Podcasts by The Bowery Boys: New York City History
The tides of American history lead through the streets of New York City — from the huddled masses on Ellis Island to the sleazy theaters of 1970s Times Square. The elevated railroad to the Underground Railroad. Hamilton to Hammerstein! Greg and Tom explore more than 400 years of action-packed stories, featuring both classic and forgotten figures who have shaped the world.
Further podcasts by Bowery Boys Media
Podcast on the topic Geschichte
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#387 Hyde Park: The Roosevelts on the Hudson from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.647450
Hyde Park, New York, was the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. He was born here, he lived here throughout his life, and he's buried here -- alongside hi...
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#389 The Ruins of Roosevelt Island from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.642437
The Renwick Ruin, resembling an ancient castle lost to time, appears along the East River as a crumbling, medieval-like apparition, something not quite believable. Sitting betwe...
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#392 The Bowery Boys Podcast 15th Anniversary Special from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.630516
Let's go back to 2007. Tom and Greg recorded the first episode of the podcast which would become The Bowery Boys: New York City History on June 19, 2007. The lo...
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#393 Ric Burns and James Sanders on"New York: A Documentary Film" from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.623095
In today's episode, Tom discusses the vast span of New York history with filmmakers and authors Ric Burns and James Sanders, creators of "Listen
#395 Jefferson Market and the Women's House of Detention from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.618601
In the heart of Greenwich Village sits the Jefferson Market Library, a branch of the New York Public Library, and a beautiful garden which offers a relaxing respite from the bus...
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#400 Jacob Riis:'The Other Half'of the Gilded Age from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.601879
In 1890 the Danish-American journalist Jacob Riis turned his eye-opening reporting and lecture series into a ground-breaking book called How The Other Half Lives Listen
#402 Treasures from the World's Fair from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.594207
Flushing-Meadows Corona Park in the borough of Queens is the home of the New York Mets, the U.S. Open, the Queens Zoo, the Listen
#404 Nighthawks and Automats: Edward Hopper's New York from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.589532
Within the New York City of Edward Hopper's imagination, the skyscrapers have vanished, the sidewalks are mysteriously wide and all the diners and Chop Suey restaurants are spar...
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#406 How Wall Street Got Its Name from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.584259
Wall Street, today a canyon of tall buildings in New York's historic Financi...
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#411 Miss Subways: Queens of the New York Commute from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.571660
From 1941 and 1976, dozens of young women and high school girls were bestowed the honor of Miss Subways with her smiling photograph hanging within the cars of the New York subwa...
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Rewind: The Deadly Draft Riots of 1863 from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.567029
This month we are marking the 160th anniversary of one of the most dramatic moments in New York City history – the Civil War Draft Riots which stormed through the city from July...
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#414 The Brooklyn Navy Yard and Vinegar Hill from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.562478
The tale of the Brooklyn Navy Yard is one of New York's true epic adventures, mirroring the course of American history via the ships manufactured here and the people employed to make them.
#416 Creating the East Village 1955-1975 from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.557914
Before 1955 nobody used the phrase "East Village" to describe the historic northern portion of the Lower East Side, the New York tenement district with a rich G...
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The Official Gilded Age Podcast: S2 E1 with Lord Julian Fellowes from 2023-11-29T19:02:29.549794
Here's the first episode of HBO's The Official Gilded Age Podcast, hosted by Tom Meyers of the Bowery Boys Podcast and Al...
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#421 Evacuation Day: Forgotten Holiday of the American Revolution from 2023-11-22T05:04:55
For decades New Yorkers celebrated Evacuation Day every November 25, a holiday marking the 1783 departure of British forces from the city they had occupied for several years dur...
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#420 Garbo Walks: Old Hollywood in New York from 2023-11-10T05:00:49
Greta Garbo in New York! A story of freedom, glamour, and melancholy, set at the intersection of classic Hollywood and mid-century New York City. The biography of a legendary st...
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Rewind: The Gilded Age Mansions of Fifth Avenue from 2023-10-27T04:05
So we don't know if you’ve heard, but New York City is an expensive place to live these days. So we thought it might be time to revisit the tale of the city’s most famous district of luxury —
#419 Ghost Stories by Gaslight from 2023-10-13T04:05
A brand new batch of haunted houses and spooky stories, all from the gaslight era of New York City, the illuminating glow of the 19th century revealing the spirits of another world.
Greg a...
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#418 Theodore Roosevelt's Wild Kingdom from 2023-09-29T04:02:05
Theodore Roosevelt was both a New Yorker and an outdoorsman, a politician and a naturalist, a conservationist and a hunter. His connection with the natural world began at birth ...
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#417 Walking the East Village 1976-1996 from 2023-09-15T04:05
The rebirth of the East Village in the late 1970s and the flowering of a new and original New York subculture -- what Edmund White called "the Downtown Scene" -- arose from the ...
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Rewind: The Rebellious History of Tompkins Square Park from 2023-08-25T04:05
This episode on the history of Tompkins Square Park ties right into an all-new two-part episode coming in September, the first part coming at you next week.
Tompk...
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#415 The Early Years of Central Park from 2023-08-18T04:05
Stroll the romantic, rambling paths of historic Central Park in this week's episode, turning back the clock to the 1860s and 70s, a time of children ice skating on The L...
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#413 The New Storytellers: Landmarks, Diners and Everyday New Yorkers from 2023-07-21T04:03:10
Instead of looking back to the history of New York City in this episode, we are looking forwardto the future -- to the new generation of creators who are celebrating New York and telling ...
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A Gilded Age Tour Up the Island of Manhattan from 2023-07-14T04:05
It’s one of the great narratives of American urban history — the northward trek of New York society up the island of Manhattan during the 19th century.
Bringing you this special story tod...
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The Making of the Pledge of Allegiance from 2023-06-30T04:05
The Pledge of Allegiance feels like an American tradition that traces itself back to the Founding Fathers, but, in fact, the original version is only written in 1892.
(An...
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#412 The New York Parking Wars from 2023-06-23T04:05
Take a look at a historic photograph of New York from the 1930s and you'll see automats, newsies, elevated trains and men in fedoras. What you won't see -- dozens and dozens of automobiles on th...
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#410 The Roeblings: The Family Who Built The Brooklyn Bridge from 2023-05-24T04:00
The Brooklyn Bridge, which was officially opened to New Yorkers 140 years ago this year, is not only a symbol of the American Gilded Age, it’s a monument to the genius, persever...
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Rewind: The Birth of the Broadway Musical from 2023-05-12T04:00
The Broadway musical is one of New York City's greatest inventions, over 160 years in the making! It's one of the truly American art forms, fueling one of the city's most vibran...
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#409 The Great New York City Pizza Tour from 2023-04-28T04:00
The history of pizza in the United States begins in Manhattan in the late 19th century, on the streets of Little Italy (and Nolita), within immigrant-run bakeri...
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#408 The Titanic and the Fate of Pier 54 from 2023-04-14T04:00
In the early morning hours of April 15, 1912. the White Star ocean liner RMS Titanic struck an iceberg en route to New York City and sank in the Atlantic Ocean. Survivors were r...
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#407 New York by Gaslight: Illuminating the 19th Century from 2023-03-31T04:05
Enter the magical world of New York by gaslight, the city illuminated by the soft, revolutionary glow of lamps powered by gas, an innovative utility which transformed urban life...
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Rewind: When The Irish Came To New York from 2023-03-17T04:00:26
We just reedited and reworked our 2017 show on Irish immigration in time for St. Patrick’s Day and a celebration of all things Irish! So much has changed in our world since 2017 and this...
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#405 Mona Lisa at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 2023-02-17T05:05
Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci's stoic portrait and one of the most valuable paintings on earth, came to America during the winter of 1963, a single-picture loan that was both a special fav...
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The First Woman Ever Photographed from 2023-02-10T05:05
Dorothy Catherine Draper is a truly forgotten figure in American history. She was the first woman to ever sit for a photograph — a daguerrotype, in the year 1840, upon the rooft...
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#403 The Fulton Fish Market: History at the Seaport from 2023-01-20T05:00:32
In the 19th century, the Fulton Fish Market in downtown Manhattan was to seafood what the Chicago stock yards were to the meat industry, the primary place where Americans got fi...
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Rewind: A Bar Named Julius', New York's Newest Landmark from 2023-01-13T05:05
New York City has a new landmark, a little bar in the West Village named Julius', Listen
Side Streets: Good Diners, Great Pizza and Mars 2112 from 2022-12-30T05:05
Greg and Tom -- with some help from producer Kieran Gannon -- reflect nostalgically upon old New York City restaurants from the 1990s (Mars 2112, anyone?), wonder what it was li...
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#401 The World Before Wordle: Talking Puzzles With AJ Jacobs from 2022-12-21T05:05
Crosswords, jigsaws, mazes, rebuses, Rubik's cubes, Myst, Words With Friends -- and now Wordle? Not only have people loved puzzles for centuries, they've actually gone wild for the...
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The Mysteries of Absinthe: Dancing With The Green Fairy from 2022-12-16T05:05
A Special Presentation: We know some of you like to celebrate the holiday spirit with actual alcoholic spirits so we thought you'd enjoy this episode of Listen
#399 The Changing Lower East Side: A View From Seward Park from 2022-11-24T05:05
To wrap up our 15th anniversary celebration -- and to set up our big 400th episode -- we take a fond look at one corner of New York City which taught us to love local history.
Perhaps you ...
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#398 Marilyn Monroe in New York from 2022-11-11T05:03:21
In late December 1954 Marilyn Monroe came to New York City wearing a disguise.
Monroe -- the biggest movie star in the world when she arrived -- came to the East Coast to ...
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Rewind: Birth of the Five Boroughs from 2022-10-28T04:05
On January 1, 2023, New York City will celebrate a special moment, the 125th anniversary of the formation of Greater New York and the creation of the five borou...
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#397 Ghost Stories of the Hudson River from 2022-10-14T04:00
Beware! The ghosts and goblins of the Hudson River Valley have been awakened.
In this year's annual celebration of New York urban legends and folktales, Tom and Greg
Rewind: An Evening at Sardi's from 2022-09-30T01:37:33
In honor of an exciting new theater season, we're revisiting our 2011 episode on the history of Sardi's restaurant, updated to cover the trials and triumphs of the past decade.
The famous ...
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#396 Samuel Tilden and the Presidential Election of 1876 from 2022-09-16T04:05
You may have heard about the messy, chaotic and truly horrible presidential election of 1876 -- pitting Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B Hayes...
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#394 New York Calling: A History of the Telephone from 2022-08-19T02:43:56
Just a few months ago, New York City removed most of the remaining phone booths from the streets, oft neglected, a nostalgic victim of our increasing use of cellphones.
For almost a...
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Rewind: The Story of the Yellow Taxi Cab from 2022-07-29T01:59:16
In honor of the 125th anniversary of the first ELECTRIC CABS hitting the streets of New York, the Bowery Boys are revisiting this episode from 2015, recounting almost 175 years ...
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Invisible Magicians: Domestic Servants in Gilded Age New York from 2022-07-22T03:57:27
Tom and Greg are still off celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Bowery Boys podcast, so this week we're highlighting one of the best shows produced by the Bowery Boys this year -- for The ...
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#391 A Walk through Little Caribbean from 2022-06-28T04:05
What wonderful surprises await the Bowery Boys in Little Caribbean? The Brooklyn enclave in Flatbush is one of the central destinations for Caribbean-American life and culture i...
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#390 The Story of Flatbush: Brooklyn Old and New from 2022-06-17T03:01:32
Over 350 years ago today's Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush was an old Dutch village, the dirt path that would one day become Flatbush Avenue, lined with wheat fields and farms.
Contrast ...
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Now Playing: Cautionary Tales from 2022-06-10T04:05
Presenting "Cautionary Tales". Host Tim Harford tells tragic stories from the past, pointing out the valuable lessons in the greatest mistakes, disasters and fiascos.
On this episode,...
#388 The Hudson River School: An American Art Revolution from 2022-05-20T02:09:57
Two landmarks to American art history sit on either side of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge over the Hudson River -- the homes of visionary artists Thomas Cole and
Now Playing: History Daily Podcast from 2022-04-15T04:05
We wanted to present to you one of our favorite new podcasts of the year -- and one we think you'll love. It's called History Daily Listen
#385 Frederick Law Olmsted and the Plan for Central Park from 2022-04-11T06:16:00.457635
Frederick Law Olmsted, America's preeminent landscape architect of the 19th century, designed dozens of parks, parkways and college campuses across the country. With Cal...
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#384 Nuyorican: The Great Puerto Rican Migration from 2022-03-25T04:30:45
This episode focuses on the special relationship between New York City and Puerto Rico, via the tales of pioneros, the first migrants to make the city their home and the many hundreds of thousan...
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#383 The Temple on Fifth Avenue from 2022-03-11T01:48:09
Temple Emanu-El, home to New York's first Reform Jewish congregation and the largest synagogue in the city, sits on the spot of Mrs. Caroline Astor's former Gil...
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#382 Architect of the Gilded Age from 2022-02-25T03:03
Richard Morris Hunt was one of the most important architects in American history. His talent and vision brought respect to his profession in the mid-19th century and helped to craft the seductive s...
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Introducing: Love Thy Neighbor from 2022-02-21T05:01
We’re bringing you something special this week. The trailer for a new podcast produced by Pineapple Street Studios called Love Thy Neighbor. Hosted by journalist Collier Meyerson, this five-episod...
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#381 The Wonderful Home of Louis Armstrong from 2022-02-11T03:54
New York City has an impressive collection of historic homes, but none as unique and or as joyful as the Louis Armstrong House and Museum, located in Corona, Queens.What other historic home in the ...
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#380 Dorothy Parker's Last Party from 2022-01-28T03:26
Dorothy Parker was not only the wittiest writer of the Jazz Age, she was also obsessively morbid. Her talents rose at a very receptive moment for such a sharp, dour outlook, after the first world ...
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#379 How Chelsea Became a Neighborhood from 2022-01-14T04:47:52
PODCAST What does the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea mean to you? Religion and architecture? Art galleries and gay bars? Shopping and brunch after a stroll on the High Line? Tens of thousands of...
