The Bowery Theatre
An image of the Bowery Theatre from 1826 featured on a cigarette trading card. Between the Acts Little Cigars; Theatres Old and New Series.
Address	46 Bowery, New York, NY 10013
City	New York City
Country	United States
Coordinates	40°42′57″N 73°59′48″W / 40.715891°N 73.996550°W / 40.715891; -73.996550Coordinates: 40°42′57″N 73°59′48″W / 40.715891°N 73.996550°W / 40.715891; -73.996550
Architect	Ithiel Town
Type	Off-Broadway
Opened	October 22, 1826 (1826-10-22)
Demolished	June 5, 1929 (1929-06-05) (Fire)
Previous names	New York Theatre (1826) Bowery Theatre (1828) Thalia Theatre (1879) Fay's Bowery Theatre (1929)
Current use	Demolished

The Bowery Theatre was a playhouse in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City. Although it was founded by rich families to compete with the upscale Park Theatre, the Bowery saw its most successful period under the populist, pro-American management of Thomas Hamblin in the 1830s and 1840s. By the 1850s, the theatre came to cater to immigrant groups such as the Irish, Germans, and Chinese. It burnt down 5 times in 17 years, a fire in 1929 destroying it for good. Although the theatre's name changed several times (Thalia Theatre, Fay's Bowery Theatre, etc.), it was generally referred to as the "Bowery Theatre".

Founding and early management[link]

By the mid-1820s, wealthy settler families in the new ward that was made fashionable by the opening of Lafayette Street, parallel to the Bowery, wanted easy access to fashionable high-class European drama, then only available at the Park Theatre. Under the leadership of Henry Astor, they formed the New York Association and bought the land where Astor's Bull's Head tavern stood,^[1] facing the neighborhood and occupying the area between Elizabeth, Canal, and Hester streets. They hired architects Ithiel Town and John Trimble to design the new venue.

Engraving from The Bourne Views of New York (1830-31).

Some notable investors included Samuel Laurence Gouverneur, son-in-law to President James Monroe, and James Alexander Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton.^[2]

The new playhouse, with its Neoclassical design^[3], was more opulent than the Park, and it seated 3,500 people, making it the biggest theatre in the United States at the time.^[4] Frances Trollope compared it to the Park Theatre as "superior in beauty; it is indeed as pretty a theatre as I ever entered, perfect as to size and proportion, elegantly decorated, and the scenery and machinery equal to any in London...."^[5]

The Bowery Theatre opened on 22 October 1826 under the name New York Theatre, with the play The Road to Ruin, under the management of Charles A. Gilfert. New York Mayor Philip Hone spoke at the opening ceremony, imploring the theatre's intended upper-class audience: "It is therefore incumbent upon those whose standing in society enables them to control the opinions and direct the judgment of others, to encourage, by their countenance and support, a well-regulated theatre".^[6] Its first few seasons were devoted to ballet, opera, and high drama. The theatre was by this time quite fashionable, and the northward expansion of Manhattan gave the theatre access to a large patronage. The theatre burnt out in 1828, but was rebuilt behind the same facade and reopened under the name Bowery Theatre.^[7] Gilfert's understanding of advertising was keen, but in 1829, the owners fired him.

Hamblin's tenure[link]

The owners hired Thomas Hamblin and James H. Hackett in August 1830 to manage the theatre. A month later, Hackett left Hamblin in complete control. After the Bowery burnt down later that year, Hamblin rebuilt. He then took the theatre in a decidedly different direction for what would be its most innovative and successful period.

American theatres stratified in the Jacksonian Era, and the Bowery emerged as the home of American nativists and populist causes, placing it in direct contrast to the Park Theatre's cultivated image of traditional European high culture. This was partially the result of an anti-British theatre riot at the Park; Hamblin renamed the playhouse "the American Theatre, Bowery" in reaction. Hamblin hired unknown American actors and playwrights and allowed them to play for long runs of up to a month. Before 1843, early blackface performers such as George Washington Dixon and Thomas D. Rice played there frequently, and acts such as J. B. Booth, Edwin Forrest, Louisa Lane Drew, and Frank Chanfrau also gained renown on the Bowery's stage. George L. Fox and his pantomime became the most popular act at the Bowery until after the Civil War. Bowery productions also debuted or popularized a number of new character types, including the Bowery B'hoy, the Yankee, the Frontiersman, and the blackface Negro.

The pro-Americanism of the Bowery's audience came to a head during the Farren Riots of 1834. Farren,^[8] the Bowery's British-born stage manager, had reportedly made anti-American comments and fired an American actor. Protesters reacted by attacking the homes, businesses, and churches of abolitionists and blacks in New York City and then storming the theatre on 9 July. Farren apologized for his comments, and George Washington Dixon sang popular songs to quell the rioters.

Hamblin defied conventions of theatre as high culture by booking productions that appealed to working-class patrons and by advertising them extensively according to Gilfert's model. Animal acts, blackface minstrel shows, and melodrama enjoyed the most frequent billings, and hybrid forms, such as melodramas about dogs saving their human masters, became unprecedented successes. Spectacular productions with advanced visual effects, including water and fire, featured prominently. Hamblin also innovated by using gas lighting in lieu of candles and kerosene lamps. The Bowery Theatre earned the nickname "The Slaughterhouse" for its low-class offerings, and terms like "Bowery melodrama" and "Bowery actors" were coined to characterize the new type of theatre.^[9]

In the spring of 1834, Hamblin began buying shares in the theatre from the New York Association; he had enough to control the enterprise completely within 18 months. By the time the Bowery burnt again in September 1836, it was the most popular playhouse in New York City,^[10] despite steep increases in competition (the Bowery Amphitheatre was right across the street). Visual spectacle had become such an integral part of its appeal that Hamblin claimed $5000 in wardrobe losses from the fire.^[11] Hamblin bought out the remaining shares in the theatre and rented the site to W. E. Dinneford and Thomas Flynn, who rebuilt. When this interim Bowery burnt down in February 1838, Hamblin replaced it with a bigger and more opulent structure, which opened in May 1839.

