WEBVTT - Very Special Places: New York City 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:07.480 It's a night out in New York City in nineteen 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:15.520 fifty four. You could be doing well anything. There are movies, theaters, parties, bars, restaurants. 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:18.720 You could be at the opera or the ballet. You 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:22.960 could be dancing among the young and beautiful at El Morocco, 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:27.480 the Stork Club, or the Copa Cabana. Instead, you're standing 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:32.519 on a street corner, elbow to elbow with strangers, just 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:37.600 waiting because in just a few minutes you've been promised 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:42.400 you're about to get the best show in town, and 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.520 so you shove your hands in your pockets to warm 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.320 them and try not to get elbowed by an overly 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.760 aggressive photographer Next to you. You watch as burly men 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.960 carrying equipment set up for a movie scene they're about 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.400 to shoot. Maybe you get a glimpse of the actor 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:06.240 Tom Ewele, but everyone knows that, despite his recently celebrated 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:09.960 turn on Broadway, he's not the one who anyone is 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:14.360 here to see. Finally, you get a glimpse of white fabric, 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.560 a flash of a blonde bob, a smile that sets 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:23.080 the world sideways. The crowd comes to life with shouts 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:27.680 and cheers around you. Marilyn Monroe is here to shoot 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:34.840 what will become the most iconic scene in her career. Today, 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:39.360 there's nothing extraordinary about the corner of Lexington and fifty 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.759 second Street in twenty twenty six. There are three lanes 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:48.160 of fast moving traffic. There's a halal cart on the 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:52.480 sidewalk and a Paris baguette at the intersection, where in 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.040 a pen you can get a fairly generic sandwich on 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:00.080 the sidewalk on the southwestern side of the intersection, and 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:04.920 there's a mundane looking office building. It's the site of 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:10.520 a moment that redefined celebrity a few decades earlier, and 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.360 there's not even a plaque. Even if you've never seen 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.480 the Billy Wilder movie The Seven Year Itch, I can 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:24.639 almost guarantee you're aware of its most indelible image, immortalized 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:29.720 on the movie's poster and in recreations and parodies in 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:34.480 the decades since. In the movie, Marilyn Monroe, playing the 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:39.720 character credited only as the Girl, leaves the Translux movie 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:44.040 theater on fifty second Street with Tom Mule's character Richard 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:48.880 Sherman after seeing the creature from the Black Lagoon, and 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:54.280 then Monroe's character in a white halter dress with accordion pleats, 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:58.560 stands on a subway grate to enjoy the breeze from 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:03.520 a passing train below, her dress lifting around her. The 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:09.240 scene was scheduled to shoot on September fifteenth, nineteen fifty four. 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:14.359 Twentieth Century Fox, the studio behind the picture, smelled an 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.919 opportunity for publicity. They got word out to the public 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.760 about when and where that scene would be filming and 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:28.839 what exactly the scene would be. Fans and photographers descended, 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.960 all jocking for position to get a glimpse of the 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:37.640 movie star's legs and whatever else they might see. And 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:41.640 it was quite the crowd. Anywhere from two thousand to 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:46.800 five thousand people were shouting and screaming. Every time Wilder 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.440 queued the special effects man below the grate to turn 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:56.040 on the giant fan cameras flashed and snapped, and Marilyn's 0:03:56.120 --> 0:04:01.560 dress blew up around her again and again and again. 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:08.200 The crew shot the scene fourteen times as the crowds roared. 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.160 The truth was the crowds were never going to see 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:16.960 what they were probably hoping for. In her biography, Marilyn 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:21.000 noted that she wore two pairs of white underwear beneath 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:25.800 the dress to prevent a wardrobe malfunction. But still the 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:30.360 sexy little scene was a sensation. As it turns out, 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.800 all that noise from the crowds screaming and shouting and 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:38.560 trying to get close enough to see whatever Marylyn's underwear 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:42.680 wasn't hiding, well, it kind of made the footage unusable. 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.640 They had to reshoot that scene on a studio lot 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:51.000 in California, a set dressed up to look like New 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.839 York City. That's the shot that actually appears in the 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.640 movie The Seven Year Itch, not the one where hordes 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:04.600 of fans and uppertunity were shouting just beyond the camera's sightline. 