The Painter Who Brought The World To New York
Perched over the Hudson River near the city of Hudson sits Olana State Historic Site, once the wondrous home of painter Frederic Church. This Gilded Age mansion is unlike any in the valley, mystical and…
Bowery Boys Podcast Collection
Amusements and Thrills
#439
Latest Episode
The History of the Ticker-Tape Parade: A Very New York Way to Celebrate
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…
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16 episodes
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Century of Cheer: A History of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
What is Thanksgiving without the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? The annual march through Manhattan — terminating at Macy’s Department Store — has delighted New Yorkers for a century and been a part of the American…
#462
The Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916
TERROR ON THE BEACH! Seaside resorts from Cape May, New Jersey, to Montauk, Long Island, were paralyzed in fear during the summer of 1916. Not because of the threat of lurking German U-boats and saboteurs.…
#440
When Longacre Square Became Times Square: Before the Bright Lights of Broadway
What was Times Square before the electric billboards, before the Broadway theaters and theme restaurants, before the thousands and thousands of tourists? What was Times Square before it was Times Square? Today it’s virtually impossible to…
Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball: The Absurd Story of a Marvelous Party
PODCAST Your ticket to Truman Capote’s celebrity-filled party at the Plaza. This month FX is debuting a new series created by Ryan Murphy — called Feud: Capote and the Swans — regarding writer Truman Capote‘s relationship with…
#316
Jenny Lind at Castle Garden: New York City’s Most Famous Concert
What happens when P. T. Barnum, America’s savviest supplier of both humbug and hoax, decides that it is time to go legit? The result is one of the greatest concert tours in American history. The…
#361
The Landmarks of Coney Island (Extended Funhouse Mix)
PODCAST Coney Island is back! After being closed for 2020 due to the pandemic, the unusual attractions, the thrilling rides and stands selling beer and hot dog have finally reopened. So we are releasing a very…
#340
The Real Life Adventures of Tom Thumb
PODCAST The tale of one of the 19th century’s most unusual superstars, a man who spent his entire life in the media spotlight — thanks to promoter and friend P.T. Barnum and to his highly…
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The marvelous history of New York comedy, from the Village coffeehouses to the heights of 30 Rock
PODCAST How New Yorkers (and New York City itself) changed the way the world laughs. New York City has always cast a melodramatic profile in the Bowery Boys podcasts, but in this episode, we’re walking…
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Harry Houdini and the Golden Age of Magic: Spectacle, sorcery and spiritualism in New York
PODCAST The history of magic in New York City — in all its peculiar varieties. Harry Houdini became one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century, a showman whose escape artistry added a new dimension…
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New York and the Dawn of Photography: Mathew Brady, Samuel Morse and the Daguerreotype Craze
PODCAST The saga of the early days of photographic images and how daguerreotypes became all the rage in 1840s New York. We’re taking you back to a world that seems especially foreign today – a world…
#236
Times Square in the 1970s: Grindhouses, peep shows and XXX neon nostalgia
PODCAST 42nd Street After Hours. Cinema and sleaze. Nostalgia and fantasy. The story of a real and imagined New York. Take a trip with us down the grittiest streets in Times Square — the faded…
#225
Barnum and the Greatest Show on Earth: NYC and the American Circus
PODCAST The story of Phineas Taylor “P. T.” Barnum and his world-famous circus extravaganza. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages — the Bowery Boys present to you the tale of P. T. Barnum and…
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Digital City: New York and the World of Video Games
PODCAST The history of video games and arcades in New York City. New York has an interesting, complex and downright weird relationship with the video game, from the digital sewers below Manhattan to the neon-lit…
The Crystal Palace, America’s first World’s Fair and bizarre treasury of the 19th century
PODCAST 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 1853 this…
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PODCAST: The New York World’s Fair of 1964-65
Come with us as we jettison ourselves into the future as it was seen in the past — namely the 1964-65 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Fans of Robert Moses, 1960s space-age optimism and…
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