The Bowery Boys: New York City History
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 Island. Listen to it for free on iTunes or other podcasting services. Or you can download or listen to… Read More
Above: North Brother island and its lighthouse The Brother Islands, two almost forgotten islands in the channel between Queens and the Bronx, have finally gotten some respect. Over the years North Brother, the big brother, has been used for a host of unusual purpose, home to the wounded, the drug addicted and the diseased. South,… Read More
Above: Grand Theft Auto IV’s version of Times Square Next Tuesday, the world stops for millions of Americans as they finally clutch copies of the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV. As in a few other incarnations of this bloody, aggressive adventure, the action takes place in Liberty City, an Earth-2 version of New York… Read More
Ian Schrager’s refreshed and modernized Gramercy Park Hotel might seem a respite from the shock and scandals of his early years. But as far as I know, nobody ever jumped to their death from the roof of Studio 54. It happened in June 2002. The legendary Hotel had been controlled by the Weissberg family for… Read More
Join us as we step behind the velvet ropes to explore the history of Studio 54, legendary dance club. Listen to it for free on iTunes or other podcasting services. Or you can download or listen to it HERE April 26 marks the 31st anniversary of the opening of Studio 54 Before it was Studio… Read More
Pope John Paul greets the crowds at Yankee Stadium Welcome Benedict! I’m not Catholic, but I do love a good papal visit to New York City. Nothing could be more absurd. The leader of the Catholic Church, a man who traces his spiritual lineage all the way back to the apostles — delivering mass at… Read More
The Carpathia docks off of Pier 54, emptied of its cargo of Titanic survivors Ninety-six years ago today, the RMS Titanic sank in the icy waters south of Newfoundland, killing 1,517 people, including three of New York City’s most prominent and richest citizens, sending a shock wave through high society and the mercantile elite. William… Read More
It’s been awhile since America faced the potential of an Olympic Games boycott. The debate about Beijing is still being waged in the press. America withdrew from the Moscow Olympics in 1980. And in 1936, there was an equally emphatic cry to boycott the Olympics in Berlin, Germany — and New York City led the… Read More
Shirtwaist factory workers on strike! Come listen to the strange and shocking facts of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, of a workplace tragedy that changed how New Yorkers live and work in a world of tall, flammable buildings. Listen to it for free on iTunes or other podcasting services. Or you can download or listen… Read More
Our modest little series about some of the greatest, notorious, most important, even most useless, mayors of New York City. Other entrants in our mayoral survey can be found here. The 1910s were a rough time to be mayor of New York City. The decade’s first mayor, William Jay Gaynor, took an assassin’s bullet in… Read More
This is your last week to go check out Street Dance, a romantic and wistful collection of New York black-and-white images by Rudy Burckhardt, at the Museum of the City of New York. Burckhardt was obsessed with the city’s scale and motion, finding it frustrating in his early days in the city to properly frame… Read More
Above: Painting of Bryant Park by artist Mike Rohner. Visit his website for some other lovely works. Editor-poet William Cullen Bryant, the 19th century’s most influential publisher of the New York Post, never lived to see Fashion Week or the yearly outdoor Summer Film Festival, the star events hosted in the park that was named… Read More
Director Jules Dassin died this week. He just happened to direct a film I wrote about a few weeks ago — The Naked City — featuring one of the most extensive on-location New York shoots of almost any film before 1960. Now you have no excuse not to go rent it this weekend! HE’S SHOT… Read More
Extra! Extra! Scandal Sheet Revealed To Be Started By Founding Father! New York Post May Be Responsible For Central Park! Rupert Murdoch Property Was Once A Nest of Liberal Sympathizers! PLUS: Was there really a “headless body” in a “topless bar”? Listen to it for free on iTunes or other podcasting services. Or you can… Read More
The Trinity Church grave marker of William Bradford, publisher of the New York Gazette. Dusting off the cobwebs of your high school history curriculum, you might remember the tale of John Peter Zenger, the publisher of the New York Weekly Journal whose libel trial in 1735 marked the beginning of the American discussion of freedom… Read More