Author: GY

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Podcasts Skyscrapers

The World Trade Center in the 1970s

April 1977 -- Bill Pierce/Getty Images

PODCAST 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.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. 

Today there’s an entire generation that only knows the World Trade Center as an emblem of tragedy.

But people sometimes forget that the World Trade Center, designed by Japanese-American architect Minoru Yamasaki, was a very complicated addition to the New York skyline when it officially opened in 1973.

While it might be fun to think of New York City in the 1970s through the lens of places like Studio 54 or CBGB, it was really the Twin Towers that redefined New York.

The journey to build the world’s tallest building and its expansive complex of office towers and underground shops began in an effort by David Rockefeller to stimulate development in Manhattan’s fading Financial District.

By the time Port Authority got onboard to fund the project, the Twin Towers were bonded together with another vital project — a commuter train from New Jersey.

The World Trade Center inspired strong opinions from critics and the public alike, but eventually many grew to admire the strange towers which marked the skyline.

And for some, the Twin Towers became objects of obsession.

Jean-Louis Blondeau / Polaris Images

FEATURING: The insane, completely outlandish and ultimately successful feat of acrobatics by a very bold French tightrope walker.

PLUS: An interview with with Kate Monaghan Connolly of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum about how that institution memorializes those lost in the tragedy while still celebrating the technological marvels that once stood there.

This show was recorded in 2021 for the 20th anniversary, reedited and remastered by Kieran Gannon. We have a batch of brand new episodes of the Bowery Boys starting next week. 

Listen here or stream/download the episode from your favorite podcast player:

Go to websites for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and One World Observatory for more information about visiting hours and COVID-19 safety precautions at each site.

Follow us on Instagram for more images of our adventures through New York City.

Architect Minoru Yamasaki with a model of this Twin Tower design for the World Trade Center, March 25, 1964

Photographer Tony Spina/Courtesy Walter P. Reuther Library

David Rockefeller with a model of the westside of lower Manhattan.

Courtesy John Duricka/Associated Press

The first plan for the World Trade Center called for construction of a United Nations-inspired set of structures on the east side, most likely eliminating (or seriously reducing) the South Street Seaport.

Images of Radio Row, clearly showing a vibrant retail district that remained active over many decades. Had it remained, who knows how much larger it would have gotten with the advent of television?

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

They were so prominent and tall that they become the world’s most observed construction project — for years.

Courtesy AP

Over the years, the landfill site (and future home of Battery Park City) was used for performance art, musical performances and even circuses.

The wheat field (an art project by Agnes Denes), planted in 1982.

The lobby of one of the towers.

The Twin Towers from the film King Kong.

From the New York Daily News, August 8, 1974. For context, Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States the following day (Friday, August 9).

Courtesy Newspapers.com

The Philippe Petit story made international news. Here’s one example — from Butte, Montana!

Courtesy Newspapers.com

From the Oscar-winning documentary Man On Wire:

Photo by Lars Plougmann/Wikimedia Commons

Dolly Parton and Andy Warhol at Windows on the World, 1977.

Photo by Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images
FURTHER READING

City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center / James Glanz and Eric Lipton
Twin Towers: The Life of New York City’s World Trade Center / Angus Kress Gillespie
The World Trade Center: A Tribute / Bill Harris

FURTHER LISTENING

The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!

We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve and expand the show in other ways — publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!

We are now a creator on Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.

Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are six different pledge levels. Check them out and consider being a sponsor.

We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.

Categories
Brooklyn History Podcasts

What’s Up with Downtown Brooklyn? As the skyline goes higher, will its history be forgotten?

PODCAST The fascinating history of Brooklyn’s most bustling — and most frequently misunderstood — neighborhood.

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 campus — seemed to lack significant remnants of Brooklyn’s past; many areas have been radically altered and hundreds of old structures have been cleared over the decades.

But, in fact, Downtown Brooklyn is one of the few areas to still hold evidence of the borough’s glorious past — its days as an independent city and one of the largest urban centers in 19th century America.

Around Brooklyn City Hall (now Borough Hall) swirled all aspects of Brooklyn’s Gilded Age society. With the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge and a network of elevated railroad lines, Downtown Brooklyn became a major destination with premier department stores on Fulton Street, entertainment venues like the Brooklyn Academy of Music and exclusive restaurants like Gage & Tollners.

