Private Parts (book)

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Private Parts
Author Howard Stern
Cover artist Design by Jackie Seow, Photograph by Timothy White
Country United States
Language English
Subject(s) Autobiography
Publisher Simon & Schuster
Publication date October 15, 1993
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 448
ISBN ISBN 0-671-88016-0
Followed by Miss America (book)

Private Parts is the autobiography of radio personality and shock jock, Howard Stern. It was published in 1993 by Simon & Schuster[1] and became the fastest-selling book in the company's history.[2] It was adapted into a film in 1997 starring Stern as himself.[3] The book covers areas from his personal life and serves as an extension of his radio show. The early chapters cover his early childhood leading to his first days as a campus jock. The later chapters cover recurring themes of his show including sex, and celebrities.

It received mixed reviews from critics, often drawing comparisons to Lenny Bruce. Like Stern's radio show it received a great deal of opposition including from bookstores. It is number 87 on the American Library Association's list of the 100 most frequently challenged books between 1990 and 2000.[4] Stern wrote a second memoir called Miss America in 1996.[5]

Contents

The initial themes of the book in the early chapters are on more personal topics such as: Stern's parents' childrearing style, his love life, and race relations in his neighborhood. The later chapters focus on the three recurring themes of celebrities, sex (especially lesbianism), and various aspects of his show.

Private Parts could be divided into two main sections. The early chapters focus on Stern's upbringing and his rise to stardom in radio. The later chapters of the book serve as an expansion of his radio show, with topics including celebrity interviews and feuds, his staff and show regulars, several stories of lesbianism and masturbation, his opinions on various ethnic groups and sexual persuasions, and his response to his critics.

In the book's opening acknowledgments Stern thanks to his coauthor Larry "Ratso" Sloman as well as his staff and family. The first chapter is a the story of a male listener of Stern's show masturbating while driving on his way to work to an interview of a woman about her first lesbian sexual encounter. Chapters two through six focus on Stern's upbringing and family. Initially Stern focuses on his birth, parents, sister and family through marriage. He then moves out to focus on his upbringing in Roosevelt, Long Island where he was one of few white men in a predominantly black neighborhood.[6] Stern also uses this chapter to relay his thoughts on the topics from the time the book was published such as Spike Lee and his film Malcolm X, and Rodney King and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The fourth chapter deals with Stern's adolescent sexual development including his earliest sexual experiences. He also details his sex life in college and the courtship of his eventual marriage to his wife Alison.

The fifth and sixth chapters deal with Stern's career in radio from childhood interest through his rise to prominence. Stern cites an early interest in radio from the age of five,[7] and his father's assistance and encouragement in growing his early career. His days in college radio are detailed followed by his earliest jobs at radio stations along the east coast of the US. He then details his career at radio stations WWWW in Detroit, Michigan, WWDC in Washington, D.C., and finally WNBC in New York City. Stern's conflict with management at various radio stations are relayed, including a rather detailed conflict with WNBC Program director Kevin Metheny (whom he refers to as Pig Virus).

Chapters seven through eighteen move through a variety of topics beginning with his celebrity interviews. This includes individuals such as Sandi Korn, Bob Hope, Jessica Hahn, Richard Simmons, and Sylvester Stallone and his family. The book then moves into Stern's views on various groups especially the French, the Germans, Filipinos, and "everybody else".[8]

The book then details the Fartman character including the origins, and his appearance on the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. This is followed up by a listing of various regulars on his show referred to as the Wack Pack. Celebrities are revisited as Stern details those who irritate him, such as Oprah Winfrey, Arsenio Hall, and Madonna. Stern follows this up by revisiting his various sexual topics with stories of strippers, nudity, masturbation, and more lesbian sexual encounters.

Stern then returns to the familiar topic of celebrities, this time detailing feuds he has had with people such as the musical group Bon Jovi, Sam Kinison, Magic Johnson, and a physical altercation with Elaine Boosler at the Grammy Awards. Stern revisits homosexuality once again, this detail his musing on gay men. He then goes into comedy as he lists various comedians of the day and gives his opinion, including show regulars Kinison and Andrew Dice Clay. Lesbianism is revisited for the last time as another lesbian sex story is relayed. The seventeenth chapter details his interviews conducted by staff members Gary Dell'Abate and "Stuttering John" Melendez. The last chapter is reserved for Stern's critics and their efforts to have his showed prohibited, and his response to them. An afterword is written by two psychologists who analyze Stern's personality and provide their professional opinion of the man.

