Tales of New York in Old Time Radio

New York City is not the capital of the United States of America. It is not even the capital of New York State. It is the biggest city in New York State, as well as the United States, and economically and socially, one of the most important cities in the world. The whole world knows New York, ironically, thanks to Hollywood. Just as the movie industry was getting started it left the huge talent pool of New York and Broadway for the better lighting (and cheap studio land) of Los Angeles, but nearly every Hollywood studio has sets built to resemble the streets of New York, not to mention the hundreds of films which have been shot "on location" in the Big Apple.

There are several theories about how the City got the nickname of the Big Apple, it seems likely that it came from the horse racing game (one rumor is that the nickname comes from a popular brothel run by a madam named Eve, but that explanation turned out to be based on a hoax). A popular derivation is that The Big Apple has enough to feed everybody and anyone, provided they have the moxie to step up and take a big bite.

There is an expression about New York, that, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere!" The veracity of this notion is debatable, but it is true that if you are an out-of-town visitor alone on the streets of New York for the first time you will be noticed, and the local who notices you may have less than legitimate intentions. This is not to say that every New Yorker is a crook or that every bumpkin is destined to be mugged once they set foot out of Central Station, but the mean streets can be a dangerous place for the uninitiated. Gangbusters and Counterspies both have several adventures tracking bad guys in New York, and the entire series of Broadway is My Beat focuses on hunting down crooks in the City. Ma Perkins is filled with small-town dread when her friend Spencer goes to New York, and it gets worse when he invites Faye to join him. Crime Classics shows that crooks in New York are nothing new.

For showbiz people, all of New York revolves around Broadway, the Great White Way. The theater district becomes the backdrop for the soapy tales of Backstage Wife. Nightlife off Broadway is important as well, and we have several Band Remotes from the hottest New York nightclubs.

The history of New York is the history of America, as well, and many instances from that history are covered by radio. Adventures in Research reports the Great Blizzard of 1888 and the history of the skyscraper, while Captains of Industry profiles important New Yorkers like Joseph Pulitzer, John Jacob Astor, and Charles Lewis Tiffany. In 1964, WCBS presides over the Farewell to Studio Nine, the birthplace of CBS News.

As big as New York City is, New York also means New York State, which was also home to a good deal of American history and industry. Upstate New York stories include Cornelius Vanderbilt, Beechnut Baby Foods, the Sperry Gyroscope which helped make military and airline flights safer, and the plastics industry.