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'Bowery Boys' Are Amateur But Beloved New York Historians

Each episode of "The Bowery Boys" explores a different aspect of New York City history, like how Canal Street, pictured here in 1899, once channeled water from the now-filled Collect Pond.
Library of Congress
Each episode of "The Bowery Boys" explores a different aspect of New York City history, like how Canal Street, pictured here in 1899, once channeled water from the now-filled Collect Pond.

In the 19th century, the Bowery Boys were a street gang that ruled that small section of Manhattan. In the 21st century, the Bowery Boys are two best friends — Tom Meyers and Greg Young — who record a do-it-yourself podcast with the same name.

Meyers and Young love to perform almost as much as they love New York City, and their show traces the unofficial history of the place. They record a few blocks from — you guessed it — the Bowery district.

Podcasts have been around for less than a decade, but in that short time, homemade shows have exploded. To date, "The Bowery Boys" has had more than 5 million downloads.

One episode is about Tin Pan Alley, in the Flower District, where 19th century composers churned out sheet music to distribute across the country.

"Charles Harris wrote a song called 'After the Ball' in 1892," Young says in that show. "He was lucky enough to get a vaudevillian star by the name of May Erwin to perform the song in her show, and it would sell up to 10 million copies. I mean, could you imagine, like, a Lady Gaga song rolling out over six years? Rolling out throughout the country?"

The Bowery Boys' audience doesn't quite rival Lady Gaga's, but 20,000 listeners isn't too shabby. Still, Meyers and Young are the first to admit that they are not professionals.

"We bought Podcasting for Dummies," says Meyers, "partially to figure out what a podcast was, and also how to record these things."

The pair doesn't use fancy equipment, either.

"Bowery Boys" co-hosts Tom Meyers and Greg Young call themselves "home-schooled historians," and they do extensive research for their show and its related blog. For an episode about Manhattan's grid pattern, they dug up this map from a book published in 1840.
/ Library of Congress
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Library of Congress
"Bowery Boys" co-hosts Tom Meyers and Greg Young call themselves "home-schooled historians," and they do extensive research for their show and its related blog. For an episode about Manhattan's grid pattern, they dug up this map from a book published in 1840.

"I think that for the first episode, we recorded with a spare karaoke microphone that we had in the closet for ... other occasions," recalls Meyers, laughing.

In each episode, the two friends tell little-known stories about the history of their adopted city — Meyers grew up in Ohio and Young in Missouri, but they're more than qualified to talk Big Apple — like why a trip up or down Manhattan is quick and easy, but traveling a few blocks east or west takes much longer.

"That's because of decisions made 200 years ago by the Commissioners' Plan, through the use of a grid," Young explains in an episode called The Manhattan Grid Plan. "That is something that every New Yorker lives with every day."

Meyers and Young have touched on New York's iconic landmarks, like Times Square. But the Bowery Boys don't stop with the familiar.

In another episode, they take listeners to a 1960s theme park in the Bronx called Freedomland USA.

"It was shaped like the U.S.," Young explains in the episode, "and you went into each area, and there were themed rides and everything."

"What's happening over there in Chicago? Fire! Look at that!" says a voice in an old advertisement. "It's the Chicago Fire of 1871. Here at Freedomland, they have the Chicago Fire every half-hour, every day."

The quirky amusement park closed after only four years. Young says he likes an element of randomness to help choose episodes. And it works.

"I got responses [from] people who said, 'When I was a kid, my parents took me to Freedomland. And I thought I had made it up,' " he says.

Meyers and Young record each episode of "The Bowery Boys" at a kitchen table and feature archival art, like this 1896 lithograph, on their website.
/ Library of Congress
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Library of Congress
Meyers and Young record each episode of "The Bowery Boys" at a kitchen table and feature archival art, like this 1896 lithograph, on their website.

The Bowery Boys pack an incredible amount of history into each episode — not so easy for two guys with day jobs. (Young works in music licensing for Sony, and Meyers runs his own online travel business.)

"I don't read anything that's not related to New York City history," says Meyers, "which is a little bit sad, because I'd love to read a novel that wasn't — I'd love to read a novel. But at the same time, I can't get enough."

The Bowery Boys' podcast now includes a blog that gets about 100,000 hits each month. And Meyers and Young have become unofficial ambassadors of New York City history; they've appeared on local television and done events with the city's Municipal Arts Society.

"We don't pretend to have doctorates in the subject," says Meyers. "[But] I feel like we are getting our own degree in this. ... We are home-schooled historians."

Home-schooled, maybe. But five years and just shy of 150 episodes later — when it comes to New York City, they're schooling us.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Corrected: March 18, 2013 at 12:00 AM EDT
Previous online and audio versions of this story incorrectly said that Tin Pan Alley is on the Lower East Side of New York City. Tin Pan Alley is located in New York's Flower District.
Caitlin Dickerson is an NPR News Investigative Reporter. She tackles long-term reporting projects that reveal hidden truths about the world, and contributes to breaking news coverage on NPR's flagship programs. Her work has been honored with some of the highest awards in broadcast journalism, including a George Foster Peabody Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award. In 2015, Dickerson was also a finalist for the Livingston Award.
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