Upon its release in 1993 the book quickly became the fastest-selling title in publisher Simon & Schuster's history.[9] The sales were supported by in store book signings by Stern. The success was in spite of mixed reviews and the refusal by several stores to carry the book over objections to its content.[10] The Caldor chain of book stores also modified the New York Times bestseller list which was displayed in stores to remove Private Parts from the top position, moving all subsequent books up one position.[10] The inclusion of the book in library lists was frequently challenged in subsequent years as well.[4] The book spent five weeks at the top of the non-fiction list from the weeks of October 9th thru November 6th, before being displaced by fellow radio personality Rush Limbaugh's See, I Told You So.[11][12]

Several of the Chapter titles are references to prominent literary works.

  • Acknowledgments
  1. My Philosophy
  2. It Was the Worst of Times, It Was the Worst of Times
  3. Black and Blue Like Me
  4. My Sex Life
  5. Mein Kampf "My Struggle"
  6. Pig Virus
  7. Spill It
  8. If You're Not Like Me, I Hate You
  9. Yes I Am Fartman
  10. The Wack Pack
  11. The Power of Negative Thinking
  12. You've Been a Bad Girl, Haven't You?
  13. Star Wars
  14. Out of the Closet Stern
  15. The Comics
  16. Another Lesbian Story
  17. Stuttering John
  18. Stop Howard Stern
  • Afterword: A Psychological Profile

  • It's weird, but I always wanted to be in radio. That was all I could think about from the time I was five years old.[7]
  • I grew up the only white man in a black neighborhood in Roosevelt, Long Island, a pawn in my mother's little social experiment in integration.[6]
    Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  • I'm an obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive, miserable neurotic because I was raised by a woman who ran her household with the intensity of Hitler.[16]
  • My father's favorite sport was yelling.[17]
  • Basically, my mother, Ray, raised me like a veal. It was like growing up in a box with no lights on.[18]
  • So my father jumped up, banged on the glass in his control booth, and screamedd, "SYMPHONY SID! BY THE POWERS VESTED IN ME BY THE FCC, I COMMAND YOU TO GET ON THE MICROPHONE IN A SERIOUS MANNER AND CONTINUE THE BROADCAST!" It worked.[19]
  • It dawned on me that if you were half a mutant you could probably get on the radio to entertain people and to make them forget about the drudgery of that shitty commute.[20]
  • I always resented the label of "shock jock" that the press came up with for me, because I never intentionally set out to shock anybody.[21]
  • You want the secret of life? Here it is: You wake up in the morning. You eat a litle breakfast, maybe read the newspaper. If you're lucky enough, you're married. You yell at your wife, you make up with your wife. If your testicles feel alright, you bang your wife. You watch a video you rented or maybe you go out to the movies. The secret of life is so simple. That's life. If you have kids, you live with the kids. You don't move out on your wife. You stay with her even if you've banged her nine thousand times and you're sick of it. Nobody follows that. That's the secret to life.[22]
  • The rule is: Don't say anything that is 'patently indecent' or offensive to your community. Well, I live in a community where priests rape young boys, where you get shot in your car, where angry black mobs stab Hasidic Jews, and the mayor turns his back, where crack runs free like the River Ganges, and where movie directors fuck their wives' daughters. NOW YOU TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD TALK ABOUT ON THE RADIO![23]

