WEBVTT - Give My Regards to the Broadway Episode! 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:07.680 Welcome to Stuff you should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.240 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:16.720 Chuck and Jerry's here too, And this is a good 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:21.200 old fashioned toe tapping, feel good event of the century 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.400 that we like to call stuff you should know. 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:29.920 I cannot stop singing. They say the neon lights up 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:31.960 ride a broad Way. 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:34.600 That's one of my least favorites. Is that from a 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:35.240 chorus line. 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.200 I don't know I was singing that earlier. I was singing, 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:40.800 give my regards to Broadway. 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:44.400 Wow, you haven't been singing the one I've been singing. 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:45.560 What have you been singing? 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:51.599 There's no bitess like show business, like no business. I know. 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.800 That's great. I do not know the neon lights when 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:58.240 I should have looked that up, but I do know. 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.600 Give my regards to Broadway. Is from Little Johnny Jones 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:03.960 from nineteen oh four, written by Georgiam Kohen. 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.480 Neon Lights is a kraft Work song. You're way off, 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:14.400 Oh well, Little Johnny Jones is the most like nineteen 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.800 twenties play title or musical title I've ever heard. 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.560 I didn't know craft Work, uh as they say, is 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.520 the neon lights so bright? Nowthers go. 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.480 It's a little different. Okay, it's really good though. I 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:30.399 think it's actually the best song about Neon lights. 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.480 Oh that's a bold statement. 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:34.319 I know. I'm with you. 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:38.560 By the way, this is a listener suggestion, so big 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:40.640 thanks to Sarah Nagy for sending this in. 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.840 Oh nice, thanks Sarah. We should probably say, for anybody 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:46.920 who didn't bother looking at the title, we're talking about 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:55.280 Broadway today. Broadway as in the American home of musicals, 0:01:55.600 --> 0:02:00.320 the Great White Way, you know, where musical theater goes 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.040 to live and thrive and give it a shot at stardom. 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:04.600 It's right and non musical theater. 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.079 True. True. I'm more of a play guy than a 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.040 musical guy myself. I remember going to see La La 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.480 Land in the theater and being like, I had no 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.720 idea this is a musical. Luckily it turned out really well, 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:18.880 but okay, good. At first, I was like, you gotta 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.400 be kidding me, kind of like you know when you 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:23.959 go to drink take a sip of water and it 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.400 turns out to be coke, but it's really shocking, but 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:28.880 then you're like, oh, okay, cook's fine. It was a 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.320 lot like that. The movie version of that. 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.160 Yeah, I think I've detailed this a little bit. But 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.960 I've gotten more into musicals and I enjoy musical theater 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.880 and Broadway, and we try to go to a show 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.799 and we're in New York and now we're doing an 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:47.200 annual Broadway only trip, like where we go see a 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:47.720 few of them. 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.600 That's a pilgrimage, Yeah, pilgrimage. 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:52.560 But I do love the plays. And we are in 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:54.519 fact going to see Glengary Glenn Ross in May. 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:56.600 Haven't you seen the movie? 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:59.920 I have? But this has got that killer cast on Broadway. 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:01.120 I don't know if you've heard about it or not. 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.520 No, I haven't, Honestly, I haven't kept up with Broadway lately. 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.880 Yeah, this has got Glen Garrett, Glenn Ross with Kieran 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.120 Culkin and Bill Burr and Bob Odenkirk and others. 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:15.200 Wow, that is a killer cast. 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.280 So I grab tickets for that right when they went 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:19.519 on sale, and I'm going and my friends are like, 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:21.320 ohd you get tickets, man, You're still lucky. I'm like, 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.040 I just logged on and got them when they went 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:23.519 on sale. 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:26.000 You logged onto your internet? 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:28.079 Yeah, you know, just get on a if you're into 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:29.720 that kind of hanging. You just jump on a little 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:34.200 like a Broadway Direct email list and then you'll get 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:35.480 the aps on all the apps. 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:41.960 So you mentioned T is it t TKT Oh? 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.320 Yeah, the TS booth? 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.520 Yes? Are they online too? Or is that like a 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:49.760 physically stand there in person kind of thing. 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.400 Yeah. That is the ticket service run for the not 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.200 for profit Theater Development Fund, And that is if you're 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:56.880 in New York and you're like, man, I wish I 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:58.840 could go to a show, but I don't want to 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.280 jump on a resale site and pay a ton of money. 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.800 There are booths end Times Square and satellite booths at 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.600 South Street, Seaport and Lincoln Center where you can get 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:11.680 day of You can go get day of tickets for 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.720 people that are like, I can't go Broadway. Can you 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:15.720 help me sell these? 