Categories
Podcasts

Stay tuned for the Bowery Boys Summer TV Mini-Series! The history of making television in New York City

Above: In 1953, Fran Allison prepares for an NBC production of ‘St. George and the Dragon’, one of the first programs ever broadcast in color.  The NBC studio was at the Colonial Theatre at Broadway and 63rd Street. (Courtesy NBCU Photobank) This summer we’re giving you three new podcasts specifically devoted to New York City… Read More

Categories
Those Were The Days

Shower time: Drive-thru horse washes in Herald Square

I’m grateful to see horses getting a little love in the waning years of regular horse-drawn vehicles in New York. But never realized they had their own drive-thru horse wash! This 1912 horse recuperation station was made possible by William J. Gane, the proprietor of a few Herald Square moving picture houses and a ‘pioneer… Read More

Categories
Brooklyn History

Henry Ward Beecher, on the 200th anniversary of his birth

If anybody could be called a patron saint of Brooklyn, one of the nominees would be Henry Ward Beecher, born 200 years ago today.  In 1847, he arrived in Brooklyn at the behest of a new congregation and, within a few years, his pulpit there at Plymouth Church would draw thousands.  Perhaps Beecher would also… Read More

Categories
Mad Men Pop Culture

‘Mad Men’ ends this Sunday, and ‘Copper’ begins, but war and assassinations unite both

WARNING The article contains a couple light spoilers about the current season ‘Mad Men’ on AMC and a few on last season’s ‘Copper’ on BBC America.   While 1968 comes to a close on Sunday night with the season finale of ‘Mad Men‘, another version of New York history returns on another channel. ‘Copper‘, starting… Read More

Odds and Ends: New Penn Station, ‘AIDS in New York’

The interior of Penn Station, 1935, by Berenice Abbott (NYPL) Enthusiasm is rising for the New Penn Station project, which would move Madison Square Garden from its present location and bring out the train station from the basement, a payback of sorts by the Municipal Art Society after the original Penn Station was torn down 50 years ago. A… Read More

Categories
Bowery Boys

The Bowery Boys podcast started six years ago today! Here’s every single topic, in reverse order, from #152 to #2

Six years ago today, Tom and I sat down to record our first episode of what would become The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast.   We’ve recorded 152 episodes over that time, covering a broad spectrum of the city’s history. Here’s the intros from every single one of those shows (with a couple exceptions).… Read More

Categories
True Crime

Presenting Mrs. Randolph Fitzhugh, Kaleidoscope woman, society church thief: “I am being hounded to prison by men”

The former St. Bartholomew’s on Madison Avenue and 44th Street, burgled by one Mrs. Randolph Fitzhugh. [LOC]NOTE: I revised this article this afternoon which some additional information just discovered, making this story ever stranger! New information includes Mrs. Fitzhugh’s real name, details about her baby, her length of stay in the Tombs, and information on… Read More

Categories
Bowery Boys

#FF: Here’s a few of our favorite history blogs

Above: The new Superman movie might be great, who knows? But it doesn’t have Linda Lavin in it, like the 1966 Broadway musical ‘It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superman’ which played at the Alvin Theatre (today’s Neil Simon Theatre).  Encores! recently did a revival of this forgotten musical gem earlier this year.  We… Read More

Categories
Neighborhoods

Why are there so many Henry Streets in New York City?

Manhattan’s Henry Street looking south, 1935, photo by Berenice Abbott (NYPL) Since Manhattan and Brooklyn developed as two separate cities before they were intertwined within consolidated New York City in 1898, it’s not surprising to see similar street names in both boroughs, deriving from different origins.  But the Henrys being honored in these street names… Read More

Categories
Landmarks

The Astor House came tumbling down one century ago

The Astor House was New York City’s first great hotel, opened in 1836 by John Jacob Astor himself, a premier accommodation for the city throughout the 19th century.  But by 1913, it was time to tear it down. It was a symbolic moment for many older New Yorkers.  As you can tell from the image… Read More

Categories
Those Were The Days

Detonations and flying cheese: Annotated news from 1913

I present this little news item from the June 6, 1913 New York Tribune in its entirety: 1)  The idea of bombs exploding all over the city is shocking to us today.  But in fact the threat of makeshift bombs were sometimes employed in extortion plots such as those by the Black Hand.  Most of these… Read More

Categories
Revolutionary History

‘My American Revolution’: Imagining 1776 surrounding us

BOWERY BOYS BOOK OF THE MONTH Each month I’ll pick a book — either brand new or old, fiction or non-fiction — that offers an intriguing take on New York City history, something that uses history in a way that’s uniquely unconventional or exposes a previously unseen corner of our city’s complicated past.  Then over… Read More

Categories
Health and Living Podcasts

The startling history of New York’s Bellevue Hospital

Bellevue from the waterfront, 1879.  Proximity to the shoreline — which once gave the original mansion here that ‘belle vue’ — was key in the early years of Bellevue, as sometimes it was the fastest way to get to the hospital when roads were less than ideal. (Courtesy NYC HHC) PODCAST Bellevue Hospital, you might… Read More

Categories
Health and Living Podcasts

The startling history of Bellevue Hospital, beyond the horror stories, the last resort for the New York unwanted

Bellevue from the waterfront, 1879.  Proximity to the shoreline — which once gave the original mansion here that ‘belle vue’ — was key in the early years of Bellevue, as sometimes it was the fastest way to get to the hospital when roads were less than ideal. (Courtesy NYC HHC) PODCAST Bellevue Hospital, you might… Read More

Categories
New York Islands

Roosevelt Island – from the New York Times to tomorrow’s podcast!

In this weekend’s New York Times Travel section, I chat with Emily Brennan about three places outside the borough of Manhattan that would make ideal destinations for tourists if the lines get too long at the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.  You can read the interview here, but the places I discuss… Read More