The 20th century brought a new designation for Brooklyn — a borough of Greater New  York — and a series of major developments that attempted to modernize the district — from the creation of Cadman Plaza to New York’s very own ‘tech hub’. In 2004 a major zoning change brought a new addition to the multi-purpose neighborhood — high-end residential towers. What will the future hold for the original heart of the City of Brooklyn?

How do vibrant New York City neighborhoods react to major changes to city life while retaining their historic character? For the next three weeks, we will present three neighborhood-history shows from the Bowery Boys podcast in a new light, exploring how these historic areas survive sudden changes in economic growth, housing needs and tourism. See last week’s show on SoHo for the first part in this series.

This episode was originally released in 2019. It includes a new introduction and has been reedited and remastered by Kieran Gannon

LISTEN HERE:

_________________________________________________________

The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!

Find us on Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.

Visit our page to learn more about the exclusive features available to supporters, including our Patreon-only podcast Side Streets.

We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.

__________________________________________________________

And a video about the history of MetroTech Center from NYU Polytechnic

The scene just north of Brooklyn Borough Hall, in a photo taken in the early 1900s. The Henry Ward Beecher monument would be moved further north with the creation of Cadman Plaza.

Detroit Publishing Company / Library of Congress

Downtown Brooklyn in 1892, a year of momentous change for the neighborhood. Here you see the elevated railroad snaking up Fulton Street with Brooklyn City Hall on the far left.

The classic interiors of Gage & Tollner’s exclusive restaurant on Fulton Street. The interiors are landmarks and you can actually peer into the storefront on Fulton Street to see them (although no business currently occupies the space.)

Museum of the City of New York

Flatbush Avenue Extension from Fulton Street, 1914 (a few years after the opening of the Manhattan Bridge). Note the Crescent Theatre to the far right. It opened as a vaudeville/burlesque house and transitioned to silent films.

Library of Congress

Brooklyn Borough Hall in 1908 with its new neighbor, the Temple Court Building (constructed 1901).

Irving Underhill/Library of Congress/ 1908

The post office was once next to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle offices. The Eagle building was demolished, as was Washington Street. (It became Cadman Plaza East.)

Museum of the City of New York
Museum of the City of New York

The post office building on Cadman Plaza in 1976, with the newly situated Henry Ward Beecher monument.

Edmund Vincent Gillon, Museum of the City of New York

A 1963 photo of Abe Stark, Brooklyn borough president, hovering over a model of the ‘new’ civic center plan for downtown Brooklyn.

Higgins, Roger, photographer/Library of Congress

This photo was taken in 2019, before the Brooklyn Tower was propped atop it. Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn is an oddity among the old retail shops of Fulton Street but its classical architecture has helped it survive the wrecking ball.

Look above the first or second floors on Fulton Street and you’ll find some curious and spectacular architectural finery.

The landmarked Offerman Building, the most beautiful former department store on Fulton Street.

More department store richness:

The New York Telephone Company Building and the NY and NJ Telephone and Telegraph Building both remain standing amid a sea of new supertall residential construction.

Some curious features of MetroTech Commons — two whimsical animal-themed sculptures and the Bridge Street Church, a historical landmark associated with the Underground Railroad.

A block north of MetroTech Commons, you’ll find the historic George Westinghouse High School.

The old Brooklyn Fire Headquarters on Jay Street, built in 1892 in a style most unusual for the neighborhood — Richardsonian Romanesque Revival.

The Jay Street-MetroTech station still contains some quirky details from the past.

This undistinguished old building was once the home of Gage & Tollner’s, the most exclusive restaurant in Brooklyn.

The austere Municipal Building was constructed in 1924 and the skyscrapers which surround it also joined the neighborhood in the same decade.

Brooklyn Borough Hall and Columbus Park:

The 1892 Federal Building and Post Office with a tribute to Henry Ward Beecher (which once sat closer to Brooklyn Borough Hall).

Further Listening:

If you like Brooklyn history, check out these episodes from our back catalog that are referenced in this week’s show.