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.159 Yeah? And apparently if you go with like an hour 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.520 or so before the booth opens, the line once it 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:24.760 does open will only be about an hour. That's how 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.520 long it takes to clear out typically, And people who 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.120 are in line know what they want to see and 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.560 they want the best seats, and that's what they're going for. 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:34.760 That's why they're standing in line. But if you're like Hey, 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:36.640 I'm in New York. Let's catch a show. I don't 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.039 care what show. You can just show up, like a 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.240 couple hours after the thing opens and walk right up 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:43.320 and pick a show. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.840 Yeah, And I got to say, and you know, we'll 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:47.640 get to this, or I might as well say it now. 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:51.359 The largest Broadway theater. If you've never been, you might 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.200 be used to like Broadway in your hometown at like 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.760 the five thousand seat theater or something like they have. 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:58.760 Here at the Performing Arts Center, yeah, or. 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.560 The Performing Art Center. But in New York they're they're 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.599 pretty small. The largest one is the Gershwin Theater at 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.240 nineteen hundred and thirty three seats. The smallest of the 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:09.839 how many theaters is it? Total? 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:16.880 Forty two forty seven forty one theaters forty one The. 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:20.000 Smallest is the Haze at five ninety seven. So you know, 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:21.359 if you're in town, you want to check out a 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.839 show in most of those theaters. Most of the seats 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:26.679 are pretty great and it's fairly intimate. 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:31.440 I don't know much about it lately. Like I left 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:33.280 off with Phantom of the Opera, that was probably the 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:37.440 last musical I was ever really into. So but I 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:39.960 know that since I've been into it, like they've become 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:45.320 blockbuster productions, Yeah, very much, along like the Marvel Cinematic 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.680 Universe movie franchise stuff where it's like, just put a 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:50.760 ton of money into it, Yeah, and people come from 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.240 all over and you'll make ten times what you put 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.719 into it. Yeah, and that I mean, that's that's fairly 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:01.760 fairly new development. Is Is it like that basically across 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.600 the board now? Or surely that's like a handful of 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.239 powerhouse shows and the rest of them are more normal 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.760 and hence ticket prices are more normal, do you know, I. 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:12.960 Mean from my experience stuff. You know, if you go 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.039 to see some of the classics, they're you know, they're 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.520 big productions, but they're not maybe not as like special 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.080 effects heavy. They definitely I feel like have jazzed them 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.560 up a lot more in more recent years, with more 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.440 sort of jaw dropping moments of like kind of I 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.200 can't believe they did that live kind of stuff. 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.200 Like when the Salesman from Death of a Salesman flies 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.080 out over the crowd at that one scene. 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.280 But like, for instance, last time we went we saw 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:44.479 the that's the best thing we saw. One of the 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:48.080 ones we saw was the new Ish Death Becomes Her, 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.080 which is I can't recommend enough. It is one of 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:55.120 the funniest musicals you'll ever see. But it wasn't some 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.159 lavish production, but they had a couple of very well 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:03.039 placed sort of special effects that were very fun and 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.839 so I think you need to sort of wow the 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:07.359 crowd a little bit more these days. 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:09.840 Okay, So you're not going to find like a nineteen 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:14.960 fifty sixties style musical comedy that isn't relying at all 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:16.560 on special effects there anymore. 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:20.400 M No. I mean, but maybe not special effects, but 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.840 the sets are still very big and there's a lot 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:24.840 of money poured into it that your plays are you're 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:27.040 going to be a little more like stripped down. 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.680 So okay, last question. Ticket price is, from what I've seen, 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:31.640 are like eye popping. 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.480 Pretty Yeah. I think Wicked was the most expensive. It 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:37.320 was two ninety average price. 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:43.000 Man out, So there's got to be tickets that are 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.080 like that the normal person can afford, right. 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.840 Yeah, yeah, I mean that's the average ticket price. So 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.960 the cheaper seats for like a show like Wicket or 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:54.560 I don't know, probably in the one hundred and something, 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:56.320 which is still I mean, that's a lot of money, 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:58.360 but I don't know that you can go, like if 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.000 you're a question is can you go see a Broadway 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:01.480 show for like forty five bucks? 