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:08.360 But that night in New York wasn't a total wash. 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:13.360 It created plenty of buzz, and photos they took became 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:18.240 publicity pictures for the movie, Pictures that would arguably become 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:22.520 the most iconic images of a woman who was already 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:27.279 an American icon, and that night in New York City, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.760 with the fan below her and the fans surrounding her, 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:36.880 would change Maryland's life forever in a more personal way. 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:42.200 It wasn't just strangers in the crowd watching as Billy 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:46.239 Wilder told her to pretend to feel the subway breeze 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:50.559 over and over again. Her husband was also on set 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:56.440 that day, Joe DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper himself, the guy 0:05:56.520 --> 0:06:00.400 who set a record for the longest ever hitting streak 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.120 in Major League Baseball, which still stands to this day. 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.960 At this point, he was just a few years into 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:13.159 retirement and only a few months into their marriage. He 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:17.800 stood there, just waiting and watching. Every time Billy Wilder 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:23.760 called action, and the crowd cheered and jeered, heckling his wife, 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:28.720 their eyes glued to her legs. Joe DiMaggio was a 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:34.600 jealous man, and he had a temper. Now it's impossible 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.960 to know exactly what occurred in the privacy of a marriage, 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:44.120 but according to sources, that night, the couple argued loudly 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.600 in the Saint Regis Hotel, where they were staying while 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.520 they were in New York. There are some accounts that 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:55.680 DiMaggio was physically abusive. Less than three weeks later, the 0:06:55.760 --> 0:07:01.039 couple announced their divorce. The Daily News put it plainly, 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:08.240 quote Marilyn splits with Joe over sexy pictures. These days, 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:12.600 the trans Lux theater is long gone, and even the 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:17.400 original subway grades themselves have been replaced. There's no plaque, 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.560 but still you can stand on the site of the 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:25.560 most successful publicity photoshoot in history, the place where an 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:31.560 American icon revealed her legs and her husband revealed his insecurities. 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:39.640 Welcome to a very special episode of Very Special Episodes 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:44.160 and iHeart original podcast. I'm your host, Danas Schwartz, and 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:49.400 this is Very Special Places NYC Today will be taking 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.640 you through some of our favorite stories of New York 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:57.520 City's secret history, stories that prove that the world is 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:01.040 a very interesting place. You know where to look. 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.920 Welcome back to Very Special Episodes. I am Jason English, 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:10.000 she is Dana Schwartz. He is Zaren Burnette Yo. Usually 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.200 on this show we tell one incredible story, but today 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:15.520 we're going to do something a little different, and we're 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:19.440 going to talk about one incredible location and several stories 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.880 that are hiding in plain sight. Dana, tell us about 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:24.440 your trip to New York City. 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.239 I'm very excited for this episode. I love New York City. 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:30.920 It's you know, let me be the first to say 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.200 it's one of the greatest cities in the world. And 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:37.200 I love secret history and stories and so on this 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:40.000 trip to New York City. I made it my mission 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:44.600 to try to find locations that just seem ordinary, that 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:47.040 a normal person might just walk on by, but have 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:49.720 full stories behind them. And so that was what was 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.520 very exciting to me, is to find the places in 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.280 the city where you might not even know important, fascinating, 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:58.480 interesting history happened right there. 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.280 Well, I think since I read your first draft of this, 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.400 it's made my walking around New York more interesting. And 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:08.080 I don't even know, I'm just imagining the history that's 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.440 happening at places there might not even have been any, 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.480 but the idea that look deeper into these mundane places 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.720 and you might have a whole other world opened up. 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:17.679 That's it. 