Instead of writing and recording a new episode, your humble hosts are going to History Camp this weekend. We’ll leave you with two stories about Bostonâs weird neighborhood history from our back catalog.  Weâll be sharing a story from Jamaica Plain about a politically motivated crime in the early 20th century that led to a series of running gunfights between the police and what the newspapers called âdesperadoes.â  Then, weâre going to move across town to Brighton, which — speaking of desperadoes — used to be home to saloons, card games, and hard drinking cowboys, when it hosted New Englandâs largest cattle market.
Tag: 20th Century
“The Birth of a Nation” in Boston (episode 121)
“The Birth of a Nation” was one of the most controversial movies ever made, and when it premiered on February 8, 1915 it almost instantly became the greatest blockbuster of the silent movie era. Â It featured innovative new filmmaking techniques, a revolutionary score, and it was anchored by thrilling action scenes shot on a never-before-seen scale, with thousands of actors and extras, hundreds of horses, and battlefield effects like real cannons.
âBirth of a Nationâ was unapologetically racist, promoting white supremacy and glorifying the Ku Klux Klan as the noble, heroic saviors of white America from the villainous clutches of evil black men bent on rape and destruction. Â Upon the filmâs 50th anniversary in 1965, NAACP president Roy Wilkins proclaimed that all the progress that African Americans had made over the past half century couldn’t outweigh the damage done by “Birth of a Nation.”
When the film debuted in Boston in April of 1915, audience reaction was split along racial lines, with white Bostonians flocking to see the movie in record numbers, while black Bostonians organized protests and boycotts, with leaders like William Monroe Trotter attempting to have it banned in Boston.
Continue reading “The Birth of a Nation” in Boston (episode 121)
Worst Case Scenarios (episode 118)
This week’s show revisits three classic episodes about disasters in Boston history. Weâll start with episode 21, which spotlighted the 1897 subway explosion on Tremont Street. Episode 39 discusses the tragedy at the Cocoanut Grove, followed by episode 91 on the collapse of the Pickwick nightclub. They key takeaway this week? Â We should all be thankful for modern building codes, safety measures, and government oversight.
Boston Standard Time (episode 113)
With New Yearâs Eve comes the ball drop in Times Square at the stroke of midnight. Â But in the late 1800s, Boston dropped a ball every day to mark the stroke of noon, because telling the time was serious business. The time ball, along with telegraphic signals and fire alarm bells, announced the exact time to the public, at a time when the exact time was critical to navigation on the high seas and safety on the newfangled railroads. Â With ultra-precise clocks made by local jewelers and true astronomical time announced daily by the Harvard Observatory, Boston Standard Time became the de facto standard for a wide swath of the country long before time zones were officially proposed and adopted.
Trailblazers (episode 110)
This week weâre digging into our archives to bring you discussions of three Bostonian ladies who forged new paths for women. Katherine Nanny Naylor was granted the first divorce in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, allowing her to ditch an abusive husband and make her way as an entrepreneur. Annette Kellerman was a professional swimmer who popularized the one-piece swimming suit and made a (sometimes literal) splash in vaudeville and silent films. And Amelia Earhart took to the skies after humble beginnings as a social worker in a Boston settlement house.
Bohemian Boston’s Gay Grampa (episode 109)
Prescott Townsend was a classic Boston Brahmin. He was born into Bostonâs elite in 1894, graduated from Harvard, and served in World War I.  All signs pointed to a very conventional path through life, but Townsendâs trajectory would take him far from the arc followed by his contemporaries from the Cabot, Lowell, or Adams families.  Instead, Prescott Townsend would be active in radical theater, experimental architecture, and, surprisingly late in his life, he would help found the American gay liberation movement and lead the first Pride parade in 1970.
Miss Mack, from Wellesley to the WAVES (episode 106)
In honor of Veterans Day, we’re talking about the women who served in World War II in a Navy outfit called the WAVES. Â Specifically, their commanding officer, Mildred McAfee (later Mildred McAfee Horton). Â When the war started, she was president of Wellesley College, but before it was over, she would be the first woman to become a commissioned officer in the US Navy, commanding a force of nearly 100,000 people.
Continue reading Miss Mack, from Wellesley to the WAVES (episode 106)
The Iron Lung (episode 104)
In 1928, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital demonstrated a groundbreaking medical advancement – the iron lung. Prior to the arrival of the polio vaccination in 1955, the deadly disease was the most feared illness in America. With this invention by two Harvard faculty members, the diaphragm paralysis that accompanied polio no longer had to be a death sentence.
Riot Classics (episode 101)
For this week’s show, we’re revisiting three highlights from Bostonâs long and storied history of rioting. Weâll include stories from past episodes covering the 1919 Boston police strike, 1747 impressment riots, and the 1837 Broad Street riot.
Boston’s Wild West (episode 99)
Brighton is one of our westernmost neighborhoods, and it’s often associated with Bostonâs large and sometimes unruly student population, but in the mid 19th century, Brighton was home to all the elements of a western movie.  There were cattle drives, stockyards, saloons, and stampedes through the streets. Before it was tamed, unruly Brighton was our own wild west.