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:02.840 Yes, that's my question. 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.440 I don't know, and I doubt it. 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:08.000 Yeah, all right, well that's a bit of a shame 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:08.720 I have to say. 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.360 Although I'll have to look at my Glengarry tickets. I 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.080 don't know that those were like crazy expensive, but I'll check. 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:15.640 Why you talk? 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.560 Okay, well I'm going to start talking about the history 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:19.200 of Broadway. 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:19.920 Let's do it. 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:22.760 So Olivia helped us out with this. Kudos to her 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:26.000 because this was a huge, huge topic and she wrangled 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:32.880 it greatly. But the street itself, Broadway is really really old. 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:37.280 It's actually built on an old Lenape tribe trail that 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.240 connected the tribes along the thirty miles of Manhattan, So 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.000 this is like pre contact. Yeah, Broadway was already in 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:49.199 existence when the Dutch showed up and they said, this 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:53.760 is New Amsterdam. Eventually we'll rename it New York. 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:54.720 Yeah. 0:08:55.480 --> 0:09:00.840 They called it daher Strat, Yeah, which is Gentlemen's Way. 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.880 So apparently here with two e's in the middle means 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.080 gentlemen in Dutch. If you want to impress people at 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.840 your next party. Yeah, but they just called it bread 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:12.960 vague or broad way broad road in the English said, well, 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:14.680 where's going to call that broadway from now on? 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.840 Yeah, So that's the street Broadway. The theater district is 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.560 between Times Square to fifty third Street and then the 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.280 side streets from six to eighth Avenues. And like I said, 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:30.920 it's forty one theaters. And with that smallest one, the Hayes, 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.439 being five ninety seven, they're all at least five hundred, 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.800 almost six hundred. I mean, can you squeeze three more 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:36.880 seats in there Hayes? 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:38.680 Maybe standing room moment. 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:41.360 And like I said, the Gershwin is the largest at 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:46.040 nineteen thirty three. And you know that's where theater happens. 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:47.480 And we're going to talk a little bit about sort 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.640 of the early theater days, because if you're talking New 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:52.959 York theater, you're gonna have to go back to seventeen 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:55.520 thirty two to see the first or at least the 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.200 first record of a performance of a play there. It 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:01.080 was called the Recruiting Officer mm hmm, and that was 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.800 some Londoners traveling through town, and it was the New 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:09.280 Theater on Nassau Street. But that was near Broadway, but 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.520 not anywhere close to the theater district. It was way 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:13.800 way downtown and what would now be the Financial District. 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:16.720 You're not going to mention the name of the owner 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:17.880 of the new theater. 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:21.359 Building, Governor Rip van Dam. 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.959 Which is a really great hotel. Check in name. 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.559 Yeah, that's good, included just with the governor. 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.959 Yeah, governor, governor, Okay, I'll give you a special treatment. 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:31.280 Yeah. 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:34.320 So, yeah, you said that was in what is now 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.640 the Financial District. So slowly but surely it started to 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:43.280 kind of move to what was called the Long Acre Square. Yeah, 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.719 but before that, there was a lot of theaters that 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:50.600 had opened up sporadically away from what we now consider Broadway. 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:53.800 And I think the first I don't know if we 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:55.640 said it or not, because you corrected me when I 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.439 said like musicals. You're like, well, plays too, But most 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.040 people when they're talking about Broadway things, think they're thinking 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:01.960 about musicals. 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:02.120 Right. 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:05.840 So the first musical, as far as anybody can tell, 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.079 that was performed in New York. It was called The 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:12.400 Beggar's Opera. It was about thieves and sex workers. It 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:16.640 was a musical comedy. It sounds like it was somewhat 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.160 like one of the plays that would come in the 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.760 nineteenth century, or one of the musicals where there were 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.240 like kind of breaks in between where they some stand 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:28.160 up comedian would come out, or a juggler maybe, or 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.120 somebody would perform a song, but the songs didn't have 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.080 much to do with the story, if anything at all. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.439 Yeah, and we'll get to that. That was sort of 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:37.959 the way it went for a while. It was sort 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.520 of like songs and sketches and stuff like that. That 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:44.080 was what a musical was. But we wouldn't have any 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.800 of this stuff it hadn't been for some pretty notable people. 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:52.040 The first one, well, he's actually the first Oscar Hammerstein. 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.239 What would be two notable Oscar Hammerstein's. 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.400 Yeah, this is Oscar Hammerstein. I, that's right. 