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.

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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 Raymond
• Support the show and get our patron-only podcast Side Streets at patreon.com/boweryboys.

This episode was edited and produced by Kieran Gannon

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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.

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