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Let me start by saying that I am a musician and not a writer, I hope
you forgive my humble attempts at relating this great story, but someone
had to do it. The info that I am about to relate is pretty much verbatim,
as I culled it from a January 1968 tape of Shep being interviewed on The
Long John Nebel Show on WOR in New York.
When Jean Shepherd first came to New York from the midwest, he had a very
different idea about what radio should be. At that time, (and especially
now) radio was highly formatted. Back in the early 50's there were still
radio-dramas held over from the 40's, but mostly djs were the prevailing
format. Shep's idea of radio was to treat it like a blank page, in which
to express his ideas, about whatever. The fact that he was on all night
was a strong influence on how the show developed. Up until then, the 12-5
am slot was for background (what would today be called "elevator")
music. WOR didn't think it paid to even keep the studio open so they put
Shep out at the transmitter in Carteret, NJ!
Well, this was the very beginning of what became known as "black
comedy ". Satire was unknown. Comics like Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce,
and Shelley Berman were not on the scene yet. Shep was a true revolutionary
in this medium.
Anyway, as Shep said, "New York was a city that was entirely run by
lists." Nobody dared go to the theater without reading ten reviews
first! If Clive Barnes said the show was good, it was good. "Even if
you fell asleep in the first act, you somehow felt that it was your fault!
Did it ever occur to you that lists are compiled by mortals? When the Oscar
is awarded for Best Picture was it really the Best Picture? Well, everyone
is influenced by these critics. You may laugh at the people who read the
Daily News, but then YOU believe in the New York Times !"
"Did ever occur to you that the guy responsible for compiling these
lists was some little guy who was stuck for four years doing obituaries.
Now it's his job is to call bookstores and find out what's selling this
week.
Well, Fred Applerot recently bought 500 copies of "Who Shot John",
and he still has 497 copies on the shelf. The guy calls and asks what's
hot? 'WHO SHOT JOHN"! BIG HIT! Well, the little guy puts it on his
list and soon everyone goes out and buys it!"
"At 3:00 am the people who believe in lists are asleep. These are the
people who get all the latest hit show tickets. Anyone still up at 3 am
secretly has some doubts. There are only two kinds of people. Us and Them.
And they don't know that we exist!"
It was about this time that Shepherd created a term which became part of
the language. "Like hot diggety dog!, or Gosh!" He said that there
were two kinds of people. First, there was the guy who believed in day time.
He felt most alive from 8-6. Meetings, lunches, deals, that was his thing.
When he came home and flopped in front of the tv with a beer, it was dead
time. Over. To sleep.
Then there's the other guy. His time is at 2 or 3am. He might still have
to get up at 7 am but at 3 am, that is when he is in his own private world.
He is a NIGHT PERSON.
The point was that these two types rarely meet, or know much about the other's
world. (Shep was given credit in The American Dictionary of Slang and Usage
for creating the terms "Night People and Day People".)
"Now, these two groups are constantly battling. but they don't know
that they are!"
The Day People truly believe in lists. And prices. A $20 ticket HAS to be
better than a $1 ticket. The Top Ten Movies MUST be better than the Second
Ten! "Now, when this guy turns on my show, he thinks we're crazy! What
is that idiot talking about? Then he puts on WPAT (Muzak), the opiate for
the masses."
At about 2 am one night, Shep said to his listeners, "let's all go
to the local book stores tomorrow and ask for a book, that we, the Night
People, know doesn't exist." Since it was a communal thing, he asked
the listeners for suggestions for a title. Finally, at about 4:30 am someone
came up with "I, Libertine". Shep then created an author, Frederick
R. Ewing, formerly a British Commander in World War II, now a civil servant
in Rhodesia, married to Marjorie, a horsewoman from the North Country. He
was best known for his BBC broadcasts, on 18th century erotica. He was published
by Excelsior Press, an imprint of Cambridge University. Now who's gonna
argue with that? British--Cambridge--a wife named Marjorie?