Through Hamblin's actions, working-class theatre emerged as a form in its own right, and melodrama became the most popular form of American theatre. Low-class patrons such as Bowery b'hoys and g'hals predominated in the audience. The Spirit of the Times described the Bowery's patrons:

By reasonable computation there were about 300 persons on the stage and wings alone—soldiers in fatigue dresses—officers with side arms—a few jolly tars, and a number of "apple-munching urchins." The scene was indescribably ludicrous. Booth played [Richard III] in his best style, and was really anxious to make a hit, but the confusion incidental to such a crowd on the stage, occasioned constant and most humorous interruptions. It was every thing or any thing, but a tragedy. In the scene with Lady Anne, a scene so much admired for its address, the gallery spectators amused themselves by throwing pennies and silver pieces on the stage, which occasioned an immense scramble among the boys, and they frequently ran between King Richard and Lady Anne, to snatch a stray copper. In the tent scene, so solemn and so impressive, several curious amateurs went up to the table, took up the crown, poised the heavy sword, and examined all the regalia with great care, while Richard was in agony from the terrible dream; and when the scene changed, discovering the ghosts of King Henry, Lady Anne and children, it was difficult to select them from the crowd who thrust their faces and persons among the Royal shadows.

The Battle of Bosworth Field capped the climax—the audience mingled with the soldiers and raced across the stage, to the shouts of the people, the roll of the drums and the bellowing of the trumpets; and when the fight between Richard and Richmond came on, they made a ring round the combattants to see fair play, and kept them at if for nearly a quarter of an hour by "Shrewsberry clock."^[12]

Some sources even suggest that patrons engaged in sexual behavior in the lobbies and boxes.^[13] Understandably, Hamblin was careful to remain in this crowd's good graces. For example, he regularly offered use of the Bowery Theatre for the annual firemen's ball. Only the Chatham Garden Theatre boasted a rowdier audience.^[14]

Interior of Bowery Theatre, 1856

Profits were harder to come by in the 1840s, as more playhouses sprung up in New York. Hamblin staged more effects-driven melodrama and later increased bookings of circus acts, minstrel shows, and other variety entertainments. The Bowery burnt down once more in April 1845. This time, Hamblin had fire insurance, and he rebuilt with an eye toward appealing to a more upscale patronage and to staging more spectacular melodrama. The theatre now seated 4,000 and with a stage 126 feet square, secured its place as one of the largest playhouses in the world.^[4] Hamblin left the management to A. W. Jackson, though Jackson and later managers largely upheld Hamblin's emphasis on melodrama and visual splendor. Hamblin died in January 1853, and the theatre remained in his family until 1867.

Later management[link]

Bowery Theatre, 1887

Thalia Theatre prior to its destruction in 1929

By the middle of the 19th century, immigrant groups, notably the Irish, began populating the Bowery neighborhood. They came to form a significant portion of the Bowery's audience, mostly in the low-price gallery section. In order to cater to them, the theatre offered plays by James Pilgrim and other Irish playwrights. Meanwhile, the Bowery emerged as the theatrical center for New York's Lower East Side.

Germans Gustav Amberg, Heinrich Conried, and Mathilde Cottrelly converted the Bowery into the Thalia Theatre in 1879, offering primarily German theatre during their ownership. In 1891, Yiddish theatre became the predominate attraction. Italian vaudeville succeeded this, followed by Chinese vaudeville. "Fay's Bowery Theatre" burnt down on 5 June 1929 under Chinese management and was never rebuilt.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bank, Rosemary K. (1997). Theatre Culture in America, 1825-1860. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Cockrell, Dale (1997). Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World. Cambridge University Press.
• Mahar, William J. (1999). Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
• Nichols, Glen (1999). "Hamblin, Thomas Sowerby". American National Biography, Vol. 9. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Praefcke, Andreas. "New York, NY: Bowery Theatre", Carthalia. Accessed 28 November 2005.
• Trollope, Frances (1832). Domestic Manners of the Americans.
• Wilmeth, Don B., and Miller, Tice L., eds. (1996). Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Wilmeth, Don B., and Bigsby, C. W. E. (1998) The Cambridge History of American Theatre: Beginnings to 1870. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Wilmeth, Don B., and Bigsby, C. W. E. (1999) The Cambridge History of American Theatre: Volume II, 1870-1945. New York: Cambridge University Press.

External links[link]

• Bowery Theatre at the IBDB database

Coordinates: 40°43′11.62″N 73°59′38.86″W / 40.7198944°N 73.9941278°W / 40.7198944; -73.9941278

Looking north from Houston Street up Bowery, with the Empire State Building in the background

The Bowery, looking north from Grand Street, circa 1910

Bowery ( /ˈbaʊ.əri/ or local /ˈbaʊ.ri/), commonly called "the Bowery," is a street and a small neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood's boundaries are East 4th Street and the East Village to the north, Canal Street and Chinatown to the South, Allen Street and the Lower East Side to the east and Little Italy to the west.^[1]

Bowery is an anglicisation of the Dutch bouwerij, derived from an antiquated Dutch word for "farm." In the 17th century the road branched off Broadway north of Fort Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan to the homestead of Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Netherland. As a street, the Bowery was known as Bowery Lane prior to 1807.^[2] Today it runs from Chatham Square in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north. After Cooper Square, the street runs north as Third Avenue and to the northwest as Fourth Avenue.

Major streets that intersect the Bowery include Canal Street, Delancey Street, Houston Street, and Bleecker Street. A New York City Subway station named Bowery on the BMT Nassau Street Line (J and Z services) is located at the Bowery's intersection with Delancey Street.

Colonial and federal period[link]

The Bowery is the oldest thoroughfare on Manhattan Island, preceding European intervention as a Lenape footpath, which spanned roughly the entire length of the island, from north to south.^[3] When the Dutch settled Manhattan island, they named the path Bouwerij road—"bouwerij" being an old Dutch word for "farm"—^[4]because it connected farmlands and estates on the outskirts to the heart of the city in today's Wall Street/Battery Park area.