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:22.400 So should we go to New York. There are more 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.880 than one hundred sculptures in New York's Central Park. Some 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:31.440 are fictional characters like Alice in Wonderland. Some, like the 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:35.640 sculpture of Balto, the heroic sled dog, aren't even human. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:40.120 But plenty of the sculptures are honoring real living people, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:46.160 including a sculpture by John Quincy Adams Ward of William Shakespeare. 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.960 It's a statue mid Park at the southern end of 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:52.559 the mall, the head of an area known as the 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:57.120 Literary Walk because of the number of statues of notable writers. 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.600 In fact, there is this area called the kind of 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.440 Artists and Writers Walk. It's actually one of the most 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:08.079 beautiful areas of Central Park, especially in the fall and 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.840 all the leaves. It's like a canopy of trees. And again, 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.120 there were no statues in Central Park before this one, 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.400 and today this gorgeous walk, which used to be a 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.160 carriage path. You know, people in the Gilded Age would 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:22.439 write their carriage. 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.080 That's Greg Young. Greg is a historian and half of 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.800 the duo behind the wildly successful Bowery Boys podcast, which 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:36.920 explores hidden New York City history. Nothing about the Shakespeare 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:41.160 sculpture in Central Park seems particularly out of the ordinary. 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.840 It's a nice bronze sculpture, a perfect backdrop for your 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:50.160 picnic or frisbee game. Its plinth is very tall. It's 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:54.760 impossible to get at eye level. Maybe that's fitting, after all, 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:59.439 William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest playwright in world history, 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.079 should be looking down at all the passers by swirling 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.880 the clinking ice in their machas and arguing about whether 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.679 they should try to get a reservation at Balthazar. Like 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:16.000 I said, it's a nice statue, but there's something astonishing 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.760 about it that you won't learn from its engraving or 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:26.760 from the little information board nearby. That statue of William Shakespeare, 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.760 still standing today in Central Park, has a connection to 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:38.040 one of the most notorious murderers in American history. Back 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.720 in eighteen sixty four, when the idea came about for 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.760 a statue of William Shakespeare for the three hundredth anniversary 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.880 of his birth, a committee put together a plan for 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:53.560 raising the funds Now, a statue in Central Park obviously 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.319 doesn't seem like a big deal, but as Greg explains, 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.640 back then, it was actually a pretty big decision. 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.000 Let me explain how like kind of shocking or just 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:08.080 how stunning that even is as a story, because Central 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:12.480 Park isn't even completed yet, okay, And the original design 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:14.520 of Central Park was that it was not supposed to 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:18.400 have any kind of ornamentation, whether it wasn't going to 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:20.160 have statue, It was going to be a place where 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.920 you could like sort of take your horse, ride around 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.360 your carriage, or walk around, and it wasn't supposed to 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.480 have a lot of memorials to culture in it. 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.600 The fact that this statue got the go ahead just 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:37.160 goes to show how prominent and powerful the committee of 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:41.320 men advocating for it was. The committee was made of 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.640 well the type of people you expect for this kind 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:49.720 of thing, people who love public art and theater, actors, directors, 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.440 wealthy people, the literati. One of the men on that 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:58.800 committee was a man named Edwin Booth, almost universally celebrated 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.920 as the pre eminent Shakespearean actor of his day, and 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:09.480 Edwin had quite the theatrical pedigree. His father, Junius Brutus Booth, 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:14.480 was the most famous Shakespearean actor of his day, who 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.240 had moved from England to the United States and spent 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:23.839 decades touring with his portrayals of Shakespeare's most famous characters. 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:28.520 As a young man, Edwin had traveled alongside his father, 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:33.800 absorbing the words of the Bard's poetry by osmosis, before 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.800 he eventually set out on his own, becoming a prominent 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.400 and celebrated actor in his own right, known for his 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:47.120 signature role Hamlet. The Booth Theater in New York City 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:50.720 is still named for him today, and Edwin had become 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.600 not only a critically acclaimed actor, but also a man 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:59.240 of society with famous and connected friends, the type of 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.520 person whose deserves on a committee to erect a statue 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.720 of William Shakespeare in Central Park. 