Radio Remembered

I caught a glimpse of David Letterman on a news flash of some kind. He looks old. Leno is no kid either. Then I remembered... that I remember... The Tonight Show before Johnny Carson. It starred Jack Paar, an amiable, but not nearly as funny a host as those who would follow. Before Jack, there was radio. I remember that too, but lest you think this is a treatise on aging, let me remind you that I do do time travel. Do do time travel. Alrighty then.

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear (there's a good word) when the Lone Blogger (or something like that) blogs again. My favorite all time radio show aired when I was in my teens and television was catching the fancy (and the advertising dollars) of most of the nation. It came on quite late, I'm thinking eleven, and ran for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I don't remember for certain, because good as the program was I almost always fell asleep before it was over. The show was The Gene Sheppard Show - don't fault me if I've spelled the name wrong, I'm talking radio and you can't see the credits - and also I don't do research because that would require from me skills I don't have, among which is not being lazy - and featured Gene just gabbing into the mike about his childhood in Indiana, his army days, his start in show biz and the like. He was brilliant and he was funny and he had, in our town, a strong cult following of two, me and my buddy Denny Dey, pronounced Die, don't ask me why. I remember one show when Gene talked about being on KP duty "kitchen police, there's a misnomer" that was so accurate and funny that a couple of years later, when I was actually on KP, I kept breaking into laughter and my fellow GI's thought I was Section Eight. Gene went on to do many other things including putting some of these same stories in writing and getting them published in Playboy. Don't laugh. If you get published in Playboy, you are A. very good and B. well paid. The stories are among the funniestI have ever read. Gene later scripted a few movies, the best of which is "A Christmas Story" which is now shown during the holidays almost as often as "It's a Wonderful Life." The movie is about a kid who wants a BB Gun for Christmas, but is continually told "no, you'll shoot your eye out." The kid is, of course, drawn from Gene himself and the unseen narrator, the voice over, is the grown up Gene...himself. I watch the movie in part to hear that voice and be reminded of lying in the dark listening to radio. Not a bad way to fall asleep.