In 1654, the Bowery’s first residents settled in the area of Chatham Square; ten freed slaves and their wives set up cabins and a cattle farm.

Petrus Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam before the English took control, retired to his Bowery farm in 1667. After his death in 1672, he was buried in his private chapel. His mansion burned down in 1778 and his great-grandson sold the remaining chapel and graveyard, now the site of the Episcopal church of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.^[5]

The Bowery (unmarked), leading to the "Road to Kings Bridge, where the Rebels mean to make a Stand" in a British map of 1776

Cigarette trading card featuring the Bowery Theatre; a few 3½-storey structures of the 1830s (like the building at right) remain on the Bowery today

In her Journal of 1704–1705, Sarah Kemble Knight describes the Bowery as a leisure destination for residents of New York City in December:

Their Diversions in the Winter is Riding Sleys about three or four Miles out of Town, where they have Houses of entertainment at a place called the Bowery, and some go to friends Houses who handsomely treat them. [...] I believe we mett 50 or 60 slays that day—they fly with great swiftness and some are so furious that they'le turn out of the path for none except a Loaden Cart. Nor do they spare for any diversion the place affords, and sociable to a degree, they'r Tables being as free to their Naybours as to themselves.

By 1766, when John Montresor made his detailed plan of New York,^[6] "Bowry Lane", which took a more north-tending track at the rope walk, was lined for the first few streets with buildings that formed a solid frontage, with market gardens behind them; when Lorenzo Da Ponte, the librettist for Mozart's Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and Cosi Fan Tutte, emigrated to New York City in 1806, he briefly ran one of the shops along the Bowery, a fruit and vegetable store. In 1766, straight lanes led away at right angles to gentlemen's seats, mostly well back from the dusty "Road to Albany and Boston", as it was labeled on Montresor's map; Nicholas Bayard's was planted as an avenue of trees. James Delancey's grand house, flanked by matching outbuildings, stood behind a forecourt facing Bowery Lane; behind it was his parterre garden, ending in an exedra, clearly delineated on the map.

The Bull's Head Tavern was noted for George Washington having stopped there for refreshment before riding down to the waterfront to witness the departure of British troops in 1783. Leading to the Post Road, The Bowery rivalled Broadway as a thoroughfare; as late as 1869, when it had gained the "reputation of cheap trade, without being disreputable" it was still "the second principal street of the city".^[7]

When Lafayette Street was opened parallel to The Bowery in the 1820s, the Bowery Theatre was founded by rich families on the site of the Red Bull Tavern, which had been purchased by John Jacob Astor; it opened in 1826. Across the way the Bowery Amphitheatre was erected in 1833, specializing in the more populist entertainments of equestrian shows and circuses. From stylish beginnings, the tone of the Bowery Theatre's offerings matched the slide in the social scale of the Bowery itself.

Slide from respectability[link]

By the time of the Civil War, the mansions and shops had given way to low-brow concert halls, brothels, German beer gardens, pawn shops, and flophouses, like the one at No.15 in which the composer Stephen Foster lived in 1864^[8] Theodore Dreiser closed his tragedy Sister Carrie, set in the 1890s, with the suicide of one of the main characters in a Bowery flophouse. The Bowery, which marked the eastern border of the slum of "Five Points", had also become the turf of one of America's earliest street gangs, the nativist Bowery Boys. In the spirit of social reform, the first YMCA opened on the Bowery in 1873;^[9] another notable religious and social welfare institution established during this period was Bowery Mission, which was founded in 1880 at 36 Bowery by Reverend Albert Gleason Ruliffson. The mission has relocated along the Bowery throughout its lifetime. From 1909 to the present, the mission has remained at 227–229 Bowery.

By the 1890s, The Bowery was a center for prostitution that rivaled the Tenderloin, and for bars catering to gay men and some lesbians at various social levels, from The Slide at 157 Bleecker Street, New York's "worst dive",^[10] to Columbia Hall at 5th Street, called Paresis Hall. One investigator in 1899 found six saloons and dance halls, the resorts of "degenerates" and "fairies", on The Bowery alone.^[11] Gay subculture was more highly visible there and more integrated into working-class male culture than it was to become in the following generations, according to the historian of gay New York, George Chauncey.

Berenice Abbott photograph of a Bowery restaurant in 1935, when the street was lined with flophouses.

From 1878 to 1955 the Third Avenue El ran above the Bowery, further darkening its streets, populated largely by men. "It is filled with employment agencies, cheap clothing and knickknack stores, cheap moving-picture shows, cheap lodging-houses, cheap eating-houses, cheap saloons", writers in The Century Magazine found it in 1919. "Here, too, by the thousands come sailors on shore leave,—notice the 'studios' of the tattoo artists,—and here most in evidence are the 'down and outs'".^[12] Prohibition eliminated The Bowery's numerous saloons: One Mile House, the "stately old tavern... replaced by a cheap saloon"^[13] at the southeast corner of Rivington Street, named for the battered milestone across the way,^[14] where the politicians of the East Side had made informal arrangements for the city's governance, ^[15][16] was renovated for retail space in 1921, "obliterating all vestiges of its former appearance", The New York Times reported. Restaurant supply stores were among the businesses that had come to the Bowery,^[17] and many remain to this day.

Luxury lofts and soup kitchens jockey for space as the neighborhood's rapid gentrification continues.

Pressure for a new name after World War I came to naught^[17] and in the 1920s and 1930s, it was as an impoverished area. In the 1940s through the 1970s, the Bowery was New York City's "Skid Row," notable for "Bowery Bums" (disaffiliated alcoholics and homeless persons).^[18]

Revival[link]

Since the 1990s the entire Lower East Side has been reviving. As of July 2005, gentrification is contributing to ongoing change along the Bowery. In particular, the number of high-rise condominiums is growing. In 2006, AvalonBay Communities opened its first luxury apartment complex on the Bowery, which included an upscale Whole Foods Market. Avalon Bowery Place was quickly followed with the development of Avalon Bowery Place II in 2007. That same year, the SANAA-designed facility for the New Museum of Contemporary Art opened at the corner of Prince Street.

