The Bowery Boys: New York City History
In this special episode, we look at the history of New York City as seen through one corner of the Lower East Side. Created by the intersections of several streets, this is a place that has gone by many names — in the past and even today. At its center is Seward Park, the first… Read More
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 Gilded Gentleman hosts this special presentation from the Bowery Boys podcast, recorded in 2020. Listen to it here or subscribe… Read More
In late December 1954 Marilyn Monroe came to New York City wearing a disguise. Monroe — by then the biggest movie star in the world — came to the East Coast to reinvent herself and her career. The year 1955 would be a turning point in her life and it all played out on the… Read More
Have you listened to The Gilded Gentleman’s recent episode on the story of Emily Post. No? Where are your manners?! In July of 1922, an unassuming book with a rich blue cover landed on bookstore shelves. Titled simply Etiquette by a moderately successful writer named Emily Post, the book went on to become a cornerstone of America’s social… Read More
Beware! The ghosts and goblins of the Hudson River Valley have been awakened from their dark slumber. In this year’s annual celebration of New York urban legends and folktales, we journey up the Hudson River to explore the region’s spookiest stories. Tales of mystery and the supernatural have possessed the villages and towns of the… Read More
You may have heard about the messy, chaotic and truly horrible presidential election of 1876, pitting Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B Hayes. But did you know that New York City plays a huge role in this moment in American history? Tilden, the governor of New York, was a political superstar, a reformer famous… Read More
On the 160th anniversary of the killing of Phillip Barton Key, I’m reposting this article from 2014 which originally ran on the 100th anniversary of Daniel Sickle’s death. We don’t have large, parade-like funeral processions marching up the avenues as they once did during the Gilded Age and in the early years of the 20th… Read More
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 busy neighborhood. But a prison once rose from this very spot — more than one in fact. While there was indeed a market at Jefferson… Read More
Join Tom Meyers and Greg Young as they celebrate their 15th year of making the Bowery Boys Podcast with a special live podcast recording at Caveat on the Lower East Side. Mark your calendar for Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 7pm. Greg and Tom will be joined at this show by special guest Hugh Ryan,… Read More
Index cards. Levers and buttons. Wheels and wires and paper. Stone-gray mechanical boxes and intricate machines of gears and pulleys. It was these things — and probably a lot of coffee — that kept New York City operating before the advent of computers. From the subway to the Wall Street trading floor, life functioned in… Read More
Just a few months ago, most of the remaining phone booths were removed from the streets of New York City, oft neglected, a nostalgic victim of our increasing use of cellphones. For almost a century public phones have connected regular New Yorkers with the world. Who doesn’t have fond memories of using a payphone with… Read More
In today’s episode, Tom discusses the vast span of New York history with filmmakers and authors Ric Burns and James Sanders, creators of New York: A Documentary Film. Tom, Ric and James discuss the 8-part documentary (which aired on PBS in installments in 1999, 2001 and 2003) and its newly updated companion book, “New York:… Read More
It has become a name so associated with American sports and entertainment that you barely think about it. In New York City, when you say you are going to The Garden, you aren’t going to see flowers. Most likely, you’re going to see the Knicks. Or possibly Billy Joel. New York City’s many actual gardens… Read More
Sixty years ago today — on August 2, 1962 — the Action Group for Better Architecture in New York (AGBANY), a group of young architects and activists, held a most curious protest outside of Pennsylvania Station, the old train station designed by McKim, Mead and White. “The best dressed picket line in New York City… Read More
Two books won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in History this year, underscoring the excellent offerings on the history shelf in 2021. They are two wildly different stories but they share a similar theme — the complicated relationship between the United States and foreign nations. In Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice… Read More