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#378 The Ansonia: Only Scandals In The Building from 2021-12-31T03:04
The strange, scandalous and sex-filled story of the Ansonia, an Upper West Side architectural gem and a legendary musical landmark. In the television show Only Murders in the Building, Martin Shor...
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The Real Mrs. Astor: Ruler or Rebel? from 2021-12-23T17:58
Believe it or not, we've got one more brand new Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast for 2021. Look for it on January 31. But for today we wanted to give you another sampling of our new spin...
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Rewind: West Side Story and the Making of Lincoln Center from 2021-12-17T00:14
Steven Spielberg's new version of West Side Story is here -- and it's fantastic -- so we're re-visiting our 2016 show on the story of Lincoln Center, with a new podcast introduction discussing the ...
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Gilded Age or Gilded Cage? (With The Bowery Boys) from 2021-12-10T05:46
The following is a special presentation — the first episode of brand spin-off podcast called The Gilded Gentleman, hosted by social and culinary historian Carl Raymond. In this debut episode, rec...
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#377 The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree from 2021-12-01T16:39
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree has brought joy and sparkle to Midtown Manhattan since the early 1930s. The annual festivities may seem steady and timeless but this holiday icon actually has ...
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Introducing: The Gilded Gentleman from 2021-11-25T20:09
Presenting a new history podcast produced by Tom Meyers and Greg Young from the Bowery Boys: New York City History. If you’re a fan of Downton Abbey, The Age of Innocence or Upstairs Downstairs, t...
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#376 Skid Row: The Bowery of the Forgotten from 2021-11-18T23:51
Presenting a history of the Bowery in the 20th century when this street became known as the most notorious place in America. And the stories of the lonely and desperate men whose experiences have b...
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Toxic Turkey Day: HISTORY This Week from 2021-11-12T03:38:30
November 24, 1966. Millions of spectators flood Broadway in New York City to watch the Macy’s Day Parade on Thanksgiving morning. The iconic floats – Superman, Popeye, Smokey the Bear – are set ag...
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#375 The Great Bank Robbery of 1878 from 2021-11-05T03:47
The thrilling tale of a classic heist from the Gilded Age, perpetrated by a host of wicked and colorful characters from New York's criminal underworld. Jesse James and Butch Cassidy may be more in...
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#374 Gotham's Greatest Ghost Stories from 2021-10-21T20:56
What are the greatest ghost stories and haunted legends in New York City history? Since 2007 -- every October for fourteen years -- the Bowery Boys podcast has shared the city's most notorious and...
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#373 New York Underground: The Story of Cemeteries from 2021-10-08T02:05
The following podcast may look like the history of New York City cemeteries -- from the early churchyards of the Colonial era to the monument-filled rural cemeteries of Brooklyn and Queens. But it...
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#372 The Shuberts: The Brothers Who Built Broadway from 2021-09-24T02:21
There's no business like show business -- thanks to Lee, Sam and J.J. Shubert, the Syracuse brothers who forever changed the American theatrical business in the 20th century. At last Broadway is ...
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Rewind: Revolutionary Fire/The End of Nathan Hale from 2021-09-17T02:08
On the occasion of the 245th anniversary of the Revolutionary War in New York City, we revisit the story of the Great Fire of 1776, the drumbeat of war leading up to the disaster, and the tragic st...
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#371 A Visit to Little Syria: An Immigrant Story from 2021-09-10T03:24
Just south of the World Trade Center district sits the location of a forgotten Manhattan immigrant community. Curious outsiders called it "Little Syria" although the residents themselves would have...
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#370 Tragic Muse: The Life of Audrey Munson from 2021-08-27T00:55
By the time Audrey Munson turned 25 years old, she had became a muse for some of the most famous artists in America, the busiest artist’s model of her day, She was such a fixture of the Greenwich ...
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#369 Last Dance at the Hotel Pennsylvania from 2021-08-13T01:38
When it opened in 1919, the Hotel Pennsylvania was the largest hotel in the world. Over a hundred years later, its fate remains uncertain. Is it too big to save? After the Pennsylvania Railroad co...
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#368 Henry Bergh's Fight for Animal Rights in Gilded Age New York from 2021-07-30T01:35
Interview with Prof. Ernest Freeberg, author of “A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement” Today’s show is all about animals in 19th-century New York City....
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#367 The Ice Craze: How the Ice Business Transformed New York from 2021-07-16T03:26
New York City on ice — a tribute to the forgotten industry which kept the city cool in the age before refrigeration and air conditioning. Believe it or not, ice used to be big business.In 1806 a B...
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#366 North Brother Island: New York's Forbidden Place from 2021-07-02T01:09
There are two mysterious islands in the East River with a human population of zero. They are restricted. No human being lives there. One of these islands has been witness to some of the most dire...
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Rewind: The Historic New York City Hall from 2021-06-25T11:52
New York City Hall sits majestically inside a nostalgic, well-manicured park, topped with a beautiful old fountain straight out of gaslight-era New York. But its serenity belies the frantic pace o...
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#365 Do The Right Thing (Bowery Boys Movie Club) from 2021-06-18T02:49:27
We're sliding into Summer 2021 -- ready for great music, hot dancing and breaking into fire hydrants -- and so we’ve just released an epic summertime episode of Bowery Boys Movie Club to the genera...
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#364 The Very Gay History of Fire Island from 2021-06-04T02:44
The third and final part of the Bowery Boys Road Trip to Long Island -- the gay history of Fire Island! Fire Island is one of New York state’s most attractive summer getaways, a thin barrier islan...
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#363 The Sunny Saga of Jones Beach from 2021-05-21T02:22
Our new mini-series Road Trip to Long Island featuring tales of historic sites outside of New York City. In the next leg of our journey, we visit Jones Beach State Park, the popular beach paradise ...
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#362 Gatsby and the Mansions of the Gold Coast from 2021-05-07T03:34
The first part of our new mini-series Road Trip to Long Island featuring tales of historic sites outside of New York City. In this episode, relive a little Jazz Age luxury by escaping into the colo...
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#361 Landmarks of Coney Island (Extended Funhouse Mix) from 2021-04-30T03:30
Coney Island is back! After being closed for 2020 due to the pandemic, the unusual attractions, the thrilling rides and the stands selling delicious beer and hot dogs have finally reopened. So we ...
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#360 The Botanical Gardens of New York City from 2021-04-23T02:35
Nature and history intertwine in all five boroughs -- from The Bronx River to the shores of Staten Island -- in this special episode about New York City's many botanical gardens. A botanical garde...
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#359 The Magic of the Movie Theater from 2021-04-08T15:50
In celebration of 125 years of movie exhibition in New York City -- from vaudeville houses to movie palaces, from arthouses to multiplexes. In the spring of 1896 an invention called the Vitascope ...
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#358 The Muppets Take Manhattan (Bowery Boys Movie Club) from 2021-04-02T01:46
TOGETHER AGAIN! In 1984, Jim Henson brought his world-famous Muppets to New York for a wacky musical comedy that satirized the gritty, jaded environment of 1980s Manhattan while providing fascinati...
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#357 Edith Wharton's New York from 2021-03-26T03:09
New York's upper class families of the late 19th century lived lives of old-money pursuits and rigid, self-maintained social restrictions -- from the opera boxes to the carriages, from the well-app...
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#356 Pfizer: A Brooklyn Origin Story from 2021-03-19T03:12
The story of a true Brooklyn 'start up' -- Charles Pfizer and Co, who went from developing intestinal worm medication in 1849 to being a leader of COVID-19 vaccine development and distribution in t...
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#355 The Midnight Adventures of Doctor Parkhurst from 2021-03-12T03:07
Welcome to your tour of New York City nightlife in the 1890s, to a fantasia of debauchery, to a "saturnalia of crime," your journey to a life of delicious, amoral delights! Courtesy a private dete...
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#354 Who Wrote the First American Cookbook? from 2021-03-05T03:44
One of America's most important books was published 225 years ago this year. You won't find it on a shelf of great American literature. It was not written by a great man of letters, but somebody ...
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#353 Harlem Before the Renaissance from 2021-02-26T04:21
“If we were to offer a symbol of what Harlem has come to mean in a short span of twenty years, it would be another statue of liberty on the landward side of New York. Harlem represents the Negro’s ...
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Rewind: Harlem Nights at the Hotel Theresa from 2021-02-19T04:58
The Hotel Theresa is considered a genuine (if under-appreciated) Harlem gem, both for its unique architecture and its special place in history as the hub for African-American life in the 1940s and ...
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#352 The Birth of Black Harlem from 2021-02-12T04:58
How did Harlem become Harlem, the historic center of Black culture, politics and identity in American life? This is the story of revolutionary ideas -- and radical real estate. By the 1920s, Harle...
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#351 Auntie Mame (Bowery Boys Movie Club) from 2021-02-04T22:28
In the latest episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, Tom and Greg celebrate wild and fabulous Auntie Mame, the outrageous comedy masterpiece starring Rosalind Russell that’s mostly set on Beekman P...
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#350 The World Trade Center in the 1970s from 2021-01-29T04:59
The World Trade Center opened its distinctive towers during one of New York City's most difficult decades, a beacon of modernity in a city beleaguered by debt and urban decay. Welcome to the 1970s....
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Rewind: Strange Hoaxes of the 19th Century from 2021-01-22T04:13:59
PODCAST REWIND Stories of outrageous hoaxes perpetrated upon New Yorkers in the early 19th century. In the 1820s, the Erie Canal would completely change the fortunes of the young United States, tu...
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#349 The Queensboro Bridge and the Rise of a Borough from 2021-01-15T02:45
“The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gats...
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Rewind: The Destruction of Penn Station from 2021-01-08T04:36
To celebrate the opening of Moynihan Train Hall, a new commuters' wing at Penn Station catering to both Amtrak and Long Island Railroad train passengers, we’re going to tell the entire story of Pen...
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Rewind: The Construction of Penn Station from 2021-01-01T05:03
On January 1, 2021 Moynihan Train Hallofficially opens to the public, a new commuters' wing catering to both Amtrak and Long Island Railroad train passengers at New York's underground (and mostly u...
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#348 Cheers! The Stories of Four Fabulous Cocktails from 2020-12-24T20:07
It's the happiest of hours! The tales of four fabulous cocktails invented or made famous in New York City's saloons, cocktail lounges, restaurants and hotels. Cocktails are more than alcoholic bev...
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Rewind: Historic Vaccines -- The End of Polio and Smallpox from 2020-12-17T16:50
We released the following show on the history of vaccines back in early April 2020 when the idea of a COVID 19 vaccine seemed little more than distant fantasy. Just this past Monday, on December ...
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#347 Steam Heat! A Gilded Age Miracle from 2020-12-11T03:33
It's HOT in the city even during the coldest winter months, thanks to the most elemental of resources -- steam heat. This is the story of the innovative heating plan first introduced on a grand sc...
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Rewind: The City in Flames - The Great Fire of 1835 from 2020-12-04T03:51
PODCAST This month marks the 185th anniversary of one of the most devastating disasters in New York City history -- The Great Fire of 1835. This massive fire, among the worst in American history, ...
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#346 The Beatles Invade New York! from 2020-11-27T02:19
How Beatlemania both energized and paralyzed New York City in the mid 1960s as told by the women who screamed their hearts out and helped build a phenomenon. Before BTS, before One Direction, befo...
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Rewind: The Curious Case of Typhoid Mary from 2020-11-20T05:01
An account of a mysterious typhoid fever outbreak from the early 20th century and the woman — Mary Mallon, the so-called Typhoid Mary — at the center of the strange epidemic. The tale of Typhoid M...
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#345 LaGuardia's War on Pushcarts: The Creation of Essex Street Market from 2020-11-13T03:35
Once upon a time, the streets of the Lower East Side were lined with pushcarts and salespeople haggling with customers over the price of fruits, fish and pickles. Whatever became of them? New York...
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Rewind: On The Radio: A History of the Airwaves from 2020-11-06T05:04
The discovery of radio changed the world, and New York City was often front and center for its creation and development as America’s prime entertainment source during the 1930s and 40s. In this s...
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#344 Ghostbusters (Bowery Boys Movie Club) from 2020-10-30T02:44
To wrap up this month's series of spooky-themed shows, we're releasing this 2018 episode of our "Bowery Boys Movie Club", in which we conjure up New York City in the early 1980s in Ivan Reitman's b...
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#343 Literary Horrors of New York City from 2020-10-23T04:01
In the 14th annual Bowery Boys Halloween podcast, we celebrate some classic strange and supernatural terrors written by the most famous horror writers in New York City history. Since 2020 is alrea...
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#342 Ghost Stories of Old New York (ALIVE at Joe's Pub) from 2020-10-16T04:10
Prepare to hear a few spirited stories in a whole new way. For the past couple years hosts Tom Meyers and Greg Young have also done a LIVE cabaret version of their annual ghost story show at Joe’s...
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#341 The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 2020-10-09T04:05
Celebrating the history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 150th year since its founding -- and certainly one of the strangest years in its extraordinary existence. The Met is really the ki...
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Rewind: The Mystery of the Central Park Obelisk from 2020-10-02T04:15
Cleopatra’s Needle is the name given to the ancient Egyptian obelisk that sits in Central Park, right behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is the bizarre tale of how it arrived in New York ...
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#340 The Real Life Adventures of Tom Thumb from 2020-09-25T20:56
Charles Stratton, who would become world famous as “Tom Thumb” in the mid-19th century, was born in Bridgeport, CT on January 4, 1838 to parents of average height, and he grew normally during the f...
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Rewind: The Revolutionary Tavern of Samuel Fraunces from 2020-09-18T04:02
Fraunces Tavern is one of America’s most important historical sites of the Revolutionary War and a reminder of the great importance of taverns on the New York way of life during the Colonial era. ...
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#339 James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal from 2020-09-11T03:07
Interview with author Eric K. Washington, author of “Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal”. The Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal were a wo...
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Rewind: The American Museum of Natural History from 2020-09-04T04:35
Ancient space rocks, dinosaur fossils, anthropological artifacts and biological specimens are housed in New York's world famous natural history complex on the Upper West Side -- the American Museum...
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#338 A New Deal for the Arts: Murals, Music and Theatrical Mayhem from 2020-08-28T03:33
PART 2 of our two-part podcast series, "A NEW DEAL FOR NEW YORK" In this episode, we look at how one aspect of FDR's New Deal -- the WPA's Federal Project Number One -- was used to put the country...