The new development has not come without a social cost. Michael Dominic's documentary Sunshine Hotel followed the lives of residents of one of the few remaining flophouses.

The Bowery from Houston to Delancey Streets serves as New York's principal market for restaurant equipment, and from Delancey to Grand for lamps.

Bowery historic district[link]

In October 2011, a Bowery Historic District was registered with the New York State Register of Historic Places and, because of that, automatically nominated for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. A grassroots community organization named the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors (BAN) in association with the community-based housing organization called the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council led the effort for creation of the historic district. The designation means that property owners will have financial incentives to restore rather than demolish old buildings on the Bowery. ^[19]

The historic district runs from Chatham Square to Astor Place on both sides of the Bowery.

Notable establishments[link]

Peanut Gallery[link]

An avant garde art movement and the underground gallery that fronts its activities off the Bowery.

Bank buildings[link]

The Bowery Savings Bank was chartered in May 1834, when the Bowery was an upscale residential street, and grew with the rising prosperity of the city. Its 1893 headquarters building remains a Bowery landmark, as does the 1920s domed Citizens Savings Bank.^[20]

New Museum[link]

In December 2007, the New Museum opened the doors to its new location on 235 Bowery, at Prince Street, continuing its focus of exhibiting emerging international artists. This new facility, designed by the Tokyo-based firm Sejima + Nishizawa/SANAA and the New York-based firm Gensler, has greatly expanded the Museum’s exhibitions and space. In March 2008, the museum's new building was named one of the architectural seven wonders by Conde Nast Traveler.^[21] The museum has an ongoing Bowery Project honoring artists who lived on the Bowery with taped interviews and archived records. ^[22]

Amato Opera[link]

This company, which was founded in 1948 by Tony Amato and his wife, Sally, found a permanent home at 319 Bowery next to the former CBGB, and it afforded many young singers the opportunity to hone their craft in full-length productions with a cut-down orchestration. The curtain fell on this well-established opera forum in NYC on May 31, 2009, when Tony Amato retired.

CBGB[link]

CBGB, a club initially opened to play country, bluegrass & blues (as the name CBGB stands for), began to book Television, Patti Smith, and the Ramones as house bands in the mid-1970s. This spawned a full-blown scene of new bands (Talking Heads, Blondie, edgy R&B-influenced Mink DeVille, rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon, and others) performing mostly original material in a mostly raw and often loud and fast attack. The label of punk rock was applied to the scene even if not all the bands that made their early reputations at the club were punk rockers, strictly speaking, but CBGB became known as the American cradle of punk rock. CBGB closed on October 31, 2006, after a long battle by club owner Hilly Kristal to extend its lease.

Bowery Ballroom[link]

The Bowery Ballroom is a music venue. The structure, at 6 Delancey Street, was built just before the Stock Market Crash of 1929. It stood vacant until the end of World War II, when it became a high-end retail store. The neighborhood subsequently went into decline again, and so did the caliber of businesses occupying the space.^{[citation needed]} In 1997 it was converted into a music venue.

Right in front of the venue's entrance is the Bowery Station (J Z trains) of the New York City Subway.

The club serves as the namesake of at least one recording: Joan Baez's Bowery Songs album, recorded live at a concert at the Bowery Ballroom in November 2004.

Bowery Poetry Club[link]

Bowery Poetry Club

The Bowery Poetry Club is a New York City poetry performance space. Located at Bowery and Bleecker Street in Lower Manhattan, the BPC provides a home base for established and upcoming artists. It was founded by Bob Holman, owner of the building and former Nuyorican Poets Café Poetry Slam MC (1988–1996). The BPC features regular shows by Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman, Taylor Mead, Taylor Mali, along with open mic, gay poets, a weekly poetry slam, and an Emily Dickinson Marathon, amongst other events.

Famous residents[link]

Among other famous residents, Quentin Crisp lived on Third Street near Second Avenue, and near the Bowery, for the last two decades of his life. Béla Bartók lived in 350 Bowery at the corner of Great Jones Street during the 1940s.

The writer William S. Burroughs kept an apartment at the former YMCA building at 222 Bowery, known as the Bunker, from 1974 until his death in 1997.^[23] Mark Rothko, the Abstract Expressionist painter, had a studio on the Bowery. Pop artist Tom Wesselman had a studio on the Bowery in the building now adjacent to the New Museum.

The artist Cy Twombly lived on the 3rd floor of 356 Bowery during the 1960s.

The founder of the Hare Krishna Movement, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada lived in the Bowery when the movement began in America in 1966.

Punk singer Joey Ramone resided in the area, and in 2003 a part of Second Street at the intersection Bowery and Second Street was renamed Joey Ramone Place.^[24][25]

In popular culture[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2010)

Literature[link]

• The Bowery is the setting for Stephen Crane's first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (published in 1893), about a poor family living in the neighborhood
• New York School poet Ted Berrigan mentions the Bowery several times in his seminal work "The Sonnets".
• The Wild Cards series of books sets the Bowery as Jokertown, the place where the malformed go to live after the Wild Card Virus is released over New York.
• Brenda Coultas's book A Handmade Museum (poetry, published in 2003 by Coffee House Press) contains a section called "The Bowery Project" which documents the pre-gentrification process.

Film, stage and TV[link]

Steve Brodie's bar at 114 Bowery

Sheet Music to The Bowery, 1892

• On the Bowery, an 1894 play starring Steve Brodie, supposed Brooklyn Bridge jumper and Bowery saloonkeeper.
• The Bowery, a 1933 film about Brodie.
• A popular B-movie series made between 1946 and 1958 featured "The Bowery Boys."
• On the Bowery, Lionel Rogosin's 1956 film, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
• In the 2002 film Gangs of New York, the Bowery is a mentioned territory of the Bowery Boys, a street gang of the late 19th century during the New York Draft Riots.

