The Bowery Boys: New York City History

The Kosciuszko Bridge is one of New York City's most essential pieces of infrastructure, the hyphen in the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway that connects the two boroughs over Newtown Creek, the 3.5 mile creek which empties into the East River.The bridge is interestingly named for the Polish national hero Tadeusz Kościuszko who fought during the American Revolution, then attempted to bring a similar revolutionary spirit to his home country, leading to the doomed Kościuszko Uprising of 1794.Kościuszko, the man, is a revered historical figure. The bridge, however, has not always been loved. And many non-Polish people even struggle to pronounce its name, inventing a half-dozen acceptable variants.The original Kościuszko Bridge was not exactly beloved by drivers, vexed by its inadequate handling of traffic and its poor roadways. Its glorious replacement, installed in two phases in 2017 and 2019, lights up the night sky -- and the filmy waters below.In this episode, Greg tells the entire story -- of both the man and the bridge. But it's also a story of Newtown Creek, the heavily polluted body of water which runs beneath it. How did this once placid creek become so notoriously filthy? And how did the most prominent bridge over that waterway become associated with an 18th century hero?PLUS The return of Robert Moses!Visit the website for more information Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On the morning of November 14th, 1943, Leonard Bernstein, the talented 25-year-old assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, got a phone call saying he would at last be leading the respected orchestral group — in six hours, that afternoon, with no time to rehearse.The sudden thrust into the spotlight transformed Bernstein into a national celebrity. For almost five decades, the wunderkind would be at the forefront of American music, as a conductor, composer, virtuoso performer, writer, television personality and teacher.He would also help create the most important Broadway musicals of the mid-20th century — On The Town, Wonderful Town and West Side Story. These shows would not only spotlight the talents of its young creator. They would also spotlight the romance and rhythm of New York City.Bernstein is one of New York’s most influential cultural figures. He spent most of his life in the city, and that’s the focus of today’s story – Leonard Bernstein’s New York.The new film Maestro, starring Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan, focuses on Bernstein’s personal story and intimate life. That specific angle is not our objective today – for the most part. We’re looking at the relationship between the creator and his urban inspiration. Where did Bernstein make his name in New York City and how did his work change the city?FEATURING The Village Vanguard, City Center, Carnegie Hall, the old Metropolitan Opera and the Dakota ApartmentsAnd co-starring Jerome Robbins, Aaron Copland, Stephen Sondheim, Comden and Green, Lauren Bacall, Tom Wolfe of course Felicia MontealegreVisit the website for more information and images Music snippet information“On The Town: Act I: Opening: New York, New York” (Studio Cast Recording 1961)CBS Broadcast, Manfred Overture, Op 115 (New York Philharmonic)“Joan Crawford Fan Club” The RevuersSymphony No. 1 Jeremiah (New York Philharmonic)CBS Broadcast, Don Quixote, Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character, op. 35 (New York Philharmonic)Fancy Free Ballet_ VII. FinaleI Get Carried Away, On The TownChristopher Street (From Wonderful Town Original Cast Recording 1953)On the Waterfront Main Title (Revised)Candide, Act II - No. 31, Make Our Garden Grow (Finale)West Side Story_ Act II_ SomewhereSymphonic Dances from West Side StorySamuel Barber, Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 (New York Philharmonic)Leonard Bernstein - Young People's Concerts - What Does Music Mean? (1958) Kaddish, Symphony No. 3 (To the Beloved Memory of John F. Kennedy)  I. Invocation - Kaddish 1The Ladies Who Lunch / Company Original Broadway CastMass - Hymn and Psalm_ A Simple Song Dybbuk Suite No. 2 - Leah  (New York Philharmonic)Leonard Bernstein and Shirley Verrett at GMHC Circus Benefit, Madison Square GardenMahler - Symphony No.5 (New York Philharmonic) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Manhattan's Grace Church sits at a unique bend on Broadway and East 10th Street, making it seem that the historic house of worship is rising out of the street itself.But Grace is also at another important intersection -- where religion and high society greeted one another during the Gilded Age.Grace is one of the important Episcopal churches in America, forming in 1809 in lower Manhattan literally next door to Trinity Church. But when society began moving uptown, so too did Grace, making its home on a plot formerly occupied by Henry Brevoort’s apple orchard. Grace was also one of the most fashionable churches in New York City for several decades in the 19th century. The fashionable weddings and funerals hosted at Grace Church sometimes drew thousands of onlookers, and a few celebrated ceremonies were as raucous and chaotic as rock concerts.But looking past the fashion and frills, Grace Church did create a deep and lasting spiritual connection with the surrounding community which continues to this day.In this episode, Tom and Greg are joined by Harry Krauss, historian for Grace Church, for a tour of this gorgeous, landmark parish.FEATURING: Walt Whitman, Rufus Wainwright, Tom Thumb, the Earl of Craven and a heavenly chorus of hundreds! