John Cassavetes

Actor, Director, Writer

One of the few guests that Shep had on his show during the WOR years was John Cassavetes. He appeared on or about February 14, 1957 to promote the film "Edge of the City" in which he appeared. During the show they talked about a film project that John wanted to do if only people would donate some money. The "Night People" did and the movie was made and released as "Shadows"

Playboy - July 1971 - Interview with John Cassavetes
 

Cassavetes on Cassavetes 
 

BIRTH OF THE COOL - Beat, Bebop, and the American Avant-Garde
 

In 1957, the actor John Cassavetes, twenty-seven, went on Jean Shepherd’s Night People [sic] on WOR, the hippest radio show in Manhattan, to publicize his new movie, a pedestrian Martin Ritt policier called Edge of the City. 

The New York-born son of a Greek immigrant importer-exporter, the handsome, dark-eyed Cassavetes was already making a name for himself playing edgy misfits and tightly torqued tough guys in low-budget double-feature fodder like The Killers and Crime in the Streets. Shepherd, a wildly improvisational radio monologist, was then at the top of his game and he boasted a large and dedicated audience. Shepherd’s flock responded enthusiastically when Cassavetes claimed that he could make a better movie than Martin Ritt, and if they wanted to see an alternative to the Hollywood mindset, they should send in money to fund a project Cassavetes was creating in collaboration with his drama workshop. Over the next few days, two
thousand dollars in bills and coins poured in.

A week later, Cassavetes started his film,….Bass player Charles Mingus did the score. The final product was titled Shadows.

courtesy: Gene Bergmann