Art[link]

• The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems, a collection of photographs and poems by Martha Rosler. ^[26]

Music[link]

The 1891 musical comedy A Trip to Chinatown featured The Bowery, a song that became highly popular in that era.

Over the years, the Bowery has been mentioned in the lyrics of a number of songs, including the Bob Dylan song "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream", from the album Bringing It All Back Home (1965): "I walked by a Guernsey cow/Who directed me down/To the Bowery slums/Where people carried signs around/Saying, 'Ban the bums.'"

The street has also been mentioned in songs by Willie Nile, Jim Croce, Regina Spektor, Dire Straits, Bill Callahan, Saint Etienne the Vancouver Twee pop band cub, Sonic Youth, Two Gallants, Steve Earle, Beastie Boys, Paul McDermott, Billy Joel, Tom Waits, Ryan Adams, The Clash, the Ramones, Jesse Malin and The Foetus All-Nude Revue, Deerhunter among others.

The Bowery is mentioned as a place where love and gin can be found in the lyrics of Stephin Merritt's song "Love is Like a Bottle of Gin" from the album 69 Love Songs.

See also[link]

• Bowery Mission
• Bowery Theatre
• The Bowery (song)

References[link]

Sources

• Fodor's flashmaps New York, 1991
• Fodor's See It New York City, 2004, [ISBN 1-4000-1387-9]
• Valentine's Manual of Old New York / No. 7, Ed. Henry Collins Brown, Pub. Valentine's Manual Inc. 1922

Notes

External links[link]

• Bowery documentary
• East Village History Project Bowery research — in-depth, lot by lot research
• boweryalliance.org — grassroots organization
• New York Songlines: 4th Avenue
• The Bowery, from the Little Italy Neighbors Association — stories, photos, etc.
• The Bowery by Forgotten-NY — images, descriptions, and history
• Bowery Storefronts — photographs of Bowery stores and buildings.
• Lyrics of popular 1890s song, The Bowery
• Bowery Historic District nomination, National Register of Historic Places
• Map of Bowery Historic District
• Bowery Artist Tribute
• Lower East Side Preservation Initiative

Greenwich Village↖ NoLIta← TriBeCa↙

↑Gramercy↑ Bowery ↓Chinatown↓

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Alejandro Escovedo
Alejandro Escovedo in concert, 2007
Background information
Born	(1951-01-10) 10 January 1951 (age 61) San Antonio, Texas United States
Genres	Punk rock, roots rock, alternative country
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Labels	Columbia, Vanguard Records, Birdman
Associated acts	The Nuns, Rank and File, The Sensitive Boys
Website	Alejandro Escovedo.com

Alejandro Escovedo (born January 10, 1951, in San Antonio, Texas) is an American singer-songwriter.

Biography[link]

The son of Mexican immigrants to Texas,^[1] Escovedo is from a family that boasts several professional musicians, including brothers (and percussionists) Coke Escovedo and Pete Escovedo, and Sheila E (Pete's daughter and Alejandro's niece). Another brother, Mario, fronted the hard rock band The Dragons, and yet another brother, Javier, was in the punk rock band The Zeros.

Escovedo began performing in the first-wave punk rock group The Nuns, with Jennifer Miro, and Jeff Olener, in San Francisco, California. After Escovedo's departure, The Nuns recorded an album on Posh Boy Records, but had little commercial success.

In the 1980s Escovedo moved to Austin, Texas, where he adapted a roots rock/alternative country style in the bands Rank and File (with Chip and Tony Kinman) and the True Believers (with his brother Javier and Jon Dee Graham). However, it was with the release of his first solo albums, Gravity in 1992 and Thirteen Years in 1994, that he found his true voice. Although he has yet to crossover to a large mainstream audience, Escovedo has a huge underground following, and many popular artists cite him as a strong influence.^{[citation needed]}

In 1997, Alejandro collaborated with Whiskeytown and Ryan Adams during the recording sessions for their album Strangers Almanac. He sings on "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight", "Dancing with the Women at the Bar", and "Not Home Anymore". As a salute to Alejandro, a cover of a True Believers song written by Alejandro is covered by Whiskeytown on the re-released Strangers Almanac, Deluxe Edition.

In 1998 No Depression magazine named him Artist of the Decade.^[2] Alejandro was also involved in a side project that represents his hard rocking tastes. Buick MacKane released an album in 1997 The Pawn Shop Years, hearkening back to his musical roots from the 1970s.

In 1999, Escovedo contributed to the tribute album to Moby Grape's co-founder, Skip Spence, who was critically ill with cancer. The album was intended to raise funds to address Spence's medical bills. The album was titled, More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album. The title refers to the title of Spence's only solo album, Oar (Columbia, 1969). On More Oar, Escovedo contributes his version of Spence's "Diana". Critic Rob Brunner commented, "The best contributions come from artists who realize that Spence's work is as much about atmosphere as words and chords. ...Alejandro Escovedo offers an appropriately bleary 'Diana', Spence's darkest song." ^[3](Birdman, 1999), was produced by Bill Bentley, a Warner Bros. Records executive and Austin-referenced music producer.

In 2003, after having lived with hepatitis-C for many years, Escovedo fell critically ill. In his long road to recovery, he faced increasing medical bills. Without medical insurance, Escovedo could not pay his substantial medical bills. Friends and admirers around the country organized benefit shows to help the songwriter. This effort grew into the album Por Vida: A Tribute to the Songs of Alejandro Escovedo, a two-disc set whose proceeds benefit the Alejandro Escovedo Medical and Living Expense Fund. Contributing musicians included Steve Earle, Jon Dee Graham, Lucinda Williams, John Cale, Jennifer Warnes, Ian Hunter, The Jayhawks, and Son Volt, as well as family members Pete Escovedo (with niece Sheila E.), Javier Escovedo, and The Dragons (featuring youngest brother, Mario Escovedo).

