Categories
Neighborhoods

St. Marks Place at MCNY: A talk with Ada Calhoun and Luc Sante

St. Marks Is Dead, the new book by Ada Calhoun on the history of St. Mark’s Place, was one of our favorite books of the year.  Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York, a grungy look at New York’s Gilded Age by Luc Sante, is one of our favorite books ever.  Combine the two,… Read More

Categories
Landmarks

History in the Making 1/19: Happy birthday Edgar Edition

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on this day in 1809. There are several places you can visit to make a connection with the writer’s years in New York City, most notably the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage just off the Grand Concourse at Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx.  Poe may have worked on his poem ‘The… Read More

Categories
Neighborhoods Podcasts

Ready-to-Wear: The lofty history of New York’s Garment District

PODCAST The history of the New York City fashion industry and how it found its home south of Times Square aka The Garment District. The Garment District in Midtown Manhattan has been the center for all things American fashion for almost one hundred years. The lofts and office buildings here still buzz with industry of… Read More

Categories
Bowery Boys New York Islands

Perks of Being A Patreon Member: A Flight Through Governors Island

Happy 2016! For the past several months we have been blessed to interact with listeners and readers through our involvement with the Patreon program, a crowdfunding patronage platform allowing us to provide exclusive content for a sliding scale of donations. It’s because of our Patreon supporters (as well as our advertisers) that we have been… Read More

Categories
Bowery Boys

The Bowery Boys 2015 Podcasts: From Billie Holiday to New Year’s Eve

Thank you for making 2015 our greatest year ever! Much excitement on the way for 2016 including the release of the first-ever Bowery Boys book. Relive the year by re-visiting some of our shows from the past 12 months..  You can find them all on iTunes, on streaming services like TuneIn and Stitcher or you can listen to them straight… Read More

Categories
Pop Culture

NYC history in pop culture: “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”

It was a pretty spectacular year for history lovers in pop culture this year as the year’s best film, television and theater all seemed to take inspiration from the New York City of old.  Here are ten moments that I particularly loved that expressed the unending bounty of ideas from the people, places and events… Read More

Categories
Bowery Boys Bookshelf

The Bowery Boys ten favorite
 New York City history books of 2015

With the holiday season arriving, you may actually have time to get a little more reading done. May I suggest the following ten books, my favorite New York City history books of 2015? They don’t have a lot in common — ranging from a children’s book with a great heart to a massive tome about a great entertainer —… Read More

Categories
The Knick

The Knick Season 2: A History Recap from the brothel to the freak show

Pictured above: Dr. John Thackery (Clive Owen) explore several experimental procedures in the second season of The Knick, some more successful than others. This post contains light spoilers of general themes from this season of The Knick although there are no specific plot twists discussed. You can use this as a primer for the second… Read More

Categories
Holidays

Midnight in Times Square: The history of New Year’s Eve in New York City

PODCAST The tale of New York City’s biggest annual party from its inception on New Years Eve 1904 to the magnificent spectacle of the 21st century.  In this episode, we look back on the one day of the year that New Yorkers look forward. New Years Eve is the one night that millions of people… Read More

Categories
It's Showtime

Mr. Wonderful: A 90th birthday tribute to Sammy Davis Jr.

Frank Sinatra‘s 100th birthday is December 12 but you probably didn’t know that his fellow Rat Pack cool cat Sammy Davis Jr. was also born on the second week of December, 90 years ago today in Harlem.     Davis was born on December 8, 1925, at Harlem Hospital on Lenox Avenue and 135th Street and… Read More

Categories
Holidays

Making Green: The history of New York’s Christmas tree market

For many, the Christmas holiday in New York City finally comes to life when the sidewalks sprout evergreens. The sight and smell of curbside Christmas tree sellers ushers in the season in the most pleasing way. (Pleasing for the passerby; on a rather cold day, I can’t imagine it too pleasing for the seller.) As… Read More

Categories
Bowery Boys

Have you listened to these 2015 Bowery Boys podcasts?

There’s no new podcast for you this week as we are wrapping up the first official Bowery Boys book, arriving in May 2016. But we will have a brand new podcast for you on December 10. Have you listened to all of our 2015 programs? Here’s a list of all our shows that have been released… Read More

Categories
Newspapers and Newsies

Jacob A. Riis: The Power of the Flash

The daredevil antics of Nellie Bly (subject of our last podcast) proved that investigative journalism could prove a benefit to society while also selling stacks of newspapers (specifically, those of Joseph Pullitzer’s New York World). A few months after Bly’s trip to Blackwell’s Island, Jacob Riis published his first investigation for the New York Sun, revealing the wretched… Read More

Categories
Pop Culture

History in the Making 11/18: Celebrated Jumping Frogs Edition

Hoppin’ History: Samuel Clemens broke through 150 years ago today.  The man who would become Mark Twain first published his now famous short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (under its original title “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” 150 years ago today in the New York Saturday Press.  I speak about this… Read More

Categories
Health and Living Newspapers and Newsies Podcasts

Nellie Bly: Undercover in New York’s Notorious Asylum for the Insane

The story of New York World reporter Nellie Bly as she poses as a mental patient to report on the abuses of Blackwell’s Island’s Lunatic Asylum. PODCAST Nellie Bly was a determined and fearless journalist ahead of her time, known for the spectacular lengths she would go to get a good story. Her reputation was… Read More