“Storytelling is a lost art,” sighs Dan Lauria, who grew up in Lindenhurst, LI, listening to his favorite voices on the radio. Now he’s playing one of his heroes: Jean Shepherd, the Homer of WOR, whose hardscrabble Indiana boyhood inspired the 1983 film classic “A Christmas Story” and now Broadway’s “A Christmas Story — the Musical,” replete with a chorus line of leg-shaped lamps. Lauria, a former Marine and a history major, is warmly remembered as Jack Arnold, the father in TV’s long-running “The Wonder Years,” and says he’s still in touch with every member of that fictitious family. “Fred Savage is one of our leading three-camera directors,” Lauria says proudly. “Eighty-five percent of the kids who work in TV wind up doing fine!” Here’s what’s in Lauria’s library.
In God We Trust
All Others Pay Cash
by Jean Shepherd
My favorite story here is “Mail Call,” about the soldiers gathering together to receive their mail. My father was in the Army — he was a forward observer — and he wasn’t much for war stories. When I went into the service, every time there was a mail call, I’d think about this story.
Hedy’s Folly
by Richard Rhodes
I’m an old-movie buff so, I knew who Hedy Lamarr was, and that she was a genius. She helped come up with a device for torpedo heads so the enemy couldn’t track them. It wasn’t used for WWII but it should have been. I gave this book to Danica McKellar, a math whiz who played Winnie on “The Wonder Years,” and she said what a great movie this would be.
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker
Civil War Surgeon and Medal of
Honor Recipient
by Bonnie Zucker Goldsmith
I don’t think 99 percent of women know about Dr. Walker, who was considered crazy because she believed in sterilizing your surgical instruments and that your diet could affect your health. She also led the women’s rights movement from after the Civil War into the early 1900s. She was a great character.
The Razor’s Edge
by W. Somerset Maugham
It’s about finding God here on earth, but it’s not one of those religious books — it’s about soul-searching, and it’s a great story. If you don’t have time to read the book, watch the original movie with Tyrone Power, not the one with Bill Murray — that was a waste!