Episode 431 of the Bowery Boys, the story of Park Avenue.

Hey, it's the Bowery Boys.

Hey! Hi there. Welcome to the Bowery Boys. This is Greg Young. And this is Tom Myers and today we

are turning our attention to the story of an avenue, a very famous avenue, and perhaps the swankiest address in the entire city.

This is an avenue whose very name seems, well, expensive.

And that would be, of course, Greg, Park Avenue.

Yes, we've danced around it and traveled up and down it in shows over the years but we've never fully explained the

entire story until now. Right it is an avenue or a boulevard really that has rather humble beginnings but boy does that change

by the early 20th century it was a prime address and by the 1960s just the name Park Avenue was shorthand for

luxurious living and you know kind of New York sophistication.

New York is where I'd rather stay. I get a logic smelling hay. I just adore a penthouse view.

Darling, I love you, but give me, Pakistan. Just a door to pant house view

Darling. I love you, but give me Park Avenue.

Yes, Park Avenue has the Ava Gabor stamp of approval as we just heard her sing in the theme song to the uproarious TV comedy Green Acres. Only one of the best sing-long TV theme songs ever. It's also a great

karaoke song. Oh it did. Of course, yes. There's also a flip side to that wealthy connotation however all that wealth lining Park

Avenue can also serve as a shorthand for the massive inequality that defines

New York and even America, you know, in a way it's a bit like the phrase

Wall Street, you know, which is both a street and an idea.

Right, an idea that is centered around money, you know centered

around this idea of the so-called American dream and we did a show on Wall Street's

history last year so kind of like in that show in today's episode

we will first discuss how Park Avenue was created like how it was literally built out of a train

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