PODCAST · history
Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman
by Josh Alan Friedman
TALES OF. . . MY DEAD HEROES is the second season of podcasts from Josh Alan Friedman. But DEAD is a politically incorrect term. Their songs and books and records resonate everywhere, and if you haven’t heard their actual voices, pull up a chair and listen. Novelist Mario Puzo, songwriters Jerry Leiber (Leiber & Stoller) and Doc Pomus, Broadway composer Cy Coleman, original Thunderbirds bassist Keith Ferguson, Atlantic Records producer Joel Dorn, Tiny Tim. . . . And check out TALES OF TIMES SQUARE: THE TAPES. This 17-episodes series captures the voices of Lost New York. Old fighters, strippers, burly-Q men, peep show girls, cops and the priest who tried to save them. Come bend your ear: www.blackcracker.fm
Episodes
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#17: Doc Pomus Comes Back/Part 2
THE GREAT BLUESMAN TELLS IT STRAIGHT Doc Pomus no longer had to cater to the teenage rock ’n’ roll market. He wrote sophisticated songs for adults. In his final years, he mentored dozens of singers, discovered bands like Roomful of Blues and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and wrote the best lyrics of...
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#16: Doc Pomus Comes Back/Part 1
THE EARLY STIGMA OF ROCK 'N' ROLL After a dormant decade, the great songwriter Doc Pomus was back in business by the late 1970s. I became his sidekick, entrenched in Doc’s late-night rock ‘n’ roll whirl, where he held court like a Buddha. He was amazed that so many of his songs became iconic...
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#15: The Fall of Al Goldstein/Part 2
FROM PARADISE TO THE GUTTER The Great Pornographer went from Upper East Side family man/pornographer-next-door to Bowery bum. The First Amendment hero became destitute. But he never lost his appetite for pussy and pastrami. Episode Links I Goldstein: My Screwed Life, by Al Goldstein and Josh Alan...
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#14: The Fall of Al Goldstein/Part 1
THE GREAT PORNOGRAPHER GETS SCREWED With the creation of Screw and Midnight Blue, Al Goldstein liberated sex from the shadows of shame and illegal obscenity. He had no idea what it would lead to today. But in his era, the sexual revolution was a cry for liberation and the laws against sex came...
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#13: Mel Shestack: Magazine Management Trickster
AN EDITOR’S EDITOR A legend among his peers at the old men’s adventure magazines, Mel Shestack made people believe the impossible. And anyone who fell for his “gentle cons” felt privileged afterward. Episode Links Weasels Ripped My Flesh Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos It’s A Man’s World True…
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#12: Jack Bruce Follows His Own Path
A BASS PLAYER PREPARES Jack Bruce reinvented the bass guitar and wrote spectacular songs. Cream lasted a mere three years. But he remained a working musician first and disregarded the pretense of rock stardom. Episode Links Cream Box set Harmony Row Songs For A Tailor Jack Bruce in mid-career...
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#11: Cy Coleman: Broadway Jazz Maestro
A COMPOSER PREPARES Cy Coleman wrote the scores to a dozen legendary Broadway musicals. But he was a jazz pianist first, and virtually invented the sophisticated culture of New York cocktail jazz in the 1950s. Episode Links The Best Is Yet To Come Witchcraft and Lenny You Fascinate Me So
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#10: Mario Puzo
WHEN ADVENTURE MAGAZINES BEGAT MOVIES My father hired Mario Puzo as associate editor at Magazine Management at 655 Madison Avenue in 1960. While working there, Puzo would write his great novel about Hell’s Kitchen, The Fortunate Pilgrim. And then at age 49, break out with the most successful…
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#9: The Masked Announcer – Joel Dorn
A HUSTLER WITH EXQUISITE TASTE Joel Dorn was one of the last record producers standing from the old music biz. When the new industry pushed him out in the 1980s, he bounced back with the creation of CD box sets. “Don’t give me that ‘Hey, baby’ shit,” he said. “I invented it.” Episode Playlist…
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#8: Lou Reed – A Foul and Bitter Interview
UGLY PEOPLE GOT NO REASON TO LIVE As a new, 22-year-old writer for The SoHo News in 1978, I was sent out to interview Lou Reed. He gave the nastiest interview of his life. Then demanded it be printed verbatim. Episode Playlist Lou Reed: Growing Up in Public Transformer Little Richard Lanham: On...
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#7: The Lullaby of Tiny Tim
A DIVINE MADMAN Tiny Tim lived in his own bubble with angelic girls dancing in the clouds, while 1920’s Broadway lullabies played on harps. He became the biggest fad of 1968. But his lifelong dedication to early 20th-century music was without equal. Episode Playlist Prisoner of Love: A Tribute to...
