A CHRISTMAS STORY - MONOPOLY!

Do not pass the alleyway, do not get soap in your mouth, go directly to jail with your secret decoder!

Own this one for the Shep!

Maybe Meet Wanda Hickey

Flick Lives!

Copyright © 2007 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

MAYBE MEET WANDA HICKEY? FLICK LIVES!

Where else but Cleveland would you find that great old house used in the filming of Jean Shepherd's A Christmas Story.

The Grand Opening of A Christmas Story House, now restored to its movie glory, will take place on Saturday, Nov. 25. Also opening directly across the street from the house is the official A Christmas Story House Museum, which will feature original props and memorabilia from the film, as well as rare behind-the-scenes photos. Actors from “A Christmas Story” who played Randy, Flick, Scut Farkus, Grover Dill and Miss Shields will officiate the opening ceremonies.

Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

Associated Press story on Yahoo!

A Christmas Story House

Shepherd Remembered
Sitting for Santa

It's A Wonderful Life - going once

It's A Wonderful Life - going twice

JEAN SHEPHERD BOOKS & TAPES
A Christmas Story : The Book That Inspired the Hilarious ClassicFilm

In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash

Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories : And OtherDisasters

The Ferrari in the Bedroom

Excelsior, You Fathead!: The Art and Enigma of JeanShepherd

The Phantom of the Open Hearth: A film for television co-ordinated byLeigh Brown

Will Failure Spoil Jean Shepherd? [LIVE]

Jean Shepherd and Other Foibles

Jean Shepherd: The X Random Factor [ABRIDGED] (Audio CD)

Jean Shepherd: Don't Be a Leaf [ABRIDGED] (Audio CD)

County Fair! (Shepherd's Pie Slice Six) (Audio Cassette)

REALLY BIG SHOES

I see where a few north Jersey theater groups are putting on live shows that I would be interested in.

Not in any particular order:

The Paper Mill Playhouse will present A WONDERFUL LIFE. They bill it as "A musical adaptation of the Frank Capra film "It's a Wonderful Life." Book and Lyrics by SHELDON HARNICK Music by JOE RAPOSO; Directed by JAMES BRENNAN."

The film has long been one of my favorites, along with Jean Shepherd's A Christmas Story (You'll shoot your eye out, kid!).

An added personal delight to the film version of It's A Wonderful Life is that the screenplay was finished off by a Belleville, N.J.-born and Nutley, N.J.-raised woman named Frances Goodrich. Along with her husband Albert Hackett, she wrote scads of classic sreenplays, including most of the Thin Man series.

Whenever I see George Bailey in that small town, I think of Nutley of about 100 years ago - when Goodrich was a child - with snowstorms, kids sledding into the creek, the bridge over the Passaic River into Lyndhurst. I've got to think that Goodrich took a lot of the small town details from her own childhood in North Jersey.

The Paper Mill is also presenting a musical version of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers based on the film and a play. The Hacketts also did the screenplay for that film.

Kean Stage is putting will present And Then They Came For Me - Remembering the World of Anne Frank. If you recall the movie or the play based on the Diary of Anne Frank, the play and film were created from the book by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. They won the Pulitzer Prize for the play.
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
The Real Nick & Nora

Frances Goodrich Links

Flick Lives! - Jean Shepherd Remembered

Everyone who has enjoyed the annual TV marathon showing of A Christmas Story <"You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"> by Jean Shepherd will be delighted to know that many of his WOR New York radio shows are available on tape and such.

There are many fan sites to fill you in on the man behind the stories. And many of his stories are collected in his books.

We reviewed a live show of his at the YM-YWHA on Northfield Road in West Orange, N.J., back in November 1975.

On Christmas Eve that same year, we were helping Santa make his calls and had Shep on the radio, and heard him use our names in the story he was telling.
Author, storyteller, Jean Shepherd & fans, November 1975


JEAN SHEPHERD BOOKS & TAPES

A Christmas Story : The Book That Inspired the Hilarious Classic
Film
In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash
Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories : And Other
Disasters
The Ferrari in the Bedroom
Excelsior, You Fathead!: The Art and Enigma of Jean
Shepherd
The Phantom of the Open Hearth: A film for television co-ordinated by
Leigh Brown
Will Failure Spoil Jean Shepherd? [LIVE]
Jean Shepherd and Other Foibles
Jean Shepherd: The X Random Factor [ABRIDGED] (Audio CD)
Jean Shepherd: Don't Be a Leaf [ABRIDGED] (Audio CD)
County Fair! (Shepherd's Pie Slice Six) (Audio Cassette)

There was only one Jean Shepherd, but there are many sites to help remember him:

Flick Lives
Jean Shepherd tapes
I wonder if they have the tape of the show
that uses our names?
Shep
Shepherd Archives
Jean Shepherd: Excelsior, You Fathead!
The Jean Shepherd Page
Jean Shepherd Filmography
Jean Shepherd Podcast
Jean Shepherd Hall of Fame Celebration
Shepherd and Lou the Duck - WFMU
Our Land, Our Literature
NPR tribute to Jean Shepherd

Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.