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.160 William Shakespeare was actually really popular in the mid nineteenth 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.160 century with all different classes. In fact, I would even 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:16.080 say that, like the working class, a lot of immigrant communities, 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:21.600 especially out in the West, really understood and connected to Shakespeare, 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.680 which I find really heartening in a way, because I 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.400 think a lot of times it's seen as like hiphaluten 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:28.640 and hard to understand. 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.800 To raise money for the statue, there would be a 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:40.480 one night only benefit performance of what else a Shakespeare play, 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.760 and to really bolster up interest, they would do something 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:49.120 really special. That night, for the first and only time. 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.560 Edwin Booth would be performing alongside two of his brothers, 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:58.160 his older brother Junius Brutus Junior and his younger brother, 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:04.800 John Wilkes. Yes, that John Wilkes Booth. 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:07.680 You have to remember, I mean you probably know this 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.720 from American history, but John Wilkes Booth is an actor, right. 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.800 He was a part of the crew of the American Cousin, 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:17.360 you know, on that night where Lincoln was assassinated. But 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.520 not only was he an actor, he was like one 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:26.520 of the most famous actors. He and his brother and 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:28.400 his father Junius. 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.520 The play they decided to put on was Julius Caesar. 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.200 I know what you're thinking, but no, John Wilkes did 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:41.000 not play the role of the man who assassinates a tyrant. 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:45.560 Brutus was actually played by Edwin, who, it really should 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:49.960 be noted, was the far better actor compared to John Wilkes. 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:56.000 Although John was notably handsome. John Wilkes played Mark Antony. 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.400 The show was a rousing success. 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.240 They were such a prominent family and this statue was 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.840 actually seen as something very civic that they were really 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:10.800 going to be a part of building this aspect of 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.320 New York. No one's thinking of Central Park at this 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.240 time as being what it is today. So the fact 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.040 that they're responsible for this is very significant. And so 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.880 they end up it's like a fundraiser. They appear they 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:27.400 do Julius Caesar. It's the three brothers, John Wilkes, Edwin 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:32.440 and Junius and they perform on the stage of Edwin's 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:37.360 theater to raise money for this particular statue. And it 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:42.120 is one of the biggest shows. Like New York has 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:44.640 some big shows. You know, whatever you've got like Maady 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.520 Gaga five nights at whatever Barkley Center. You've got the Beatles, 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.520 You've got Simon and Garfunkele. This is really like a 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:53.640 top ten type of sellout show. 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:57.560 And it's like Julius Caesar. Right, we've all seen this. 0:16:57.920 --> 0:16:59.800 It would not be the show I would have selected 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:01.560 as one of the greatest of all time, but it 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.560 drew so many people they were able to immediately raise 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:10.560 money for the construction of the statue. 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.840 The Three Brothers for the price of one performance ended 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:16.159 up raising four thousand dollars or about eighty thousand dollars today. 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:21.800 But there was a brief hiccup during the second act. 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:26.080 Shakespeare's dialogue was drowned out by the sound of clanging 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:30.440 fire bells outside on the street. The show paused, and 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:34.480 Edwin quietly spoke with the theater manager before returning to 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:38.080 stage and breaking the fourth wall to address the audience. 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.760 He informed them that a small fire had broken out 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:44.880 nearby at the Lafarge Hotel, but it was put out 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:50.440 the show could continue. At that time, neither the audience 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:54.320 nor the actors on stage had a full understanding of 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.800 what had actually occurred that night. The year is eighteen 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.520 sixty four, and the performance might have been entertaining enough 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:05.320 to put the Civil War out of mind, but the 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:08.960 war was still going on. A group known as the 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:13.720 Confederate Army of Manhattan had infiltrated the city and they 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.320 were attempting to burn the city down. 