Categories
Events Revolutionary History

Celebrate Red Hook History: A Special Brooklyn 250 Event

Did you know that there once was a Revolutionary War fort located in today’s Red Hook, Brooklyn?

Hear about Red Hook’s role in the Battle of Brooklyn, plus other overlooked histories that can still be seen and felt.

A panel in Red Hook, moderated by Greg Young (The Bowery Boys), co-presented by Red Hook Business Alliance & Friends of Fort Defiance.


Red Hook’s Proclaimation of Historical Significance
Saturday, August 22, 6pm
This is a free event. Please RSVP here

Fort Defiance Gallery (160 and 169 Coffey Street). Discover archaeological findings and significant source materials about Fort Defiance, Red Hook Lane and the defense of the New York Harbor in the campaign of 1776.

Brooklyn250 is a borough-wide commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn, supported by $350,000 in state funding.

Led by The Green-Wood Cemetery, the Old Stone House, Brooklyn Public Library’s Center for Brooklyn History, Prospect Park Alliance, Fort Greene Park Conservancy, and Friends of Fort Defiance the initiative brings Brooklyn’s Revolutionary history to life through free tours, exhibitions, performances, reenactments, panel discussions, book talks, family programs, and a collectible “then-and-now” pamphlet and map.

Together, these programs invite New Yorkers to explore Brooklyn’s pivotal role in the fight for independence and reflect on the history, people, and ideals that continue to shape the nation today.

Categories
Newspapers and Newsies Podcasts True Crime

The Gossip Game: The Man Who Blackmailed The Gilded Age

All the dirt that’s (un)fit to print — the tale of the Gilded Age scandal sheet Town Topics and its duplicitous publisher William D’Alton Mann.

Before the era of the tabloid, New Yorkers got their gossip fix from a publication known as Town Topics, where the shocking secrets of the Gilded Age were revealed. But its publisher, William D’Alton Mann, was into more than just a bit of sleaze; he used these scandalous revelations to blackmail members of New York’s high society.

In this very special presentation of the Gilded Gentleman podcast, Carl Raymond and his special guest, Vanity Fair writer Joe Pompeo, introduce you to this forgotten scheme which threatened to tear apart the morals and polite mannerisms of Gilded Age society. 

And for more adventures through Gilded Age New York, check out the Gilded Gentleman podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

This show was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon

William D’Alton Mann

For more thrilling tales of scandal from American history, check out these episodes of the Gilded Gentleman and the Bowery Boys:

Categories
Food History Gilded Age New York Landmarks Podcasts

Adventures in Old New York: Astor House, the Haymarket and the place where Oreos were made

Our book, The Bowery Boys Adventures in Old New York, was just re-released as a 10th-anniversary edition with lots of brand-new entries. So to celebrate, we thought we would highlight three of our all-time favorite stories from the book.

Featuring:

— The Astor House, one of the first luxury hotels in the United States, owned by the original Astor himself — John Jacob Astor. When it opened in 1836, it wrote the rules for how people even stay in hotels in New York City.

Why was it considered so revolutionary during its day, and why did its eventual demolition in the 20th century take almost 13 years?

— The Haymarket, the most scandalous dance hall of the Gilded Age! This lively and bawdy place, where both men and women met (sometimes upstairs, behind the curtains), sat in the heart of New York’s turn-of-the-century entertainment district, the burgeoning theater district.

But the show inside was MUCH more risque. Oh-la-la! Tom gives you a little tour of the joint, so pull up your stockings.

— The Nabisco Factory in the Meatpacking District was New York’s very own Willie Wonka’s chocolate wonderland, the American center of cookie and cracker making for decades. The sweet smells from the National Baking Company’s ovens were a relief in the late 19th-century district of meat processing.

It was here that two of the most important manufactured desserts in American history were born. Visitors to the High Lineand Chelsea Market may not realize they are strolling through a veritable cookie paradise!

LISTEN TODAY: ADVENTURES IN OLD NEW YORK

The 10th anniversary of our book Adventures In Old New York is now available in bookstores.

FURTHER LISTENING:

Some older Bowery Boys episodes related to this episode

Categories
Events Mysterious Stories

The Bowery Boys Live: Ghost Stories of Old New York TICKETS NOW ON SALE

Tickets for this year’s Bowery Boys Ghost Stories of Old New York show at Joe’s Pub are now sale over at the Joe’s Pub website. 

