Sheplives

Last Summary Update: 11-08-2026

Triple Tongue It
Airdate: Monday - December 3, 1962

WOR Show
Original Airing

audio

(NOTE ABOUT TIME REFERENCES: Since there are many different copies of shows out there from different sources, all time references are from the beginning of one single recorded copy, since various copies, depending on when the recordee started recording, had news at the beginning or shortened themes. The times would vary from copy to copy.)

First Spoken Line After Theme Ends

I'm walking along see. . .

Show Description

[ Courtesy: Gary Hines - - ]   
  Triple Tongue It, sousaphone playing and the HS band.      
  

[ Courtesy: GROK Summary - - ]   
  Shepherd begins by describing a walk through a neighborhood of gift shops full of fuzzy sweaters and "gifty suggestions." He is surprised to come upon a brightly lit monument shop (ACME Fine Taste Beautiful Granite Marble Monument Company) whose window displays glowing tombstones lit as if for a Broadway set. A discreet engraved card in the window simply reads "may we make a gift suggestion." This triggers a comic riff on the absurdity of receiving a monument as a Christmas present, complete with over-the-top Gothic music, joyful bells, and visions of black-and-gold gift cards arriving on Christmas morning.

He then reads a real catalog item sent in by a listener: parakeet diapers (washable jersey with snap straps in several sizes and colors) for people who let their birds fly free around the house.

Then there's the guy who builds a gigantic twice life sized statue of Ted Williams using only Ballantine bottle caps.

The bulk of the monologue is a long, confessional story about Shepherd's high-school years as a sousaphone (he calls it "susaphone") player and his obsession with "triple tonguing" - a rapid, showy tonguing technique used by brass players. He compares getting hooked on it to a nervous tic (like a newscaster's perpetual grin or someone constantly pulling their ear). After seeing another player master the gimmick, he practices obsessively in the band room, wearing out his lip on pieces such as the *Carnival of Venice*, *Colonel Bogey*, and others. His band director eventually notices, tells him the technique is not on the music, yet still enters him in the state solo contest in Huntington, Indiana.

Shepherd describes the contest atmosphere in detail: rows of nervous high-school musicians waiting like actors at an audition, the booming sound of other sousaphones rattling the windows, the pressure of performing without music in front of judges, and the odd parallel between earnest music teachers and Bible students. He recalls sitting on stage in his uniform, sweating, blowing the spit out of the horn, and then launching into his triple-tongued *Carnival of Venice*. He finished as runner-up and received a little red second-place ribbon.

Throughout, he digresses on the pointlessness of such "useless skills" - comparing triple tonguing to saving thousands of matchbooks, building a scale model of the George Washington Bridge from Mexican matchsticks, or constructing a giant Ted Williams statue from bottle caps - and notes that the only place triple tonguing is truly appreciated is the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. Commercials for *Show* magazine (including an Al Capp piece on Doris Day) and Mandarin House restaurant are inserted along the way.

WOR ID

Time	Station ID (All times approximate)
13:00	speaking of embarrassing moments, this is WOR AM and FM New York

Commercials (All times approximate)

Time	Sponsor	Notes
13:11	Show Magazine
14:37	Mandarin House

Music (All times approximate)

Time	Music Title	Notes
01:50	Unknown Music	Unknown gothic

Notes
There a 4 pieces played trough the show which need to be ID'd

Engineers, Staff, and Guests in Booth

Time	Engineer, Staff or Guest
13:25	Al Aprile

Instruments and Special Effects Played During the Show

Instruments Played

None

Related Plots / Story Lines and Other References Used

Time	Category	Date	Title	Comments
	General Topics		Sousaphone

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

This Show

		Date	Title
		December 3, 1962	Triple Tongue It	Original Airing

More Ways To Hear or Buy It

NONE

The Best Source for Quality Jean Shepherd Audio

Sorry, Not Available

"Imagine 4,000 years passing, and you're no longer a memory - Does it seem possible to you?
You better believe it's possible, not only possible but certainty." - Jean Shepherd - October 7, 1971