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week we're highlighting an especially festive episode of the Gilded Gentleman Podcast, a show with double the holiday fun, tracing the history of Christmas and holiday celebrations over 19th-century New York City history.Licensed New York City tour guide and speaker Jeff Dobbins joins host Carl Raymond for a look at the city’s holiday traditions dating back to the early Dutch days of New Amsterdam up to the modern innovations of the early 20th century. You'll learn....-- the connections between Sinterklaas and Santa Claus-- the history of display windows, department store Santa Clauses and Christmas tree sellers-- how Hannukah was adapted in America to help newly arriving Jewish immigrants keep hold of their traditions-- why Santa could truly be called "a native New Yorker"And then Carl welcomes actor John Kevin Jones who has been performing an annual one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House Museum, now in its 11th season. Kevin discusses the origins of Dickens’ famous story and how he adapted it for the stage. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For decades New Yorkers celebrated Evacuation Day every November 25, a holiday marking the 1783 departure of British forces from the city they had occupied for several years during the Revolutionary War.The events of that departure -- that evacuation -- inspired annual celebrations of patriotism, unity, and a bit of rowdiness. Evacuation Day was honored well until the late 19th century. But then, gradually, the party sort of petered out.....Of course, Americans may know late November for another historically themed holiday – Thanksgiving, a New England-oriented celebration that eventually took the place of Evacuation Day on the American calendar. But we are here to tell you listener – you should celebrate both!Greg and Tom tell the story of the British's final years in their former colonies, now in victory known as the United States, and their final moments within New York City, their last remaining haven. The city was in shambles and the gradual handover was truly messy.And then, on November 25, 1783, George Washington rode into town, basically traveling from tavern to tavern on his way down to the newly freed city. The Bowery Boys chart his course (down the Bowery of course) and make note of a few unusual events -- wild parties, angry women with brooms, and one very lucky tailor.PLUS: Where and how you can celebrate Evacuation Day today. Other Bowery Boys episodes to check out when you're done with this one:-- New York City During the Revolutionary War-- The Revolutionary Tavern of Samuel Fraunces-- The Great Fire of 1776-- The Brooklyn Navy Yard and Vinegar Hill   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greta Garbo in New York! A story of freedom, glamour, and melancholy, set at the intersection of classic Hollywood and mid-century New York City. The biography of a legendary star who became the city's most famous 'celebrity sighting' for many decades while out on her regular, meandering walks.Garbo had once been Hollywood's biggest star, a screen goddess who survived the transition from silent pictures to sound in such movies as Grand Hotel, Queen Christina, and Camille. But her career was over by the 1940s, her exotic and distant screen presence no longer appealing in the years of World War II.And so the actress -- famous for her line "I WANT TO BE ALONE" -- moved to New York City and stayed here for the rest of her life, living in a fabulous apartment near Beekman Place on the east side of Manhattan.Her favorite activity was walking, two long trips a day in her dark glasses and trench coat, committed to freedom of urban exploration and enjoying a livelihood in the city that we all take for granted.In attempting to live her life freely, however, she opened herself to the intrusive behavior of others — some obsessed with her as an iconic movie star, others simply gravitating to her elusive reputation. By the 1970s and surging by the 80s, Garbo sightings became a popular urban scavenger hunt. You had Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and Greta Garbo! Visit the website for more information and imagesInterested in more Bowery Boys podcasts about New York and the movies? Here's some suggestions:Marilyn Monroe: Her Year of ReinventionThe Life and Death of Rudolph ValentinoAt Home With Lauren BacallMae West: 'Sex' on Broadway  Her New York story reveals some bigger themes about living in a big city -- finding privacy and even solitude in a place with eight million people. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Here's the first episode of HBO's The Official Gilded Age Podcast, hosted by Tom Meyers of the Bowery Boys Podcast and Alicia Malone of Turner Classic Movies (TCM), the official companion podcast for the HBO series The Gilded Age, streaming on Max. Each week Tom and Alicia will discuss what happened on screen and the real people, places and events featured on the show. Easter Sunday, 1886, and a new war is brewing in Gilded Age society. Are you ready to pick a side? Join  hosts Alicia Malone and Tom Meyers as they dissect Episode 201, “You Don’t Even Like Opera,” with extraordinary guest Lord Julian Fellowes.Subscribe to HBO's The Official Gilded Age Podcast to get future episodes Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So we don't know if you’ve heard, but New York City is an expensive place to live these days. So we thought it might be time to revisit the tale of the city’s most famous district of luxury — Fifth Avenue.  