Tom and Greg return to Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater with their EIGHTH annual Halloween ghost stories live show, conjuring the spooky folklore and mysterious urban legends that have famously kept New Yorkers awake at night – from haunted mansions to possessed parks.

Following sold-out runs in 2018 through 2025, the Bowery Boys will again retell some of the greatest of these haunted tales with live musical accompaniment by Andrew Austin and vocalist Lisa Karlin.

And this year — expect the unexpected!

The ghost of Peter Stuyvesant may make a return appearance this year.

Tickets on sale now for the following dates. Get yours today because tickets do go fast for these shows.

And we have new ticket pricing tiers — Wednesday, Oct 28 & Thursday, 29 shows – Tickets are $36 (inclusive of advance phone/web service fee; door price).

Friday, Oct 30 & Saturday, Oct 31 shows – Tickets are $48 (inclusive of advance phone/web service fee; door price).

Wednesday, October 28, 7 pm
Wednesday, October 28, 9:30 pm
Thursday, October 29, 7 pm
Thursday, October 29, 9:30 pm
Friday, October 30, 7 pm
Friday, October 30, 9:30 pm
Saturday, October 31, Halloween night! 7 pm
Saturday, October 31, Halloween night! 9:30 pm

6PM doors open for 7PM performances
9PM doors open for 9:30PM performances

Categories
Events

Live at the Salmagundi Club! It’s the Bowery Boys and the Gilded Gentleman

Join us for a book event in honor of the 10th anniversary of the Bowery Boys’ Adventures in Old New York — and at the famed Salmagundi Club!

Join Greg Young of the Bowery Boys in conversation with Carl Raymond, host of The Gilded Gentleman, at the historic Salmagundi Club to celebrate the publication of the Bowery Boys newly revised edition of “Adventures in Old New York: Historic Streets, Hidden Spots, and Iconic Neighborhoods in Manhattan” (Greg Young and Tom Meyers authors).

Greg will share some of his favorite spots, some intriguing bits of history, and a few of Manhattan’s least-known secrets. As Greg and Carl will discuss, there’s so much history in plain sight if you just know where to look. Greg will be happy to sign books following the talk.

Salmagundi Club
Adventures In Old New York Event
Admission: $10
Wednesday, July 29  •  6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
The Salmagundi also invites you to stay for dinner in their historic club restaurant downstairs. You can make reservations by selecting Get Tickets here and making a reservation

And the 10th anniversary edition of Adventures In Old New York: Historic Streets, Hidden Spots, and Iconic Neighborhoods in Manhattan is available now at your local bookstore. Make sure to pick up the new edition with this cover:

Categories
Gangs of New York Podcasts Politics and Protest

The Murder of William Poole, aka Bill the Butcher

It’s a scene more commonly imagined today in a Wild West saloon — a shootout at Stanwyx Hall, across from the most elegant hotel in New York City.

The year was 1855, and the combatants were bitter rivals who had fought many times, including once in the notorious neighborhood of Five Points.

By the end, one man lie bleeding on the floor — William Poole, a member of the Bowery Boys street gang, better known as Bill the Butcher.

The Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, loosely based upon the Herbert Asbury book, features a version of this character (named Wiiliam Cutting) played by Daniel Day-Lewis. But the story of the real William Poole is far more fascinating, stretching from the west side’s Washington Market to the streets of today’s SoHo neighborhood.

In this episode, Greg takes you into the world of Bill Poole and the domain of the mid-19th century street gang, mostly seen as scourges of the public good — that is, until ruthless politicians began to see them as useful.

What was the Bowery like in the 1840s? And just who were the Bowery Boys?

This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon.

LISTEN HERE: THE MURDER OF BILL THE BUTCHER

FURTHER LISTENING

Other shows that relate to this week’s episode:

The original article which inspired this episode, originally published on July 24, 2021, on the occasion of his 200th birthday:

William Poole was one of the most infamous villains in New York City history.

As a young man, he operated as a butcher at Washington Market (in the area of today’s Tribeca neighborhood) and that legitimate occupation lent him his nickname earned by his more disreputable activities — Bill the Butcher.

