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Film History Mysterious Stories

Scream Time: Ten Fun Horror Films Set In New York City

Horror movies normally go for nameless suburbs, dark woods or remote Victorian-style haunted houses for their scary settings, so it’s a wonderful treat when New York City and its recognizable landmarks get to host a few cinematic monsters. Ever since King Kong traipsed up the Empire State Building, filmmakers have used the city’s architecture as… Read More

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Bridges

The odd bridge over Broadway vs. Knox the Hatter

The bulky and yet somewhat elegant contraption above is the short-lived Loew Bridge, which once hung over Broadway at Fulton Street back in 1867 and 1868, an early cast-iron pedestrian bridge at one of the busiest intersections in the city. It was named not for its architect, but for the comptroller of New York at… Read More

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Landmarks Politics and Protest Preservation

Federal Hall: Now and Always An American National Treasure

Federal Hall National Memorial, currently administered by the National Park Service, has always been a popular landmark with tourists thanks to its position on one of the most photographed intersections in New York. Who can resist that noble statue of George Washington silently meditating on the financial juggernaut of Wall Street? In 2015 Federal Hall… Read More

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Museums Podcasts Politics and Protest

The Guarded Smile: Mona Lisa at the Metropolitan Museum

The Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci’s stoic portrait and one of the most valuable paintings on earth, came to America during the winter of 1963, a single-picture loan that was both a special favor to Jackie Kennedy and a symbolic tool during tense conversations between the United States and France about nuclear arms. The first stop… Read More

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The Gilded Gentleman Writers and Artists

Stealing a Smile: The Theft of the Mona Lisa, Paris 1911

The enigmatic smile of the Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, at its longtime home of the Louvre in Paris, has captured the attention of the public for centuries. Few people realize however that on a warm summer morning in Paris in the year 1911, the painting was stolen — and remained missing for over two years.  Press… Read More

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Parks and Recreation

Remember the Maine Monument!

On Memorial Day in the year 1913, one of New York City’s great war memorials was finally unveiled — the Maine Monument, at the southwest corner entrance of Central Park. The monument pays tribute to the 266 American soldiers who perished on the USS Maine, which exploded in Havana, Cuba, on February 15, 1898. Given… Read More

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Podcasts Science

The First Woman Ever Photographed: Light and Magic in Greenwich Village

Dorothy Catherine Draper is a truly forgotten figure in American history. She was the first woman to ever sit for a photograph — a daguerrotype, actually, in the year 1840, upon the rooftop of the school which would become New York University. The circumstances that got her to this position were rather unique. She was… Read More

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The Gilded Gentleman

Having A Ball: The Gilded Gentleman Parties Like It’s 1899

The second season of HBO’s The Gilded Age arrives in September but you don’t have to wait that long to revel in the opulence and the scandal of the era. The Gilded Gentleman podcast has been investigating this era’s cultural significance, and in his two newest episodes, host Carl Raymond hits the historic dance floor… Read More

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Podcasts Writers and Artists

Nighthawks and Automats: The New York City of Edward Hopper

Within the New York City of Edward Hopper‘s imagination, the skyscrapers have vanished, the sidewalks are mysteriously wide and all the diners and Chop Suey restaurants are sparsely populated with well-dressed lonely people. In this art-filled episode of the Bowery Boys, Tom and Greg look at Hopper’s life, influence and specific fascination with the city,… Read More

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Film History Side Streets

Side Streets: Goodbye Chelsea Cinema (and Other Fallen Stars)

SIDE STREETS is the new Bowery Boys Patreon-exclusive podcast, available to those who support the show via Patreon at any of the listed levels. New York City was once famed for its cinemas, but habits in watching movies in a post-pandemic world have forced the closure of many of the city’s most interesting and memorable… Read More

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Food History On The Waterfront Podcasts

The Fulton Fish Market: History at the South Street Seaport

In the 19th century, the Fulton Fish Market in downtown Manhattan was to seafood what Chicago stock yards were to the meat industry, the primary place where Americans got fish for their dinner tables. Over the decades it went from a retail market to a wholesale business, distributing fish across the country – although that… Read More

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Landmarks Podcasts

The Sip-In of 1966: Celebrating Julius’ Bar, New York’s Newest Landmark

New York City has a new landmark, a little bar in the West Village named Julius’, officially recognized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on December 6th, 2022.  It’s here that one moment of protest (the Sip-In of 1966) set the stage for a political revolution, “a signature event in the battle for LGBTQ+ people to gather,… Read More

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Mysterious Stories

‘Burning Gotham’: New audio fiction podcast about Old New York and the Great Fire of 1835

If you’re into radio dramas, historical epics and intriguing tales about New York City, we think you’ll like Burning Gotham, the new podcast produced by The Wallbreakers, weaving the biographies of several real-life New York City figures into a speculative tale leading to the Great Fire of 1835. On the frigid blustery night of December… Read More

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Podcasts Pop Culture Queens History

Treasures from the World’s Fair: Futuristic Objects from the Past

Flushing-Meadows Corona Park in the borough of Queens is the home of the New York Mets, the U.S. Open, the Queens Zoo, the Hall of Science and many other recreational delights. But it will always be forever known as the launching pad for the future as represented in two extraordinary 20th century world’s fairs. There… Read More

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Bowery Boys

The Bowery Boys 2022: A Year in Pictures

Had a wonderful time wandering the city researching shows for the Bowery Boys podcast. Here are a few of my favorite images from New York City and the Hudson River Valley in 2022. Happy New Year! — Greg Photos courtesy The Bowery Boys