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:19.840 At the time that this happened, this was in November. 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.640 It was like around Thanksgiving in fact of eighteen sixty four, 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:26.520 and the Confederacy were. 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:27.520 They were losing by this time. 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.120 They were losing very, very badly, and it was almost 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.000 a set done by this time. But there were a 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:37.200 collection of Confederates who came to New York City in disguise, 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.879 you know. They met in New York City, and they 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:43.159 thought that one great way to turn the tide, or 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:45.960 just a real sudden like sha gunaw type of situation, 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.200 was to go through New York and to set all 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:53.400 of these fires all over the place. And they use 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:55.679 what was called Greek fire. Today it's almost like a 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:57.159 Molotov cocktail. 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:01.280 They lit fires in a theater in P. T. Barnum's 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:07.159 New York City Museum, and in nineteen hotels including the LeFarge. 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:10.160 And so a group of these men went out. 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.520 Into the city one particular night, and they were to 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.560 some degree successful, some of them, I mean overall they 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:21.119 were a bit incompetent, Thank goodness. This was really before 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.240 even like go out and do the circus properly. This 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:28.040 was like a major venue, kind of like freak show 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:31.359 meets zoo meets sort of like an anything goes type 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:35.399 of place. They attempted to burn that down that someone 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.840 ran in, and they threw the flames onto the stairs 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.639 and it caught fire. But again like they didn't do 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:44.160 a very good job of it. Most of these fires 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:45.400 were put out very quickly. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.720 Though there was momentary panic, the fires were effectively put 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:55.240 out and the plot was foiled. The next morning, the 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:59.040 Booth brothers all met for breakfast at Edwin's home on 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.600 East nineteenenth Street. Of course, the news of the day 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:06.320 came up how Confederate radicals had tried to burn the 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:11.440 city to the ground. To Edwin's shock and surprise, John 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:15.320 Wilkes defended the plot. Those men were trying to get 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.120 retribution for all of the atrocities the Union had committed. 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:24.639 Can you blame them? Well, yes, yes you can. Edwin, 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:28.760 who had just voted for Lincoln's reelection, was a guest. 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:33.240 He kicked John Wilkes out of his house then and there. 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.960 So John Wilkes Booth, actually yeah, was very Southern sympathizing, 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:40.960 which would set him askance from his brother. 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:43.040 Edwin, who was more for the Union. 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:45.480 He didn't have anything to do with these fires, but 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:48.919 as we know, as the Confederacy decided to do more 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:51.199 and more things that were more desperate in nature, he 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.600 ended up getting pulled into the conflict eventually himself. 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.560 In April of the following year, John Wilkes Booth would 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:05.679 assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, fewer than five months after he 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:09.960 had starred in a famous play about a political assassination. 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.640 Oh yeah, exactly, Julius Caesar right. 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:18.280 In fact, I believe John played Mark Anthony and Edwin 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:22.320 played Brutus, and then Cassius was the brother Junius. So 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:26.240 but I wonder, I mean, certainly things were already clicking 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:28.399 in John Wiok's mind by this point. 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:34.520 I assume Lincoln's assassination occurred at the Ford's Theater in Washington, 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:39.399 d C. During a production of Our American Cousin. Booth 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:43.960 knew the play well. He supposedly tried to time his 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:47.560 gunshot with a moment in the play where he knew 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:51.119 the line always got a laugh to help muffle the sound. 