Chicagoist Weekend Theater: 'Jean Shepherd's America - Chicago'

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 3, 2013 8:00PM

Last week the city of Hammond, Ind. unveiled a statue immortalizing the "triple-dog dare" scene from A Christmas Story. Jean Shepherd paid tribute to his childhood on Chicago's South Side and northwest Indiana in his writing and radio shows with colorful narrative and writing that, in my opinion, place Shepherd in the rarefied air of raconteurs occupied by Hemingway, Terkel and Algren.

Shepherd starred in and wrote a PBS series, Jean Shepherd's America which was simply a forum for him to do what he did best: talk. Here's a clip from "Shep's" visit to Chicago, sitting in an empty Comiskey Park, telling the audience about baseball and how his father lived and died with the White Sox.