Yes Shep was great. I have DVDs of A Christmas Story (and
also My Summer Story, the sequel, which was narrated
by him as well). I also have tapes of 4 of his comedy albums
and a friend of mine has videos of some of his TV shows
(”Shepherd’s Pie”, “Jean Shepherd’s America”).
Jean is not to be confused with country singer Jean Shepard...
His name is spelled the French way but is pronounced like
“Gene”. This dilemma—having what seemed like a girl’s
name—prompted his friend Shel Silverstein to write what
later became a hit for Johnny Cash: A Boy Named Sue!
Some of the army stories (Signal Corps) show up on
the albums and in his books (I have 3 of em: A Fistful
of Fig Newtons, Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden
Memories, and A Christmas Story—which features stories
from “Wanda Hickey” and “In God We Trust, All Others
Pay Cash”. His tales of “dish night at the movies”
and “rainy summers at camp”—hello, Allen Sherman—
were hilarious.
Great book: Excelsior You Fathead by Eugene B. Bergmann
Great site: http://www.flicklives.com
I think he did do an album with him reading Robert
Service’s works.
The airchecks are available, to those who are
curious, at sites related to flicklives.
“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid...”
Thanks for the web link - I’ll have to check that out. I have every book Shep ever wrote and a number of CD’s from both studio and live performances in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. The man’s observations about humor nature were trenchant and timeless, and he remains the single greatest storyteller I have ever heard.