In 2005, Escovedo was declared to be free of the disease.^{[citation needed]}

Also in 2005, Escovedo's song "Castanets" appeared on the iPod playlist of George W. Bush.^[4]

Boxing Mirror came out on May 2, 2006 and included many of the songs he had promoted with The Alejandro Escovedo String Quintet, including Jon Dee Graham. Escovedo went on a short tour with the Quintet, which included a date at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in early December 2006.

In April, 2008, Escovedo changed managers and began being managed by Jon Landau and Barbara Carr.

Escovedo released, Real Animal, produced by Tony Visconti, on June 24, 2008. All of the songs were co-written with Chuck Prophet.

In 2009, Escovedo was invited to contribute to a tribute album to the late Doug Sahm. Escovedo contributed his version of "Too Little Too Late" to Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm (Vanguard Records).

In June, 2010, Escovedo released Street Songs of Love, also produced by Visconti but released on a new label, featuring songs that were originally presented during "Sessions On South Congress" at the Continental Club in Austin, Texas with his band, The Sensitive Boys. After starting out writing about nothing in particular, the record “ended up being an album about love, the pursuit of a feeling that is forever elusive, mysterious, and addictive,” said Escovedo.^[5] A New York Times "critic's choice" review of Street Songs of Love claimed that, "In another, less fragmented pop era, this would be the album of thoughtful but radio-ready love songs to finally get Mr. Escovedo the big national audience he deserves."^[6] Nationally syndicated radio shows such as Little Steven Van Zandt's Underground Garage gave prominent attention to Escovedo and his album, continuing to play the song "Silver Cloud" in particular well into the following year.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Gravity (1992)
• Thirteen Years (1994)
• The End/Losing Your Touch (1994)
• With These Hands (1996)
• More Miles Than Money: Live 1994-1996 (1998)
• Bourbonitis Blues (1999)
• A Man Under the Influence (2001)
• By the Hand of the Father (2002)
• Room of Songs (2005)

• The Boxing Mirror (2006)
• Real Animal (2008)
• Live Animal (2009)
• Street Songs of Love (2010)
• Big Station (2012)^[7]

Other Contributions[link]

• More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album (Birdman, 1999)
• Hear Music Volume 7: Waking (2002, Hear Music) – "Wave"
• 107.1 KGSR Radio Austin – Broadcasts Vol.10 (2002) – "Ballad of the Sun & the Moon"
• WYEP Live and Direct: Volume 4 – On Air Performances (2002) – "Rosalie"
• Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm (Vanguard, 2009)
• Metro: The Official Bootleg Series, Volume 1 2010

See also[link]

• Music of Austin

Articles[link]

• Alejandro Escovedo article at www.herohill.com
• Alejandro Escovedo article at www.harpmagazine.com
• Alejandro Escovedo article at www.honesttune.com
• Alejandro Escovedo article at www.browardpalmbeach.com

References[link]

External links[link]

• Alejandro Escovedo's website
• Posh Boy Records
• 5 Star review for The Boxing Mirror
• Alejandro Escovedo at NPR Music
• Alejandro Escovedo on Live Music Archive

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Jesse Malin
Jesse Malin
Background information
Birth name	Jesse Malin
Born	(1968-01-26) January 26, 1968 (age 44) Flushing, Queens, New York, U.S.
Genres	Rock Punk rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals Guitar
Years active	1980 – present
Labels	Artemis Records Adeline Records One Little Indian Records SideOneDummy Records
Associated acts	The Finger Bellvue PCP Highway D Generation Hope Heart Attack Rodeo Queens
Website	Official Website

Jesse Malin (born January 26, 1968 in Flushing, Queens, New York, U.S.) is a rock musician. He has played with Heart Attack and D Generation. He is currently a solo recording artist.

Biography[link]

Malin began his music career, at the age of 12, as the front-man for the seminal New York City hardcore band Heart Attack. Following the demise of that band in 1984, Jesse worked on several other projects, including the band Hope, before joining glam punk band D Generation for which he was the lead singer for eight years. As one of New York City's most noted bands of 1990s, D Generation released three albums, including No Lunch before eventually disbanding in April 1999. ^[1]

Malin didn't stop writing music and went on to form two other projects, PCP Highway (with former D Generation bandmates Howie Pyro and Joe Rizzo) and Bellvue (also named Tsing-Tsing for a brief time); the latter band released one album, To Be Somebody on Goldenseal Records. The album included versions of songs that would later be reworked for Malin's first two solo albums, including Solitaire, Basement Home, Brooklyn and Downliner.^[2]

Solo career[link]

Being a fan of Neil Young, Tom Waits and Steve Earle affected his work; he spent the next two years working on a fresh sound. Former Whiskeytown front-man Ryan Adams, who'd been a friend of Malin since the D Generation days, was impressed with Malin's new material. Adams offered to produce Malin's debut album despite the fact that he'd never produced a record before. The two headed into Loho Studios in New York in January 2001 and made an album in just six days. A deal with Artemis Records soon followed. The Fine Art of Self Destruction appeared in the United Kingdom in October 2002; lead off first single, "Queen of the Underworld" was a moderate hit and the British press quickly hailed Malin's debut as one of the year's best.

Stateside fans were eventually able to purchase the album "The Fine Art of Self-Destruction' in January 2003. Tour dates followed, both in America and the United Kingdom. Malin contributed to two cover albums, first he covered "Hungry Heart" for Light of Day: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen, and then he recorded a cover of The Clash's "Death Or Glory" on the tribute White Riot Vol. 2: A Tribute to The Clash. He also picked up a nomination for the Shortlist Music Prize.

By November 2003 he was back in the studio recording tracks his second album, The Heat, which was released in June 2004, accompanied by a string of tour dates on both sides of the Atlantic.

Malin has also collaborated with Ryan Adams & Johnny T to form the band The Finger (the pair adopted the pseudonyms "Irving Plaza" and "Warren Peace" respectively) who released two EPs which were later collected into the album We Are Fuck You.

