July 26 Jean Shepard

Happy Birthday to Blake Edwards, Kevin Spacey, Stanley Kubrick, Jason Robards and Jean Shepard.

TCM celebrated Blake Edwards birthday. TCM has not been showing a full day of films for directors lately. I like the directors day. There is usually a variety of films. Edwards directed comedy, drama and musicals. At the library this past weekend I found some Jean Shepard Cds. They are from 1960’s WOR New York radio broadcasts. Jan Shepard the writer and radio announcer not to be confused with singer Jean Shepard. As I was looking up some information I found out that his birthday was today. So I decided to write about him. I don’t know if the material is available to download so I am not downloading it on the site. I have written a few items, not word for word but close. I could not get the CD to pause and play very well on my CD player. The CD is full of philosophy and sociology and human nature told in a very humorous way. He talks a lot. There are a few commercial breaks (not aired) but it is mainly him talking the entire time with music occasionally playing. Shepard was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2005.

“Have you noticed the monster craze lately? There are kits that you can customize a monster. 75 to 100 years from now people are going to be collecting this clop. There is a monster kit that is fully transistorized. It looks like Dracula, Frankenstein and with just a little touch of the Thing with a little Debbie Reynolds thrown in. Disney and his monsters are all lovable you can’t worry about a Walt Disney monster and that is the Debbie Reynolds influence in a Boris Karloff world.” (this is probably my favorite.)

“Stuck in my mind since I first heard my mother say “There is no rest for the wicked” like a clove stuck in a piece of ham.”

“More and more we’re beginning to look upon our life, our whole existence as one slapstick comedy.”

He is probably most famous for narrating A Christmas Story (which he also had a cameo and worked on the screenplay), which was based upon his book In God We Trust (All Others Pay Cash. During a hot summer day (to paraphrase a local weather man that it is hot enough to pull the fish out of the lake already cooked) it is nice to think of the snow and the coolness of the Christmas season. I have seen a play and musical based on A Christmas Story. They lacked the charm and of the film. It is different to hear the voice of the adult than to see the adult reminiscing and of course Jean has a very distinctive style.

Every time I would think I had a favorite part something new would come up.

“Deep in the recess of my brain a tiny red hot little flame began to grow” and Ralphie fights the bully. “Something had happened and a fuse blew and I had gone out of my skull.” Poor Ralphie realized that he was not going to get his Red Ryder bee bee gun and the bulling had pushed him over the edge.

Ralphie climbs up the slide he has just been pushed to tell Santa that he wants a bee bee gun and Santa tells him that “You’ll shoot your eye out kid” Ralphie looks stunned and the music swells and Santa gives him the boot as he says Ho Ho Ho.. Haven’t we all faced that?

Ralphie wearing the oversized bunny costume.

Ralphie shooting his eye out, but actually just breaking his glasses.