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#6: Seymour the Kike
THE BRUTE PIMP OF WHITECHAPEL The 19th century life model for anti-Semitic caricatures was quite a guy. Except I made him up. And he now joins the cast of this season’s Dead Heroes. Episode Playlist The Worst, Bela's Funeral Dirge heard in this episode. [caption id="attachment_2725"...
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#5: Keith Ferguson Remembers/Part 2
PACHUCO BLUES Ferguson avoids the Vietnam draft, plays Houston lesbian clubs with young Johnny Winter, and joins the Thunderbirds. Like an old wolf, Keith paces his communal porch in Austin. It was his last refuge. Recommended Playlist Girls Go WildT-Bird Rhythm The TailGators Second Winter...
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#4: Keith Ferguson Remembers/Part 1
AUSTIN'S GREATEST FALLEN MUSIC HERO In a town known for its fallen musical heroes, Fabulous Thunderbirds bassist Keith Ferguson was a tour de force. He submerged into semi-retirement on his rustic estate, a hangout for wounded animals, reptiles and old pachuchos. The music biz turned ugly, but...
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#3: Midnight Jerry Leiber/Part 2
IS THAT ALL THERE IS? Writing songs with Jerry was, for me, like having a catch with Willie Mays or Joe DiMaggio—when they were old. But his genius was never far away. Cloistered in his exquisite home in Venice Beach, the awards for Leiber & Stoller’s achievements came in by the week. But only…
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#2: Midnight Jerry Leiber/Part 1
THE IRVING BERLIN OF ROCK ‘N’ ROLL We worked on a book in which he would tell off the world, to be called Kiss My Big Black Ass. It remained unfinished. But Jerry Leiber blew my mind. And he was one bitch of a chef. [gallery size="large" columns="2" link="file" ids="2659,2650,2651"]
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#1: Almost George
BUT ALMOST DOESN'T COUNT When Josh auditioned for Beatlemania in 1977, he was just one hopeful in the callbacks for George. Thousands of Beatle manqués descended from the hinterlands to audition for the Broadway show. There were only four parts, but no shortage of broken dreams. [gallery...
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Tales of… Season Two Trailer
Josh's dead heroes. Interviews, memories and short stories. First up, A 20-year-old Josh auditions for Beatlemania in 1977. Coming September 20.
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#17: Josh in Times Square
So long, Sucker Old Times Square was at the brink of extinction and my job was done. The finale of this series. [gallery columns="2" size="large" link="file" ids="2168,2170,2171,2169,2172,2167"]
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#16: Old Flesh Agents
OLD FLESH AGENTS Irv Charnoff and Jess Mack were the last remaining vaudeville/burlesque booking agents in 1984. They mourned the decline of wholesome American show-biz, as it devolved into pornography. [gallery size="large" columns="2" link="file" ids="2153,2155,2154,2152"]
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#15: Gentle with the Girls
FREEING THE NIPPLE FROM SALES TAX Al Kronish, one of the Melody Burlesk’s owners, was the first CPA to do tax returns for porn stars. Under constant legal harassment from the city, he kept Times Square’s last bastion of old burlesque open and spread-eagled. (All photos by Don Demcsik for Tales of...
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#14: The Life
TIMES SQUARE CLEANS UP FOR PORN REBORN No sooner than the neighborhood rid itself of filth, pimps and whores came dancing back into the hearts of Broadway. Composer Cy Coleman and writer David Newman discuss their hit musical in 1997. [gallery columns="2" link="file" size="large"...
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#13: The Hooker Bus
A SAFE SPACE FOR SISTERS OF THE NIGHT. Girls from all over the country gravitated to NY to make more money in street prostitution than anywhere else. Missionary Arlene Carmen ran a mobile van that gave them a respite from the cops, the tricks and their pimps. [gallery size="large" columns="2"...
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#12: The Princess of 42nd Street
Caruso tipped her $5. Fanny Gold ran her family’s 42nd Street newsstand as an eight-year-old girl in 1915. Living in poverty one block away, she was enchanted by Times Square’s aristocratic era. And was mugged six times there as an old lady. [gallery columns="2" link="file" size="large"...
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#11: The Man Who Booked the Movies
FROM CAGNEY TO KUNG FU. Martin Levine, president of Brandt Theaters, booked most of the movies across 42nd Street for 50 years. His office reflects the faded glamour of a once mighty theater empire now reduced to kung-fu, grindhouse and porn flicks. [gallery columns="2" link="file" size="large"...
