Jean Shepherd (1921–1999) loved to tell stories, and he had plenty to tell. Though born in Chicago, he spent many of his earliest days in a much smaller city: Hammond, Indiana. Those youthful days in the small city, as well as traversing back and forth between Chicago’s South Side, provided what seemed to amount to a lifetime of tales.
All Shepherd needed was an outlet to tell his stories. Shortly after serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, he found the perfect outlet in radio. Not only was he able to spin his yarns, but he also had a voice perfect for radio. His first gig came in Cincinnati at WKRC as a disc jockey. The only problem was that he was jockeying his stories far more than the discs, and he was subsequently fired.
But Shepherd loved to talk and tell stories. He wanted to entertain listeners instead of hounding them with the same songs over and over. Nonetheless, his methods conflicted with those of other Cincinnati radio stations (WCKY and WSAI) that had hired him, and he again found himself fired from the radio booth.
Change of Scenery
Perhaps a change of scenery would help. New York City proved to be a perfect fit for him. In the mid-1950s, Shepherd began DJing for WOR in The Big Apple where he finally found the freedom he had been seeking. If Chicago, Cincinnati, a short stint in Philadelphia, and his roaming around Hammond hadn’t provided enough people watching stories, his home in New York City did. He provided his listeners with personal stories as well as social commentary. It took little time for Shepherd’s New York audience to grow.He called his nightly broadcast “Night People” in reference to his late-night listeners. In 1956, he proved the power of his voice and influence with a humorous stunt. Quite the contrarian, he was convinced that many of America’s institutions were contrived. One of them being the New York Times Bestseller List. He announced to his audience to go to bookstores and ask for a copy of “I, Libertine” by Frederick R. Ewing.
Fun and Books
Sensing that his audience were not merely listeners but were willing to play along with his antics, he set aside a slot in his nightly show called “Hurling Invectives.” Listeners, who possibly had annoying neighbors, were encouraged to point their radios toward their neighbor’s home or dwelling and turn the volume all the way up. Shepherd would then launch into hysterics, yelling all kinds of random insults and curses, although nothing too hostile or offensive, and all absurdly over-the-top. “You filthy pragmatists, I’m going to get you!” “You dirty rat fink!” and “You lousy bum!’ were about the extent of his humorous tirades taken on behalf of his loyal listeners.
A Christmas Classic
The latter book was a compilation of Shepherd’s Midwestern small-town childhood stories told to a bartender named Flick, whom he uses as a literary device. These nostalgic Americana stories included his failure in youthful romance, fishing, and his childhood obsession: his Red Ryder BB gun.
The small Midwestern town, a friend named Flick, and the BB gun may sound very familiar, and for good reason. Shepherd’s “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash” was the inspiration for the classic holiday film “A Christmas Story.” The protagonist of the Christmas tale, Ralph Parker, is based on Shepherd. The author and DJ co-wrote the script for the film and is actually the film’s narrator (the voice of Ralphie).
“A Christmas Story” was released in 1983 (exactly 40 years ago), but it received very little fanfare. It wasn’t until the 1990s, when TNT began showing it on Christmas Eve that it became a household Christmas tradition. Now, it is nearly impossible to go a holiday season without hearing “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!” or seeing a reference to the “Deranged Easter Bunny” costume or the Leg Lamp (“It’s a major award!”).
Although Shepherd died at the tail end of the 20th century, many Americans have his voice in their heads due to the Christmas film, even if they don’t know who the voice belongs to. That’s a trick Shepherd would have appreciated.
