to wait until viewed on PBS? I taped
the Fourth of July around 4 years ago, and it's hilarious every time!
Thanks for any info. Enjoyed your home page.
*Editor's note:
I have not found a source for any Shep videos produced for PBS. Perhaps
we should start an E-mail campaign! Send your requests to
video@pbs.org and maybe they
will make the Shep titles available.
Jim
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 15:50:45 -0400
From: john h <dblr@tu.infi.net>
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: sousaphone
ok so twenty years of therapy later and I find out it was normal to hide
under the blankets and listen to those stories.thanks to shep i learned
the art of verbal communication.I now tell ghost stories around the
campfires for fun.
greetings from camp tamarack
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 17:32:47
From: gvine@foxboro.com (Glenn W. Vine)
To: jsadur@keyflux.com, bkaye@spacelab.net, radow@netcom.com
Subject: Jean Shepherd stuff
Hi, I was on the www today and stumbled across your pages. Having been
a Jean Shepherd fan for 25 plus years I'm happy to find this stuff
out there. What I'd really like to find are tapes of Shepherd's radio
broadcasts from WOR in New York. I have about 30 to 35 shows on tape that I
recorded in the early '70s. I could have had tons more if I had the foresight
and didn't make the mistake of re-recording over the same tapes. Can any
of you tell me of any sources for recordings of these old radio shows. Any
help that you can provide will be GREATLY appreciated.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks very much and best regards.
Glenn Vine
E-mail: gvine@foxboro.com
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 11:35:42 -0700
From: Bob Schacht <shatze@epix.net>
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Shep
Hi Jim
Thanks for the Shep page . I've been a fan for a long time.In the sixties my cousin and
I would sit on our front porch each nite with our portable radios trying to listen to
Shepherd on WOR as band conditions caused him to fade. We worried if the band would last
long enough to hear the end of his show.
I saw the mention of the summer story sequel to the Christmas Story . I must have
missed it. Don't know if it's out on the rental market. I also didn't see any mention of
Shepherds PBS series "Jean Shepherds America" which aired back in the seventies. I
wonder if that series still exists. I didn't have a vcr at that time to tape the shows.
Bob WA3CPW
Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 05:12:16 -0400
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
From: lpdavies@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us, Leslie Paul Davies
Subject: Shep talent addition
Don't let's forget his mastery of the Nose-flute.
GL. Paul W2SYF/4 Ft Lauderdale.
(Yes, I actually
went to the window and waved a light towards
Manhattan when Shep asked if anyone was awake
in Queens.)
From: Alfred Elia <AJE9047@gatornet.net>
To: "jsadur@keyflux.com"
Subject: Jean Shepherd at Villanova, 1973
Date: Tue, 9 Jul 1996 13:34:02 -0000
I just came across your Shep page and it brought back great memories of
early 1973. I was a member of the Villanova University campus radio
station WKVU and most of us were devout Shepherd fans. We said Hey!, it's
the school's money, let's bring him to Villanova for a concert. We got the
student activities office approval and booked the Villanova Fieldhouse.
Shepherd arrived early with Leigh Brown. As one of the organizers, myself
and three friends talked with them for an hour prior to the show. Topics
were diverse as where a good local eatery was and the winding down of the
Vietnam war, or as Shep put it " you don't know how many comedians are
rewritting their act as we speak, kid." The centerpiece of the show was
"Lost at C", which was recently released in Playboy. Two days earlier, a
circus had been in the Fieldhouse, and the aroma still lingered in the
air. Shep said it "Smelled like education". After an incredibly
entertaining show, somwhere I know a tape exists, Shep and Leigh wanted to
place to eat. We took them to Minella's, a Wayne, Pa. diner popular with
the late night Villanova crowd. There, over his Main Line Rocketburger,
Shep held us spellbound with his musings on America and his own career. He
told us he used to live nearby when he worked at WIP radio in
Philadelphia, around the time that he was married to Lois Nettleton. And
that what we didn't understand was that every where else in America, they
knew him as an author and a TV, not a radio personality. He wanted to
expand his national horizons in the near future. Just before they walked
out the door, he turned, waved, and said "See ya, gang". Twenty-three
years later, whenever I see a piece of his work, I still remember that
night in Minella's and the enjoyment of the moment.
Al Elia
Titusville, Florida
From: RJMusser@aol.com
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 06:45:14 -0400
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: Jean Shepherd
I was reading about Jean Shepherd on the web and about some of his credits.
Didn't see anything on my latest Shepherd sighting.
When my wife and I were in the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World this past
winter I was delighted to hear that he narrated the General Electric "Carosel
of Progress" program.
Roger Musser
From: Emsworth@aol.com
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 21:17:40 -0400
To: jsadur@keyflux.com
Subject: In Shep We Trust
Dear Jim,
Congratulations on your web site. Between yours and Bob Kaye's site, Shep
fans have a way finally to interact with each other. I've been a fan of Jean
since the early seventies when a Jr. High classmate suggested I might like
him. That night I listened as he told a story about joining the school band
and being handed a tuba to play. I was hooked then, and every night I'd lay
in bed totally enthralled by the man. I even forced my parents to run out and
buy me a jews harp, and I'd serenade my friends with impromptu versions of
"The Bear Missed The Train". And this was in the days when Bob and Ray had an
afternoon show on WOR. Radio was good.
Anyway, like many people who have written in, I would love to add to my
collcetion of Shep radio shows, of which I have about thirty five, mostly
from the '74 -77 period. I also have all the PBS shows and "Jean Shepherd's
America" on video, so if anyone is interested in trading or selling anything,
please send along an e-mail to me.
Thanks again, Jim. It's great to relive a lot of Shep moments, as well as
learn a lot of new things about the man I never knew. I wish you all the very
best
Sincerely, Arthur Crispo
Do you have stories, anecdotes or trivia for this page?
Send them to: 
jsadur@keyflux.com
Thanks, Jim
Return to the Jean Shepherd Page
Copyright © 1996 James E. Sadur.