Posted on 07/04/2010 5:37:06 PM PDT by Rodamala
Audio at link. http://www.snuhfiles.com/sound/jean-shepherd-lud_kissell.mp3
Bttt for download
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Jean+Shepherd%22
Did Garrison Keillor get his idea for his Lake Wobegon series from Jean Shepherd, or vice versa?
Shep was doing his thing well back into the fifties, so if there was any influence, it was Keillor borrowing from Shep.
My father introduced me to Shep’s radio show when I was only 10 or 11. We lived in Orange, New Jersey and, later, East Orange. I saw Shep live at Seton Hall University in 1966. Before the show I got to meet him backstage and he autographed two of his record albums for me. On one he wrote: “For Joe, a Real Faker! Jean Shepherd.” How did he know?! First time I ever laughed so hard my sides ached. He ran overtime but wouldn’t stop. He was having too much fun, as were we. At one point he yelled to a stagehand: “Please call WOR and tell them to play one of my tapes. I ain’t gonna make it tonight!” And he went on for another hour.
Shep was bitter about Keillor, who didn’t even give him a mention as an inspiration. He felt the same way about “The Wonder Years.”
Yes, but remember that most of his stories were entirely invented. He once said, “I’m a storyteller, not an autobiographer. His father was a white-collar worker who abandoned the family for his busty, 20-year-old secretary. Shep wrote about the father he wished he had — and the one he never became. He ran out on three wives and disowned his two children in his will. Some geniuses are consummate p***ks.
You know... it’s really somethin’ when a 3 year-old thread gets a ping!
“In God We Trust All Others Pay Cash” & “Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters”. Two of the funniest books ever written.
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