Jean Shepherd
| Jean Shepherd | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jean Parker Shepherd, Jr. July 26, 1921 Chicago, Illinois, US |
| Died |
October 16, 1999 (aged 78) Fort Myers, Florida, US |
| Pen name | Shep (nickname) |
| Occupation | Writer, raconteur, radio host |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | humor, satire |
| Years active | 1945–1990s |
| Spouse | Joan Laverne Warner (1950–1957; divorced) Lois Nettleton (1960–1967; divorced) Leigh Brown (1977–1998; her death) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |
 United States
|
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1942–1944 |
| Rank | Technician Fifth Grade (T/5) |
| Unit | Signal Corps |
Jean Parker Shepherd, Jr. (July 26, 1921 – October 16, 1999) was an American storyteller, radio and TV personality, writer and actor who was often referred to by the nickname Shep.
With a career that spanned decades, Shepherd is known to modern audiences for the film A Christmas Story (1983), which he narrated and co-scripted, based on his own semi-autobiographical stories.
Born in 1921 on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, Shepherd briefly lived in East Chicago, Indiana, and was raised in Hammond, Indiana, where he graduated from Hammond High School in 1939. The movie A Christmas Story is loosely based on his days growing up in Hammond's southeast side neighborhood of Hessville. As a youth he worked briefly as a mail carrier in a steel mill and earned his Amateur radio license (W9QWN) at age 16, sometimes claiming he was even younger. He sporadically attended Indiana University, but never graduated. Shepherd was a lifelong Chicago White Sox fan.
During World War II, he served stateside in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Shepherd then had an extensive career in a variety of media.
After his military service, Shepherd began his broadcast radio career in early 1945 on WJOB (AM) in Hammond, Indiana, later working at WTOD in Toledo, Ohio, in 1946. He began working in Cincinnati, Ohio, in January 1947 at WSAI, later also working at Cincinnati stations WCKY and WKRC the following year, before returning to WSAI. From 1951 to 1953, he had a late-night broadcast on KYW in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after which he returned to Cincinnati for several shows on WLW. After a stint on television (see below), he returned to radio. "Shep," as he was known, settled in at WOR radio New York City, New York, at the end of February 1955, and on an overnight slot in 1956, where he delighted his fans by telling stories, reading poetry (especially the works of Robert W. Service), and organizing comedic listener stunts. The most famous of the last involved creating a hoax about a non-existent book, I, Libertine, by the equally non-existent author "Frederick R. Ewing", in 1956. During a discussion on how easy it was to manipulate the best seller lists, which at that time were based not only on sales but demand, Shepherd suggested that his listeners visit bookstores and ask for a copy of I, Libertine which led to booksellers attempting to purchase the book from their distributors. Fans of the show eventually took it further, planting references to the book and author so widely that demand for the book led to it being claimed by some to have been listed on The New York Times Best Seller list. Shepherd, Theodore Sturgeon and Betty Ballantine later wrote the actual book, with a cover painted by illustrator Frank Kelly Freas, published by Ballantine Books. Among his close friends in the late 1950s were Shel Silverstein and Herb Gardner. With them and actress Lois Nettleton, Shepherd performed in the revue he created, Look, Charlie. Later he was married to Nettleton for about six years.
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