Not actually William Poole but a picture taken in 1875 very clearly inspired by his legend.

Poole was a thug, a thief and a celebrity, leader of a Christopher Street gang which morphed and coalesced with others to become one of the most terrifying group of criminals in New York — the Bowery Boys.

We kn0w details of his life not only from classics like Gangs of New York but because of the unique nature between gangs and city politics in the mid 19th century. Street gangs were often aligned with political and social beliefs about the changing city — particularly the ships of newly arriving immigrants from Ireland.

The Bowery Boys, at least his variant (for they changed over time), were an instrument of the Know Nothings, a nativist movement which violently rejected the Irish newcomers. Their attacks on immigrants on the streets of Five Points were so severe that Irish gangs soon formed in retaliation, collectively referred to in the press as the Dead Rabbits.

This street level violence echoed the loftier nativist debates happening at City Hall and in the penny press. But Poole was no dignified man. His habits of proving himself a real ‘native American’ were distinctly chaotic and bloodthirsty.

Just one example from the New York Daily Herald, January 16, 1846: “William Poole and Smith Ackerman were amusing themselves by putting two dogs to fight in Christopher Street, creating a most disgraceful riot.” When a man stepped in to stop the dog fight, Poole and Ackerman gauged out his eye.

The journalist Herbert Asbury was so fascinated by Poole that in his classic Gangs of New York, he devotes an entire chapter to the man’s brutal murder in 1855.

New York Times, March 10, 1855

Poole was shot through the heart at Stanwix Hall (579 Broadway) by Tammany Hall sluggers Lewis Baker on behalf of Poole’s rival John Morrissey.

“Despite his wounds,” writes Asbury:

“Poole lived for fourteen days after the shooting, to the vast amazement of his doctors, who declared vehemently that it was unnatural for a man to linger so long with a bullet in his heart.

But at last, while other Native American gladiators watched anxiously by his bedside and relayed bulletins to a sorrowful crowd in the street, Bill the Butcher died, gasping with his last breath: ‘Good-bye, boys, I die a true American!‘”

He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in a funeral befitting a decorated war hero with thousands of mourners and over 150 carriages in a long, mournful procession.

The words ‘I die a true American!’ were actually emblazoned upon the side of the hearse carrying his flag-draped coffin.

New York Daily Herald, March 12, 1855

In the 2002 film Gangs of New York, directed by Martin Scorsese, a version of William Poole (named William Cutting) is depicted with genuine grit and horror by Daniel Day Lewis.

While the film is entirely fictional — liberally taking from various tales from Asbury’s book — Lewis’ Bill the Butcher has a grotesque and villainous quality that the real William Poole would have loved.

For more information, check out our podcast on the movie Gangs of New York:

Categories
American History Podcasts

Heated Rivalries from American History: Live at City Winery

A few of the most memorable frenemies and catfights from American history — including the story of New York City’s longest lasting rivalry.

Alexander Hamilton vs Aaron Burr! Delmonico’s vs Sherry’s! John Adams vs everybody! Some of history’s most fascinating stories involve important figures who did not like each other very much.

In this edition of Bowery Boys History Live!, recorded at Manhattan’s City Winery on May 26, 2026, Greg Young from the Bowery Boys brings some of these stories to a live audience, featuring author Laurie Gwen Shapiro, tour guide Billy Nemec, and the Gilded Gentleman himself, Carl Raymond.

Featuring tales of Revolutionary War spite, obscene Gilded Age banquets, and Jazz Age flights of spite. PLUS: New York City’s longest-running rival.

NOTE: We performed at City Winery less than 24 hours after the Knicks clinched their place in the NBA Finals.

This episode for produced and cleaned up by Kieran Gannon.

Categories
Podcasts Revolutionary History

Tearing Down King George: The Monumental Summer of 1776

PODCAST In New York City, during the tumultuous summer of 1776, the King of England lost his head.

Bowling Green is best known today as the calming, flower-filled oasis in lower Manhattan, next to the decidedly less calming, lumbering sculpture Charging Bull, which is popular with tourists. But this peaceful park was once home to New York City’s most infamous statue — and the stage for America’s first No Kings protest.

