Advertise on podcast: The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Live from Joe's Pub at the Public Theater -- it's the Bowery Boys! In a live recording of their 2025 show, a Halloween cabaret spectacle featuring Andrew Austin and Lisa Karlin, Greg and Tom explore five mysterious stories from the pages of New York City history, including... -- A tormented actress in Hell's Kitchen fights off a colonial-era spirit, thanks to a world-renowned paranormal investigator -- The haunting last days of an ancient Upper West Side mansion with a padlocked room that nobody had dared to open -- The terrifying story of a haunted tenement in today's Two Bridges neighborhood and the gangster who attempted to enter it -- A mysterious sighting of three dancing ghosts within the old Flushing Meeting Housecauses a stir in an old Dutch village And the return of Edgar Allan Poe! Also -- what happened to Cheryl Crow (the much-beloved stage prop, not the singer)? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There’s a chill in the air. The floorboards in New York’s historic houses seem to creak a little louder, while birds hidden among the trees of Central Park stare down from crooked branches. The lights atop the Empire State Building go dark, and the subway car you’re riding suddenly stops in the middle of a shadowy tunnel. That's right, it's an all-new ... Bowery Boys Ghost Stories of Old New York podcast! Tom and Greg have been recording ghost story podcasts since 2007, and this year they have somehow managed to conjure up yet another batch of historical urban legends, taken from actual newspaper reports: -- Stand Clear of the Closing Ghosts: An eerie encounter on the elevated train, from 1899, leaves one rider running for her doctor in fear -- Severed from the Spirit World: In 1896, a Flatbush man finds a disturbing artifact buried in his cellar, awakening a wandering nighttime spirit who frightens his nosy neighbors -- The Ghost That Slapped Back: A crowded Lower East Side schoolroom became a chamber of nightmares, sending the community to the streets in protest -- Who Is The Ghost In the Window? It's street gangs vs. strangely beautiful spirits in this 1902 tale of a deteriorating house on 42nd Street -- Rosabelle, Believe! This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passing of Harry Houdini, the legendary escape artist with an unusual relationship with death. His mysterious grave site in Queens has become the site of spooky ceremonies. But will he soon be making a return to his former Harlem brownstone? This show was edited and produced 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.

We have been recording Halloween podcasts about New York City -- for twenty years! The first Bowery Boys ghost story podcast was released on October 11th, 2007, the first time we used actual urban legends about wandering spirits and other unpleasant things as a way to share historical tales about the city. Before the arrival of next week's brand new episode, get in the mood with this best-of compilation of our favorite stories from past shows, featuring places that you can still visit today, pulled from past episodes and compiled together for the very first time. Newly scared, er, I mean, scored and remastered by our producer Kieran Gannon. Whether you're having a drink at the Ear Inn, a rest at the Chelsea Hotel or a meal at the historic One If by Land, Two If By Sea, you're never too far away from an old New York City legend. Not even the Statue of Liberty is exempt from a good ole fashioned ghost story. PLUS: A walk through the most mysterious house in Manhattan, with a surprise appearance by the Gilded Gentleman Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the town of Hydesville, south of the bustling city of Rochester, a traveling peddler was brutally murdered and buried in the cellar of a forlorn wooden farmhouse. His restless spirit, it was claimed, haunted the house. In 1848, the teenage girls Kate and Maggie Fox claimed to receive spiritual transmissions from the murdered man. Their gifts included interpreting mysterious knocking sounds and an unusual ability to conjure such otherworldly communications on a whim.  Later joined by their sister Leah, the Fox Sisters soon exhibited greater powers to communicate with the dead. They took this “act” on the road and enchanted some of New York City's most famous men. Through their atmospheric ‘spirit circles’, the Fox Sisters inspired an entirely new belief known as spiritualism. They became household names — and attracted their share of skeptics who vexed the young women throughout their entire lives, attempting to debunk their haunted activities. Were the Fox Sisters truly blessed with a gift of spiritual communication — or were they entertainers with an exquisite ability to deceive? You decide! This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon.  Visit the Bowery Boys website for a whole list of ghost-story podcasts. And see Greg and Tom live at Joe's Pub this Halloween season. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the summer of 1902, all of Newport was buzzing: a European prince was coming to town, and Mamie Fish — one of the reigning hostesses of American high society — was throwing a dinner in his honor. The young ladies practiced their curtsies. But what walked through the door that night was no prince, but did tell you everything about who Mamie Fish was.She hadn’t started anywhere near the top. Raised in the Gramercy Park neighborhood in the 1850s, she watched her family’s fortune vanish and they relocated to the working class neighborhood of Astoria. She was barely educated, no beauty, and armed with nothing but a wit that could cut glass. It was enough to win Stuyvesant Fish, heir to one of New York’s oldest names and a future railroad president, who adored her for the rest of his life. Mamie essentially invented the theme party at a time when New York society under Mrs. Astor and Ward McAllister was incredibly dull. Mamie’s response was to make it fun: live ducklings paddling down the dinner table, a harvest ball with golden pitchforks, a formal dinner for the dogs of Newport, and a party for the Czar of Russia who turned out to be her partner in crime, Harry Lehr, in a tinfoil crown.Then the world changed around her — the press turned, her husband lost his railroad in a boardroom feud, and her 1913 Mother Goose Ball landed her on the wrong side of history.This week, Tom sits down with Jennifer Wright, author of Glitz, Glam, and a Damn Good Time: How Mamie Fish, Queen of the Gilded Age, Partied Her Way to Power. PLUS: Stand across from Mamie’s Stanford White mansion on the Gilded Age Mansions of Fifth Avenue tour at boweryboyswalks.com.Listen to more glorious tales of the Gilded Age on The Gilded Gentleman Podcast hosted by Carl RaymondSupport the show and get our patron-only podcast Side Streets at patreon.com/boweryboys.This episode was edited and produced 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.