The Bowery Boys: New York City History
Ida Wood had a secret. Born Ida Mayfield in New Orleans, Ida moved to New York in the 1850s and through her marriage to Benjamin Wood, publisher of the New York Daily News, she entered society. By the 1870s and 80s, Ida’s name was found in the social columns of the city’s newspapers. So why,… Read More
You better clean your room or you’ll end up like the Collyer Brothers. New York City, a city crammed of 8.6 million people. It’s filled with stories of people who just want to be left alone – recluses, hermits, cloistering themselves from the public eye, closing themselves off from scrutiny. But none attempted to seal… Read More
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 find traces of the area’s 18th and 19th century past. But in this episode, Tom and Greg will peel away… Read More
Are you a fan of HBO’s The Gilded Age, created by Julian Fellowes? Are you emotionally invested in the lives of Agnes van Rhijn, Bertha and George Russell, Peggy Scott and Marian Brook? Then we have a special event for you! Greg Young of the Bowery Boys podcast and Carl Raymond of the Gilded Gentleman… Read More
One-two-three-four! The Ramones, a four-man rock band from Forest Hills, Queens, played the Bowery music club CBGB for the very first time on August 16, 1974. Not only would Joey, Johnny, Tommy and Dee Dee reinvigorate downtown New York nightlife here — creating a unique and energetic form of punk — but they would join… Read More
Did you ever see the Ramones play live — either here in New York or elsewhere? Did you ever go to CBGBs during its heydey — to see the Ramones, Blondie, the Talking Heads, Patti Smith or any other artist? Ever have an interesting experience with a member of the Ramones? Help us celebrate the… Read More
The destructive force of tornado season has made itself abundantly evident in the Midwest this week, and New Yorkers can sometimes develop a false sense of security by the rarity of twister activity here. But tornados do occasionally make their way to the five boroughs. A 2007 tornado in Brooklyn and Staten Island caused widespread damage of the kind… Read More
Need an escape from the world for just a little while? A place where you can be by yourself? We’ve got the keys. Carl Raymond of The Gilded Gentleman podcast and his guest Keith Taillon invite you into one of the most historically exclusive spaces in New York City — the romantic and peaceful escape known as Gramercy… Read More
Our epic ‘road trip’ to the Netherlands is at an end and it was mission accomplished! We learned so much about New York’s Dutch roots — from the settlement of New Amsterdam to the European settlers who first populated the island which would become Manhattan. Along the way we also found interesting connections — and… Read More
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 did they do it? This is the story of two New York lawyers — two Founding Fathers — that so detested each other that… Read More
Follow along with Greg and Tom in this travelogue episode as they visit several historic cities and towns in the Netherlands — Utrecht, De Bilt, Breukelen and Haarlem — wandering through cafe-filled streets and old cobblestone alleyways, the air ringing with church bells and But of course, their mission remains the same as the past… Read More
The name Stuyvesant can be found everywhere in New York City. — in the names of neighborhoods, apartments, parks and high schools. Peter Stuyvesant, the last director-general of New Amsterdam, is a hero to some, a villain to others — and probably a caricature to all. What do we really know about Peter Stuyvesant? In… Read More
Our adventure in the Netherlands continues with a quest to find the Walloons, the French-speaking religious refugees who became the first settlers of New Netherland in 1624. Their descendants would last well beyond the existence of New Amsterdam and were among the first people to call themselves New Yorkers. But you can’t tell the Walloon… Read More
Seventeen years ago (officially on June 19, 2007) we recorded the very first Bowery Boys podcast, appropriately about Canal Street, the street just outside the window of Tom’s apartment on the Lower East Side. That’s right! If our podcast were a person, it would be preparing to graduate from high school next year. (For more information,… Read More
The epic journey begins! The Bowery Boys Podcast heads to old Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, to find traces of New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement which became New York. We begin our journey at Amsterdam’s Centraal Station and spend the day wandering the streets and canals, peeling back the centuries in search of New… Read More