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Last Summary Update: 10-11-2026 |
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Turtle Painter
Airdate:
January 1973 (Airdate Confirmed)
WOR Show
(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.)
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| First Spoken Line After Theme Ends |
| By the way, since this kind of a new year yet. . . |
| Show Description |
| [ Courtesy: GROK Summary - - ]
Jean Shepherd’s freewheeling monologue begins with scattered observations on time, consumer culture, and the mood of the era. He jokes about people still writing the wrong year on checks (e.g., 1956 instead of 1973), the confusion created by mass media, and how popular games and sports mirror their times—football reflecting modern violence (likened to Romans feeding Christians to lions), the chess boom after Bobby Fischer, and novelty games such as “Beat Detroit,” “Lie Cheat and Steal,” and “Airport.” He also catalogs absurd consumer products of the day (talking or exploding toilet seats, press-on chest hair, etc.) and slips in a commercial for a Nat King Cole record set.
The piece then turns to the “devil theory” of discontent—how people are constantly pushed toward new cars, new partners, or new possessions even when what they have works fine—before recommending the House of Chan restaurant on 52nd Street.
The main story recounts Shepherd’s days living in a rundown Times Square fleabag hotel. Walking Broadway, he watches a shop window full of tiny painted souvenir turtles (skyscrapers, the Statue of Liberty, “Souvenir of Fun City,” etc.). Inside, a man in a smock and beret with a fake French accent paints them. After a tourist couple rejects several, the painter creates a miniature portrait of the woman on a turtle’s shell, seals it, and sells it.
Shepherd, identifying himself as a fellow artist and local, drops the pretense. The painter then shows him his “real” work from a hidden tank: expressionistic, fully painted turtles he considers serious art. He is bitter that tourist kitsch sells while his genuine pieces never reach the Museum of Modern Art (then filled with pop art). Shepherd never sees him or the window display again.
The monologue closes on the image of the unrecognized artist’s ambulatory works potentially surviving for decades in some drain or weed patch, unsigned masterpieces of “living art,” and ends with the usual sign-off.
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| WOR ID |
| Time |
Station ID (All times approximate)
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| 14:23 |
This is WOR New York, speaking of chickens. . . .
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| Commercials
(All times approximate) |
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| Music (All times approximate) |
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