#125 Sardi's Restaurant

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Places & Travel

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2011

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The famous faces on the walls of Sardi's Restaurant represent the entertainment elite of the 20th Century, and all of them made this place on West 44th Street their unofficial home. Known for its caricatures and its Broadway opening-night traditions, Sardi's fed the stars of the golden age and became a hotspot for producers, directors and writers -- and, of course, those struggling to get their attention. When Vincent Sardi opened his first restaurant in 1921, Prohibition had begun, and the midtown Broadway tradition was barely a couple decades old. By the time the current place threw open its doors (thanks to the Shuberts) in 1927, Broadway's stages were red hot, and Sardi found himself at the center of New York City show business world. We have nuggets from the old days -- starring John Barrymore, Tallulah Bankhead, Carol Channing and a cast of thousands -- and the scoop on those famous (and often unflattering) framed caricatures. So sidle up to the Little Bar, order yourself a stiff drink and eavesdrop in on this tale of Broadway's longest dinner party. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	Episode 125 of The Bowery Boys and evening at Sardis.
0:05.0	Hey, it's The Bowery Boys.
0:07.0	Hey.
0:08.0	The Bowery Boys is brought to you by eurochipo.com.
0:11.0	Eurochipo editors personally visit and review the best budget hotels in Europe.
0:16.0	Now with hotels in New York City on the web at eurochipo.com.
0:21.0	Hi there, welcome to The Bowery Boys. This is Greg Young.
0:23.0	And this is Tom Myers.
0:25.0	125 episodes of The Bowery Boys.
0:28.0	The Bowery Boys or most of those available to listen to.
0:31.0	This is our Quas Quasentennial episode.
0:33.0	Well done.
0:34.0	I just read that off of my screen on my phone because I could not remember that word.
0:39.0	But this is our 125th episode. We're very glad to be here.
0:42.0	And we thought we'd do something a little more casual for this one.
0:47.0	Casual, I feel like we're dressed up.
0:49.0	I mean, here we are in our black tie.
0:51.0	Well, we are returning to Times Square, which was the subject of a very popular podcast.
0:56.0	We did just a few months ago.
0:58.0	Fade the edges of the lens here and focus in as we tell the story of a misty world
1:04.0	of starlets and furs and powerful producers puffing away their cigars.
1:09.0	Because we are going to one of the most famous restaurants in New York City history
	...

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