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.440 He moved from Germany, of course, to New York City 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:05.600 in eighteen sixty four and was a cigar factory floor 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.960 sweeper until he invented a cigar machine and made quite 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.200 a bit of money doing so, such that he could 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:16.160 start funding the opening of his passion, which was opera. 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.040 So he opened the Harlem Opera House first in eighteen 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:23.480 eighty nine and then that very first one in long 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.480 Acre Square, which will be notable in about a minute 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:29.520 and a half because you will learn what that became. 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:34.840 Hammerstein's Olympia Theater at Broadway and forty third and forty fourth, 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.720 and then after that the Republic Theater was in eighteen 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.319 ninety nine, which is still there but is now the 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:42.199 new Victory. 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.280 Theater, Gotcha, which I think is for young audiences, right, 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.240 is it? Sure? Yeah? I'm almost positive it. 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:52.160 Is like really body kids plays, Yeah. 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:53.120 Like Avenue Q. 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:54.200 Yeah, exactly. 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:59.559 So within like a decade, Oscar Hammerstein the first built 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:03.559 like three major theaters in New York City, and he 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.880 helped pretty much establish this theater district or the concept 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.160 that New York had a theater district. Yeah, or it 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:15.199 was a theater town, I guess. Plus, and this is 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:19.679 probably a fairly overlooked component of it. The Inner Borough 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.880 rapid transit system the train helped too, because it could 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.760 get people around New York much more easily than before. 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:30.120 So with those two things Hammerstein and the irt converging, 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:33.959 New York suddenly had like everything it needed, all the 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:37.199 ingredients to become like a world class theater destination. 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:39.840 Yeah, for sure. So the riding was on the wall. 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:42.319 He opened those theaters, other people are like, hey, we 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:44.600 can invest money in this now that it's becoming a thing. 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:49.000 The New Amsterdam Theater and the Lyceum Theater were both 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.400 built around the same time in the early nineteen hundreds. 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.720 And then, oh boy, we're probably more than a minute 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.800 a half after I promised it. But in nineteen oh five, 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:03.000 long Acre Square was renamed for the newly relocated New 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.160 York Times offices, and thus it became Times Square. 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.040 That's it, that's it. 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:11.000 I was like, was it New York Times Square? 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.200 And I was like, no, dummy, Just Times Square. 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:16.559 Just Times Square. And it was around the same time 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.200 that these three brothers, Lee, Samuel and Jacob Schubert, a 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:22.840 very popular theater named to this day, they opened up 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.760 a bunch of theaters in New York and elsewhere. And 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:30.400 the Schubert Organization still owns and operates seventeen of those 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:31.280 forty one theaters. 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.640 That's a bunch. That's almost half of the theaters on Broadway. 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:36.080 They got it locked down, baby. 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:41.520 So all of this hubbub and activity of building theaters 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:46.160 and attracting like really good performers and plays and musicals 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.440 by the time World War One rolled around, like New 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:54.160 York was on the map for theater and Broadway was 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:58.000 the theater district for New York by this time. And 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.680 one of the things that really helped things along kind 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.840 of picked up where Oscar Hammerstein the First and the 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.680 Irt left off to really like give things a real 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.600 goose was the Zigfield Polly's, which I know we talked 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:15.400 about in our episode on Vaudeville in November twenty twenty two. 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.120 We talked about that a lot. But the idea that 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.160 like you could go to the theater and you could 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.160 see some amazing performances and hear some funny comedy and 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:29.040 see some crazy dances or great dances like that drew 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.000 people the theaters like everyday people who might otherwise not 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:33.160 have gone through the theater. 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.880 Yeah, for sure. And you know, some of the some 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.080 of the songs that you you know, even if you're 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:40.840 not a fan of this kind of thing, just kind 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.640 of leaked into the public consciousness. Like give my regards 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.440 to Broadway from George Cohen. He also wrote Yankee Doodle 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:51.680 Dandy and over there. During World War One, this is 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.560 when Irving Berlin came around. One of it as you'll see, 0:15:56.560 --> 0:16:00.720 kind of a series of poor Jewish immag grant families 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.280 that came to New York and the children of those 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:08.600 families ended up being like these amazing Broadway writers and composers. 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.000 He wrote things like Annie, get your gun and There's 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.200 no business like show business, your old favorite. 