Dan Beach - Contributions

Dan Beach was Production Coordinator on 3 of Shep's PBS TV shows and got to know him quite well. He sent these photos taken during the filming of the "Jean Shepherd at the Movies" shorts for PBS along with this line drawing Shep did on Dan's copy of the "Star Crossed Romance of Josephene Cosnowski" script.

Shep on the set of Bumpers
photo copyright © Dan Beach
used with permission

"Fred spent countless nights with Jean and Leigh, nursing, cajoling, begging, and soothing the irascible. Surely SOMEONE would have brought Jean to TV. But Fred had the vision to do so, and hung in there through tantrums and insults and negotiation and philosophical arguments. Fred somehow brought Jean's brilliance to television, something Jean was proud of though he seldom admitted it. The video legacy of Jean is due to Fred and I think it's very important that he be recognized."

Dan Beach

Shep with David Loxton, the co-producer and -director of Phantom of the Open Hearth
photo copyright © Dan Beach
used with permission

Drawing by Shep

From the shoot for Phantom of the Open Hearth, Jean was having a fit about the way a scene was being played, so he went and crawled under the table on the set while the scene was being filmed.

A photo from 1961 or 1962 when Shepherd came to Boston and did a live TV show from a dock on the Charles River (the one where the Police came up in a launch and wondered what was going on. Shep ad-libbed wonderfully through it, on camera.