Excelsior, You Fathead!!! Flick Lives!!!

Flick Lives!!! -- A recent post about NYC radio of my yoot' from Doc got me wondering...and Googling...about one of the core radio personalities from my tender years in the 60's...Jean Shepherd. Shep is probably best (not) known for the story behind what has become a holiday classic (A Christmas Story, played and appreciated ad infinitum every December now, and based on his classic book of stories, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash). (Another popular book of stories and essays is A Fistful of Fig Newtons. I've got an autographed copy.)

Jean Shepherd was a precursor to Garrison Keilor, broadcasting stories of his Hammond, Indiana childhood and his military life among commentary on pop culture and occasionally politics in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. On the web, he lives on primarily at a site named for one of his childhood friends/characters...Flick Lives!. Within that site are streaming versions of rebroadcasts of his best shows on the equally iconoclastic NYC radio station WBAI.

There is also the Jean Shepherd Archives, with searchable and browsable listing of mp3 files of his shows -- both the weekday 45 minutes and the Saturday night 2 hour live shows from the Limelight. Some of the best (mp3 files about 10mb each) are...

Ludlow Kissel and the Dago Bomb

Salute to New Jersey

Slob Art

As Shep was wont to say..."Excelsior, you fathead!!!"