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:56.000 After the killing, John Wilkes Booth leapt from the box 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:59.760 with Abraham Lincoln's bloody body and his shocked wife on 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.399 to the stage. It was a feat of athleticism that 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:07.840 had actually become something of a signature stunt for John 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:12.199 Wilkes when he was performing, and with the addiction of 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:17.280 a trained actor, he shouted out the phrase sick semper tyrannus, 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:23.200 thus always to tyrants. It's a line that's attributed most 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:28.720 often to Lucius Junius Brutus, or to his descendant Marcus 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:33.880 Junius Brutus, who took part in the assassination of Julius Caesar. 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:39.080 As I mentioned earlier, there's a Broadway theater still named 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:42.800 after Edwin Booth. I've seen a few shows there, actually, 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.720 next to normal the Glass Menagerie. More recently they put 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:51.239 up the Tony Award winning musical Kimberly Akimbo and the 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:55.680 crowd favorite John Proctor is the villain. But its history 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:59.520 goes back much further than that. The Booth Theater has 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:03.240 been around for more than one hundred years. It opened 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:08.520 in nineteen thirteen, named for the famous Shakespearean actor who 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:12.600 had died twenty years earlier. The first show they ever 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:16.960 put up was an import from London called The Great Adventure. 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.000 I've never heard of it, and I'm guessing you haven't either, 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:25.879 but I did recognize the name of the second play 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:30.359 they ever produced at the Booth Theater. It's a three 0:23:30.480 --> 0:23:34.960 act play by Tom Taylor that today isn't really known 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:39.080 for its merits. The next play they put up at 0:23:39.119 --> 0:23:44.400 the Booth Theater in nineteen fifteen a revival of Our 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:53.560 American Cousin. You could spend a lovely afternoon in New 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:57.920 York shopping in Soho. The streets are dense with designer 0:23:58.000 --> 0:24:01.080 clothing and jewelry stores, but even if you're not in 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:04.360 the market for four thousand dollars jackets, there are plenty 0:24:04.400 --> 0:24:08.000 of options. Next Door to the Berbery on Spring Street 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:11.600 is a store called Costs, where you can get minimalist 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:16.200 fashion for well a slightly more reasonable price. But if 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:19.520 you happen to be in the neighborhood, the best fined 0:24:19.640 --> 0:24:23.679 at Costs wouldn't be its corduroy barrel leg pants or 0:24:23.920 --> 0:24:26.000 gallery tote bag with crock effect. 0:24:26.160 --> 0:24:26.400 Leather. 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:31.159 No, the most interesting thing in the store isn't for 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:34.600 sale at all. If you go into the store and 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:38.760 turn left, you'll find a staircase leading down to the 0:24:38.880 --> 0:24:43.520 menswear department. You'll have to keep walking past the racks 0:24:43.560 --> 0:24:47.720 of funnel necked wool jackets and wool blend straight leg pants. 0:24:48.440 --> 0:24:53.320 In the back near the register, there's well a well, 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:59.560 a circular brick well that looks extremely old and extremely 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:05.120 incommon GUIs among the Scandinavian style minimalism of cosses clean lines. 0:25:05.920 --> 0:25:11.359 It looks extremely old because it is the now sealed well. 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:15.040 At one hundred and twenty nine Spring Street is what's 0:25:15.160 --> 0:25:19.320 left of the Manhattan Well, the site of a grizzly 0:25:19.600 --> 0:25:25.080 and tragic death On January twod in eighteen hundred, the 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:29.159 body of a young woman named Elma Sands was found 0:25:29.240 --> 0:25:33.960 inside the well, igniting a media firestorm. It would become 0:25:34.119 --> 0:25:37.680 one of the earliest murder trials in the still new 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:42.240 United States. You might not know the name Elma Sands, 0:25:42.320 --> 0:25:46.320 but here's the name. I'm betting you do know Hamilton, 0:25:47.160 --> 0:25:50.240 even if you're not a musical theater nerd to the 0:25:50.280 --> 0:25:53.280 degree that I am. Unless you've been living under a 0:25:53.400 --> 0:25:57.080 rock or down in a well. You know the ten 0:25:57.200 --> 0:26:01.680 dollars Founding Father, whom Lynn Manuel Miranda set to wrap 0:26:01.760 --> 0:26:06.120 on Broadway back in twenty fifteen. There's a song right 0:26:06.200 --> 0:26:10.000 before the second act where Hamilton sings during his tenure 0:26:10.080 --> 0:26:14.560 as a lawyer. He's addressing an invisible jury with pomp 0:26:14.720 --> 0:26:19.000 and bravado quote this is the first murder trial of 0:26:19.040 --> 0:26:22.600 our brand new nation, and continues on a bit before 0:26:22.600 --> 0:26:26.960 he's interrupted by his co counsul Aaron Burr, stepping in 0:26:27.080 --> 0:26:31.240 with a little less bravado, declaring our client, Levy Weeks, 0:26:31.320 --> 0:26:37.000 is innocent. Those lines are referencing something that did actually happen. 0:26:37.600 --> 0:26:43.080 Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, future assassin and victim, did 0:26:43.119 --> 0:26:47.080 work together in eighteen hundred on the legal defense of 0:26:47.240 --> 0:26:51.480 Levy Weeks. It wasn't actually the first murder trial in 0:26:51.520 --> 0:26:55.000 the new United States, but it is the first one 0:26:55.119 --> 0:27:01.080 we have full transcripts of so close enough. Julielma Sands, 0:27:01.240 --> 0:27:04.840 known as Elma, lived at a boarding house in Manhattan 0:27:04.920 --> 0:27:09.760 owned by a relative, Catherine Ring and her husband. Now 0:27:09.840 --> 0:27:14.080 when I say Manhattan, that word probably connotes some degree 0:27:14.119 --> 0:27:17.960 of glamour or big city bustle in your mind. You're 0:27:18.000 --> 0:27:19.600 going to want to put that aside. 0:27:20.400 --> 0:27:24.880 We need to go back to the year seventeen ninety nine. 0:27:25.480 --> 0:27:28.399 You know, New York City is certainly not developed in 0:27:28.440 --> 0:27:30.920 any way, shape or form. We don't really even have 0:27:31.080 --> 0:27:34.720 like the old famous grid plan of avenues and streets. 0:27:35.119 --> 0:27:39.560