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#10: Uncle Lou’s Scrapbook
INNOCENT VICTIMS OF ADVERSITY. That’s how Uncle Lou, a geologist turned chauffeur, saw many of the girls in Times Square, who affectionately called him Uncle. His scrapbook documents an era of burlesque queens and porn starlets, whom he remains loyal to decades after their careers ended. [gallery...
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#9: Oh Susanna!
COPPING A FEEL IN TIMES SQUARE. Show girls, moonlighting nurses, pickpockets and members of a fake marriage ring. Live Nude Girls 25¢ was the neon community catchphrase, and it was all about fast cash. [gallery size="large" columns="2" link="file" ids="1828,1831"]
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#8: Holy Cross
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH VS. TIMES SQUARE. Three priests of Holy Cross Church witnessed the rise and fall of Times Square. Father Robert Rappleyea, pastor during the era of porn, saw the human condition reach bottom. He put up a bold front. [gallery columns="2" link="file" size="large"...
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#7: King Heroin
THE TOAST OF BROADWAY. A lightweight contender in the 1920s, Manny Rosen worked in the kitchen of the Stage Delicatessen for 32 years—in charge of making toast. But he also wrote “King Heroin” for James Brown, after losing his daughter to heroin. He became the right-hand man of Bob Anthony, “Mr....
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#6: The Peeps
LIVE NUDE GIRLS 25¢. Peep Shows were a phenomenon as common to Times Square as slot machines to Las Vegas. Live Nude Girls became the neon community catchphrase. We visit Roger K as he creates the technology in his private laboratory at Show World. [gallery size="large" columns="2" link="file"...
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#5: Penny Arcade in Hell
WELCOME TO THE BOWELS OF 42ND STREET. It's 1983. Charles Rubinstein has run the penny arcade at 8th Avenue and 42nd Street since 1939. “This is the dumping grounds of 42nd Street. But I’m not a-scared of any individuals that tries to threaten me. You have to use that nightstick, and I say let ’em...
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#4: Raven
FROM HELLS ANGELS TO BURLESQUE. A Columbia Presbyterian nurse, then a drug counselor in the California prison system, Raven de la Croix busted loose as a burlesque star at the age of 32. She’d also spent eight years with the Hells Angels and starred in several Russ Meyer films. Here in the...
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#3: Mr. Burlesk
WELCOME TO THE BACK OFFICE OF THE MELODY BURLESK. Frank Sinatra’s boyhood pal and first bodyguard, Bob Anthony, also became a big band singer. Tougher than Frank, but devoid of hit records, he went on to found the Melody Burlesk in Times Square. Like the Heimlich maneuver, you might assume a lap...
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#2: The Ghetto Avenger
TO HEAR IZZY GROVE IS TO UNDERSTAND DAMON RUNYON. UNNERSTAND? One of the last Guys & Dolls characters to survive into the porn era, Grove was a welterweight fighter known as The Ghetto Avenger in the 1920s. In 1983, he is being thrown out of his office. Hustling in Times Square for 60 years, he...
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#1: Pee Wee
PEE WEE MARQUETTE WAS THE CAUSTIC M.C. AT HISTORIC JAZZ CLUB, BIRDLAND, DURING THE '40S AND '50S. The short-tempered midget spent the last 25 years of his life as doorman-greeter for Hawaii Kai, a schlock tourist restaurant next door to the Winter Garden Theatre in Times Square. Come bend your…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
TALES OF. . . MY DEAD HEROES is the second season of podcasts from Josh Alan Friedman. But DEAD is a politically incorrect term. Their songs and books and records resonate everywhere, and if you haven’t heard their actual voices, pull up a chair and listen. Novelist Mario Puzo, songwriters Jerry Leiber (Leiber & Stoller) and Doc Pomus, Broadway composer Cy Coleman, original Thunderbirds bassist Keith Ferguson, Atlantic Records producer Joel Dorn, Tiny Tim. . . . And check out TALES OF TIMES SQUARE: THE TAPES. This 17-episodes series captures the voices of Lost New York. Old fighters, strippers, burly-Q men, peep show girls, cops and the priest who tried to save them. Come bend your ear: www.blackcracker.fm
HOSTED BY
Josh Alan Friedman
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman have?
Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman currently has 35 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman about?
TALES OF. . . MY DEAD HEROES is the second season of podcasts from Josh Alan Friedman. But DEAD is a politically incorrect term. Their songs and books and records resonate everywhere, and if you haven’t heard their actual voices, pull up a chair and listen. Novelist Mario Puzo, songwriters Jerry...
How often does Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman release new episodes?
Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman has 35 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman?
You can listen to Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman?
Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman is created and hosted by Josh Alan Friedman.
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