  1. ^ Stern, Howard; Larry "Ratso" Sloman [1993-10-15]. in Judith Regan: Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. 
  2. ^ Bark, Ed. "Stern's 'Private Parts' Tops Limbaugh's Mark", Wichita Eagle, 1993-10-20, p. 4C. Retrieved on 2007-06-06. "Five days after its publication, "Private Parts" had become the fastest selling book in the 70-year history of Simon & Schuster." 
  3. ^ Betty Thomas(Director). Private Parts [Motion picture]. Los Angeles, CA: Paramount Pictures. Retrieved on 2007-05-04.
  4. ^ a b The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000. American Library Association. Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
  5. ^ Stern, Howard [1995-11]. in Judith Regan: Miss America, 1st edition, HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060391676. 
  6. ^ a b Stern, Howard [1993-10-15]. "Black and Blue Like Me", Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 63. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “I grew up the only white man in a black neighborhood in Roosevelt, Long Island, a pawn in my mother's little social experiment in integration.” 
  7. ^ a b Stern, Howard [1993-10-15]. "Mein Kampf "My Struggle"", Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 111. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “It's weird, but I always wanted to be in radio. That was all I could think about from the time I was five years old.” 
  8. ^ Stern, Howard; Larry Sloman [1993-10-15]. "If You're Not Like Me, I Hate You", in Judith Regan: Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 230. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “Here's A List of My Least Favorite Peoples, In Ascending Order 3. The French 2. The Filipinos 1. Everybody else” 
  9. ^ Bark, Ed. "Stern's 'Private Parts' Tops Limbaugh's Mark", Wichita Eagle, 1993-10-20, p. 4C. Retrieved on 2007-06-06. "Five days after its publication, "Private Parts" had become the fastest selling book in the 70-year history of Simon & Schuster." 
  10. ^ a b Barron, James. "Stores Shy Away From Book Written by Radio Personality", The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 1993-11-12. Retrieved on 2007-11-20. 
  11. ^ "BEST SELLERS: October 24, 1993", The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 1993-10-24. Retrieved on 2007-11-20. 
  12. ^ "BEST SELLERS: November 21, 1993", The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 1993-11-21. Retrieved on 2007-11-20. 
  13. ^ Stern, Howard; Larry "Ratso" Sloman [1993-10-15]. in Judith Regan: Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 158. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “I was scheduled to go on the air right after Labor Day, 1982, but the station program direcotr, Kevin Metheny, decided he wanted to "test" me out before that.” 
  14. ^ Stern, Howard; Larry "Ratso" Sloman [1993-10-15]. in Judith Regan: Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 159. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “The program director, Kevin, whom I started calling Pig Virus because he reminded me of a kid I knew in camp who looked like a stupid porker, would always make me practice saying the call letters.” 
  15. ^ Private Parts (1997). Internet Movie Database. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
  16. ^ Stern, Howard [1993-10-15]. "It Was the Worst of Times, It Was the Worst of Times", Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 36. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “I'm an obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive, miserable neurotic because I was raised by a woman who ran her household with the intensity of Hitler.” 
  17. ^ Stern, Howard [1993-10-15]. "It Was the Worst of Times, It Was the Worst of Times", Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 41. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “My father's favorite sport was yelling.” 
  18. ^ Stern, Howard; Larry "Ratso" Sloman [1993-10-15]. "It Was the Worst of Times, It Was the Worst of Times", in Judith Regan: Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 36. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “Basically, my mother, Ray, raised me like a veal. It was like growing up in a box with no lights on.” 
  19. ^ Stern, Howard; Larry "Ratso" Sloman [1993-10-15]. "Mein Kampf "My Struggle"", in Judith Regan: Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 112. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “So my father jumped up, banged on the glass in his control booth, and screamedd, "SYMPHONY SID! BY THE POWERS VESTED IN ME BY THE FCC, I COMMAND YOU TO GET ON THE MICROPHONE IN A SERIOUS MANNER AND CONTINUE THE BROADCAST!" It worked.” 
  20. ^ Stern, Howard; Larry "Ratso" Sloman [1993-10-15]. "Mein Kampf "My Struggle"", in Judith Regan: Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 114. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “It dawned on me that if you were half a mutant you could probably get on the radio to entertain people and to make them forget about the drudgery of that shitty commute.” 
  21. ^ Stern, Howard; Larry "Ratso" Sloman [1993-10-15]. "Mein Kampf "My Struggle"", in Judith Regan: Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 114. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “I always resented the label of "shock jock" that the press came up with for me, because I never intentionally set out to shock anybody.” 
  22. ^ Stern, Howard; Larry "Ratso" Sloman [1993-10-15]. "Black and Blue Like Me", in Judith Regan: Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 80. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “You want the secret of life? Here it is: You wake up in the morning. You eat a litle breakfast, maybe read the newspaper. If you're lucky enough, you're married. You yell at your wife, you make up with your wife. If your testicles feel alright, you bang your wife. You watch a video you rented or maybe you go out to the movies. The secret of life is so simple. That's life. If you have kids, you live with the kids. You don't move out on your wife. You stay with her even if you've banged her nine thousand times and you're sick of it. Nobody follows that. That's the secret to life.” 
  23. ^ Stern, Howard; Larry "Ratso" Sloman [1993-10-15]. "STOP HOWARD STERN", in Judith Regan: Private Parts, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster, 421. ISBN 978-0671880163. OCLC 28968496. “The rule is: Don't say anything that is 'patently indecent' or offensive to your community. Well, I live in a community where priests rape young boys, where you get shot in your car, where angry black mobs stab Hasidic Jews, and the mayor turns his back, where crack runs free like the River Ganges, and where movie directors fuck their wives' daughters. NOW YOU TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD TALK ABOUT ON THE RADIO!” 

The Howard Stern Show
Staff Howard Stern • Robin Quivers • Artie Lange • Fred Norris • Gary Dell'Abate • Richard Christy • Sal the Stockbroker • George Takei
Former staff A. J. Benza • Billy West • Jackie Martling • K. C. Armstrong • Stuttering John
The Wack Pack Beetlejuice • Captain Janks • Daniel Carver • Eric the Midget • Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf • Nicole Bass • Riley Martin • More...
Howard Channels Bubba the Love Sponge Show • Scott Ferrall • The Wrap-Up Show • Howard 100 News • Superfan Roundtable • More...
See Also Fartman • NYRE • Show Celebrity Guests • Show Games and Bits • Private Parts (book) • Private Parts (film) • Sirius Satellite Radio • Sirius Canada • Supertwink
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Parts_%28book%29"
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