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. Today there’s an entire generation that only knows the World Trade Center as an emblem of tragedy. But people sometimes forget that the World Trade Center, designed by Japanese-American architect Minoru Yamasaki, was a very complicated addition to the New York skyline when it officially opened in 1973. While it might be fun to think of New York City in the 1970s through the lens of places like Studio 54 or CBGB, the Twin Towers were what really redefined New York. The journey to build the world’s tallest building and its expansive complex of office towers and underground shops began in an effort by David Rockefeller to stimulate development in Manhattan’s fading Financial District. By the time Port Authority got on board to fund the project, the Twin Towers were bonded together with another vital project — a commuter train from New Jersey. The World Trade Center inspired strong opinions from critics and the public alike, but eventually many grew to admire the strange towers which marked the skyline. And for some, the Twin Towers became objects of obsession. FEATURING: The insane, completely outlandish and ultimately successful feat of acrobatics by a very bold French tightrope walker. PLUS: An interview with Kate Monaghan Connolly of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum about how that institution memorializes those lost in the tragedy while still celebrating the technological marvels that once stood there. And visit our website for more historical images of the Twin Towers. This show was recorded in 2021 for the 20th anniversary, reedited and remastered by Kieran Gannon. We have a batch of brand new episodes of the Bowery Boys starting next week.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How do vibrant New York City neighborhoods react to major changes to city life while retaining their historic character? For the next three weeks, we will present three neighborhood-history shows from the Bowery Boys podcast in a new light, exploring how these historic areas survive sudden changes in economic growth, housing needs and tourism. And listen to our prior shows on SoHo and Downtown Brooklyn. Little Italy is the pocket-neighborhood reminder of the great wave of Italian immigration that came through New York City starting in the late 1870s. It was once a densely packed, vibrant district of pushcarts, cheese shops, barbershops, and organ griders, the home to thousands of new immigrants living in aging tenements. The area still contains some of New York’s oldest continuously operating shops, from Ferrara Bakery to Di Palo’s. But the neighborhood also has a darker history, marked by Black Hand extortion plots and the enduring presence of organized crime. Today’s Little Italy remains charming, though it continues to shrink, existing more as a tourist destination than a true Italian enclave. What does the future hold for this important landmark in American immigration history? A version of this show was released in 2015—this newly re-edited and remastered version by Kieran Gannon. Watch an video version of this show, with a stroll through the neighborhood, on YouTube. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Downtown Brooklyn has a history that is often overlooked by New Yorkers. You’d be forgiven if you thought Brooklyn’s civic center — with a bustling shopping district and even an industrial tech campus — seemed to lack significant remnants of Brooklyn’s past; many areas have been radically altered and hundreds of old structures have been cleared over the decades. But, in fact, Downtown Brooklyn is one of the few areas to still hold evidence of the borough’s glorious past — its days as an independent city and one of the largest urban centers in 19th century America. Around Brooklyn City Hall (now Borough Hall) swirled all aspects of Brooklyn’s Gilded Age society. With the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge and a network of elevated railroad lines, Downtown Brooklyn became a major destination with premier department stores on Fulton Street, entertainment venues like the Brooklyn Academy of Music and exclusive restaurants like Gage & Tollners. The 20th century brought a new designation for Brooklyn — a borough of Greater New  York — and a series of major developments that attempted to modernize the district — from the creation of Cadman Plaza to New York’s very own ‘tech hub’. In 2004 a major zoning change brought a new addition to the multi-purpose neighborhood — high-end residential towers. Today these streets are darkened with the shadows of the borough's tallest buildings -- including the very tallest Brooklyn Tower. What will the future hold for the original heart of the City of Brooklyn? How do vibrant New York City neighborhoods react to major changes to city life while retaining their historic character? For the next three weeks, we will present three neighborhood-history shows from the Bowery Boys podcast in a new light, exploring how these historic areas survive sudden changes in economic growth, housing needs and tourism. See last week's show on SoHo for the first part in this series. This episode was remastered 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.

