Sheplives

Last Summary Update: 03-02-2024

Ahab's Arctic Apples
Airdate: Thursday - December 30, 1965

WOR Show
Original Airing

audio

First Spoken Line After Theme Ends

Good evening to all of you in crowd people. . .

Show Description

Shep begins, "Good evening to all you 'in crown' people", and then toys with the engineer who plays the wrong music on cue. He makes him continue playing it to 'soak in it for a while.' Most people don't know what winter is about. "Have you ever looked back on your life and thought about a fantastic, unbelievable senseless trek or hang-up that you have had that you can not explain at this moment... something that you wanted so tremendously or some insane thing that you decided to do and you carry through in spite of the fact that the car sank in forty feet of water, that you had to swim fourteen miles in raging seas?" As a kid, Shep finds a flyer in the mail from the local IGA. They advertise a bushel of apples for 45 cents and Shep decides to surprise his mother with a bushel of apples. In the midst of a snowstorm he rounds up his brother, Bruner, and Flick and off they trek with their sleds through the howling wind and snow. They arrive frozen in front of the IGA and it is closed. Shep decides to struggle on to the A&P which had stayed open a half hour later. When faced by four frozen kids holding the flyer for apples, the manager goes to the basement and brings back a bushel of apples. Feeling sorry for the boys, who had made the trek through the storm with their sleds, he arranged for them to be driven home in the back of the A&P truck. They come up on the back porch with a bushel of frozen apples. "Have you ever tasted an apple that was frozen and then thawed out? The instant those apples thawed out, they all turned into one gigantic pile of brown mush!" In 8th grade, the teacher (Miss Fife, "a little dark haired teacher with rimless glasses") decided to relax and read a short story to the class. She had one in her purse which was written by Jack London. It was about a man and his dog struggling in the frozen North trying to stay alive. Shep calls this story "The Two Matches" (See notes below) He had only two matches between survival and and freezing to death. The class became so caught up in the story that near the end, when the bell rang signaling the end of class, they were all left wanting more. The teacher closed the book and told the class that if they were interested in the end of the story, they could find a copy a the library. 37 kids that day were turned on to reading.

So far there is no Description for this show

Comments

• The actual story appears to be "To Build a Fire" written in 1908. There was a 1902 version in which it is not so cold, there is no dog, the fire is not doused, and the man (named Tom Vincent) suffers some permanent frostbite damage but survives.

WOR ID

Time	Station ID (All times approximate)
• 15:40	Speaking of tragedy, this is WOR AM and FM New York

Brass Figlagee Award

"I will award the Brass Figlagee. . ."

• I will award a brass figlagee with bronze oak leaf palm if any victim of those stories is around and can remember it. (~37:30)

Commercials (Up to date) (All times approximate)

Time	Sponsor	Notes
• 15:45	Miller Beer
• 16:48	Movie Promotion	"Do Not Disturb" starring Doris Day and Rod Taylor
• 18:06	Rover 2000
• 19:06	Limelight - Shep

Music (Up to date) (All times approximate)

Time	Music Title	Notes
• 13:25; 29:28; 38:35; 41:06	Finlandia

Engineers, Staff, and Guests in Booth

Time	Engineer, Staff or Guest
•	Skip

Instruments and Special Effects Played During the Show

Not Determined

Rating

None Yet

Related Plots / Story Lines and Other References Used

Time	Category	Date	Title	Comments
•	People		Fife, Miss

Record: 481 / ID: 19651230W0481

Airdate History ' - Original' date is earliest known broadcast)

	Date	Title
	December 30, 1965 Recno: 481	Ahab's Arctic Apples	Original Airing

More Ways To Hear or Buy It

Show	Replay Date
Mass Backwards	March 06, 2001
Golden Age of Radio	January 22, 2012

The Best Source for Quality Jean Shepherd Audio

Found in the following set(s)

Set Name	Show #	Media
1965 Set 7	176b	Cassette

Sorry, Not Available

General Info

Database Record Status

Database ID #:	19651230W0481	Sponsors up to date:	Yes
Record Created:		Sources up to date:	Yes
Last Update:	03-02-2024	Station ID up to date:	No
Show Redated From: See Dating Notes		Engineers up to date:	No
Music up to date:	Yes	Instruments up to date:	No
Description up to date:	Yes

Known Recordees

Rudy Wirsching

Notes

Dating Notes

No Notes Found

General Notes

No Notes Found

Technical Notes

Notes

Source: Jim Clavin
To Build a Fire
Comments: londonsonoma.edu (8/30/2016)

Research Notes

No Notes Found

Max / Schmidco

Max's super secret page of shows never played and not on internet - maybe. . .

