Last Summary Update: 10-21-2026 Wizard of OZ- Cavemen Airdate: Friday - October 22,1971 WOR Show Original Airing (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 Yes, yes, my dear. . . (to cheap guitar music) Show Description [ Courtesy: GROK Summary - - ] This monologue (WOR, October 22, 1971) weaves an evolutionary poem, childhood reading, and a vivid museum memory into a reflection on how thin the veneer of civilization is and how close we remain to our prehistoric origins. Evolutionary poem Shepherd opens by reciting Langdon Smith's long poem "Evolution" ("When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish"). It traces a couple from Paleozoic fish through amphibians and early mammals to cavemen sharing a fireless cave and, finally, to sitting at Delmonico's. He presents it as an old classic relevant to the "ecology cooks" and declines to mail out copies. Cavemen and the Wizard of Oz He asks whether boys go through a "caveman period" and poses a trivia question about a popular late-1940s/early-1950s kids' radio drama whose hero was a caveman. More important to him were L. Frank Baum's Oz books, which he read as a small child and which affected him more deeply than most other literature. He walks through the classic voyage: Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion on the Yellow Brick Road through the land of the Munchkins to the Emerald City, each seeking what they lack (brain, heart, courage, home). The Wizard's bullhorn, the green-glasses rule, and the final revelation that he is a humbug (Dorothy's word) seared Shepherd against get-rich-quick schemes and authority figures who hide behind facades. He plugs his Princeton show (November 6, Alexander Hall, benefit for WPRB) and a book signing for *Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories* at Brentano's in the Village (October 29). Field Museum diorama The emotional center is a fourth-grade field trip with Miss Robinette to Chicago's Field Museum. In a darkened basement hall, he encounters a meticulously realistic cave diorama: a squat female with heavy brows, undershot jaw, and fur, holding a baby; a male bent forward, scraggly-haired, reaching for a club and looking over his shoulder with bloodshot eyes as if sensing danger; raw animal flesh on the floor; rain visible outside. Miss Robinette tells the children these are their ancestors - "without them you wouldn't exist." The image is unforgettable and far less glamorous than the radio cavemen. A nearby diorama of an Illinois-area Indian tribe shows cannibalism of enemies (body pegged to the ground), contrasting with romantic movie and cartoon images of Indians. Reflections on ancestry and modernity At home his father responds to the revelation with a casual "so what?" Shepherd begins noticing faces on the street that echo anthropological antiquity. He notes that upright posture is evolutionarily recent and creates physical problems, and that physical anthropologists study the evolution of bone and stance. Watching pro football with half-closed eyes turns the players into a tribal ritual: the huddle, the cheers for a fallen opponent, the implied next step of scalping. He concludes that "inside of me flows the blood of a caveman" and that "there were about twenty years removed from barbarism at any given time in history." Overall tone and point: Literary, anecdotal, and quietly dark. The poem, the Oz disillusionment, and especially the Field Museum cave scene serve as vehicles for Shepherd's recurring theme that modern manners, advertising, and self-image sit atop a much older, more animal reality. The monologue treats that continuity as both comic and unsettling. [ Courtesy: Max Schmid - - ] Evolution Poem Hung up on Cavemen - Comic strip Wizard of Oz Quiz ID @ 16:26 "Speaking of facades and bullhorns" Cmml: Chrysler Plymouth, Wolff's Kasha buckwheat groats Coming to Princeton Nov 06-benefit for WPRB, Brentano's book signing (Wanda) Fr Oct 29 Charlie? in booth - 22:16 Back to Emerald City - Dorothy calls the Wizard a "humbug"! Miss Robinette takes kids to Field Museum - Hall of Man (opened 1933) In basement-glass case looks into a cave with a family of cave people they looked like animals, but they are our ancestors Cannibalism was big among Indian tribes - they ate their enemies. Evolution - man's organs set up to be four-legged animal. Football as war ritual Winter is coming up on us. WOR ID Time Station ID (All times approximate) 16:22 reminds me this is WOR, speaking of facades and bullhorns Commercials (All times approximate) Time Sponsor Notes 16:27 Chrysler 17:31 Wolffs Kasha 19:36 Live Concert / Performance Princeton Nov 6 20:52 Book Promotion Music (All times approximate) Time Music Title Notes 02:00 Unknown Music Classical Guitar