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#337 Robert Moses and the Art of the New Deal from 2020-08-21T03:42
PART ONE of a two-part podcast series A NEW DEAL FOR NEW YORK. For Part One, we look at the impact FDR and New Deal funding had in shaping New York City's bridges and parks -- thanks to an especia...
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Rewind: TESLA -- The Inventor in Old New York from 2020-08-14T05:00
The Serbian immigrant Nikola Tesla was among the Gilded Age's brightest minds, a visionary thinker and inventor who gave the world innovations in electricity, radio and wireless communication. So ...
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#336 The War on Newspaper Row from 2020-08-07T02:20
The newspapers of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst -- the New York World and the New York Journal -- were locked in a fierce competition for readers in the mid 1890s. New Yorkers loved i...
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#335 Pulitzer vs Hearst: The Rise of Yellow Journalism from 2020-07-31T03:24
In the 1890s, powerful New York publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst engaged in an all-out battle for readers of their respective newspapers, developing a flamboyant, sensational ...
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Rewind: The Land of the Lenape from 2020-07-24T03:30
The story of the Lenape, the native people of New York Harbor region and their experiences with the first European arrivals — the explorers, the fur traders, the residents of New Amsterdam. Before...
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#334 Midnight Cowboy (Bowery Boys Movie Club) from 2020-07-17T01:49
It's summer in the city, so we're re-issuing our Bowery Boys Movie Club podcast devoted to Midnight Cowboy, the 1969 buddy film starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. There are few time capsules...
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Rewind: The Secret Origin of Comic Books from 2020-07-10T09:00
A history of the comic book industry in New York City, how the energy and diversity of the city influenced the burgeoning medium in the 1930s and 40s and how New York’s history reflects out from th...
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#333 Tearing Down King George: The Monumental Summer of 1776 from 2020-07-03T01:32
In New York City, during the tumultuous summer of 1776, the King of England lost his head. Two hundred and fifty years ago, Colonial New York received a monumental statue of King George III on hor...
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#332 Welcome to Yorkville: German Life on the Upper East Side from 2020-06-26T02:13
EPISODE 332 The Manhattan neighborhood of Yorkville has a rich immigrant history that often gets overlooked because of its location on the Upper East Side, a destination usually associated with wea...
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Rewind: Seneca Village and New York's Forgotten Black Communities from 2020-06-19T00:09
The history of black and African-American settlements and neighborhoods which once existed in New York City in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Today we sometimes define New York City's African-...
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#331 The East Side Elevateds: Life Under the Tracks from 2020-06-12T20:51
During the Gilded Age, New York City had one form of rapid transit -- the elevated railroad. The city's population had massively grown by the 1870s thanks to large waves of immigration from Irelan...
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#330 The Silent Parade of 1917: Black Unity in a Time of Crisis from 2020-06-04T22:48
"To the beat of muffled drums 8,000 negro men, women and children marched down Fifth Avenue yesterday in a parade of 'silent protest against acts of discrimination and oppression' inflicted upon th...
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#329 The First Ambulance: The Humans (and Horses) That Saved New York from 2020-05-29T03:06
EPISODE 329 Did you know that the first modern ambulance -- as in a 'mobile hospital' -- was invented in New York City?On June 4, 1869, America’s first ambulance service went into operation from...
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#328 Chop Suey City: A History of Chinese Food in New York from 2020-05-22T16:53
EPISODE 328 New Yorkers eat a LOT of Chinese food and have enjoyed Chinese cuisine – either in a restaurant or as takeout – for well over 130 years. Chinese food entered the regular diet of the cit...
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#327 Listener Stories: At Home In New York Part Two from 2020-05-18T23:44
EPISODE 327 This is Part Two of a special Bowery Boys podcast event featuring the voices of our listeners. What makes New York feel like home — whether you live here or not? Why do people feel com...
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#326 Listener Stories: At Home in New York Part One from 2020-05-15T19:24
EPISODE 326 A special episode featuring the listeners of the Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast. What makes New York feel like home -- whether you live here or not?What is that indefinable...
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#325 The Staten Island Quarantine War from 2020-05-08T03:15
EPISODE 325 In 1858, during two terrible nights of violence in September, the needs of the few outweighed the needs of the many when a community, endangered for decades and ignored by the state, fi...
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#324 Moving Day! Madness and Mayhem in Old New York from 2020-05-01T04:03
EPISODE 324 At last! The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast looks at one of the strangest traditions in this city's long history -- that curious custom known as Moving Day. Every May 1st, ...
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#323 The Bowery Wizards: A History of Tattooed New York from 2020-04-28T04:01
EPISODE 323 Two tales from New York’s incredible history with tattooing. The art of tattooing is as old as written language but it would require the contributions of a few 19th century New York ta...
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#322 Nickelodeons and Movie Palaces: New York and the Film Industry 1893-1920 from 2020-04-24T15:49
EPISODE 322 The historic movie studio Kaufman Astoria Studios opened 100 years ago this year in Astoria, Queens. It remains a vital part of New York City's entertainment industry with both film and...
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#321 Lauren Bacall ... At Home At The Dakota Apartments from 2020-04-21T15:49
EPISODE 321 The Hollywood icon and Broadway star Lauren Bacall lived at the Dakota Apartments on the Upper West Side for 53 years. Her story is intertwined the Dakota, a revolutionary apartment com...
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#320 Hart Island: The Loneliest Place in New York from 2020-04-17T20:09
Few people are allowed to go onto Hart Island, the quiet, narrow island in the Long Island Sound, a lonely place in sight of the bustling community of City Island. For more than 150 years, Hart Is...
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#319 The Tale of Charging Bull and Fearless Girl from 2020-04-14T15:23
EPISODE 319 In simpler times, thousands of tourists would flock to the northern tip of Bowling Greenin Lower Manhattan to take a picture with a rather unconventional New Yorker -- the bronze sculpt...
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#318 Moonstruck: That's Amore! from 2020-04-10T18:10
EPISODE 318 Moonstruck, the 1987 comedy starring Cher and Nicolas Cage, not only celebrates that crazy little thing called love, but also pays tribute to the Italian working class residents of the ...
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#317 Vaccinated: New York and the Polio Outbreak from 2020-04-07T14:05
EPISODE 317 In 1916 New York City became the epicenter of one of America's very first polio epidemics. The scourge of infantile paralysis infected thousands of Americans that year, most under the ...
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#316 Jenny Lind at Castle Garden from 2020-04-03T22:42
EPISODE 316 What happens when P. T. Barnum, America's savviest supplier of both humbug and hoax, decides it's time to go legit? Only one of the greatest concert tours in American history. If you'v...
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#315 Abandoned Pantheon: The Hall of Fame for Great Americans from 2020-03-31T15:39
EPISODE 315 The Hall of Fame for Great Americans, founded in 1900, was a precursor to the Nobel Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a vaunted tribute to those who have contributed greatly ...
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#314 Tillie Hart - The Holdout of London Terrace from 2020-03-27T19:13
London Terrace, an English-inspired apartment complex, is a jewel of apartment living in the neighborhood of Chelsea. In 1929, a set of historic townhouses -- also named London Terrace -- were demo...
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#313 The Straw Hat Riots of 1922 from 2020-03-24T14:48
EPISODE 313"No man likes to have his hat snatched from his head by somebody he has not yet been introduced to." During the month of September 1922, as summer passed into autumn, large groups of ro...
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#312 Has Jack the Ripper Come to Town? A Gilded Age Hysteria from 2020-03-20T03:24
EPISODE 312 The Whitechapel murders of 1888 -- perpetrated by the killer known as Jack the Ripper -- inspired one of the greatest cultural hysterias of the Victorian era. The idea that the Ripper c...
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#311 Uprising: The Shirtwaist Strike of 1909 from 2020-03-06T03:10
EPISODE 311 Nobody had seen anything quite like it. In late November 1909, tens of thousands of workers went on strike, angered by poor work conditions and unfair wages within the city's largest in...
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#310 1918: The Harlem Hellfighters from 2020-02-21T02:16
On February 17, 1919, in the waning months of World War I, the Harlem Hellfighters – officially the 369th Infantry Regiment, originally a New York National Guard division that had just come from in...
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#309 What Gets Saved? Landmarks&Historic Districts Explained from 2020-02-07T02:21
They're tearing down your favorite old building and putting up a condo in its place. How can this be? Before you plunge into fits of despair, you should know more about the tools of preservation t...
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#308 Andrew Carnegie and New York's Public Libraries from 2020-01-23T23:43
EPISODE 308 In the final decades of his life, steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie -- one of the richest Americans to ever live -- began giving his money away. The Scots American had worked his way up fro...
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#307 The Holland Tunnel: The Wonder of the Jazz Age from 2020-01-10T03:32
EPISODE 307 The Holland Tunnel, connecting Manhattan with Jersey City beneath the Hudson River, is more important to daily life in New York City than people may at first think. Before the creation...
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#306 Just Desserts: The Origins of New York Cheesecake, Cannoli and More from 2019-12-26T23:00
EPISODE 306 Recorded live at the WNYC Greene Space in downtown Manhattan In this special episode, the Bowery Boys podcast focuses on the delicious treats that add to the New York experience. These...
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#305 Christmas in New York: The Lights of Dyker Heights from 2019-12-12T22:14
EPISODE 305 There's a special kind of magic to Christmas in New York City, from that colossal Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center to the fanciful holiday displays in department store windows. But...
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#304 The Miracle on Eldridge Street from 2019-11-28T23:30
EPISODE 304: The Eldridge Street Synagogue is one of the most beautifully restored places in the United States, a testament to the value of preserving history when it seems all is lost to ruin. To...
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#303 Building Stuyvesant Town: A Mid-Century Controversy from 2019-11-15T02:54
EPISODE 303: The residential complexes Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, built in the late 1940s, incorporating thousands of apartments within a manicured "campus" on the east side, seemed ...
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#302 Gangs of New York (Bowery Boys Movie Club) from 2019-11-01T17:23
EPISODE 302: With Martin Scorsese's new film The Irishman being released this month, we thought we'd share with you an episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club that explores the director's filmGangs o...
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#301 Haunted Houses of Old New York from 2019-10-17T23:09
EPISODE 301: Welcome to the unlucky 13th Annual Bowery Boys ghost stories podcast, where history combines with folklore for a bone-chilling listening experience. In this year's Halloween-themed sp...
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#300 The Forgotten Father of New York City from 2019-10-04T04:05
EPISODE 300: Andrew Haswell Green helped build Central Park and much of upper Manhattan, oversaw the formation of the New York Public Library, helped found great institutions such as the American M...
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#299 The Promenade and Preservation of Brooklyn Heights from 2019-09-19T22:08
EPISODE 299: Part Two of our series on the history of Brooklyn Heights, one of New York City's oldest neighborhoods. By the 1880s, Brooklyn Heights had evolved from America's first suburb into the...
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#298 The Story of Brooklyn Heights from 2019-09-05T23:35
EPISODE 298: This is the first of a two-part celebration of Brooklyn Heights, a picturesque neighborhood of architectural wonder, situated on a plateau just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. A stroll ...
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#297 Dr. Hosack's Enchanted Garden: Botany, Medicine, and Discovery in Old New York from 2019-08-23T02:07
EPISODE 297: Dr. David Hosack was no ordinary doctor in early 19th-century New York. His patients included some of the city’s most notable citizens, including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, bot...
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Introducing Mob Queens from 2019-08-19T07:00
Check out Mob Queens, a new podcast from Stitcher! Mob stories are always all about the guys. But not this one. Anna Genovese is a New York drag club maven and bad-ass mob wife. Hollywood besties J...
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#296 Talking Trash: The NYC Department of Sanitation from 2019-08-09T02:21
EPISODE 296: Picture New York City under mountains of filth, heaving from clogged gutters and overflowing from trash cans. Imagine the unbearable smell of rotting food and animal corpses left on th...
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#295 Saving the City: Women of the Progressive Era from 2019-07-25T23:30
EPISODE 295: This is a podcast about kindness and care. About the Progressive Era pioneers who saved the lives of people in need -- from the Lower East Side to Washington Heights, from Hell's Kitch...
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#294 That Daredevil Steve Brodie, 'King of the Bowery' from 2019-07-11T23:00
EPISODE 294: A tale of the 'sporting life' of the Bowery from the 1870s and 80s. A former newsboy named Steve Brodie grabs the country's attention by leaping off the Brooklyn Bridge on July 23, 188...
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#294 That Daredevil Steve Brodie, 'King of the Bowery' from 2019-07-11T23:00
EPISODE 294: A tale of the 'sporting life' of the Bowery from the 1870s and 80s. A former newsboy named Steve Brodie grabs the country's attention by leaping off the Brooklyn Bridge on July 23, 188...
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Secret Places of Upper Manhattan from 2019-06-28T03:50:35
EPISODE 293: In Washington Heights and Inwood, the two Manhattan neighborhoods above West 155th Street, the New York grid plan begins to become irrelevant, with avenues and streets preferring to co...
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Sip-In At Julius': Gay New York In The 1960s from 2019-06-13T23:43:44
EPISODE 292: This month New York City (and the world) celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, a combative altercation between police and bar patrons at the Stonewall Inn in the W...
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The Tombs: Five Points' Notorious House of Detention from 2019-05-31T02:37:06
EPISODE 291: Some might find it strange that the Manhattan Detention Complex -- one of New York City's municipal jails -- should be located next to the bustling neighborhoods of Chinatown and Littl...
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#290 Bagels: A New York Story from 2019-05-16T23:00
EPISODE 290: The most iconic New York City foods -- bagels, pizza, hot dogs -- are portable, adaptable and closely associated with the city's history through its immigrant communities.
In ...
#290 Bagels: A New York Story from 2019-05-16T23:00
EPISODE 290: The most iconic New York City foods -- bagels, pizza, hot dogs -- are portable, adaptable and closely associated with the city's history through its immigrant communities. In the case...
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Blood and Shakespeare: The Astor Place Riot of 1849 from 2019-05-02T23:04:41
EPISODE 289: In old New York, one hundred and seventy years ago, a theatrical rivalry between two leading actors of the day sparked a terrible night of violence — one of the most horrible moments i...
