He was the writer and narrator of the show Jean Shepherd’s America, produced by Boston Public Television station WGBH for PBS, in which he visited various American locales, and interviewed local people of interest. Between 19 he wrote and produced numerous works for both television and cinema, all based on his originally spoken and written stories. Shep had a checkered television career in 1960 he had a short-lived local show on WOR-TV.

He wrote columns for the Village Voice and Car and Driver, numerous articles for publications including Mad Magazine, and introductions for books such as The America of George Ade, American Snapshots, and the 1970 reprint of the 1929 Johnson Smith Catalogue ( wikipedia).Ī Christmas Story, “the best Holiday movie ever.” (Warner Brothers) TV AND A CHRISTMAS STORY The stories were later assembled into books titled. He wrote a series of humorous short stories about growing up in northwest Indiana and its steel towns, many of which were first told by him on his programs and then published in Playboy. , in 1974, he reads his story “Duel In The Snow, Or, Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid,” which would later become his magnum opus, A Christmas Story. A good selection of his radio stories, which can be listened to or downloaded, is. His listeners besieged WOR with complaints, and when Sweetheart offered to sponsor him, he was reinstated. When he was about to be released by WOR in 1956 for lack of sponsors, he did a commercial for “Sweetheart Soap,” not a sponsor, and was immediately fired.

Shepherd, Theodore Sturgeon, and Betty Ballantine later wrote the demanded book, with a cover by Mad Magazine illustrator Frank Kelly Freas. Fans of the show planted references to the book and author so widely that demand for the book led to claims of it being on The New York Times Best Seller list. During a discussion on how easy it was to manipulate the best-seller lists, Shepherd suggested that his listeners visit bookstores and ask for a copy of I, Libertine, which led to booksellers attempting to order the book from their distributors. His most famous stunt was a hoax he created about a nonexistent book, I, Libertine, by fake author “Frederick R. Service, the “Bard of the Yukon” ), and organizing listener stunts. “Shep” had been broadcasting his stories and anecdotes since 1945 in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and signed on to WOR in 1955 where he delighted his fans by telling stories (without notes), reading poetry (especially the works of Robert W. After supper we, and everyone we knew, would tune in to WOR-AM to listen to Jean Shepherd’s show, which was lightning in a bottle. In the New York City suburbs of 1972, we had a radio in the bedroom, and a 10-inch black-and-white TV downstairs. For years he broadcast a nightly three-hour show of anecdotes and recollections without notes.

A christmas story book jean shepherd