How do vibrant New York City neighborhoods react to major changes to city life while retaining their historic character? For the next three weeks, we will present three neighborhood-history shows from the Bowery Boys podcast in a new light, exploring how these historic areas survive sudden changes in economic growth, housing needs and tourism. Picture the neighborhood of SoHo (that’s right, South of Houston) in your head today, and you might get a headache. Crowded sidewalks on the weekend, filled with tourists, shoppers and vendors, could almost distract you from SoHo's unique appeal as a place of extraordinary architecture and history. In the mid 19th century this area, centered along Broadway, became the heart of retail and entertainment, department stores and hotels setting up shop in grand palaces. (It also became New York’s most notorious brothel district). The streets between Houston and Canal became known as the Cast Iron District, thanks to an exciting construction innovation that transformed the Gilded Age. Today SoHo contains the world’s greatest surviving collection of cast-iron architecture. But these gorgeous iron tributes to New York industry were nearly destroyed — first by rampant fires, then by Robert Moses. This show was remastered and reedted by Kieran Gannon. It origiinally ran in July 2017. Visit the website for images and more information.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Before the era of the tabloid, New Yorkers got their gossip fix from a publication known as Town Topics, where the shocking secrets of the Gilded Age were revealed. But its publisher, William D'Alton Mann, was into more than just a bit of sleaze; he used these scandalous revelations to blackmail members of New York’s high society. In this very special presentation of the Gilded Gentleman podcast, Carl Raymond and his special guest, Vanity Fair writer Joe Pompeo, introduce you to this forgotten scheme which threatened to tear apart the morals and polite mannerisms of Gilded Age society.  And for more adventures through Gilded Age New York, check out the Gilded Gentleman podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. This show was produced and 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.

Our book, The Bowery Boys Adventures in Old New York, was just re-released as a 10th-anniversary edition with lots of brand-new entries. So to celebrate, we thought we would highlight three of our all-time favorite stories from the book. Featuring: — The Astor House, one of the first luxury hotels in the United States, owned by the original Astor himself — John Jacob Astor. When it opened in 1836, it wrote the rules for how people even stay in hotels in New York City. Why was it considered so revolutionary during its day, and why did its eventual demolition in the 20th century take almost 13 years? — The Haymarket, the most scandalous dance hall of the Gilded Age! This lively and bawdy place, where both men and women met (sometimes upstairs, behind the curtains), sat in the heart of New York’s turn-of-the-century entertainment district, the burgeoning theater district. But the show inside was MUCH more risque. Oh-la-la! Tom gives you a little tour of the joint, so pull up your stockings. — The Nabisco Factory in the Meatpacking District was New York’s very own Willie Wonka’s chocolate wonderland, the American center of cookie and cracker making for decades. The sweet smells from the National Baking Company’s ovens were a relief in the late 19th-century district of meat processing. It was here that two of the most important manufactured desserts in American history were born. Visitors to the High Lineand Chelsea Market may not realize they are strolling through a veritable cookie paradise! This episode was produced and 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.