In 1770, the old park became the home of a monumental statue of King George III on horseback, an ostentatious artifact meant to remind the rebellious colonists of just who was in charge.

On July 9, 1776, following a reading of the freshly minted Declaration of Independence, angry New Yorkers violently pulled down that statue of King George and, as legend has it, rendered his body into bullets used in the battles of the Revolutionary War. 

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States, we also mark the 250th anniversary of this event — not a moment of jubilation and freedom, but of anger and uncertainty.

The Declaration beautifully set down the words of independence. The tearing down of King George made the same statement — in a far messier, more violent manner.

The remnants of the statue of William Pitt, at home at the New-York Historical

In this episode, take a trip back to the city right before the war, when New York was split into those sympathetic to the Tories and those to the Sons of Liberty, an early organization dedicated to the liberty of the American colonies.

PLUS: Find out where you can locate artifacts from this story throughout the city today.

FEATURING: A young Alexander Hamilton, William Pitt the Elder, that rascal Cadwallader Colden and the enterprising ladies of the Wolcott household.

This special episode is not a rerun! It’s a riff on a 2020 Bowery Boys episode. It has been rewritten and rerecorded (including for video on YouTube) in honor of America 250, and newly produced and edited by Kieran Gannon.

LISTEN HERE: TEARING DOWN KING GEORGE

The coronation painting of King George III, painted by Allan Ramsay, 1762
Map of New York City — London, Jefferys & Faden, 1776. Library of Congress
“Print shows the raising of a liberty pole in a village center on a festive occasion with many spectators, some appear to be disgruntled loyalists; in the background, several men are removing a sign bearing the likeness of King George III.” — painted by F.A. Chapman ; engraved by John C. McRae, N.Y.

The story of the destruction of the statue at Bowling Green spread far and wide, inspiring some less-than-accurate depictions of the event.

“Print shows a misguided attempt by the artist to depict the destruction of an equestrian statue of King George III in New York City on July 9, 1776” — Basset, André, active 1749-1785, publisher (Library of Congress)
An illustration from 1914/Chambers Publishing Co
The William Pitt statue in Charleston, South Carolina, 1892.

The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!

We’re also looking to improve and expand the podcast in other ways — publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!

We are now a creator on Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.

Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans.

If you’d like to help out, there are six different pledge levels.Check out pledge levels and consider being a sponsor.

We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.

FURTHER LISTENING

After listening to this tale of the King George III in Bowling Green, check out these past Bowery Boys podcast episodes which also speak about some of the subjects featured on this show.


Categories
American History On The Waterfront Podcasts

Party Like It’s 1976! New York City Celebrates America’s Birthday — Then and Now

New York City will be at the center of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the United States, thanks to the largest-ever flotilla of tall ships to sail into New York Harbor — a reminder of the city’s storied maritime history. It will be like ghosts of the past returning from a long voyage.

But this is just the latest in a long line of patriotic parties that the city has hosted since the early 19th century, when citizens gathered in a former potter’s field (later renamed Washington Square) to mark the 50th anniversary of the nation’s birth.

The 100th birthday of the United States gifted New York the arm of the Statue of Liberty (a decade before she was fully assembled) and a treasured landmark located in Central Park today.

The parade of tall ships, known as Operation Sail, first assembled in New York waters for the 1964 World’s Fair, and later for the big Bicentennial of 1976.

The city had a lot going on that year, most notably a financial crisis and a public spat with President Gerald Ford.

But when television cameras turned to film the big event, they saw not just majestic ships, but a diverse array of New Yorkers, reinventing what it meant to be American.

Tom and Greg are joined on this show by Captain Jonathan Boulware, the President and CEO of the South Street Seaport Museum, to discuss the Seaport’s unique connection to Operation Sail and the museum’s latest exhibition, The Promise of Liberty: Words That Shaped a Nation, which places the nation’s most important documents in a unique waterfront context.

LISTEN NOW: PARTY LIKE IT’S 1976!

Courtesy South Street Seaport
A photochrom postcard published by the Detroit Photographic Company. circa 1899-1924
Square rigger during the Parade of Sail on 4 July 1976 (US Bicentennial). The ship is most likely the Polish schoolship Dar Pomorza. Wikimedia commons

If you want to walk the footsteps of New Yorkers during the American Revolution:

Echoes of the Revolution multimedia 90-minute walking tour in downtown Manhattan and will be a free city-scale augmented reality experience for mobile devices utilizing the detailed historical environments of Assassin’s Creed® III (set during the American Revolution).