Malin's album, Glitter in the Gutter was released on March 20, 2007. It also featured a cover of The Replacements' "Bastards of Young" and a duet with Bruce Springsteen on "Broken Radio." A music video was also made to accompany "Broken Radio."

Malin released a 'live in the studio' album, "Love It To Life" in November 2007 on the One Little Indian label for sale in the UK. Recorded live at Gigantic Recording Studios in New York City, NY and featured songs from his previous albums. He used the title again in 2010 for an album of new material.

Malin released a covers album on 7 April 2008 entitled On Your Sleeve, containing covers of songs by, among others, The Ramones, Sam Cooke, Neil Young and The Hold Steady, as well as a studio recording of a long-time live favourite, Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'."

In 2010, Malin formed a band called Jesse Malin and the St. Mark's Social and released a new album called Love It To Life; the title comes from a quote by Joe Strummer. (The title was previously used on a 2007 UK release of live material on the One Little Indian label.) Featuring a more rockier approach, the album's first single was "Burning The Bowery" and next single was "All The Way From Moscow." Love It To Life was referred to as "the best album of his career" by Paste Magazine.

Malin was also a judge for the 9th annual Independent Music Awards.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

In December 2010, Malin, along members of Green Day, formed the band 'Rodeo Queens'. They released one song, along with a video, called 'Depression Times'.

D Generation reunited in 2011 and continue to play live, with talks of a new album being released in 2012.

Discography[link]

Solo albums[link]

• 2000: 169 (EP)
• 2002: The Fine Art of Self Destruction
• 2003: The Wendy EP (EP)
• 2004: The Heat
• 2007: Glitter in the Gutter
• 2007: Love It To Life ("official bootleg" live album) - not the 2010 studio release
• 2008: On Your Sleeve
• 2008: Mercury Retrograde
• 2010: Love It to Life

Solo singles[link]

• 2003: Queen of the Underworld
• 2003: Wendy
• 2003: Happy Holidays 2003
• 2003: Messed Up Here Tonight
• 2004: Mona Lisa
• 2007: "Tomorrow, Tonight"
• 2007: "Don't Let Them Take You Down"
• 2007: "Broken Radio"
• 2008: "In the Modern World"

Collaborations[link]

• 2001: To Be Somebody (Bellvue)
• 2002: Toxic Lullabies: 1980-1984 (Heart Attack)
• 2002: We Are Fuck You (The Finger)
• 2007: Broken Radio (Bruce Springsteen) ^[9]
• 2010: Depression times (Green Day)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Jesse Malin on Myspace
• Jesse Malin on Facebook

The Bowery Boys were fictional New York City characters who were the subject of feature films released by Monogram Pictures from 1946 through 1958.

The Bowery Boys were successors of the "The East Side Kids," who were the subject of films since 1940. The group originated as the "Dead End Kids", who originally appeared in the 1937 film Dead End. A few of the actors previously appeared together as "The Little Tough Guys."

The Dead End Kids[link]

"The Dead End Kids" originally appeared in the 1935 play, Dead End. When Samuel Goldwyn turned the play into a 1937 film, he recruited the original kids (Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Billy Halop, and Bernard Punsly) from the play to appear in the same roles in the film. This led to the making of six other films under the moniker "The Dead End Kids."

The Little Tough Guys[link]

In 1938, Universal launched its own tough-kid series, "Little Tough Guys." Gradually Universal recruited most of the original Dead End Kids, so the series ultimately featured "The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys." Universal made twelve feature films and three 12-chapter serials with the gang. The final film in Universal's series, Keep 'Em Slugging, was released in 1943, with Bobby Jordan replacing erstwhile ringleader Billy Halop.

The East Side Kids[link]

When Warner Brothers released the remaining 'Dead End Kids' from their contracts in 1939, producer Sam Katzman at Monogram acted quickly and hired several of them, including Jordan and the Gorcey brothers Leo and David, as well as some of the 'Little Tough Guys,' including Hally Chester, to star in a new series using the team name "East Side Kids." These films also introduced 'Sunshine' Sammy Morrison, one of the original members of the Our Gang comedy team, as part of the gang.

The original members of the 'Dead End Kids' were now working at several studios, so these films were made at the same time that Universal was making 'The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys' series. A total of twenty-one films were made, with the final one, Come Out Fighting, being released in 1945.

The Bowery Boys[link]

In 1945, when East Side Kids producer Sam Katzman refused to grant Leo Gorcey's request to double his weekly salary, Gorcey quit the series, which ended immediately. Bobby Jordan then suggested a meeting with his agent, Jan Grippo. Grippo, Gorcey, and Hall formed Jan Grippo Productions, revamped the format, and rechristened the series The Bowery Boys (the earlier films credits appear as: "Leo Gorcey and The Bowery Boys"). Gorcey, who owned forty percent of the company, starred, produced, and contributed to the scripts. The new series followed a more established formula than the prior incarnations of the team, with the gang usually hanging out at Louie's Sweet Shop (at 3rd & Canal St.) until an adventure came along.

The original main characters were Terrence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney (Leo Gorcey), Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones (Huntz Hall), Bobby (Bobby Jordan), Whitey (Billy Benedict), and Chuck (David Gorcey, sometimes billed as David Condon). "Sunshine" Sammy Morrison ("Scruno" in the East Side Kids films), declined the invitation to rejoin the gang (later stating in an interview that he "didn't like the setup", possibly referring to the idea of Gorcey and Hall being in the forefront, and being paid much more than the other members). When Bobby Jordan quit the series for the same reason, his character was replaced by Butch Williams (with former East Side Kids Bennie Bartlett and Buddy Gorman alternating in the role). The proprietor of the malt shop where they hung out was the panicky Louie Dumbrowski (Bernard Gorcey - Leo and David's father). Perhaps to emphasize they were no longer teenagers, the "boys" now wore suits; and their mothers, who appeared in some of the "East Side Kids" series were rarely seen.