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The World of Tomorrow: The New York World's Fair of 1939 from 2019-04-19T01:48:16
EPISODE 288: Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the fourth largest park in New York City and the pride of northern Queens, has twice been the gateway to the future. Two world's fairs have been held her...
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#287 Greenwich Village in the 1960s from 2019-04-04T23:24
This is the story of Greenwich Village as a character -- an eccentric character maybe, but one that changed American life -- and how the folky, activist spirit it fostered in arts, culture and the ...
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#287 Greenwich Village in the 1960s from 2019-04-04T23:24
This is the story of Greenwich Village as a character -- an eccentric character maybe, but one that changed American life -- and how the folky, activist spirit it fostered in arts, culture and the ...
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Uncovering Hudson Yards from 2019-03-22T02:34:52
EPISODE 286: Hudson Yards is America's largest private real estate development, a gleaming collection of office towers and apartments overlooking a self-contained plaza with a shopping mall and a s...
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#285 Boss Tweed's House of Corruption from 2019-03-08T01:09
EPISODE 285: The roots of modern American corruption traces themselves back to a handsome -- but not necessarily revolutionary -- historic structure sitting behind New York City Hall. The Tweed Co...
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#285 Boss Tweed's House of Corruption from 2019-03-08T01:09
EPISODE 285: The roots of modern American corruption traces themselves back to a handsome -- but not necessarily revolutionary -- historic structure sitting behind New York City Hall.
The ...
Scott Joplin in New York: A Ragtime Mystery from 2019-02-23T00:23:41
EPISODE 284: Scott Joplin, the "King of Ragtime", moved to New York in 1907, at the height of his fame. And yet, he died a decade later, forgotten by the public. He remained nearly forgotten and bu...
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Walt Whitman in New York and Brooklyn from 2019-02-08T03:46:12
EPISODE 283: A very special episode of the Bowery Boys podcast, recorded live at the Bell House in Gowanus, Brooklyn, celebrating the legacy of Walt Whitman, a writer with deep ties to New York Cit...
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Taxi Driver (Bowery Boys Movie Club) from 2019-01-31T23:10
EPISODE 282: Welcome to the Bowery Boys Movie Club, a new podcast exclusively for our Patreon supporters where Tom and Greg discuss classic New York City films from an historical perspective. As we...
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#281 The Treasures of Downtown Brooklyn from 2019-01-25T03:24
Downtown Brooklyn has a history that is often overlooked by New Yorkers. You'd be forgiven if you thought Brooklyn's civic center -- with a bustling shopping district and even an industrial tech ca...
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#281 The Treasures of Downtown Brooklyn from 2019-01-25T03:24
Downtown Brooklyn has a history that is often overlooked by New Yorkers. You'd be forgiven if you thought Brooklyn's civic center -- with a bustling shopping district and even an industrial tech ca...
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#280 House of Mystery: The Story of the Collyer Brothers from 2019-01-10T23:02
EPISODE 280: You'd better clean your room or you'll end up like the Collyer Brothers...
New York City, a city crammed of 8.6 million people, is filled with stories of people who just want ...
#280 House of Mystery: The Story of the Collyer Brothers from 2019-01-10T23:02
EPISODE 280: You'd better clean your room or you'll end up like the Collyer Brothers... New York City, a city crammed of 8.6 million people, is filled with stories of people who just want to be le...
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#279 A New Year in Old New York: From Times Square to Chinatown from 2018-12-27T06:33:14
The ultimate history of New Year's celebrations in New York City! This is the story of the many ways in which New Yorkers have ushered in the coming year, a moment of rebirth, reconciliation, reve...
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#278 Newark vs. LaGuardia: The Tale of Two Airports from 2018-12-14T00:40:16
Newark Liberty International Airport or LaGuardia Airport? Which do you prefer? (Or is the answer -- none of the above. Give me JFK!) Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy history! In t...
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#277 The New York Comedy Scene: A Marvelous History from 2018-11-30T04:50:17
New York City has always cast a melodramatic profile in past Bowery Boys podcasts, but in this episode, we're walking on the funny side of the street to reveal the city's unique relationship with l...
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#276 Murder on Bond Street: Who Killed Dr. Burdell? from 2018-11-16T02:53:45
On January 31, 1857, a prominent dentist named Harvey Burdell was found brutally murdered -- strangled, then stabbed 15 times -- in his office and home and Bond Street, a once-trendy street between...
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#275 Return to Tin Pan Alley: Saving American Music History from 2018-11-01T22:45:46
The beat goes on! In 2009 we recorded a podcast about the history of Tin Pan Alley, the cluster of buildings on West 28th Street where the American popular music industry was born. It was from thes...
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#274 Ghost Stories of Hell's Kitchen from 2018-10-19T17:06:51
The Manhattan neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen has a mysterious, troubling past. So what happens when you throw a few ghosts into the mix? Greg and Tom find out the hard way in this year's ghost stor...
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#273 Peter Stuyvesant and the Fall of New Amsterdam from 2018-10-05T01:17:36
There would be no New York City without Peter Stuyvesant, the stern, autocratic director-general of New Amsterdam, the Dutch port town that predates the Big Apple. The willpower of this complicated...
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#272 Life in New Amsterdam from 2018-09-20T23:28:12
We are turning back the clock to the very beginning of New York City history with this special two-part episode, looking at the very beginnings of European settlement in the area and the first sign...
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#271 Counter Culture: Diners, Automats, and Luncheonettes in New York from 2018-09-07T01:57
The classic diner is as American as the apple pie it serves, but the New York diner is a special experience all its own, an essential facet of everyday life in the big city. They range in all shape...
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#270 Heaven on the Hudson: A History of Riverside Park from 2018-08-23T22:02
In peeling back the many layers to Riverside Park, upper Manhattan's premier ribbon park, running along the west side from the Upper West Side to Washington Heights, you will find a wealth of histo...
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#269 Harry Houdini and the Golden Age of Magic in New York from 2018-08-09T22:00
Harry Houdini became one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century, a showman whose escape artistry added a new dimension to the tried-and-true craft of stage magic. In this show, we present...
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#268 The Astonishing Saga of the Atlantic Cable from 2018-07-26T23:41
New Yorkers threw a wild, exuberant celebration in the summer of 1858 in honor of 'the eighth wonder of the world', a technological achievement that linked North America and Europe by way of an und...
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#267 Broadway: The Story of a Street from 2018-07-13T01:27:21
Today we're joined by Fran Leadon, the author of a new history of Broadway, called “Broadway: A History of New York in 13 Miles”.We've discussed Broadway, the street, in just about every show we’ve...
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#266 New York City during the Revolutionary War (1776-1783) from 2018-06-29T01:02:50
What was life like in New York City from the summer of 1776 to the fall of 1783 -- the years of British occupation during the Revolutionary War? New York plays a very intriguing role in the story ...
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#265 Absolutely Flawless: A History of Drag in New York City from 2018-06-15T02:04:46
Television audiences are currently obsessed with shows like RuPaul's Drag Race and FX's Pose, presenting different angles on the profession and art of drag. New York City has been crucial to its cu...
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#264 The Landmarks of Coney Island from 2018-06-01T00:00
The Coney Island Boardwalk -- officially the Riegelmann Boardwalk -- just became an official New York City scenic landmark, and to celebrate, the Bowery Boys are headed to Brooklyn's amusement capi...
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#263 Ebbets Field and the Glory Days of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 2018-05-18T01:25:34
The Robins. The Bridegrooms. The Superbas. The Dizziness Boys. Dem Bums. The Boys of Summer. Whatever you call them, they will always be known in the hearts of New Yorkers as the Brooklyn Dodgers, ...
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#262 Secrets of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine from 2018-05-04T04:26:52
The Bowery Boys have finally made to one of the most enigmatic and miraculous houses of worship in America – the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This Episcopal cathedral has a story like no other...
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#261 The Huddled Masses: Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty from 2018-04-20T01:07:51
The words of the The New Colossus, written 135 years ago by Jewish writer Emma Lazarus in tribute to the Statue of Liberty, have never been more relevant -- or as hotly debated -- as they are today...
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#260 Journey to Grey Gardens: A Tale of Two Edies from 2018-04-06T00:56:14
In this episode of the Bowery Boys, Greg digs into the back story of one of the most famous documentaries ever made – Grey Gardens. The film, made by brother directing team Albert and David Maysles...
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#259 Crossing to Brooklyn: How the Williamsburg Bridge Changed New York from 2018-03-23T00:42:25
Sure, the Brooklyn Bridge gets all the praise, but New York City's second bridge over the East River has an exceptional story of its own. In this episode, we'll answer some interesting questions, ...
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#258 Tales from Tribeca History from 2018-03-16T00:20:13
TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal) is a breathtaking neighborhood of astounding architectural richness. But how much do you know about this trendy destination and its patchwork of different histories? ...
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#257 Frozen In Time: The Great Blizzard of 1888 from 2018-03-07T20:00:46
This year marks the 130th anniversary of one of the worst storms to ever wreak havoc upon New York City, the now-legendary mix of wind and snow called the Great Blizzard of 1888. The battering sno...
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#256 DUMBO: Life on Brooklyn's Waterfront from 2018-03-02T04:02:31
Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass (DUMBO) is, we think, a rather drab name for a historically significant place in Brooklyn where some of the daily habits of everyday Americans were invented. ...
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#255 The Rescue of Grand Central from 2018-02-23T02:03:24
The survival of New York City's greatest train station is no accident. The preservation of Grand Central Terminal helped create the protections for all of America's greatest landmarks. By the 195...
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#254 The Destruction of Penn Station from 2018-02-16T03:40:02
The original Penn Station, constructed in 1910 and designed by New York's greatest Gilded Age architectural firm, was more than just a building. Since its destruction in the 1960s, the station has ...
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#253 Opening Day of the New York City Subway from 2018-02-09T01:13:50
What was it like to experience that epic symbol of New York City – the world famous New York City subway system – for the first time? In this episode, we imagine what opening day was like for the f...
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#252 The Underground Railroad: Escape through New York from 2018-02-02T04:24:54
For thousands of African-American enslaved people -- escaping the bonds of slavery in the South -- the journey to freedom wound its way through New York via the Underground Railroad. The Undergroun...
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#251 McGurk's Suicide Hall: The Bowery's Most Notorious Dive from 2018-01-18T22:55:50
The old saloons and dance halls of the Bowery are familiar to anyone with a love of New York City history, their debauched and surly reputations appealing in a prurient way, a reminder of a time of...
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#250 The Empire State Building: Story of an Icon from 2018-01-12T00:05:22
Start spreading the news .... the Bowery Boys are finally going to the Empire State Building! New York City's defining architectural icon is greatly misunderstood by many New Yorkers who consider...
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Madam C.J. Walker: Harlem's Hair Care Millionaire from 2018-01-04T23:44
EPISODE 249 In 1867, Sarah Breedlove was born to parents who had once been enslaved on a Louisiana plantation. Less than fifty years later, Breedlove (as the hair care mogul Madam C.J. Walker) woul...
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#248 Sitting Down with Roz Chast of the New Yorker from 2017-12-22T05:11:38
This week, we celebrate the end of the year by sitting down with Roz Chast, who has been contributing cartoons to the New Yorker Magazine since 1978. Chast is out with a new book, "Going into Town:...
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#247 Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Golden Age of Broadway from 2017-12-15T01:12:02
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II are two of the greatest entertainers in New York City history. They have entertained millions of people with their unique and influential take on the Broadw...
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#246 Tales from a Tenement: Three Families on the Lower East Side from 2017-12-07T23:20:33
In today’s show, we’ll continue to explore housing in New York, but move far from the mansions of Fifth Avenue to the tenements of the Lower East Side in the 20th Century. Specifically, we’ll be vi...
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#245 The Fall of the Fifth Avenue Mansions from 2017-12-01T00:37
In this episode, the symbols of the Gilded Age are dismantled. During the late 19th century, New York's most esteemed families built extravagant mansions along Fifth Avenue, turning it into one of...
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#245 The Fall of the Fifth Avenue Mansions from 2017-12-01T00:37
In this episode, the symbols of the Gilded Age are dismantled.
During the late 19th century, New York's most esteemed families built extravagant mansions along Fifth Avenue, turning it int...
#244 The Rise of the Fifth Avenue Mansions from 2017-11-24T00:00
At the heart of New York’s Gilded Age – the late 19th century era of unprecedented American wealth and excess – were families with the names Vanderbilt, Belmont and Astor, alongside power players l...
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#244 The Rise of the Fifth Avenue Mansions from 2017-11-24T00:00
At the heart of New York’s Gilded Age – the late 19th century era of unprecedented American wealth and excess – were families with the names Vanderbilt, Belmont and Astor, alongside power players l...
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#243 New York In Neon: Signs of the City from 2017-11-17T01:23:39
A neon sign blazing on a rainy New York City street evokes the romance of another era, welcoming or mysterious -- depending on how many film noirs you've seen. In 2017, a neon sign says more about...
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#242 New York and the Dawn of Photography from 2017-11-10T01:01:50
We’re taking you back to a world that seems especially foreign today – a world with no selfie sticks, no tens of billions of photographs taken every day from digital screens, a world where the phot...
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#241 Edgar Allan Poe in New York from 2017-10-26T22:24:12
Edgar Allan Poe was a wanderer -- looking for work, for love, for meaning. That's why so many American cities can lay claim to a small aspect of his legacy. Baltimore, Boston, Richmond and Philadel...
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#240 The Ghosts of Greenwich Village from 2017-10-20T00:38:11
For this year's annual Bowery Boys Halloween ghost story podcast, we cautiously approach the dark secrets of Greenwich Village, best known for bohemians, shady and winding streets and a deep unexpe...
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#239 Murder at the Manhattan Well from 2017-10-13T02:08:56
There once was a well just north of Collect Pond (New York’s fetid source of drinking water in the late 18th century) in a marshy place called Lispenard’s Meadow, in the area of today’s SoHo. One...
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#238 Astoria and Long Island City from 2017-09-29T02:55:13
The borough of Queens has a history unlike any in the New York City region, but the story of its northwestern region -- comprising Astoria, Long Island City and about a half dozen other, smaller ne...
