The film, A Christmas Story, is based on the stories contained in Jean Shepherd's In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. Shepherd played the voice role of Ralph Parker, little Ralphy grown up.
Shepherd was a storyteller who held forth nightly on WOR, New York City, for many years, talking non-stop for 45 minutes (without commercials!) with fiction and fact about his Hammond, Indiana childhood, his life in Army Signal Corps and anything that happened to come to his thought. On Saturday night his show originated from the Limelight Restaurant near Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village.
Thanks to WOR being one of the 50,000 watt, clear channel stations, Shepherd was listened to by kids and grownups all up and down the East coast.
I remember one night after I moved to NYC, I turned to WOR to listen to Shepherd and he wasn't there. I called the station to ask why he wasn't on and was coldly informed that he no longer worked there. I never found out why but I suspect it had to do with frequent commercial interruptions. In the earlier days Shep could talk for the entire show gliding smoothly from topic to topic without commercial breaks. That changed in the 70s and the interruptions fitted neither Shepherd's stream of consciousness style nor that of his listeners.
I've heard it said that Shepherd just outgrew the medium. Sad loss for the medium.
Jean Shepherd died on October 16, 1999.
Here's Shep reading from In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash on his radio show, broadcast Christmas day 1967 on WOR, New York. Christmas story
For more of Jean Shepherd's show mp3s, go to Shepherd Archives.
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