This profile is for the Jean Shepherd Preservation Society. We do special events to celebrate the genius of Jean Shepherd.
If you are asking yourself, "Who the hell is Jean Shepherd?" You are not alone, and though you may not know his name, you defintely will know at least some of his work.
Ever see the movie 'A Christmas Story'? --- Yeah, that's the "You'll shoot your eye out..." movie, that's right. Well that movie is based on th writings of Jean Shepherd, he is also the narrator, and has a small cameo in the film.
During his life, he did at least 6 other movies, had several television shows, almost became the host of The Tonight Show (Before Johnny Carson), wrote numerous books and articles, wrote for Playboy - and won their humor award 5 times!, he was also the inspiration for a little ditty by his pal Shel Silverstein called "A Boy Named Sue" which was later recorded as a song by a fellow named Johnny Cash - Maybe you heard of him?
And, he was a NYC radio personality for more than 20 years, in fact he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2005 - granted he was dead at the time, but he'll take what he can get!
Jean Shepherd (1921-1999) grew up in Hammond, Indiana, which is what he bases the fictitious town of Hohman on in his books and movies. Hammond has never properly acknowledged their most famous son, so I took it upon myself to do so, putting on a real humdinger of an event in 2004 with four of the actors from the movie 'A Christmas Story', since then we have tried to keep his name alive in our own way, and to give the people of Hammond something to be proud of.
They say Jean Shepherd was the Mark Twain of the 20th Century, I guess the main difference is Mark Twain gets his due, while ol' Jean Shepherd (or Shep, as the small band of super fans who call themselves "Shepheads" like to refer to him) barely gets a mention.
For more on Jean Shepherd, check out :
http://www.flicklives.com
http://www.thejeanshepherdproject.com