Max / Schmidco Notes
No Notes Found

Replays

Mass Backwards

Replay Date

March 06, 2001

WBAI Golden Age of Radio

Replay date

January 22, 2012

Yesterday USA

NONE

Dustbin of History!

NONE

Max / Schmidco Notes
No Notes Found

Other

References:

Synd#:
Synd#:

Schmidco Sets - 1 found

Set Name	Show #	Media	File Name	Source
1965 Set 7	176b	Cassette	0 Running Time: 0

Shows Known via Recordings or Lists
(1950 to 1974 Sources 100% Complete - 1975-1977 in process)

9 Known copies from various Sources and Lists (Up to date)

	Recordee			¹ Shortened Theme: 55 seconds ² Audibly Dated: By recordee or other ³ Modified Theme: Theme added by Gary Hines ⁴ Syndicated Intro: Intro broadcast as part of Synd Shows
	This copy used for summary time references		Inventory File Name coding explained

Source Name

Information

FHC / JSP

Running Time: 42:52

Available on Internet

Inventory Name: 1965 12 30_W0481_030 Apples WOR Jean Shepherd.mp3
Source filename: 1965 12 30 Apples WOR Jean Shepherd.mp3
Source ref number: 2g
Station: WOR

David Goldin

NEED A COPY OF THIS RECORDING Source description: The Jean Shepherd Show. December 30, 1965. WOR, New York. Participating sponsors. Little Jean Shepherd, as "Ahab," battles a blizzard to buy apples when he was a kid. A remembered Jack London short story, well told. A good show. Part of the opening theme has been deleted. Jean Shepherd. 44:49. Audio condition: Excellent. Complete as above.
Source ref number: 76256
Station: WOR

FHC / JSP

Running Time: 46:49

Available on Internet

Inventory Name: 1965 12 30_W0481_030 Apples WNAC Jean Shepherd.mp3
Source filename: 1965 12 30 Apples WNAC Jean Shepherd.mp3
Source ref number: 2g
Station: WNAC

Comments: WNAC rerun? Date?

Max - Everything Sets

Running Time: 43:55

Available on Internet

Inventory Name: 1965 12 30_W0481_601 Bushel of Apples.mp3
Source filename: 1965_12_30_Bushel_of_Apples.mp3
Source set: Everything Set Vol 09
Station: WOR

Brass Figlagee - Archive.org

Running Time: 43:55

Available on Internet

Inventory Name: 1965 12 30_W0481_995 Bushel of Apples.mp3
Source filename: 1965_12_30_Bushel_of_Apples.mp3
Station: WOR

Gary Hines

NEED A COPY OF THIS RECORDING Source description: 12-30-65 176 Ahab's Artic Apples, Bushel
Station: WOR

Images

Mass Backwards

Running Time: 45:09

Available on Internet

Inventory Name: 1965 12 30_W0481_500_M2001-03-06 Ahabs Arctic Apples.mp3
Station: WBAI

Comments: Mass Backwards recording

GoldenAge of Radio

Running Time: 45:11

Available on Internet

Inventory Name: 1965 12 30_W0481_550_G2012-01-22 Ahabs Arctic Apples.mp3
Station: WBAI

Comments: Golden Age of Radio recording

Schmidco

Running Time: 43:20

Recordee:
501 - Rudy Wirsching

Inventory Name: 1965 12 30_W0481_022-600_1965_Set_7-176b Ahabs Arctic Apples.mp3
Source set: 1965 Set 7
Source ref number: 176b
Station: WOR

Images

"Can you imagine 4,000 years passing, and you're not even a memory?
Think about it, friends. It's not just a possibility. It is a certainty." - Jean Shepherd - 1975