For about a hundred years, this avenue was mostly residential -- but residences of the most extravagant kind.At the heart of New York’s Gilded Age — the late 19th-century era of unprecedented American wealth and excess — were families with the names Astor, Waldorf, Schermerhorn, and Vanderbilt, alongside power players like A.T. Stewart, Jay Gould and William “Boss” Tweed.They would all make their homes — and in the case of the Vanderbilts, their great many homes — on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.The image of Fifth Avenue as a luxury retail destination today grew from the street’s aristocratic reputation in the 1800s. The rich were inextricably drawn to the avenue as early as the 1830s when rich merchants, anxious to be near the exquisite row houses of Washington Square Park, began turning it into an artery of expensive abodes.In this podcast, Tom and Greg present a world that’s somewhat hard to imagine — free-standing mansions in an exclusive corridor running right through the center of Manhattan. Why was Fifth Avenue fated to become the domain of the so-called “Upper Ten”? And what changed about the city in the 20th century to ensure the eventual destruction of most of them? The following is a re-edited, remastered version of two past Bowery Boys shows — the Rise and Fall of the Fifth Avenue Mansion. Combined, this tells the whole story of Fifth Avenue, from the initial development of streets in the 1820s to its Midtown transformation into a mecca of high-end shopping in the 1930s. \This could also serve as a primer to the HBO series The Gilded Age, the official podcast co-hosted by Tom Meyers which debuts on October 30.Visit the website for further information. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A brand new batch of haunted houses and spooky stories, all from the gaslight era of New York City, the illuminating glow of the 19th century revealing the spirits of another world.Greg and Tom again dive into another batch of terrifying ghost stories, using actual newspaper reports and popular urban legends to reveal a different side to the city's history.If you just like a good scare, you'll enjoy these historical frights. And if you truly believe in ghosts, then these stories should especially disturb you as they take place in actual locations throughout the city -- from the Lower East Side to the Bronx. And even in cases where these 19th-century haunted houses have been demolished, who’s to say the spirits themselves aren’t still hanging around?Featured in this year's crop of scary stories:-- A ghostly encounter at the Astor Library (today's Public Theater) involving a most controversial set of mysterious books;-- A whole graduating class of ghosts stalks the campus of the Bronx's Fordham University, and it may have something to do with either Edgar Allan Poe or the film The Exorcist;-- Just north of Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, a haunted townhouse vexes several tenants, the sight of a hunched-over man in a cap driving people insane;-- In the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, a small apartment in today's Two Bridges neighborhood becomes possessed by a poltergeist with a penchant for throwing furniture .... and punches. One vainglorious showoff named Jackie Hagerty learns the hard way;-- And before the days of Riverside Drive, a rustic old mansion once sat on the banks of the Upper West Side, with a mysterious locked room that must never be opened.Visit the website to see images of the real-life haunted houses and places featured in this podcast.Listen to the entire collection of Bowery Boys ghost stories podcasts here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Theodore Roosevelt was both a New Yorker and an outdoorsman, a politician and a naturalist, a conservationist and a hunter. His connection with the natural world began at birth in his Manhattan brownstone home and ended with his death in Sagamore Hill.He killed thousands of animals over his lifetime as a hunter-naturalist, most notably one of the last roaming bison (or American buffalo) in the Dakota Badlands. Many of his trophies hang on the walls of his home in Long Island; other specimens "live on" in institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History.But as this episode's special guest Ken Burns reveals in his newest mini-series The American Buffalo, Roosevelt's relationship with the animal world was complicated and, in certain ways, hard to understand today.As one of America’s great conservationists, President Roosevelt's advocacy for wildlife and public land helped to preserve so much of the natural richness of the United States.And his involvement in the creation of the New York Zoological Society (aka the Bronx Zoo) would set the stage for one ambitious project that would help bring the American buffalo back to the Midwestern plains.This episode marks the 165th anniversary of Roosevelt's birth in October and the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site (which plays a small but important role in today's story. )Visit the website for more information and images from this week's show.This show was engineered by Casey Holford at Stitcher Studios and the interview edited by Kieran Gannon. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.