So what's next? The first guy walks into the store and asks for "I,
Libertine". The owner says he never heard of it. Man number two walks
in asking for it. Now he says "it's on order." The next guy comes
in. Now he's on the phone to the distributor. " Well, after 350 more
guys ask for it, Publisher's Weekly is in shambles!"
You must remember that the listeners KNEW that this was a nonexistent book!
By the next day, reports started to come back. One guy said:
"For years this guy in the 8th Street Bookshop had me buffaloed. You
got the feeling that HE actually wrote Kierkegaard! That he was behind Spinoza!
If I mentioned Proust he would say, 'the trouble with Proust was that he
never matured.' So I asked him about Ewing and "I, Libertine".
'It's about time the public discovered him!' I had him! It was great!
A woman at her bridge party mentioned it. Immediately a discussion broke
out and three women decided that they hated it!
Airline pilots, who were listeners, started asking for it all over the world.
Then a kid who was going to Rutgers wrote Shep: "I'm taking this course
in the History of English Writing. I did my term paper on F. R. Ewing, British
Historian, with footnotes and quotes from the BBC broadcasts. I got a B+
and the professor wrote 'Superb Research!' My God, maybe there was no Chaucer!
It could have been some guy 400 years ago putting on the whole world!
Then, in Earl Wilson's column appeared a blurb, "had lunch with Freddy
Ewing yesterday." The PR people who fed the columns were also Shep
listeners! It was even reviewed by one of the major book supplements of
the time! The reviewers were also fans, and Shep told all the listeners
to "put your little hooks in, wherever you can."
As Shep said, "I felt like a guy at the bottom of a mountain who threw
a couple of pebbles up and suddenly a 400 trillion ton avalanche falls on
him!" Comments continued to appear all over in newspapers. One guy's
boss asked him what he thought of the book. Did he read it? "What could
I say?"
Shep said he was afraid the the President would mention it. "Then I
wouldn't believe in anything!"
There were articles in Life, Newsweek and Time, however the ultimate was
yet to come.
It was placed on the proscribed list by the Arch Diocese of Boston! Banned
in Boston!! At the end of the 7th week it was on a nation-wide best-seller
list! It was now a best seller in Rome, Paris, London. Remember, the people
asking for this KNEW that it didn't exist.
On a hot, humid August day, Shep got a call from a reporter on the Wall
Street Journal. He told him that he thought it was time to break the story.
He said, go ahead. The following day, the story came out-front page, middle
section. It hit the newsstands at about 3:00 pm.
"At 3:01 pm about six countries called. It became a world-wide story.
It was also one of the only stories that was reprinted word for word by
Pravda! Remember, that at no time was there any PR done for this. As Shep
would say, "It was the beginning of an attitude that people have had
up to today. People up until then never questioned politicians or Big Government
like they do now."
There was an amazing follow up to this tale. After the story broke, Shep
was having lunch with the late, great writer, Theodore Sturgeon. "Ted
said that Ian Ballantine was running all over the world looking for the
paperback rights to "I, Libertine". I told him I'd introduce you
to him." Well, they all got together over lunch. Shep, with Ted Sturgeon,
knocked out the book, and it really then became a best seller! (Incidentally,
all the profits went to charity.)
I happened to be lucky enough to find a copy years ago in a used book
shop, and still have it. Autographed by Shep, no less! The cover was illustrated
by Kelly Freas, who you might remember as one of the main Alfred E. Neuman
artists over at Mad.
As Shepherd later said, "Few touched on the real point of the story.
Most papers got it wrong, and said things like-'Disk jockey sells non-existent
book to listeners'. It was the LISTENERS who sold a non-existent book the
to WORLD! Only The Wall Street Journal, and the overseas press got it right."
The Day People didn't like being had.
The London Daily Express wrote of it as one of the greatest hoaxes of all
time.
Well, there you have it. At least what I know about it. You see, there's
more to Jean Shepherd then nostalgic Christmas Stories.
Judging from the response that Jim Sadur and I have been receiving from
our Shepherd pages, maybe someone out there would consider playing on the
air, or selling some of those old radio shows. Lots of folks would sure
be interested.
Keep your knees loose, gang.
Bob Kaye
6/18/96