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#237 Columbus Circle: A Century of Controversy from 2017-09-15T02:01:04
Columbus Circle, a center of media and shopping at the entrance to Central Park, has a history that, well, runs against the grain. Counter-clockwise, if you will. When the park was completed in t...
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#236 Times Square in the '70s from 2017-09-08T03:34:14
Take a trip with us down the grittiest streets in Times Square -- the faded marquees of the grindhouses, the neon-lit prurient delights of Eighth Avenue at night. Times Square in the 1970s was all...
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The Crash of 1929: New York In Crisis from 2017-09-01T01:00
EPISODE 235 Something so giddy and wild as New York City in the Jazz Age would have to burn out at some point but nobody expected the double catastrophe of a paralyzing financial crash and a wide-r...
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Queen of the Speakeasies: A Tale of Prohibition New York from 2017-08-18T02:53
EPISODE 234 Texas Guinan was the queen of the speakeasy era, the charismatic and sassy hostess of New York's hottest nightclubs of the 1920s. Her magnetism, sharpened by years of work in Hollywood,...
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#233 The Roaring '20s: King of the Jazz Age from 2017-08-04T03:33
The Bowery Boys are heading to the speakeasy and kicking back with some bathtub gin this month -- with a brand new series focusing on New York City during the Prohibition Era. The 1920s were a tra...
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#233 The Roaring '20s: King of the Jazz Age from 2017-08-04T03:33
The Bowery Boys are heading to the speakeasy and kicking back with some bathtub gin this month -- with a brand new series focusing on New York City during the Prohibition Era.
The 1920s we...
#232 The Story of SoHo from 2017-07-20T23:13:24
Picture the neighborhood of SoHo (that’s right, "South of Houston") in your head today, and you might get a headache. Crowded sidewalks on the weekend, filled with tourists, shoppers and vendors, c...
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The Bowery Boys Present: The First Broadway Musical from 2017-07-06T22:49:43
While Greg and Tom are away this week on life-changing adventures, please enjoy this very New York City-centric episode of the Bowery Boys spinoff podcast The First: Stories of Inventions and their...
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#231 The Stonewall Riots Revisited from 2017-06-22T23:14:53
In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, undercover police officers attempting to raid the Stonewall Inn, a mob-controlled gay bar with darkened windows on Christopher Street, were met with som...
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#230 Before Harlem: New York's Forgotten Black Communities from 2017-06-08T23:55:56
Today we sometimes define New York City's African-American culture by place – Harlem, of course, and also Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, neighborhoods that developed for groups of black resi...
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#229 Live in Brooklyn! The Bowery Boys: Ten Years of Podcasting from 2017-05-25T23:11:55
In early June of 2007, Tom Meyers and Greg Young sat around a laptop and a karaoke microphone, looked out over Canal Street in the Lower East Side and began recording the very first Bowery Boys: Ne...
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#228 The Pirate of Pearl Street: The New York Adventures of Captain Kidd from 2017-05-12T00:07:38
The area of Lower Manhattan below Wall Street is today filled with investment bankers, business people and tourists. But did you know, over 300 years ago, that the same streets were once crawling w...
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#227 The Hindenburg Over New York from 2017-04-27T22:55:16
On the afternoon of May 6, 1937, New Yorkers looked overhead at an astonishing sight -- the arrival of the Hindenburg, the largest airship in the world, drifting calmly across the sky. New York C...
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#226 The Beauty Bosses of Fifth Avenue from 2017-04-13T23:43
EPISODE 226 The Midtown Manhattan stretch of Fifth Avenue, once known for its ensemble of extravagant mansions owned by the Gilded Age's wealthiest families, went through an astonishing makeover on...
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#225 P. T. Barnum and the Greatest Show on Earth from 2017-03-31T01:16:41
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages -- the Bowery Boys present to you the tale of P. T. Barnum and his "Greatest Show on Earth," the world's most famous circus! You can't even bring up...
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#224 The Arrival of the Irish: An Immigrant Story from 2017-03-16T19:24:49
You don't have a New York City without the Irish. In fact, you don't have a United States of America as we know it today. This diverse and misunderstood immigrant group began coming over in signif...
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The Algonquin Round Table from 2017-03-03T03:26
EPISODE 223One June afternoon in the spring of 1919, a group of writers and theatrical folk got together at the Algonquin Hotel to roast the inimitable Alexander Woollcott, the trenchant theater cr...
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#222 Who Killed Helen Jewett? A Mystery By Gaslight from 2017-02-16T23:56
In the spring of 1836, a young woman named Helen Jewett was brutally murdered with a hatchet in a townhouse on Thomas Street, just a few blocks northwest from City Hall. This was not a normal crim...
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#221 New York: Capital City of the United States from 2017-02-02T23:50:04
During a handful of months in 1789 and 1790, representatives of the new nation of the United States came together in New York City to make decisions which would forever affect the lives of American...
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#220 George Washington's New York Inauguration from 2017-01-20T02:10:36
The story of New York City's role in the birth of American government is sometimes forgotten. Most of the buildings important to the first U.S. Congress, which met here from the spring of 1789 to t...
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#219 Newsies on Strike! from 2016-12-23T10:31:57
We're in the mood for a good old-fashioned Gilded Age story so we're replaying one of our favorite Bowery Boys episodes ever -- Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst vs. the newsies! It was ...
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#218 Lincoln Center and West Side Story from 2016-12-09T02:11:02
Warm up the orchestra, lace up your dance slippers, and bring the diva to the stage! For our latest show we’re telling the origin story of Lincoln Center, the fine arts campus which assembles some ...
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#217: Truman Capote's Black And White Ball from 2016-11-24T03:33:26
Truman Capote is a true New York character, a Southern boy who wielded his immense writing talents to secure a place within Manhattan high society. Elegant, witty, compact, gay -- Capote was a fixt...
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#216: Edwin Booth and the Players Club from 2016-11-11T04:33:03
Edwin Booth was the greatest actor of the Gilded Age, a superstar of the theater who entertained millions over his long career. In this podcast, we present his extraordinary career, the tragedies t...
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01 The Wheel: Ferris' Big Idea ('The First' Podcast Special Preview) from 2016-10-28T00:05:37
01: The first Ferris Wheel was invented to become America’s Eiffel Tower, making its grand debut at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. The wheel’s inventor George Washington Gale Ferris was a clever...
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#215 Ghosts of the Gilded Age from 2016-10-14T02:28:22
For this year's 10th annual Bowery Boys Halloween special, we're highlighting haunted tales from the period just after the Civil War when New York City became one of the richest cities in the world...
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#214 Bronx Trilogy (Part Three) The Bronx Was Burning from 2016-09-29T23:03:38
The Bronx was burning. The Bronx is now rising. In the third and final part of our Bronx history series, we tackle the most difficult period in the life of this borough -- the late 20th century and...
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#213 Bronx Trilogy (Part Two) The Bronx is Building from 2016-09-16T03:49
In the second part of the Bowery Boys' Bronx Trilogy -- recounting the entire history of New York City's northernmost borough -- we focus on the years between 1875 and 1945, a time of great evoluti...
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#212 Bronx Trilogy (Part One) The Bronx Is Born from 2016-09-01T23:32
The story of the Bronx is so large, so spectacular, that we had to spread it out over three separate podcasts! In Part One -- The Bronx Is Born -- we look at the land that is today's borough, back ...
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#211 The Notorious Madame Restell: The Abortionist of Fifth Avenue from 2016-08-18T23:01:03
Ann Lohman, aka Madame Restell, was one of the most vilified women of the 19th century, an abortion practitioner that dodged the law to become one of the wealthiest self-made women in the Gilded Ag...
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#210 Digital City: New York and the World of Video Games from 2016-08-04T23:46:03
New York has an interesting, complex and downright weird relationship with video games, from the digital sewers below Manhattan to the neon-lit arcades of Times Square. In this grab bag episode – ...
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#209 The Waldorf-Astoria's Complicated History from 2016-07-21T23:10:59
You might think you know this tale, but do we have surprises for you. The Waldorf-Astoria -- or the Waldorf=Astoria or even the Waldorf Astoria -- has been a premier name in hotel accommodations s...
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#208 Great Hoaxes of Old New York from 2016-07-07T23:59
New Yorkers can be tough to crack, maneuvering through a rapidly changing, fast-paced city. But they can, at times, also be easily fooled. In this episode, we explore two of the wackiest stories i...
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#207 The First Subway: Beach's Pneumatic Marvel from 2016-06-24T00:00:20
The first subway in New York -- the first in the United States! – travelled only a single block and failed to influence the future of transportation. And yet Alfred Ely Beach's marvelous pneumatic ...
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#206 The Lenape: The Real Native New Yorkers from 2016-06-10T00:00:45
Before New York, before New Amsterdam – there was Lenapehoking, the land of the Lenape, the original inhabitants of the places we call Manhattan, Westchester, northern New Jersey and western Long I...
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#205 The Disappearance of Dorothy Arnold from 2016-05-26T19:51
The young socialite Dorothy Arnold seemingly led a charmed and privileged life. The niece of a Supreme Court justice, Dorothy was the belle of 1900s New York, an attractive and vibrant young woman ...
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The Cotton Club: The Aristocrat of Harlem from 2016-05-13T01:03
EPISODE 204The Cotton Club, Harlem's most prominent nightclub during the Prohibiton era, delivered some of the greatest music legends of the Jazz Age -- Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Fletcher Hende...
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#203 Nikola Tesla in New York from 2016-04-28T23:56:11
The Serbian immigrant Nikola Tesla was among the Gilded Age's brightest minds, a visionary thinker and inventor who gave theworld innovations in electricity, radio and wireless communication. So wh...
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#202 The Lower East Side: A Culinary History from 2016-04-15T20:28:31
Join us as we experience the tastes of another era by visiting some of the oldest culinary institutions of the Lower East Side. From McSorley's to Katz's, Russ&Daughters and Economy Candy -- when d...
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#201 GOWANUS! Brooklyn's Troubled Waters from 2016-04-01T06:07:04
This is the dirtiest Bowery Boys podcast ever. Literally. Brooklyn's Gowanus -- both the creek and the canal -- is one of the most mysterious and historically important waterways in New York City. ...
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#200 Jane Jacobs: Saving the Village from 2016-03-18T04:36:44
Washington Square Park torn in two. The West Village erased and re-written. Soho, Little Italy and the Lower East Side ripped asunder by an elevated highway. This is what would have happened in Ne...
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#199.5: Bowery Boys - Behind the Scenes from 2016-03-08T16:57:20
As we prepare for our #200th episode -- and the release of the first-ever Bowery Boys book -- we've decided to take a look back at our last 100 shows, at some of the highlights of the past six or s...
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#199 Battle For The Skyline: How High Can It Go? from 2016-02-19T06:04:04
This year is the one hundred anniversary of one of the most important laws ever passed in New York City -- the 1916 Zoning Law which dictated the rules for building big and tall in the city. So we ...
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#198 Greenpoint, Brooklyn: An Industrial-Strength History from 2016-02-05T07:15:23
Greenpoint, Brooklyn, has a surprising history of bucolic green pastures and rancid oil patches. Before the 19th century this corner of Brooklyn was owned by only a few families with farms (and sla...
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#197 Danger In The Harbor: The Black Tom Explosion of 1916 from 2016-01-22T01:24:03
On July 30, 1916, at just after 2 in the morning, a massive explosion ripped apart the island of Black Tom on the shoreline near Jersey City, sending a shockwave through the region and thousands of...
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#196 Ready to Wear: A History of the Garment District from 2016-01-08T05:15:18
The Garment District in Midtown Manhattan has been the center for all things American fashion for almost one hundred years. The lofts and office buildings here still buzz with industry of making c...
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#195 Midnight in Times Square: New Year's Eve in New York City from 2015-12-10T17:55:26
In this episode, we look back on the one day of the year that New Yorkers look forward. New Years Eve is the one night that millions of people around the world focus their attentions on New York C...
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#194 Nellie Bly: Undercover in the Madhouse from 2015-11-13T00:55:09
Nellie Bly was a determined and fearless journalist ahead of her time, known for the spectacular lengths she would go to get a good story. Her reputation was built on the events of late September-e...
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#193 St. Mark's Place: Party in the East Village! from 2015-10-30T03:15:23
St. Mark's Place may be named for a saint but it's been a street full of sinners for much of its history. One of the most fascinating streets in the city, St. Mark's traces its story back to Peter ...
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#192 Haunted Landmarks of New York from 2015-10-16T03:47:39
Don't be frightened! It's the ninth annual Bowery Boys ghost stories podcast. We're here to guide you through the back alleys ... OF TERROR! In this installment, we take a look at the spectral lore...
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#191 The Great Fire of 1776 from 2015-10-02T01:49:08
A little after midnight on September 21, 1776, the Fighting Cocks Tavern on Whitehall Street caught on fire. The drunken revelers inside the tavern were unable to stop the blaze, and it soon raged ...
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#190 The Curious Case of Typhoid Mary from 2015-09-18T03:58:13
The gripping and startling tale of Typhoid Mary is a harrowing detective story and a chilling tale of disease and death. Why are whole healthy families suddenly getting sick with typhoid fever -- f...
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#189 TAXI: History of the New York City Taxicab from 2015-09-04T02:28:52
In this episode, we recount almost 175 years of getting around New York in a private ride. The hansom, the romantic rendition of the horse and carriage, took New Yorkers around during the Gilded A...
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#188: The Murder of Stanford White from 2015-08-06T22:39:50
On the evening of June 25, 1906, during a performance of Mam'zelle Champagne on the rooftop of Madison Square Garden, the architect Stanford White was brutally murdered by Harry Kendall Thaw. The r...
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#187: Super City: New York and the History of Comic Books from 2015-07-24T01:29:55
In the 1890s a newspaper rivalry between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer helped bring about the birth of the comic strip and, a few decades later, the comic book. Today, comic book sup...
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#186 Hell's Kitchen: New York's Wild West from 2015-07-09T22:38:09
Hell’s Kitchen, on the far west side of Midtown Manhattan, is a neighborhood of many secrets. The unique history of this working class district veers into many tales of New York's criminal underwor...
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#185 Adventures on Governors Island from 2015-06-26T03:35:59
What can you find on Governors Island? Almost 400 years of action-packed history! This island in New York Harbor has been at the heart of the city's defense since the days of the Revolutionary Wa...
