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From: leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: A Christmas Story
Message-ID: <1504@mtgzz.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Dec-85 15:16:34 EST
Article-I.D.: mtgzz.1504
Posted: Sat Dec 21 15:16:34 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Dec-85 01:48:21 EST
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 >I just saw this movie last weekend, and highly recommend it.
 >The style of the movie, and parts of the plot, are strongly
 >reminiscent of a movie I saw a few years back called
 >'Phantom of the Open Hearth'.  In fact, the sequence with
 >the tacky lamp seems to have been lifted directly from the
 >previous movie.  Has anyone else noticed this?  Are the
 >directors or script writers of the two movies the same?

Jean Shepherd is a popular American humorist.  As far as I know he got
started by doing comic hour-long monologs on WOR-radio.  Public radio
and a number of private radio stations also played his stuff.  Most
often the the stories he told were fictionalized stories about his
youth.  He took these monologs and wrote them down, first in short
stories for Playboy magazine, and then in what he calls novels, but
they are really collections of short stories.  Among the books he has
written this way are IN GOD WE TRUST -- ALL OTHERS PAY CASH, WANDA
HICKEY'S NIGHT OF GOLDEN MEMORIES, and FERRARI IN THE BEDROOM.   In
book form he referred to himself in the third person and called
himself Ralph.  More recently he has adapted some of his stories as
plays.  At least three of these plays have been done on PBS.  They are
"Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories", "Phantom of the Open
Hearth," (which is probably the "movie" you are remembering), and one
about a year ago, I don't remember the title but it concerned his date
with a [gasp!]  Polish girl.  A CHRISTMAS STORY is his first film.  It
is based on chapters in IN GOD WE TRUST.  Most of these things he,
himself narrates.  His voice can also be heard now on a number radio
commercials for things like ice cream.  He also had a couple of
short-lived tv series on PBS including "Jean Shepherd's America."  He
also is a popular on the college campus lecture circuit.

				Mark Leeper
				...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper