waste not

[kip_w]

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I just did a bunch of searching and browsing to find some information for a reply to a comment on carbonel's LJ, and I thought, well, we don't have 100% congruent FLs, so why not repeat it over here? I couldn't come up with a convincing reason why not, so here it is.

This follows the mention of a suspected, but unconfirmed, Jean Shepherd story about a big parade. The links are audio links -- in retrospect, I should have said so in my original comment...

The Shepherd story would seem to be "Wilbur Duckworth and His Magic Baton," from In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, which starts off talking about the loneliness of the marching Sousaphone player and segues into the megalomaniacal drum major Duckworth. It's told from the point of view of a marching Sousaphone player; part of the parade, but as far as the real action is concerned, he's a watcher. Originally published in Playboy in December 1964.

("Rupert Duckworth" or "Duckworthy" is mentioned in his May 30, 1967 radio broadcast. According to the flicklives.com tribute site,

The main character's name underwent several name changes from Waldo Grebb to Stinky Davis, when Shep retold the story on the radio on May 30, 1967, and finally to Wilbur Duckworth in the movie Great American Fourth of July (1982)

In another story about the band, done on WOR in 1971, Shep keeps mixing up the names. He starts out calling the character Wilbur Duckworth but mixes it up with "Stinkey" Davis at times, calling him "Stinky" Wilbur Duckworth. He also slips one calling the character Davis and then correcting it.

In the book "In God We Trust..." the baton was changed from "Electric" to "Magic"

Anyway, I can't find an 'original radio version' of the baton story, but I found another marching band story on June 13, 1964, and on November 28, 1970, he reads the short story on the air. (All the shows I mentioned in this comment, and over 1500 others, can be found in mp3 form at the Shep Archives.)
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Comments

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Just yesterday I was thinking of "Ludlow Kissel and the Dago Bomb"

[carbonel]

I appreciate your doing the research on this, but this doesn't at all sound like the piece that I was remembering. That one is from the point of view of a parade watcher, commenting on all the things going by: "Look, there's a marching band. And it's led by...John Phillips Sousa! They sound great." That sort of thing.

And then it ends with a wistful "Wait! I want to go with, too!"

Or something like that. It was very long ago, so I probably have the particulars incorrect.

I'm going to listen to the short story now.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

The Shep Archives have show descriptions, for the majority of programs. My searching may have been tainted by the recollection of the baton major -- you might be able to look and find it. Or have a great time on the site, anyway. I have three or four of his books, but some of them are hiding.

[carbonel]

I believe I have it on one of my Midnight Special tapes. Those are slated for digitization once I finish the record albums. Once I come across it, I'll try to remember to post about it.