A Box to Hide In
Airdate:
Tuesday - September 5, 1961
WOR Show Original Airing
First Line After Theme Ends
Ahhh, is there a 'Good Time Charlie' with us tonight?
Show Description
"Is there a 'good time Charlie' with us tonight? Is this an expression used only in the middle west?"
Shep thanks the NY Times for the article about the show written about a week previously. "Whoever wrote it up didn't even sign his name."
We spend most of our lives searching for our identity.
Shep discusses phrases like "Good Time Charlies", "Big Butter and Egg Man" , "A Red Hot Cookie", "A Smooth Article", "Honkey Dorey", and "Hotsy Totsy"
He quickly jumps from topic to topic all pertaining to people and their mannerisms. He talks about conditioning rats to respond to reward as they learn a feeding pattern relating to a buzzer.
Building a philosophical box around yourself. When things get too involved man builds a box around him. This is why they move to the suburbs. They feel safety with the shutters and the lawn around. A man in Syracuse, New York commits suicide by sealing himself in a crate with only a flashlight.
He reads from James Thurber about the man and the box.
"And by the way. The box principle is also associated with extremism of many forms. The are many ways of building a a box to hide in. And in the end all you can say is... 'Maybe it'll all go away, maybe I'll be all right, maybe it'll get worse' ...It really is hard to say."
Fan Description
[ Courtesy: David Goldin - ]
The Jean Shepherd Show. September 05, 1961. WOR, New York City. Participating sponsors. Looking for a "Good-Time Charlie." An unsolvable problem: rats and cheese, non-violent violence. The probabilities of suicide. Being in a box; reading a work by James Thurber.
Notes:
Notes
Election primaries for NY Mayor is tomorrow Night.
NY Times article is:
Radio-TV: Raconteur - Jean Shepherd Still in High Style on WOR
August 28, 1961
Election primaries for NY Mayor is tomorrow Night.
NY Times article is:
Radio-TV: Raconteur - Jean Shepherd Still in High Style on WOR
August 28, 1961
