Many listeners have asked to know more about McSorley’s Old Ale House, the inspiration for the conversations that make up our show. So one summer afternoon, we pulled out a chair for you, Dear Listener, and ticked through some of the artifacts in New York City’s oldest bar. It’s a tour from 1854 to the present (unbroken even by Prohibition), this week on the Angry History Show.
Alexandria, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington D.C., has stood at the crossroads of history for three centuries. From the French-Indian War to the American Revolution, the War of 1812 to the Civil War and World Wars, it’s been home to presidents, generals, and even rockers like Jim Morrison and Dave Grohl. Owen reports what he found at the city’s birthday celebration, this week on Angry History.
Author Esther Crain of Ephemeral New York discusses her new book, New York City in the Gilded Age, featuring photos compiled with the New York Historical Society and stories that bring them to life. There’s also a stereoscope for viewing 50 rare 3D images. It’s an era of ragtime, poverty and power — brought to you from the Museum at Eldridge Street, a 126-year-old synagogue in Chinatown — this week on Angry History.
Our Man in Normandy just marked the 70th Anniversary of the Allied landings in France. As a prelude to debriefing him, we listen to the voices that speak to us from those blood-soaked sands, including those of beloved entertainers who did their bit to free Europe. It’s June 6, 1944, and the greatest armada in history hurls itself across the English Channel at Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. This is D-Day.
On May 6, 1937, the largest airship that’s ever taken to the air — the German zeppelin LZ-129 Hindenburg — burst into flames on landing at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, killing 36. What caused the fire that consumed the pride of Adolf Hitler’s air fleet? All that through the eyes of newsman Herb Morrison, whose famous, “Oh, the Humanity!” is etched into the pages of history.
Col. Charles McGee holds the record for combat flights by an American pilot, yet he had to fight his own government just to get into the cockpit. By defying the strict segregation of WW2, Col. McGee and the Red Tails proved they had the right stuff. It’s a living legend from the Tuskegee Airmen, this week on the Angry History Show.
Babe Ruth was a humble guy who went from the halls of a reform school to the Baseball Hall of Fame. We visit with the Yankee legendary on radio shows, sending his best to our troops in WWII, and hunting game birds (with a clip that was stolen from the National Archives and almost lost forever). It’s the Sultan of Swat, this week on the Angry History Show.
If you were time-traveling from the distant future back to the 1980s, and needed to book some cultural references to fit in, you couldn’t do better than watching the films of writer-director-producer Harold Ramis. Animal House, Stripes, Caddyshack, Meatballs, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day. We lost a legend this week, but his comedy lives on forever.
You know the voices of our TV age presidents, but what did the earlier ones sound like in the days of wax cylinders and phonographs? For Presidents Day, Angry History rolls the earliest presidential voices from President Benjamin Harrison in 1889, through William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover in 1932 — and we even debunk a fake Grover Cleveland clip along the way.
Mark Cotton produces the Bletchley Park Podcast from “the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing.” This super-secret complex cracked the Enigma codes and helped win World War II. Mark interviews veterans who are only now free to tell their stories. From math genius Alan Turing to everyday women, we’re proud to explore this amazing historical site just a short ride from London — with special musical guest, The Three Belles.