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#184 The Flatiron Building: A Story from Three Sides from 2015-06-11T21:50:04
For our 8th anniversary episode, we're revisiting one of New York City's great treasures and a true architectural oddity -- the Flatiron Building. When they built this structure at the corner of Ma...
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#183 Orchard Street: Life in the Lower East Side from 2015-05-29T04:22:19
The Lower East Side is one of the most important neighborhoods in America, with a rich history as dense as its former living quarters. Thousands of immigrants experienced American life on these ma...
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Mae West: "Sex" on Broadway from 2015-05-15T04:37
EPISODE 182Mae West (star of I'm No Angel and She Done Him Wrong) would come to revolutionize the idea of American sexuality, challenging and lampooning ideas of femininity while wielding a suggest...
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#181 Park Slope and the Story of Brownstone Brooklyn from 2015-05-01T04:02:31
Park Slope – or simply the park slope, as they used to say – is best known for its spectacular Victorian-era mansions and brownstones, one of the most romantic neighborhoods in all of Brooklyn. It...
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#180 The Chelsea Piers and the Age of the Ocean Liner from 2015-04-17T03:28:42
The Chelsea Piers were once New York City’s portal to the world, a series of long docks along the west side of Manhattan that accommodated some of the most luxurious ocean liners of the early 20th ...
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#179 The Fight for Bryant Park from 2015-04-03T00:46:20
In our last show, we left the space that would become Bryant Park as a disaster area; its former inhabitant, the old Crystal Palace, had tragically burned to the ground in 1858. The area was calle...
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#178: The Crystal Palace: America's First World's Fair from 2015-03-20T00:06:26
New York's Crystal Palace seems like something out of a dream, a shimmering and spectacular glass-and-steel structure -- a gigantic greenhouse -- which sat in the area of today's Bryant Park. In 18...
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#177 The Big History of Little Italy from 2015-02-20T06:26:30
Little Italy is the pocket-neighborhood reminder of the great wave of Italian immigration which came through New York City starting in the late 1870s. This was the home of a densely packed, lively...
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#176 Billie Holiday's New York from 2015-01-23T05:03:14
Grab your fedora and take a trip with the Bowery Boys into the heart of New York City's jazz scene -- late nights, smoky bars, neon signs -- through the eyes of one of the greatest American vocalis...
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#175 Bowery Boys 2014 Year In Review from 2014-12-25T22:27:05
When historians look back at the year 2014, what events or cultural changes within New York City will historians consider significant? In this special episode, the Bowery Boys look back at some of...
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#174 American Kicks: A History of the Rockettes from 2014-12-12T04:55:58
The Radio City Rockettes are perhaps America's best known dance troupe -- and a staple of the holiday season -- but you may not know the origin of this most iconic of New York City symbols. For one...
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#173 Ruins of the World's Fair: New York State Pavilion from 2014-11-14T00:06:38
The ruins of the New York State Pavilion, highlight of the 1964-65 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, have become a kind of unofficial Statue of Liberty of Queens, greeting people as the...
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#172 Ghost Stories of Brooklyn from 2014-10-16T01:42:25
Brooklyn is the setting for this quartet of classic ghost stories, all set before the independent city was an official borough of New York City. This is a Brooklyn of old stately mansions and farm...
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#171 The Keys to Gramercy Park from 2014-09-19T02:22:58
Gramercy Park is Manhattan's only private park, a prohibited place for most New Yorkers. However we have your keys to the history of this significant and rather unusual place, full of the city's gr...
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The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino from 2014-08-22T03:19
EPISODE 170Rudolph Valentino was an star from the early years of Hollywood, but his elegant, randy years in New York City should not be forgotten. They helped make him a premier dancer and a glamo...
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#169 The Tallest Building In New York: A Short History from 2014-08-07T03:19:03
One World Trade Center was declared last year the tallest building in America, but it's a very different structure from the other skyscrapers who have once held that title. In New York, owning the ...
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#168 DUEL! Aaron Burr vs. Alexander Hamilton from 2014-07-11T03:29:22
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr met at a clearing in Weehawken, NJ, in the early morning on July 11, 1804, to mount the most famous duel in American history. But why? This is the story of two Ne...
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#167 Cleopatra's Needle and the Freemasons Secret from 2014-06-27T03:26:30
Cleopatra's Needle is the name given to the ancient Egyptian obelisk that sits in Central Park, right behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is the bizarre tale of how it arrived in New York a...
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#166 General Slocum Disaster 1904 from 2014-06-13T03:49:29
On June 15, 1904, hundreds of residents of the Lower East Side's thriving German community boarded the General Slocum excursion steamer to enjoy a day trip outside the city. Most of them would nev...
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#165 Ladies' Mile from 2014-05-30T05:18:32
Ladies' Mile -- the most famous New York shopping district in the 19th century and the "heart of the Gilded Age," a district of spectacular commercial palaces of cast-iron. They are some of the cit...
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#164 The Astor Place Riot from 2014-05-01T23:49:41
England's great thespian William Macready mounted the stage of the Astor Place Opera House on May 10, 1849, to perform Shakespeare's Macbeth, just as he had done hundreds of times before. But this ...
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#163 South Street Seaport from 2014-04-04T03:00:11
The glory of early New York City came from its role as one of the world's great ports. Today the South Street Seaport is a lasting tribute to that seafaring heritage, a historical district beneath...
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#162 George Washington Bridge from 2014-03-07T05:16:21
The George Washington Bridge is surprisingly graceful, but politically scandalous. And we're not talking about the current crisis being faced by current New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Figuri...
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#161 Fire Department of New York (FDNY) from 2014-02-07T02:03
The New York Fire Department protects the five boroughs from a host of disasters and mishaps -- five-alarm blazes, a kitchen fire run amok, and even those dastardly midtown elevators, always gettin...
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#160 Tompkins Square Park from 2014-01-10T05:48:52
Central Park has frequently been called 'the people's park," but we think Tompkins Square Park may have a better claim to that title. From its inception, this East Village recreational spot -- nam...
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#159 The Broadway Musical: Setting the Stage from 2013-12-13T04:55:34
The Broadway Musical is one of New York City's greatest inventions, 150 years in the making! It's one of the truly American art forms, fueling one of the city's most vibrant entertainment businesse...
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#158 Hotel Theresa: The Waldorf of Harlem from 2013-11-15T01:01
The Hotel Theresa is considered a genuine (if under-appreciated) Harlem treasure, both for its unique architecture and its special place in history as the hub for African-American life in the 1940s...
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#157 Early Ghost Stories of Old New York from 2013-10-18T03:56:42
This is the Bowery Boys 7th annual Halloween podcast, with four new scary stories to chill your bones and keep you up at night, generally doused with strange and fascinating facts about New York Ci...
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#156 The Boy Mayor of New York from 2013-09-20T02:10:46
As New York City enters the final stages of this year's mayoral election, let's look back on a decidedly more unusual contest 100 years ago, pitting Tammany Hall and their estranged ally (Mayor Wil...
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#155 Sesame Street to Seinfeld: NYC TV 1969-2013 from 2013-08-23T02:50:09
In the third part of the Bowery Boys Summer TV Mini-Series, we give you a grand tour of the New York City television production world from the 1970s to today, from the debut of Sesame Street in the...
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#154 New York in the Golden Age of Television from 2013-08-02T04:24
It's the second part of the Bowery Boys TV Mini-Series, covering the years of New York City television production from the late 1940s to the 1960s. This podcast is arranged a little bit like a le...
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#153 NYC and the Birth of Television from 2013-06-28T05:24
It's the beginning of The Bowery Boys Summer TV Mini-Series, three podcasts devoted to New York City's illustrious history with broadcast television -- from Sarnoff to Seinfeld! In our first show...
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#152 Bellevue Hospital from 2013-05-31T01:52:12
Bellevue Hospital, you might have heard, once had a very notorious psychiatric ward. But those horror stories have only distracted from the rather breathtaking -- and heart-breaking -- history of t...
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#151 The Limelight: Church, Nightclub and Mall from 2013-05-03T02:50:33
If you had told 1840s religious leader William Muhlenberg that his innovative new Church of the Holy Communion, designed by renown architect Richard Upjohn, would become the glittering seat of drug...
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#150 Consolidation! Five Boroughs, One Big City from 2013-04-05T04:23:03
Here's the story of how two very big cities and a whole bunch of small towns and villages -- completely different in nature, from farmland to skyscraper -- became the greatest city in the world.Thi...
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#149 John Peter Zenger and the Power of the Press from 2013-03-08T03:28:01
A long, long time ago in New York -- in the 1730s, back when the city was a holding of the British, with a little over 10,000 inhabitants -- a German printer named John Peter Zenger decided to prin...
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#148 The Great Blizzard of 1888 from 2013-02-08T00:24
This year is the 125th anniversary of one of the worst storms to ever wreck havoc upon New York City, the now-legendary mix of wind and snow called the Great Blizzard of 1888. Its memory was again...
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#147 Art Insanity: The Armory Show of 1913 from 2013-01-11T05:07:45
The Armory Show of 1913 was the mainstream debut of modernist art -- both European and American -- to New York City audiences. Galleries had previously devoted themselves to the great European mast...
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#146 Herald Square from 2012-12-14T05:48:45
Welcome to the secret history of Herald Square, New York City's second favorite intersection -- after Times Square, of course, just a few blocks north. But we think you may find this intersection a...
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#145 Bicycle Mania! From Velocipede to Ten-Speed from 2012-11-16T02:43:16
The bicycle has always seemed like a slightly awkward form of transportation in big cities, but in fact, it's reliable, convenient, clean and -- believe it or not -- popular in New York City for al...
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Hurricane Sandy Update from 2012-11-02T20:59:24
A brief snapshot into what's happening in the city as of Friday afternoon, November 2, reviewing some of the events associated with Hurricane Sandy, the catastrophic storm which hit the Northeast t...
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#144 Mysteries and Magicians of New York from 2012-10-19T03:11:40
Our sixth annual ghost story podcast takes a little twist this time around. Oh sure, we have two of New York's most FAMOUS horror stories in our first part, beginning with a spirited sailor named M...
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#143 Water for New York: Croton Aqueduct from 2012-09-21T03:43:30
One of the great challenges faced by a growing, 19th-century New York City was the need for a viable, clean water supply. Before the 1830s, citizens relied on cisterns to collect rainwater, a serie...
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#142 New York University (NYU) from 2012-08-24T06:17:03
They once called it the University of the City of New York, an innovative, nondenominational school located in a intellectual castle on the northeast corner of the Washington military parade ground...
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#141 New York Beer History from 2012-07-27T00:07:33
New York City's thriving craft brewing industry today hearkens to a time over a century ago when the city was one of America's great beer-making capitols, the home to a robust industry of breweries...
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#140 Rockaway Beach from 2012-06-29T02:08:33
The Rockaways are a world unto its own, a former resort destination with miles of beach facing into the Atlantic Ocean, a collection of diverse neighborhoods and a truly quirky history. Retaining a...
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#139 Brooklyn Academy of Music from 2012-06-01T06:43:57
One of New York's oldest cultural institutions, the Brooklyn Academy of Music has an unusual history that spans over 150 years and two locations. We trace the story from the earliest roots of a Man...
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#138: St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery from 2012-05-04T03:27
St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery is one of Manhattan's most interesting and mysterious links to early New York history. This East Village church was built in 1799 atop the location of the original chapel o...
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New York City and the World of Radio from 2012-04-05T23:07
EPISODE 137 The discovery of radio changed the world, and New York City was often front and center for its creation and development as America's prime entertainment source during the 1930s and 40s....
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#136 High Line Walking Tour from 2012-03-22T23:54
Welcome to the unofficial High Line audio walking tour! In our last podcast, we gave you a history of the High Line, the one-mile linear park situated atop a stretch of abandoned elevated railroad ...
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#135 The High Line from 2012-03-09T03:02:45
The High Line, which snakes up New York's west side, is an ambitious park project refitting abandoned elevated train lines into a breathtaking contemporary park. This is the remnant of a raised fre...
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#134 St. Patrick's Cathedral from 2012-02-10T13:05
One of America's most famous churches and a graceful icon upon the landscape of midtown Manhattan, St. Patrick's Cathedral was also one of New York's most arduous building projects, taking decades ...
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#133 Red Hook: Brooklyn on the Waterfront from 2012-01-13T17:56:42
Red Hook, Brooklyn, the neighborhood called by the Dutch 'Roode Hoek' for its red soil, became a key port during the 19th century, a stopping point for vessels carry a vast array of raw goods from ...
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#132 Electric New York: Edison and the City Lights from 2011-12-16T03:28:01
The streets of New York have been lit in various ways through the decades, from the wisps of whale-oil flame to the modern comfort of gas lighting. With the discovery of electricity, it seemed poss...
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#131 The First Apartment Building from 2011-11-18T00:04:05
Well, we're movin' on up....to the first New York apartment building ever constructed. New Yorkers of the emerging middle classes needed a place to live situated between the townhouse and the tenem...
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#130 Haunted Histories of New York from 2011-10-21T01:47:43
What mischievous phantoms and malevolent spirits haunt the streets of New York City today? In our fifth annual podcast of local ghost stories, we bring you the histories of four very haunted places...
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#129 Chinatown from 2011-09-23T02:39:29
Manhattan's Chinatown is unique among New York neighborhoods as its origins and its provocative history can still be traced in many of the buildings and streets still in existence. Two hundred year...
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#128 Hoaxes and Conspiracies of 1864 from 2011-08-28T23:42
We're officially subtitling this 'Strange Tales of 1864', a series of odd, fascinating stories from one pivotal year in New York City history. With the city both fatigued by the length of the Civil...
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#127 The Civil War Draft Riots from 2011-07-22T04:06
The week of July 13, 1863, was indeed among the most dangerous weeks to be a New Yorker. The announcement of conscription to replenish Union troops -- and the inclusion of that incendiary $300 exem...
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#126 Fernando Wood: The Scoundrel Mayor from 2011-07-01T01:55:35
Fernando Wood, New York’s mayor at the dawning of the Civil War, was the South’s best friend. Famous during his first term for inciting a police riot, Wood drummed up pro-slavery support amongst hi...