Like the previous incarnations of the team, the members went through a number of changes over the course of the series. Thirteen actors were members of the team at one time or another. Bobby Jordan, an original Dead End Kid, appeared in the first eight films, but left after being injured in an elevator accident. Jordan was also unhappy with the direction of the series, which favored Gorcey and Hall and limited the participation of the other gang members.

Gabriel Dell returned in the fourth entry, Spook Busters (1946) as "Gabe Moreno," a former member of the gang just out of the Navy with a French war-bride in tow. He remained (minus spouse) for the next 16 features. Gabe was a convenient "utility" character, frequently changing jobs (private investigator, policeman, songwriter, reporter) to suit the story at hand — and the limited casting budget. Dell often acted as a bridge between the real world and those of the Boys who he would summon to assist him. He reprised one of his East Side Kids roles in Hard Boiled Mahoney (1947), playing Gabe as a myopic nerd with thick glasses, ascot, and cap. His final appearance was in Blues Busters in 1950, generally regarded as one of the funniest in the series.

The early films such as In Fast Company (1946) flirted with the same crime-drama laced with humor of the previous series, but they gradually shifted to all-out comedy, growing more slapstick and fantasy-oriented over the next decade. After 1950 the series began to resemble the farcical Abbott and Costello comedies—a far cry from the grim social realism of their 1930s films. The grittiness of the old days was sanitized; the gang's dingy basement club-house was replaced by an ice cream parlor.

The team spirit of the ensemble cast faded as Huntz Hall was elevated to co-star status to showcase his comedic skills. The stories now focused entirely on Slip (the self-proclaimed leader of the bunch) and his zany sidekick, Sach, with the diminished three or four "boys" receding into the background with little to do. Time and again the plot revolved around Sach accidentally acquiring some strange power or ability (he becomes a psychic, champion wrestler, crooner, etc.) that Slip is quick to exploit. In most of the films, the gang pursues a scheme for quick riches or gets mixed up with neighborhood thugs. Story elements from their earlier films (haunted houses, mad scientists, nefarious spies) were also frequently incorporated into the new series.

Like a streetwise Abbott and Costello, Gorcey and Hall became a cohesive comedy duo, extending their verbal and physical humor into broader slapstick comedy that served to increase the popularity of the series. In 1953 Edward Bernds, a new producer and director who had previously worked with The Three Stooges, transformed the series into lucrative kiddie-matinée fodder, with Gorcey and Hall re-enacting gags borrowed from the Stooges. (Huntz Hall cited Shemp Howard, who did three Little Tough Guys films, as a major influence during this latter phase in the series.)

Leo's character "Slip" was famed for his malaprops (always delivered in a Brooklyn accent), such as "a clever seduction" for "a clever deduction," "I depreciate it!" ("I appreciate it!"), and "I regurgitate" ("I reiterate").

As the series wore on, the writers appear to have drawn more than a little inspiration from the hugely successful Abbott and Costello films. In the 1940s, Abbott & Costello did a quartet of "service comedies" for each branch of the military. The Bowery Boys duplicated this feat a decade later with Bowery Battalion, Let's Go Navy!, Here Come the Marines, and Clipped Wings. Abbott and Costello spoofed westerns: Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942), the upper-classes: In Society (1944), and hillbillies: Comin' Round the Mountain (1951). The Bowery Boys repeated this formula in Bowery Buckaroos (1947), High Society (1955), and Feudin' Fools (1952), respectively.

Abbott and Costello went on safari: Africa Screams (1949), to the Middle East: Lost in a Harem (1944), and even tangled with pirates in Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952). Once again, the Bowery Boys followed suit with Jungle Gents (1954), Bowery to Bagdad (1955), and Hold That Hypnotist (1957). Abbott and Costello become private detectives in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951); the Bowery Boys open up a detective agency in 1953's Private Eyes.

After Abbott and Costello's haunted-house comedy Hold That Ghost (1941) became a smash hit, the East Side Kids released the similar Spooks Run Wild with Bela Lugosi later that year. Ironically, Lugosi went on to help make Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, one of A&C's most popular and critically acclaimed comedies. The basic premise — Dracula schemes to transplant Costello's brain into the Frankenstein monster (played by Glenn Strange) — was duplicated a few months later by The Bowery Boys in Master Minds (1949). Glenn Strange once again plays a hulking monster who switches minds with Sach (Huntz Hall).

After filming Dig That Uranium in 1955, Bernard Gorcey was killed in an automobile accident, devastating his son Leo. Leo drank heavily, and it visibly affected his performance in the following film, Crashing Las Vegas, which would be his last. (During filming he became violently unhinged, trashing the set and destroying every prop in sight.) At a subsequent meeting with Allied Artists, Gorcey demanded an increase on the 40% interest he held in the series. This was denied, and after a heated exchange he quit the series and stormed off the studio lot.

The studio owed exhibitors three more films for the 1956 season, so Gorcey was replaced by Stanley Clements, a former tough-teen actor who had been in a few East Side Kids movies. Clements, as "Duke Coveleskie," adapted to the series easily and completed the three films, which now starred "Huntz Hall and The Bowery Boys." The new Hall-Clements partnership was successful enough to be renewed for the 1957 season. Four more films were made, with Eddie LeRoy joining the cast as bespectacled "Blinky."

In all, there were 48 Bowery Boys films (the longest feature-film series in motion picture history), with the final film, In the Money, being released in 1958. Only Huntz Hall and David Gorcey had remained with the series since 1946.^[1]

The Bowery Boys and East Side Kids picked up a new generation of mostly younger fans when the films were repackaged and syndicated for television in the 1960s and 1970s. They became a staple for independent stations across the U.S., often used to fill up the early-afternoon time-slots on weekends. In 1967 The Beatles even paid homage by selecting pictures of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall for the photo-montage cover of their celebrated Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. (The Gorcey photo was removed after Gorcey's agent demanded a $400 payment for use of his image.)