What do Salvador Dali, John Jacob Astor, Peter Stuyvesant, the Civil War, and a big pile of trash have to do with the world's biggest penal colony? We connect the dots in this history of Rikers Island.

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#44 Rikers Island

Included here are the Bowery Boys back catalog of shows from our first year. If you'd like to hear our new episodes, simply search for New York City History: The Bowery Boys and subscribe.

New York City history is America's history. It's the hometown of the world, and most people knows its familiar landmarks, buildings and streets. Why not look a little closer and have fun while doing it?

The Bowery Boys, Greg Young and Tom Meyers, have lived in New York for the last fifteen years and have been curious about the city since the day they arrived. Join them for a fun take on history, a "romp down the back alleys of New York City." 

Each week, they look into another fascinating aspect of the Big Apple -- the people, the places, its beginnings and effects on American culture.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

A 6-foot plump gold impish figure stares down at you as you look up to observe the gorgeous red-brick design of the Puck Building, built for one of the 19th Century's most popular illustrated publications. But this architectural masterpiece was very nearly wiped away by a sudden decision by the city. How did it survive?  Puck's utterance "What Fools These Mortals Be!" is the slogan for Puck Magazine and words written by Shakespeare. WITH several new minutes of material outlining the Puck Building's recent history.   ORIGINALLY RELEASED APRIL 23, 2009 THIS IS A SPECIAL ILLUSTRATED PODCAST!  Chapter headings with images have been embedded in this show, so if your listening device is compatible with AAC/M4A files, just hit play and a variety of pictures should pop up.  The audio is superior than the original as well. (This will work as a normal audio file even if the images don’t appear.)

#81 The Puck Building: "What Fools These Mortals Be!"

Webster Hall, as beautifully worn and rough-hewn as it was during its heyday in the 1910s and 20s, disguises a very surprising past, a significant venue in the history of the labor movement, Greenwich Village bohemia, gay and lesbian life, and pop and rock music. Its ballroom has hosted the likes of Emma Goldman, Marcel Duchamp, Jefferson Airplane, Robert F Kennedy and Madonna. Listen in to find out how it got it's reputation as 'the devil's playhouse'.
 
PODCAST REWIND This was originally released on January 3, 2009
BONUS MATERIAL! Almost ten minutes of newly recorded material, adding a couple more interesting details from Webster Hall's unique history. 
 
Visit www.boweryboyshistory.com for other tales of New York City history
 

#73 Webster Hall "The Devil's Playhouse"

PODCAST REWIND This is our "potpourri" episode with a little bit of everything in it. We open up some of our favorite readers mail, we take you behind the scenes of how we put together an episode, and we describe three of our very favorite history-related websites that you should check out. 
But it wouldn't be a podcast without some history, right? So we take a brief stroll down the Bowery, with over 200 years of history of this famous street. But has anything really changed?
 
THIS IS A SPECIAL ENHANCED EPISODE. Pictures should pop up on your listening device as it plays.
 
This was originally recorded on November 21, 2008
boweryboyshistory.com

#70 The Bowery Files

By popular demand, we return to the creepier tales of New York City history, ghost tales and stories of murder and mayhem, all of them at some point involving great American icons -- Alexander Hamilton, P.T. Barnum, Dorothy Parker and Mark Twain. Featuring a murder at a Manhattan well, a bloody slaying in rural Staten Island, the lingerings of New York's most fabulous undead, and the most haunted home in Greenwich Village!
This is a Special Illustrated Edition. Just hit play and images of the things discussed will pop up on your media player.
(Original version released Oct. 10, 2008)

#65 Spooky Stories of New York

Green-wood Cemetery is one of New York's oldest burial grounds, but its development reaches back all the way to the beginning of Brooklyn itself -- in fact, to the founder of Brooklyn Heights.  Find out why it took an inventive city planner with a funny name, a dead New York icon, and a few errant parakeets to make this place a beautiful, richly historical place to visit today.
This is a Special Illustrated Edition. Just hit play and images of the things discussed will pop up on your media player.
(Original version released Oct. 3, 2008)

#44 Rikers Island

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