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#125 Sardi's Restaurant from 2011-06-10T01:40:35
The famous faces on the walls of Sardi's Restaurant represent the entertainment elite of the 20th Century, and all of them made this place on West 44th Street their unofficial home. Known for its c...
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#124 Idlewild/JFK Airport from 2011-05-13T02:58:54
Come fly with us through a history of New York City's largest airport, once known as Idlewild (for a former golf course) and called John F. Kennedy International Airport since 1964. Mayor Fiorello ...
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#123 TRUMP from 2011-04-29T02:17
Donald Trump - financial wizard, reality star, or political distraction? The secret in figuring him out may be contained in the roots of his wealth -- a saga that stretches back to the 1880s and b...
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#122: The Grid - Commissioners Plan of 1811 from 2011-04-15T12:53
How did Manhattan get its orderly rows of numbered streets and avenues? In the early 18th century, New York was growing rapidly, but the new development was confined on an island, giving city plann...
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#121 Fraunces Tavern from 2011-03-18T02:23:53
Fraunces Tavern is one of America's most important historical sites of the Revolutionary War and a reminder of the great importance of tavern culture on the New York way of life during the Colonial...
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#120 NYC and the Birth of the Movies from 2011-02-17T23:29
New York City inspires cinema, but it has also consistently manufactured it. And long before anybody had heard of Hollywood, New York and the surrounding region was a movie capital too, the home to...
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#119 The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge from 2011-01-21T12:44:54
The longest suspension bridge in the United States, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge was one of Robert Moses' most ambitious projects, a commanding structure that would finally link Staten Island with ...
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#118 Times Square from 2010-12-17T15:28
Times Square is the centerpiece of New York for most visitors and a place that sharply divides city residents. Nothing about it sits still. Even its oldest buildings are severely transformed and sl...
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#117 Mark Twain's New York from 2010-12-03T03:11
You hear the name Mark Twain and think of his classic characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, his locales along the Mississippi River and his folksy wit. But he was equal parts New York as well...
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#116 American Museum of Natural History from 2010-11-24T03:54:17
Millions of years of space rocks, fossils, artifacts and specimens are housed in New York's world famous natural history complex on the Upper West Side. But few know the whole story about the museu...
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#115 African Burial Ground from 2010-11-05T02:57:06
During the construction of a downtown federal administration building, an extraordinary find was discovered -- the remnants of a burial ground used by African slaves during the 18th Century. In th...
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#114 Supernatural Stories of New York from 2010-10-22T01:02:34
It's our fourth annual 'haunted' podcast, and we've got four bloodcurdling stories for the season. The first three are spooky ghost tales -- a haunted boardinghouse on 14th street with violent, vai...
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#113 Niblo's Garden from 2010-10-08T02:06:47
It's the 1820s and welcome to the era of the pleasure garden, an outdoor entertainment complex delighting wealthy New Yorkers in the years before public parks. Niblo's Garden, at the corner of Broa...
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#112 Archibald Gracie and His Mansion from 2010-09-17T14:24:12
Gracie Mansion today serves as the city's official mayoral residence. But who was Archibald Gracie, and why did the city take over his country house? Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/bowe...
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Subway Graffiti 1970-1989 from 2010-09-03T01:49
EPISODE 111 Art. Vandalism. Blight. Freedom. Crime. Creativity. Graffiti has divided New Yorkers since it first appeared on walls, signs and lampposts in the late 1960s. Its ascent paralleled the c...
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#110 New York City Subway, Part 2: By the Numbers (and Letters) from 2010-08-20T02:33
The amazing New York City subway system travels hundreds of miles under the earth and elevated through the boroughs. In this episode, we let you in on how it went from one long tunnel in 1904 to th...
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#109 New York City Subway, Part 1: Birth of the IRT from 2010-08-06T04:07
In the fourth part of our transportation series BOWERY BOYS ON THE GO, we finally take a look at the birth of the New York City subway. After decades of outright avoiding underground transit as a l...
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#108 Cable Cars, Trolleys and Monorails from 2010-07-23T01:47:11
For the third part of our Bowery Boys On The Go series, looking back at the history of New York City public transportation, it's a look at the long gone, forgotten methods of getting around the cit...
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#107 New York's Elevated Railroads from 2010-07-08T23:29:12
Before there were subways, New York City transported travelers up and down the length of Manhattan by elevated railroad, an almost unreal spectacle to consider today. Steam engines sat high above s...
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#106 Staten Island Ferry from 2010-06-25T02:02:47
The Staten Island Ferry is one of the last remaining vestiges of an entire ferry system in New York, taking people between Manhattan and its future boroughs long before any bridges were built. In S...
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#105 The Newsboys Strike of 1899 from 2010-06-11T03:02:17
Extra! Extra! Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst vs. the newsboys! Pandemonium in the streets! One hot summer in July 1899, thousands of corner newsboys went on strike against the New York...
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#104 CBGB&OMFUG from 2010-05-28T03:32:17
Modern American rock music would have been a whole lot different without the rundown dive mecca CBGB's, a beat-up former flophouse bar that made stars out of young musicians and helped shape the mu...
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#103: Case Files of the NYPD from 2010-05-14T12:16
We're playing Good Cop / Bad Cop this week, as we take a close look at four events from the early history of the New York Police Department. You'll meet shining stars of the force like Jacob Hays, ...
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#102 Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach from 2010-04-30T02:23:19
Today it's known as Brooklyn's thriving Russian community next door to the amusements of the neighborhood of Coney Island. But a hundred years ago, the neighborhoods of Brighton Beach and Manhattan...
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#101 The Bronx Zoo from 2010-04-16T12:14
New York City's most exotic residents inhabit hundreds of leafy acres in the Bronx at the once-named New York Zoological Park. Sculpted out of the former DeLancey family estate and tucked next to t...
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#100 Robert Moses from 2010-03-19T14:19
EPISODE 100 We obviously had to spend our anniversary show with the Power Broker himself, everybody's favorite Parks Commissioner -- Robert Moses. A healthy debate about Moses will divide your frie...
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#99 Madison Square Garden from 2010-02-19T01:41
Madison Square Garden is certainly the recognizable name in arena entertaining, hosting sports, concerts, even political conventions. But it adopted that reputation from three other buildings which...
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#98 Manhattan Bridge from 2010-02-05T02:20
I love the Manhattan Bridge, but there's no doubt it's had a rocky history. For one hundred years, it's withstood more than just comparisons to its far more iconic neighbor, the Brooklyn Bridge. Bu...
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#58 Delmonico's Restaurant from 2010-01-29T13:28
Before Delmonico's, New Yorkers ate in taverns or oyster houses. But the city caught the fine dining bug at this family-owned business, Delmonico's Restaurant Francais, which standardized everythin...
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#97 Trinity Church from 2010-01-22T04:00
Trinity Church, with its distinctive spire staring down upon the west end of Wall Street, is more than just a house of worship. Over three different church buildings have sat at this site, and the ...
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#96 The Cloisters and Fort Tryon Park from 2009-12-25T02:07
The Cloisters, home of the Metropolitan Museum's repository for medieval treasures, was a labor of love for many lovers of great European art. In this podcast, I highlight three of the most importa...
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#95 Tin Pan Alley from 2009-12-11T06:21
The modern music industry begins.... on 28th Street? A seemingly nondescript street in midtown Manhattan contains some of the most important buildings where early American pop music was created. Ti...
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#94 Corlear's Hook and the Pirates of the East River from 2009-11-28T03:36
Avast ye mateys, there were indeed pirates in New York! Not only did they operate throughout the New York region in the 19th century, most of their grave misdeeds were focused around the East River...
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#93 City Hall and City Hall Park from 2009-11-13T13:37
New York City Hall sits majestically inside a nostalgic, well-manicured park, topped with a beautiful old fountain straight out of gaslight-era New York. But its serenity belies the frantic pace of...
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#92 Steinway: the Piano Man from 2009-10-23T02:07
Henry Steinway, a German immigrant who came to New York in 1850, made his name in various showrooms and factories in downtown Manhattan, enticing the wealthy with his award-winning quality pianos. ...
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#91 Haunted Tales of New York from 2009-10-09T23:02
It's time for our third annual 'ghost stories' episode, our mix of historical facts and spooky legends from the annals of New York's past. For this round of scary tales, we visit a famous 19th cent...
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#90 Columbia University from 2009-09-13T20:22
We're going back to school with one of New York's oldest continually operating institutions -- Columbia University. Or should we say, King's College, the pre-Revolution New York school that spawned...
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#89 Chelsea Hotel from 2009-08-14T05:18
Arguably New York's least conventional hotel, the Chelsea Hotel (or rather, the Hotel Chelsea) is the one of New York's counter-culture centers, a glamorous, art-filled Tower of Babel for both crea...
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#88 Ellis Island: The Immigrant Story from 2009-08-01T03:08
For millions of Americans, Ellis Island is the symbol of introduction, the immigrant depot that processed their ancestors and offered an opening into a new American life. But for some, it would tru...
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#87 The Kings of New York Pizza from 2009-07-17T01:34
New Yorkers are serious about their pizza, and it all started with a tiny grocery store in today's Little Italy and a group of young men who became the masters of pizza making. In this podcast, you...
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#86 Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall from 2009-07-02T12:27
You cannot understand New York without understanding its most corrupt politician -- William 'Boss' Tweed, a larger than life personality with lofty ambitions to steal millions of dollars from the c...
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Joseph Papp vs Robert Moses: The Story of Shakespeare in the Park from 2009-06-19T02:23
EPISODE 88 What started in a tiny East Village basement grew to become one of New York's most enduring summer traditions, Shakespeare in the Park, featuring world class actors performing the greate...
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#84 Prospect Park from 2009-06-05T07:00
Prospect Park, Brooklyn's biggest public space and home to the borough's only natural forest, was a sequel for Olmsted and Vaux after their revolutionary creation Central Park. But can these two la...
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#83 Henry Hudson from 2009-05-22T02:30
We turn the clock back to the very beginnings of New York history -- to the European discovery of Manahatta and the voyages of Henry Hudson. Originally looking for a passage to Asia, Hudson fell up...
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#82 Roosevelt Island from 2009-05-08T06:08
Originally a quiet island of orchards and stone quarries, the place we call Roosevelt Island today was once New York's 'city of asylums', the place where it sent its infirm, its incarcerated, its i...
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#81 Puck Building "What Fools These Mortals Be!" from 2009-04-24T02:10
A 6-foot plump gold impish figure stares down at you as you look up to observe the gorgeous red-brick design of the Puck Building, built forone of the 19th Century's most popular illustrated public...
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#80 Pennsylvania Station from 2009-04-10T04:28
The story of Pennsylvania Station involves more than just nostalgia for the long-gone temple of transportation as designed by the great McKim, Meade and White. It's a tale of incredible tunnels, po...
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#79 The Whyos: Gang of New York from 2009-03-28T12:38
The Whyos (pronounced Why-Ohs) were New York's most notorious gang after the Civil War, organizing their criminal activities and terrorizing law abiding citizens of the Gilded Age. Find out when th...
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#78 The Great Fire of 1835 from 2009-03-13T13:04
The Great Fire of 1835 devastated the city during one freezing December evening, destroying hundreds of buildings and changing the face of Manhattan forever. It underscored the city's need for a fu...
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#77 Freedomland U.S.A.: New York's Weirdest Theme Park from 2009-02-27T04:39
What is Freedomland U.S.A.? An unusual theme park in the Bronx, only in existence for less than five years, Freedomland has become the object of fascination for New York nostalgia lovers everywhere...
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#76 Woolworth Building from 2009-02-13T04:13
F.W. Woolworth was the self-made king of retail's newfangled 'five and dime' store and his pockets were overflowing with cash. Meanwhile, in New York, the contest to build the tallest building was ...
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#75 Williamsburg(h), Brooklyn from 2009-01-30T02:46
Williamsburg used to have an H at the end of its name, not to mention dozens of major industries that once made it the tenth wealthiest place in the world. How did Williamsburgh become a haven for ...
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# 49 LaGuardia Airport and Early New York Flight from 2009-01-17T21:13
We embark on the tale of the birth of New York City flight -- featuring a Wright brother on Governor's Island, the site of a glue factory turned Brooklyn air strip, Queens' forgotten first airport,...
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#74 Ziegfeld! from 2009-01-16T04:59
Cue the dancing girls, lower the props, raise the curtain -- it's the Bowery Boys and we're taking on Broadway's most famous producer, Florenz Ziegfeld! We give you a brief overview of the first da...
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#73 Webster Hall 'The Devil's Playhouse' from 2009-01-02T17:25
Webster Hall, as beautifully worn and rough-hewn as it was during its heyday in the 1910s and 20s, disguises a very surprising past, a significant venue in the history of the labor movement, Greenw...
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#48 The Stonewall Riots from 2008-12-29T01:04
It's the summer of 1969, and the police have raided the Stonewall, a popular gay bar in the West Village. Join us as we look at the raid, the riots, and their significance today.www.boweryboyspodca...
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#47 Grants Tomb from 2008-12-28T22:03
What's buried in Grant's Tomb? A quirky history that includes an ambitious architect, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, lots of ugly raspberry paint, and charges of prostitution and an...
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#46 Barnum's American Museum from 2008-12-23T16:01
You know PT Barnum from his circus, but he was bringing the freakshow to New York long before then. Come take a tour with us of the craziest museum to ever hit New York City. Co-starring the Fejee ...
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#45 Grand Central from 2008-12-21T02:02
Join the Bowery Boys for a commute through the history of Grand Central -- the depot, the station, and the terminal. www.boweryboyspodcast.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys...
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#44 Rikers Island from 2008-12-20T17:00
What do Salvador Dali, John Jacob Astor, Peter Stuyvesant, the Civil War, and a big pile of trash have to do with the world's biggest penal colony? We connect the dots in this history of Rikers Isl...
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#72 Rockefeller Center from 2008-12-19T14:30
JD Rockefeller Sr. may have earned his money is some rather unscrupulous ways, but his son Junior made good by giving midtown a towering city-within-a-city, a complex of Art Deco buildings that ser...