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.600 That's right. He also wrote White Christmas, which I read 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:18.880 is the best selling Christmas song of all time. 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:20.400 Which was not on Broadway. 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.600 No, well, it ended up on Broadway. It was in 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.120 the movie Holiday Inn, and then they retro created a 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:28.640 musical based on the movie. 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:30.520 They retconned it right. 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.280 Another pair that were really huge at this time, where 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:39.320 George and Ira Gershwin brothers, another Jewish immigrant family. They 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:45.200 created Funny Face Girl, Crazy Porgy and Bess and some 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.720 of these, as we'll see, we're pretty kind of groundbreaking, 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:50.480 especially at the time. But they also launched some stars 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.840 careers like ethel Merman. Do you think of when you 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:56.400 think of somebody singing there's no business like show business? 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:57.680 I think ethel Merman. 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.800 Yeah, in the movie Airplane, right exactly. 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.520 That's where that's where I first learned about it. Ginger Rogers, 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.240 Greta Stay are of course Greta Garbo Dance on air. 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:10.800 And it wasn't just musical theater at the time. This 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.200 sort of post World War two era also had some 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.679 pretty legendary plays like the Iceman Come Up from Eugene 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:20.879 O'Neil and Lorraine Hansbury's Raising in the Sun. Of course, 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.600 but it was times Square after all. So in World 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.320 War two, that's when you started seeing some you know, 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.200 the usual thing that would happen was like burlesque theater, 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:38.639 eventually peep show, maybe regular movie theater, and then porn theater. 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.600 Yeah, and you better know the difference. Yeah, I say 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:46.360 that we we take a break and we come back 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:50.199 and we talk about the establishment of Broadway shows as 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:50.760 we know them. 0:17:51.160 --> 0:18:06.400 Let's do it, Stoffy Jaws. 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:20.080 So okay. So one Hammerstein did some amazing stuff, uh 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.200 with Broadway, creating Broadway. But this family was showing off 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.320 and they produced Oscar Hammerstein the Second, who was the 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.200 grandson of Oscar Hammerstein the First, and he got together 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:35.440 with a composer named Jerome Kern and they just started 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:40.480 making some amazing groundbreaking for the time, especially new kinds 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.040 of musicals that just they gave us Broadway as we 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:44.640 know it today. 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.760 Yeah, Like, if you go to a musical today, not 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:51.240 you're not assured to, but more than likely you're gonna 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.000 be seen what's called the book musical. And that is 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.960 when the musical when like the songs are central to 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.520 the plot in the storyline and moving things. It's not 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:02.879 just like, and here's a song to add to this 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.320 musical review kind of thing. Right. They still have those 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.120 some you know sometimes, but it's kind of a throwback 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:12.879 like these days. The book musical as a direct you know, 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:17.480 descendant of Hammerstein too and Jerome Kern is sort of 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:17.960 the way to. 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:21.520 Go, right. They came up with a Showboat Together, which 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:25.000 was an enormously groundbreaking show. It combined both white and 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.119 black performers on the same stage, which, if you remember 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.840 a Harry Belafonte episode that was a no no well 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:36.400 into the fifties and sixties. These guys made this show 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:37.639 in nineteen twenty seven. 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.920 Yeah, I mean that people were not doing that at time. 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:46.800 At the time. They also had blackface in that review 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.280 because that was something they were also doing at the time. 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:52.560 But it was also pretty you know, progressive in some 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:54.680 ways by like having an integrated cast. 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:57.400 Yeah, and I mean a lot of the themes were 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.320 about racism, and it just kind of took it head on. 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.600 It was a serious, dramatic story. It wasn't like, you know, 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:09.000 feel good forget your troubles, come on, get happy kind 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:09.320 of thing. 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.879 Yeah, and just to be clear, it was truly integrated. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.840 I wasn't saying the blackface was integration. They had real 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.960 integration and also blackface, which I don't quite understand. 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:20.720 But I don't either. 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:22.520 Yeah, I don't know how they were doing things in 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:23.640 nineteen twenty seven. 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.120 Like when a woman is in an episode of Monty Python, 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:29.200 it's like, why are you guys in drag? 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:29.439 Then? 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:30.000 Right? 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:34.160 Exactly, So Hammerstein is doing his thing, doing pretty well. 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:38.000 Jerome Kern's great, but all of a sudden a dude 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.520 lopes onto the scene named Richard Rogers, and Hammerstein said 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.600 Rogers and Hammerstein, that sounds that has a nice ring 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:48.440