That comes out June 29, but you can use NYC Revolutionary Trail now.

RELATED PODCASTS

After listening to this week’s show Party Like It’s 1976! check out these other Bowery Boys podcasts from the back catalog

Categories
American History Amusements and Thrills Holidays Podcasts

The History of the Ticker-Tape Parade: A Very New York Way to Celebrate

A celebration for the Apollo 11 astronauts, August 13, 1969. Courtesy NASA/BIll Taub photographer

In 1886, during a miles-long parade celebrating the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, office workers in lower Manhattan began heaving ticker tape out the windows, creating a magical, blizzard-like landscape.

That tradition stuck. Today that particular corridor of Broadway — connecting Battery Park to City Hall — is known as the “Canyon of Heroes” thanks to the popularity of the ticker-tape parade.

Ticker tape parade on Broadway for presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon, 1960 (Library of Congress)

While many cities with skyscrapers host ticker-tape parades today, New York was the place they originated in the late 19th century and for a very obvious reason — the ticker-tape itself, a byproduct of the Financial District which revolutionized the way stocks were traded.

New York has regularly honored athletes, politicians, pilots, kings and queens, astronauts and generals with ticker-tape parades for over 125 years. Today, they’re best known as a way to celebrate New York sports teams, the winners of the World Series, the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup.

Charles A. Lindbergh renjoying his tickertape parade up Broadway,, June 13, 1927. Courtesy Smithsonian Institute

The story of the ticker-tape parade is also a story of modern American history in capsule form, celebrating technological achievements, victories in war, cultural milestones and international unity.

Greg and Tom are back in the studio to give you a rundown of New York’s greatest parades. And they also pay tribute to those other local heroes — the Department of Sanitation who cleans up after these festive but messy celebrations. 

LISTEN NOW: THE TICKER-TAPE PARADE

The ticker tape unfurling for the Statue of Liberty 1886 (Getty Images)

Parade for the 1924 Olympians, New York Times, August 7, 1924

Parade for the Statue of Liberty dedication, New York Times, October 29, 1886

Roosevelt’s return from safari, New York Tribune, June 19, 1910

The parade for Gertrude Ederle, Brooklyn Citizen, August 27, 1926

Ederle’s accomplishments and her ticker-tape parade are depicted in the Disney+ film The Young Woman and the Sea

A reimagined ticker-tape parade — for a celebration inspired by the Moon landing — recently appeared in the film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

https://youtu.be/-ThpSR44aUw?si=d7jJueXwZZHiryDS

FURTHER LISTENING

Categories
New Amsterdam Podcasts Sports Writers and Artists

The Knicks and the Knickerbockers: The Most New York City Story Ever

The New York Knicks are the ultimate New York City sporting franchise. Why would we make such a big claim? It’s all in the name.

The Knicks were founded in 1946 as one of the inaugural teams from the sports professional league which became the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Their owner Ned Irish, from Madison Square Garden, chose the name Knickerbockers, quite literally pulled it from a hat, because the word evoked the spirit of Old New York and the early days of Dutch New Amsterdam.

However there were no notable Knickerbockers in the original Dutch settlement. Where did this odd name come from?

Tom and Greg go on the hunt for the origins of this unusual name, charting a course through the Hudson River Valley in the early 19th century — to the romantic Knickerbocker Mansion in Schaghticoke, and then following the various wanderings of a young Washington Irving.

His character Diedrich Knickerbocker would not only bend the will of history, he would inspire generations of New Yorkers to boast traces of their lineage to the city’s Dutch past. By the Gilded Age, it would be a stand-in for New Yorkers in general, adhered to steamships, hotels and even beer

And so the spirit of Washington Irving shines down upon the Knicks to this day!

This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon.

LISTEN NOW: THE KNICKS AND THE KNICKERBOCKERS

FURTHER LISTENING

Categories
Film History Podcasts Women's History

Marilyn Monroe at 100: A Look At Her Life In New York City

Photographer Ed Feingersh, 1955

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson 100 years ago on June 1, 1926.