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#43 Studio 54 from 2008-12-19T03:17
You don't have to be a beautiful celebrity to enjoy the history of New York's greatest disco, from its early days as an opera and television studio, to the late 70s, full of wild parties, famous fo...
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#42: The Triangle Factory Fire from 2008-12-15T01:49
Come listen to the strange and shocking facts of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, of a workplace tragedy that changed how New Yorkers live an work in a world of tall, flammable buildings. www....
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#41 New York Post from 2008-12-13T16:19
EXTRA! EXTRA! Origins of New York Scandal Sheet Revealed! Post May Be Responsible For Central Park! Rupert Murdoch Property Was Once A Nest of Liberal Sympathizers! PLUS: Was there really a "headle...
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#40 Union Square from 2008-12-13T02:27
New York's most hectic park has been the stage for massive Civil War rallies, somber funerals, passionate workers gatherings and both premier and inexpensive shopping. Today, it's got a little bit ...
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#39 New York Yankees from 2008-12-07T19:45
Get ready for nine innings (or 30 minutes) of the greatest sports team ever -- the New York Yankees. Hear about their modest beginnings, their best players, and the fate of Yankee Stadium, their ho...
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#38 Tiffany&Co. from 2008-12-06T16:46
You'll be surprised by Tiffany's 170-year history as a vanguard in New York luxury. See how they went from selling horse whips to world class diamonds. And what makes Audrey Hepburn and Breakfast A...
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#71 Saks Fifth Avenue from 2008-12-05T03:08
A podcast that's "very Saks Fifth Avenue," we get to the origins of the famous upscale retailer, follow its path from Washington D.C. to Heralds Square and then to "the most expensive street in the...
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#37 Henry Ward Beecher and Plymouth Church from 2008-11-30T18:23
We've never done such a saucy show -- full of sex, lies, and petticoats. Meet Henry Ward Beecher, Brooklyn Heights' most notorious resident, and find out about the fascinating and provocative histo...
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#36 Life In British New York 1776-1783 from 2008-11-29T21:45
What was life like in New York during the British occupation during the Revolutionary War? Overcrowding, prison ships, food shortages, spies ... and theater? www.boweryboyspodcast.comSupport the sh...
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#35 The British Invasion 1776 from 2008-11-29T04:09
It's 1776 and revolution is in the air! Join the Bowery Boys as we tackle the British invasion and takeover of New York. www.boweryboyspodcast.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboy...
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#34 Katz Delicatessen from 2008-11-29T04:06
The Bowery Boys stop for a nosh at three Jewish culinary stalwarts of the Lower East Side -- Katz Delicatessen (a movie-friendly dining experience), Russ and Daughters (a tale of herring and girl p...
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#33 The World's Fair of 1964-65 from 2008-11-29T04:04
It's 1964, and we're heading out to Flushing Meadows, Queens, where Robert Moses has constructed the World's Fair of his dreams -- for a second time. Join us for this tale of yesterday's World of T...
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#32 Museum of Modern Art from 2008-11-26T01:09
The biggest surprise behind the revolutionary creation of the Museum of Modern Art is that the characters who put it together were almost as colorful as the art they championed. Tag along as we pee...
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#31 Battery Park and Castle Clinton from 2008-11-23T00:56
Castle Clinton, built to defend New York City from a war that never arrived, has worn a lot of hats in its almost 200 year history; it's been a performance hall, an immigration center and an aquari...
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#30 Peter Cooper and Cooper Union from 2008-11-23T00:54
Cooper Union is one of New York City's more storied institutions, not only fostering the best and brightest of art and architecture, but playing host to presidents and activists. Also, find out a l...
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#70 The Bowery Files from 2008-11-21T15:05
This is our "potpourri" episode with a little bit of everything in it. We open up some of our favorite readers mail, we take you behind the scenes of how we put together an episode, and we describe...
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#29 Brooklyn Bridge from 2008-11-18T03:33
The Bowery Boys explore the story and the family behind the Brooklyn Bridge, one of New York's most treasured landmarks -- caissons, anchorages and all. www.boweryboyspodcast.comSupport the show: h...
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#28 One Times Square from 2008-11-15T23:09
Times Square's New Years Eve celebration would not be the same without One Times Square and its annual ball drop. But the quirky history of this sometimes abused building reaches all the way back t...
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#69 The Plaza Hotel from 2008-11-14T05:42
It got off to a rocky start, but the Plaza Hotel has become one of the most recognizable landmarks in New York City. We take a look at its kooky history, from its days as an upper class 'transient ...
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#27 Radio City Music Hall from 2008-11-02T01:57
Behind the glamour of New York's greatest stage, Radio City Music Hall is a story involving a toothpaste tube designer, an allergy to Brazil nuts, a hydraulic lift protected from the Nazis, and a g...
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#26 Flatiron Building from 2008-11-01T16:07
What are the Bowery Boys doing in Chicago? Just a little detour in our search for the origins of the Flatiron Building, the wedge shaped, wind producing oddity -- built as an office space in a depa...
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#68 New York City Marathon from 2008-10-31T04:21
A true five-borough episode! The New York City Marathon hosts thousands of runners from all over the world, the dream project of the New York Road Runners and in particular one Fred Lebow, an emplo...
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#25 The Original Bowery Boys from 2008-10-26T05:46
For our very special 25th episode, we give you all sorts of Bowery boys -- the cultural and fashion trends of the 1840s, the notorious enemy of the Five Points gangs, and that slapstick bunch of Ne...
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#24 The Copacabana from 2008-10-26T01:32
During the 1940s and 1950s, any celebrity worth their weight in fame either frequented or performed at the Copacabana, a swanky nightclub known for its showgirls, its Chinese food and its mafia tie...
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#23 Macy's : the Man, the Store, the Parade from 2008-10-25T03:19
Did you know that the man whose name adorns one of the most successful department stores in the world was a sailor turned failed businessman? Or why Macy's Department Store ALMOST takes up an entir...
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#67 Guggenheim Museum from 2008-10-24T04:26
The spiral-ramped wonder that is the Guggenheim Museum began as the dream of two colorful characters -- a severe German artist and her rich patron art-lover. So how did they convince the most famou...
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#22 Staten Island from 2008-10-21T03:08
The Bowery Boys take on the history of New York City's most 'forgotten' borough, from its beginnings as a British outpost during the Revolutionary War to the controversy over that big stinky landfi...
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#21 The Astors and the Waldorf-Astoria from 2008-10-20T02:53
We're going to the 'original' Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in this podcast to hang with the filthy rich. Our guides are the styling and eccentric Astor family, the centerpiece of 19th Century New York wea...
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#20 United Nations Headquarters from 2008-10-19T02:14
It's the only area of Manhattan that actually belongs to the entire world (literally). Come along with the Bowery Boys as we cut the security line to uncover the true story about the unusual headqu...
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#19 Washington Irving from 2008-10-18T23:03
In this mini-podcast, we bring you New York City's first internationally famous writer Washington Irving and his creepy tale of the Headless Horseman. We'll tell you where you can go to celebrate h...
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#66 Who Killed Mary Rogers? from 2008-10-17T03:42
The most desirable woman in downtown Manhattan -- the 'beautiful cigar girl' Mary Rogers -- is found horribly murdered along the Hoboken shore. Hear some of the stories of the murder's prime suspec...
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#18 Ghost Stories of New York City from 2008-10-16T01:09
A city this size certainly has its share of ghosts, and the Bowery Boys spend the spooky season with some of the most famous -- a suicide showgirl, a grumpy landowner, a womanizer theater owner and...
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#17 New York Public Library from 2008-10-13T04:59
The New York Public Library may be one of the most revered libraries in America, but it took a far flung combination of bookworms, millionaires and do-gooders to make it into the institution it is ...
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#16 Statue of Liberty from 2008-10-13T03:02
Lady Liberty -- her torch may shine bright, but what story is she hiding under that copper-toned skin? The Bowery Boys bring you the story of the French dinner party that created an American icon. ...
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#15 The Apollo Theater from 2008-10-12T17:38
Harlem's jewel, the Apollo Theater, has more than lived up to its promise as a place "where stars are born and legends are made." It's been the cultural centerpiece of New York for more than seven ...
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#14 Peter Stuyvesant from 2008-10-12T17:18
Back when New York was New Amsterdam, it was the domain of the bullheaded, pear-growing, peglegged Peter Stuyvesant, who cleaned up the city and gave us our most important street. Find out why he s...
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#65 Spooky Stories of New York from 2008-10-10T06:18
By popular demand, we return to the creepier tales of New York City history, ghost tales and stories of murder and mayhem, all of them atsome point involving great American icons -- Alexander Hamil...
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#13 Coney Island: 20th Century Sideshow from 2008-10-09T00:24
Come see the Wonder Wheel, the king of hot dogs, the "Freaks" in the Dreamland Sideshow, a beached whale and Donald Trump's dad -- all in one place! It's Coney Island in the 20th Century. But will ...
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#12 Coney Island: The Golden Age from 2008-10-07T01:44
A world of amusement starts here in New York -- Coney Island, the world's oldest and strangest collection of amusement parks, a mishmash of sideshows, concession stands, gambling halls, new-fangled...
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#11 The Chrysler Building from 2008-10-06T02:09
Ah, the classic Chrysler Building! She's got style, glamour and all that jazz. But what magical surprise did she spring on New York in October of 1929? Join us as we tell the story of New York's mo...
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#10 Central Park Zoo from 2008-10-05T01:37
From an odd assortment of abandoned creatures, to one of the most notorious zoos in the world, take a tour with us through Central Park's storybook zoo. www.boweryboyspodcast.comSupport the show: h...
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#9 St. Patrick's Old Cathedral from 2008-10-05T01:34
The fashionable district of NoLIta happens to be home to a few ghosts as well, tucked behind the walls of St Patrick's Old Cathedral. Come with us as we unearth some info about a mysterious New Yor...
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#8 Dakota Apartments and 'Rosemary's Baby' from 2008-10-05T01:31
Learn about New York's most famous luxury apartment building and the classic horror film set here. Plus: Lauren Bacall, Connie Chung and some dumb waiters! www.boweryboyspodcast.comSupport the show...
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#7 Washington Square Park from 2008-10-04T06:00
Something's afoot in Washington Square Park. Join the Bowery Boys this week on an expedition through one of New York's quirkiest -- and most beloved -- parks, from Hangman's Elm to Bob Dylan. And y...
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#6 Governors Island from 2008-10-04T05:08
New York's most under-appreciated treasure gets the Bowery Boys treatment. It's Governors Island: a fort, a small town, a prison and a Burger King ... all bought for one dollar. www.boweryboyspodca...
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#5 Blackout from 2008-10-04T03:37
Flash back to the summer of 1977, when Star Wars and the Yankees ruled, gas prices were high, a serial killer roamed the streets, and the city experienced a little convenience called the New York C...
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#64 Green-Wood Cemetery from 2008-10-03T03:32
Green-wood Cemetery is one of New York's oldest burial grounds, but its development reaches back all the way to the beginning of Brooklyn's surprising history -- in fact, to the founder of Brooklyn...
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#63 New York Stock Exchange from 2008-09-26T14:10
We tackle the New York Stock Exchange in this episode, beginning with Alexander Hamilton, some pushy auctioneers, a coffee house and a sycamore tree. And find how this seminal financial institution...
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#62 Shea Stadium from 2008-09-19T03:43
The Mets are movin' out to Citi Field, but we can't overlook the great stories contained in their own home, Shea Stadium, a Robert Moses project took years to get off the ground. www.boweryboyspodc...
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#61 The Pan Am Building from 2008-09-19T03:40
Today it's the Met Life Building. It's been called the ugliest building in New York City. It sits like a monolith behind one of the city's most enduring icons Grand Central Terminal. But it's got s...
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#60 Five Points: The Fate of Five Points from 2008-09-19T03:38
Part two of our "Five Points" podcast. Join us as we explore the "wicked" neighborhood's clean up, fall from grace, and eventual destruction. www.boweryboyspodcast.comSupport the show: https://www....
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#59 Five Points: Wicked Slum from 2008-09-19T03:37
You've heard the legend of New York's most notorious neighborhood. Now come with us as we hit the streets of Five Points and dig up some of the nitty, gritty details of its birth, its first residen...
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#57 Carnegie Hall from 2008-09-19T03:29
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Well, we can at least show you the way through its tumultuous history, from a fortunate meeting on a Norwegian cruise ship, past a symphonic rivalry, and into the 2...
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#56 Randall's Island and the 1936 Olympic Trials from 2008-09-19T03:28
Small islands reveal fascinating secrets of New York's past, and Randall's and Ward's Islands are no exceptions. Found out how these former potter's fields are related to the most important Olympic...
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#55 The Evolution of Central Park from 2008-09-19T03:27
When last we left Central Park, it was the embodiment of Olmstead and Vaux's naturalistic Greensward Plan. So how did all those playgrounds, a swanky nightclub, a theater troupe and all those hippi...
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#54 The Creation of Central Park from 2008-09-19T03:26
Come with us to the beginnings of New York's most popular and most ambitious park -- from the inkling of an idea to the arduous construction. Learn who got uprooted and find out who the park was RE...
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#53 The Meatpacking District: Glamour and Gore from 2008-09-19T03:24
How did the land surrounding an old 19th century fortress develop into the city's mainline distributor for produce and meat? And how did that once bustling place transform itself from the dilapidat...
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#52 DeWitt Clinton and the Erie Canal from 2008-09-19T03:23
Meet former mayor, governor, senator and privileged son DeWitt Clinton, one of New York's most successful politicians and champion of the Erie Canal. www.boweryboyspodcast.comSupport the show: http...
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#51 McSorley's Old Ale House from 2008-09-19T03:22
Grab yourself a couple mugs of dark ale and learn about the history of one of New York City's oldest bars, serving everyone from Abraham Lincoln to John Lennon --- and eventually even women! www.bo...
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#50 Canal Street and Collect Pond from 2008-09-19T03:19
We celebrate a year of New York City history podcasting by re-visiting the topic of our very first show. Downtown Civic Center used to have a big ole pond in the middle of it which provided drinkin...
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#50 Canal Street and Collect Pond from 2008-09-19T03:19
We celebrate a year of New York City history podcasting by re-visiting the topic of our very first show.
Downtown Civic Center used to have a big ole pond in the middle of it which provided...