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Last Summary Update: 09-26-2026

Albert Farkas
Airdate: Wednesday - December 12, 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

All right, lets cut this jazz out, we'll cut this theme short... (Theme missing - may not be true 1st line)

Show Description

[ Courtesy: Gary Hines - - ]   
  Albert Farkas, newspaper strike, columnist Solkosky dies,
Farkas chases Shep, hides in the A&P      
  

[ Courtesy: Ken Applegate - 06-03-2009 ]   
  Newsmen should never do radio, or people might stop reading their articles.
Shep muses about how the papers wouldn't notice if radio went on strike.
New Jersey as a state of mind.
News flash from New Jersey over accident reason.
[13:21] A real news flash about a newspaper writer that has died.
Jean launches into memories on the writer he knew.
Fear and it's inspiration as a male thing.
Albert Farkas in the Alley      
  

[ Courtesy: GROK - - ]   
  Jean Shepherd's Dec. 12, 1962 WOR monologue is a typical rambling night show: strike talk, media mockery, a couple of ads and news bits, then a long sixth-grade story about running from a bully.

Media and the newspaper strike

Shepherd opens by cutting short the usual theme and market/weather chatter. During the newspaper strike, radio is suddenly full of "nasal sounding" columnists. He argues that once writers leave the printed page and talk on air, they sound human - and therefore doubtful. Compare that to reading Hemingway or arguing with Salinger: the voice ruins the myth.

He wonders what newspapers would do if radio went on strike - probably ignore it except a tiny item on page 38. Radio and even some TV stations, meanwhile, are making a big show of "expanded news coverage." One 15-minute "in-depth" newscast he timed spent most of its time on the weather and a subway delay, then skimmed Khrushchev and ended with the weather again.

What he actually misses from papers are the back-page items that never make radio newscasts.

Bits and plugs

- He reads a Plainfield/Wallington, N.J. court item: John Cager wrecked his car because his wife suddenly stopped talking; he looked over and lost control. The judge called it the best excuse of the year and acquitted him.

- A bulletin: columnist George Sokolsky has died. Shepherd recalls him as a rare ideologue who still had a sense of humor. At a Waldorf New Year's event Shepherd once joked that real guts meant being George Sokolsky - and Sokolsky laughed loudest.

- Commercials: Milady's frozen cheese blintzes (sour cream, not tomato sauce) and a subscription pitch for 'Show' magazine ($5.75/year).

The Albert Farcus story

The heart of the show is a story Shepherd says he hadn't wanted to tell: the time Albert Farcus trapped him in the A&P.

Farcus was the class's only real "juvenile delinquent" - sandy-haired, freckled, beefy, pig-eyed, violent but not a sneaky bully. He once threw a handful of pencils at the blackboard, broke the teacher's pointer, and ran out while Miss Nelson wept. He already had a circle of scared cronies.

Shepherd, walking home alone after school (unusual), passed an alley and Farcus and four friends called him over. He knew they wanted to beat him up. He ran.

He describes a long, panicked chase across lawns, alleys, railroad ties beside a warehouse, past a water tower, down Kennedy Street. He ducks into the A&P, hides in the meat/frozen-food section among shoppers, pretends to look at oatmeal, and watches Farcus's crew peering in through the window signs. His left foot starts a nervous jig. The butcher sends him to the restroom; he spots a back door, slips out, and makes it home.

The next day Farcus said nothing.

Shepherd frames the episode as "voluntary terror" and boyhood cowardice - the kind of raw, chosen fear he thinks girls of that era rarely faced in the same way. He also uses it to talk about how people edit their own lives: everyone has lived something wild, but most refuse to look at it.

News Articles Read by Shep During Show

Shep would often read articles he recently read or were sent in by fans

Time	Image	Description
11:14		Talking Driver

WOR ID

Time	Station ID (All times approximate)
12:01	WOR News Bulletin

Commercials (All times approximate)

Time	Sponsor	Notes
08:59	Maladies Cheese Blintzes
16:47	Show Magazine

Music (All times approximate)

Time	Music Title	Notes
07:36	Sleepy Time Gal
12:34	Shiek of Araby (1)

Engineers, Staff, and Guests in Booth

Time	Engineer, Staff or Guest
18:28	Eddie Zajack

Instruments and Special Effects Played During the Show

Not Determined

Related Plots / Story Lines and Other References Used

Time	Category	Date	Title	Comments
18:41	People		Farkas, Scut (Albert)	aka Albert Farkas
31:49	People		Nelson, Miss

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

This Show

		Date	Title
		December 12, 1962	Albert Farkas	Original Airing

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"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