The Bowery Boys: New York City History
One hundred years ago today, — a horrifying disaster on Seventh Avenue endangered the lives of New Yorkers on their way to work. Excavations for the new Seventh Avenue subway line (the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue line, aka the 1-2-3 trains) were proceeding well below an active thoroughfare. On the morning of September 22, 1915, two detonations… Read More
A thousand unsolved mysteries live within a newspaper’s archives, little forgotten events that have faded into history. Sometimes you can search deeper, and the answers to those mysteries may emerge. This is what happened in a series of three articles I found the other day while doing some research on North Brother Island (the fruits… Read More
STAGE TO STAGE:  Thanks to everybody who came out to the live show this Sunday at 54 Below! It was especially wonderful to hang out with many of you between the two shows.  Special thanks of course to The Ensemblist podcast hosts Mo Brady and Nikka Graff Lanarone for leading the show, and music maestro Jasper Grant for… Read More
On Sunday The Bowery Boys join up with The Ensemblist to present a special cabaret event at 54 Below — a tribute to the great St. James Theatre! Perhaps some of you may be asking — why do a live show about a individual theater? The St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street) was prominently… Read More
In this blog roundup, a Bowery Boys appearance in Vice, a threat to preservation, a classic restaurant closes, the story of two hotels with very different histories and more! In the photo above and below — From the Museum of the City of New York collection, some images of the so-called Prize Fighters Saloon (at… Read More
The first official Bowery Boys live event is coming up this September 13! We would really love to see a lot of you there for this.  It’s not strictly the two of us on the stage. We’re part of a bigger tribute and one we think you’ll love. 1. Who’s putting this whole thing together? The… Read More
No new podcast for you this week but we have a very good reason. As of today we are half-way finished with the first-ever Bowery Boys book! We are taking this week off to push through the research on a couple key chapters. But we will have a brand new podcast for you on September 4… Read More
Howard Philip Lovecraft — aka H.P. Lovecraft — was born 125 years ago today in Providence, Rhode Island. The pulp-fiction storyteller, known for claustrophobic tales of the occult, lived for a time in Brooklyn. He did not enjoy it. In 1924, he moved to 259 Parkside Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn, close to Ebbets Field and… Read More
You may not be aware of the Weehawken Historic District, a collection of 14 buildings of unique architectural character in the far West Village. It lies at the foot of Christopher Street and centers around the one-block-long Weehawken Street. You really should take a stroll down here. It will take you all of one minute; the street… Read More
PODCAST The tale behind the brutal murder of renown architect Stanford White on the roof garden of Madison Square Garden, the building that was one of his greatest achievements. On the evening of June 25, 1906, during a performance of Mam’zelle Champagne on the rooftop of Madison Square Garden, the architect Stanford White was brutally… Read More
In 1987, Donald Trump released the book Trump: The Art of the Deal, a distillation of the 1980s that looked like a pocket-sized version of the real-estate mogul’s own brass-coated palace Trump Tower. The book was a national best-seller, a staple of airport bookstores, aimed at business travelers. But a more unflattering look at Trump’s… Read More
Tired of superhero movies? An abundance of new period films and television mini-series are on the horizon, presenting unique aspects of New York City history (and the surrounding metropolitan area, as in the first example below). Â Which ones are you excited for? SHOW ME A HERO HBO, six-part mini-series, Sunday, August 16 From the… Read More
If it’s August in New York City, then it’s time for the annual Summer Streets festival, when traffic is closed down from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, along Lafayette Street and Park Avenue all the way up to 72nd Street. (A copy of the map is below or you can also get one from the… Read More
PODCAST Cue the dancing girls, lower the props, raise the curtain 00” we’re taking on Broadway’s most famous producer, Florenz Ziegfeld! We give you a brief overview of the first days of Broadway, then sweep into Ziegfeld’s life from his early successes (both professional and personal) to his famous Follies. And find out how the… Read More
Seventy years ago today, July 28, 1945, a B-25 bomber on its way to Newark Airport swerved off course, meandering over the foggy city and smashing into the Empire State Building. Some rather startling details of the event: — The pilot, Lt. Colonel William Smith, was simply on his way to pick up his commanding… Read More