It’s a scene more commonly imagined today in a Wild West saloon -- a shootout at Stanwyx Hall, across from the most elegant hotel in New York. The year was 1855, and the combatants were bitter rivals who had fought many times, including once in the notorious neighborhood of Five Points. By the end, one man lie bleeding on the floor -- William Poole, a member of the Bowery Boys street gang, better known as Bill the Butcher. The Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, loosely based upon the Herbert Asbury book, features a version of this character (named Wiiliam Cutting) played by Daniel Day-Lewis. But the story of the real William Poole is far more fascinating, stretching from the west side's Washington Market to the streets of today's SoHo neighborhood. In this episode, Greg takes you into the world of Bill Poole and the domain of the mid-19th century street gang, mostly seen as scourges of the public good -- that is, until ruthless politicians began to see them as useful. What was the Bowery like in the 1840s? And just who were the Bowery Boys? This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon. Visit our website for more episodes related to this one and some additional images. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alexander Hamilton vs Aaron Burr! Delmonico's vs Sherry's! John Adams vs everybody! Some of history's most fascinating stories involve important figures who did not like each other very much. In this edition of Bowery Boys History Live!, recorded at Manhattan's City Winery on May 26, 2026, Greg Young from the Bowery Boys brings some of these stories to a live audience, featuring author Laurie Gwen Shapiro, tour guide Billy Nemec, and the Gilded Gentleman himself, Carl Raymond. Featuring tales of Revolutionary War spite, obscene Gilded Age banquets, and Jazz Age flights of spite. PLUS: New York City's longest-running rival. NOTE: We performed at City Winery less than 24 hours after the Knicks clinched their place in the NBA Finals. This episode for produced and cleaned up 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.

Bowling Green is best known today as the calming, flower-filled oasis in lower Manhattan, next to the decidedly less calming, lumbering sculpture Charging Bull, which is popular with tourists. But this peaceful park was once home to New York City’s most infamous statue -- and the stage for America's first No Kings protest. In 1770, the old park became the home of a monumental statue of King George III on horseback, an ostentatious artifact meant to remind the rebellious colonists of just who was in charge. On July 9, 1776, following a reading of the freshly minted Declaration of Independence, angry New Yorkers violently pulled down that statue of King George and, as legend has it, rendered his body into bullets used in the battles of the Revolutionary War.  As we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States, we also mark the 250th anniversary of this event — not a moment of jubilation and freedom, but of anger and uncertainty. The Declaration beautifully set down the words of independence. The tearing down of King George  made the same statement — in a far messier, more violent manner. In this episode, take a trip back to the city right before the war, when New York was split into those sympathetic to the Tories and those to the Sons of Liberty, an early organization dedicated to the liberty of the American colonies. PLUS: Find out where you can locate artifacts from this story throughout the city today. FEATURING: A young Alexander Hamilton, William Pitt the Elder, that rascal Cadwallader Colden and the enterprising ladies of the Wolcott household. This special episode is not a rerun! It's a riff on a 2020 Bowery Boys episode. It has been rewritten and rerecorded (including for video on YouTube) in honor of America 250, and newly produced and edited by Kieran Gannon. Visit the website for images and other podcasts associated with this show.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

New York City will be at the center of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the United States, thanks to the largest-ever flotilla of tall ships to sail into New York Harbor — a reminder of the city's storied maritime history. It will be like ghosts of the past returning from a long voyage. The parade of tall ships, known as Operation Sail, first assembled in New York waters for the 1964 World's Fair and later for the big U.S. Bicentennial of 1976. The city had a lot going on that year, most notably a financial crisis and a public spat with President Gerald Ford. But when television cameras turned to film the big event, they saw not just majestic ships, but a diverse array of New Yorkers, reinventing what it meant to be American. Tom and Greg are joined on this show by Captain Jonathan Boulware, the President and CEO of the South Street Seaport Museum, to discuss the Seaport's unique connection to Operation Sail and the museum's latest exhibition, The Promise of Liberty: Words That Shaped a Nation, which places the nation's most important documents in a unique waterfront context. This show was edited and produced by Kieran Gannon If you're looking for a walk through New York's Revolutionary past, please check out the augmented reality app Echoes of Revolution NYC, launching on June 29, 2026.   Visit our website for images and more podcasts related to this subject. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.