"Ralphie"/Jean Shepherd of WOR fame, the person who wrote and narrated the autobiographical movie "A Christmas Story", actually lived on Cleveland St. in Northwest Indiana, which would be 164th Street if extended into Chicago, not in Cleveland, OH. The address found online is about 3 miles from the WIND towers in Griffith, IN. It always seemed to me that he should have listened for his Ovaltine clues on a crystal radio. I'm sure he must have had one. Maybe he thought it was too geeky for a mainstream movie, and wanted to focus on the Red Rider BB gun type themes. I just calculated the field strength at the address on Cleveland St. The Night pattern field strength, which exceeds the Day field strength, is 280 mV/m, based on M-3 conductivity. That's definitely a crystal radio grade signal.
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Calculation Of The WIND Field Strength At WOR's Jean Shepherd's Childhood Home In Indiana
- Thread starter Schroedingers Cat
- Start date
I lived about 6 miles from the WJJD towers in Des Plaines and they were the only station I could receive on a crystal radio
back in the late 50s.
back in the late 50s.
Some might not have known this: Jean Shepherd got his amateur radio license when he was in high school.
I don't know if his stories also about being in the U.S. Signal Corps are genuine. But I'm guessing that they were, what with all the communications instincts he later developed.
I don't know if his stories also about being in the U.S. Signal Corps are genuine. But I'm guessing that they were, what with all the communications instincts he later developed.
Jean Shepherd meets Lee DeForest, when Jean was a teenager.
Jean Shepherd's favorite vacuum tube, the 6SJ7GT.
To nitpick, Cleveland St. ends at State Line Ave., and does not enter Illinois. If it were to be extended, it would enter Calumet City, not Chicago, and would be 161st St, not 164th. For some reason, there is a 3-number street difference between Hammond and Calumet City. BTW, Chicago only extends south to 138th St.
I noticed that after searching through various ancient Rand McNally road maps that had information Google Maps didn't have. I was searching for the location of the 5 kW 6 tower in line Night site of WNTD 950, a few blocks South of the Chicago City Limits, and extending a few more blocks, into BURNHAM, IL. I said, will somebody notice? Certainly not the people who all think Jean Shepherd actually grew up in Cleveland, Ohio (technically, our esteemed Administrator David didn't either).
Then I checked the WIND History Card, and Jean Shepherd's Wikipedia article for his birth date. It turns out, WIND went to 5 kW Day, 1 kW Night nondirectional in 1936, and to a three tower directional array in 1937 with 5 kW Day but only 1 kW Night, DA-1. Jean would have been 16 at the time, but they weren't LICENSED with 5 kW Night until 1942. It was in the works since 1940. Of course, the war took him away from Cleveland St. in that same time frame.
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That reminds me of a famous hoax about a ham radio DX excursion to the Wibi Islands (or something similar) with the call letters 5U4GB. There were, of course, reports of people hearing that "station".
Reminds me of the KLEE-TV DX Hoax, which, like the Crop Circles, someone finally admitted was a hoax.
The only connection between Jean Shepherd and Cleveland OH is that "A Christmas Story" was partially filmed in Cleveland (with other parts in Toronto). He spent part of his early career in Toledo and Cincinnati, but not Cleveland, AFAIK.
The house it was filmed at IS in Cleveland, and along with the RRHOF, is a Cleveland Tourist Trap Called A Christmas Story House.
A Christmas Story House | Cleveland Historical
The film takes place in a fictional town called Hohman, Indiana. Most exteriors were shot in Toronto. Interior scenes were done on a stage set. But in every sense of the word (no, not the “fudge” word) Ohio’s Tremont neighborhood is where Ralphie Parker and his family experienced A Christmas...
Another odd thing I noticed on Google Maps is that apparently the Indiana Illinois Border is not a perfectly straight line near Burnham, IL, which borders on Indiana. It always looked line a straight line on any maps I have seen before.
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I wonder if they ever tried to film the movie in Hammond, rather than going to Cleveland and Toronto. Being in metro Chicago, it might have been too expensive. My dad's family is originally from Hammond (not that part of town, though). In fact, my great-grandfather was mayor of Hammond in the late 1930s-early '40s, the era that the movie was supposed to have been set. The parallels between the movie and what I was told by my dad and my grandparents about growing up there were amazing.