In late 1954, on the cusp of major Hollywood stardom, Marilyn moved to New York City on a quest to become a better actress and to find a little peace on streets where she could sometimes go unnoticed.

The year 1955 was one of discovery for the star of The Seven-Year Itchand Gentlemen Prefer Blondes — exploring the city, working on her craft and generally being the toast of the town.

In particular, she came to New York to become a better actress via the Actors Studio and the influence of Lee Strasberg. But she also managed to see the most glamorous corners of New York.

That deep connection she made with New York City never left her.

We’re big old movie buffs here on the Bowery Boys, and to celebrate a century of Marilyn, we’ve remastered and re-edited a show we recorded on Marilyn’s New York back in 2022. So raise a toast to Marilyn tonight — and put on something a little extra glamorous for fun.

Marilyn Monroe overlooking Park Avenue from the roof of the Ambassador Hotel at Park and 51st. (The hotel was demolished in 1966). From here you can also see the Racquet and Tennis Club (1918) and the Lever House (1952). Photograph by Ed Feingersh, taken 1955.

FEATURING: New York in the 1950s with Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Marlene Dietrich and many others.

PLUS: As an extra treat, Greg and Tom are joined on the show by Alicia Malone of TCM (and Tom’s co-host on “The Official Gilded Age Podcast”) and author of the book Girls on Film: Lessons from a Life of Watching Women in Movies to discuss how the city changed her career and performances.

Alicia Malone/TCM

LISTEN NOW: MARILYN MONROE AT 100: HER LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY

This episode was remastered by Kieran Gannon.

FURTHER READING

Lois Banner Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox
Isaac Butler The Method: How The Twentieth Century Learned to Act
Carl E Rollyson Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress
Donald Spoto Marilyn Monroe
Gloria Steinem and George Barris Marilyn: Norma Jeane
Anthony Summers Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe
Elizabeth Winder Marilyn in Manhattan: Her Year of Joy
Donald H. Wolfe The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe

Hedda Hopper column, January 8, 1855
“The Lost Footage of Marilyn Monroe” by Helene Stapinski, New York Times
“Marilyn Monroe Found Dead,” New York Daily News, August 6, 1962
“Marilyn Monroe’s Crypt,” Atlas Obscura

Interview featured on this week’s show:

An interview by Edward R. Morrow for his show Person To Person with Marilyn Monroe in Connecticut.

Newsreel clips featured in the show:

Miller and Monroe make their marriage announcement:

FURTHER LISTENING

After listening to this show about Marilyn Monroe, take a dive back into the Bowery Boys Hollywood collection:

Categories
Museums Podcasts Women's History

The Many Intrigues of Eliza Jumel

She arrived in New York calling herself Eliza Brown — but she’d been born Betsy Bowen, daughter of a woman jailed for running a disorderly house in Providence.

By the time she died in 1865, she was Eliza Jumel — Manhattan’s richest woman, mistress of a hilltop mansion in Washington Heights, the widow of a former vice president, and the subject of so many wild rumors that even her New York Timesobituary couldn’t keep the facts straight.

Tom is joined by Catherine Hughes and Danielle Gaita of the historic Morris-Jumel Mansion to sort the legend from the life. Born in 1775 to grinding poverty, Eliza reinvented herself as an actress at the Park Theater, married the French merchant Stephen Jumel in 1804, and in 1810 moved into the grand house that had served as George Washington’s headquarters in the fall of 1776 — Manhattan’s oldest surviving residence.

And from there the story only grows more intriguing. Paris in the age of Napoleon. A staggering art collection. Real estate dealings while her husband stayed an ocean away. A whirlwind second marriage to the 77-year-old Aaron Burr — and a scandalous divorce, finalized on the very day Burr died.

Plus: Lin-Manuel Miranda writing Hamilton lyrics in Burr’s old bedroom!

LISTEN NOW: THE MANY INTRIGUES OF ELIZA JUMEL

Morris Jumel Mansion
Greg Young
Greg Young
Greg Young
Greg Young
Greg Young
Greg Young

FURTHER LISTENING

After listening to this show on Eliza Jumel, listen to these other shows featuring historical stories of Upper Manhattan