The only connection with the movie and Cleveland is the location of some of the filming, now immortalized as The Christmas Story House. I was there on opening day on an unusually warm day-after-Thanksgiving. We also visited "Higbees" (at that time a downtown mall), and the Cleveland Christmas Parade.
There was a documentary where a couple found and visited all of the filming locations for the movie. They were also there on opening day of A Christmas Story House.
There was a documentary where a couple found and visited all of the filming locations for the movie. They were also there on opening day of A Christmas Story House.
It's clear from lines in the movie that it was in Indiana. One was the line about his father's expletives floating over Lake Michigan. There's another reference to a town to the South, I think it was Griffith or Merrillville.
They may have wanted some kind of remuneration for using the actual city name, so they used Hohmann, which is a major street there. This is not unusual. In the movie "Jersey Boys", apparently CKLW wanted some kind of remuneration for using the call letters in the movie. CKLW is where Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons went from the Roostertail to pitch "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" to Paul Drew in 1967. In typical Clint Eastwood fashion, instead they approached WJR, and they wanted a very small nominal amount. So they said "WJR", which never even played it, at least at the time. It was a very jarring historical error to anyone who knew the real story. Around that same time, Joni and Chuck Mitchell DID appear on the FOCUS show with JP McCarthy, recorded December 8, 1966, and played on the air around Christmas, 1966, though I don't know whether they played any album cuts on WJR either.
They may have wanted some kind of remuneration for using the actual city name, so they used Hohmann, which is a major street there. This is not unusual. In the movie "Jersey Boys", apparently CKLW wanted some kind of remuneration for using the call letters in the movie. CKLW is where Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons went from the Roostertail to pitch "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" to Paul Drew in 1967. In typical Clint Eastwood fashion, instead they approached WJR, and they wanted a very small nominal amount. So they said "WJR", which never even played it, at least at the time. It was a very jarring historical error to anyone who knew the real story. Around that same time, Joni and Chuck Mitchell DID appear on the FOCUS show with JP McCarthy, recorded December 8, 1966, and played on the air around Christmas, 1966, though I don't know whether they played any album cuts on WJR either.
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Had to have been Griffith. Merrillville has been around in one form or another since the mid-19th century, but didn't exist as a standalone community until 1971.
Apparently that happens with real people, or at least their estates, as well.
In Elton John's movie "Rocketman," he is asked to come up with a new name. Per the movie, he got Elton from his band's sax player Elton Dean, and his last name from John Lennon. This is a blatant error, even more amazing because Sir Elton was the Executive Producer of the film.
"John" came from blues singer Long John Baldry, who was the leader/vocalist in Bluesology, the band he was with at the time, and who convinced him to come out of the closet. In fact, the song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is about Baldry convincing John to come out. Why Baldry was never mentioned in the movie, I have no idea. Maybe his estate wanted some extra money for it (he died in 2005) or they had a falling out over the years.
While researching the Rand McNally Maps to study the Illinois Indiana Border Area, I noticed the Radio Station Guide Panel, from the 1967 Map. In previous years, the Rand McNally Road Atlases had a radio guide with nearly all the AM stations, even the Day power. They then went to small panels with most major stations on Road Maps. These were the listed stations.
WAAF 950
WAIT 820
WBBM 780 C
WCFL 1000 M
WGN 720
WIND 560
WJJD 1160
WLS 890 A
WMAQ 670 N
WMBI 1110
WNUS 1390
WVON 1450
WEAW 1330
WNMP 1590
WJOL 1340
WTAQ 1300
WOPA 1490
WAAF 950
WAIT 820
WBBM 780 C
WCFL 1000 M
WGN 720
WIND 560
WJJD 1160
WLS 890 A
WMAQ 670 N
WMBI 1110
WNUS 1390
WVON 1450
WEAW 1330
WNMP 1590
WJOL 1340
WTAQ 1300
WOPA 1490
But no mention of the suburban stations on both sides of the state line, other than in Cicero, Evanston, and Joliet, or the shared Chicago stations on 1240? Maybe they figured nobody passing through would be interested in these low-powered and/or special interest stations.
The Rand McNally Atlas eventually went to a short list of the most powerful full-time stations by State, on the back page. Then FM took over, and there were way too many stations to try to list.
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