COMMUNITY HANDBOOK 2012
The Bowery The most popular song from an 1891 musical entitled A Trip to Chinatown, the rollicking, farcical “The Bowery” was written by Percy Gaunt with lyrics by Charles H. Hoyt, referred to as the Father of American Farce. The song tells a story about this most notorious section of the Lower East Side though the musical is actually set in San Francisco and has nothing to do with New York. There are six verses with the song’s famous chorus interspersed throughout: “The Bow’ry, the Bow’ry! They say such things, And they do strange things On the Bow’ry! The Bow’ry! I’ll never go there anymore!” The comical song tells of the singer’s misadventures on the Bowery: “Folks who are ‘on to’ the city say,/ Better by far that I took Broadway;/
But I was out to enjoy the sights,/ There was the Bow’ry ablaze with lights.” He’s conned, robbed, tossed out of a bar, has a haircut and shave where the barber “Took off my whiskers and most of my chin,” then gets a black eye and a battered nose. And
though the song is lively and funny and written in ¾ time, despite it all the singer repeatedly swears that to the Bowery “I’ll never go there anymore!” The musical ran at the Madison Square Theater nearly two years and remained the longest running show until the 1919 musical Irene (famous for such songs as “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” and “You Made Me Love You”) which is set in a more genteel Upper West Side. “The Bowery” remains one of New York’s most popular songs, having sold more than a million copies of sheet music. My mother, who used to sing on the radio, sang this song to me when she learned I had moved to the Lower East Side but without any idea what it was like in 1977.
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS Abounding Grace 393 E. 8th St. New York, NY 10009 212-614-0370 Services at: P.S. 34 12th St. & Ave. D. New York, NY 10009
Agudath Israel of America 42 Broadway New York, NY 10038 212-797-9000 fax: 646-254-1600
Assafa Islamic Center
172 Allen St. New York, NY 10002 212-253-1053
Battery Park Synagogue
385 South End Ave., Apt. 1D New York, NY 10280 212-432-7022
Bethel Chinese Assembly of God 77 Eldridge St. New York, NY 10002 212-226-1156
Bialystoker Synagogue
7-11 Bialystoker Pl. New York, NY 10002 212-475-0165 www.bialystoker.org
The Brotherhood Synagogue
2B Gramercy Park S. New York, NY 10003 212-674-5750 fax: 212-505-6707 www.brotherhoodsynagogue.org
Catholic Center at New York University
58 Washington Sq. S. New York, NY 10012 212-674-7236 fax: 212-473-2971 www.nyu.edu/pages/catholic.center
Bahai Faith
53 E. 11th St. New York, NY 10003 212-674-8998
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Catholic Medical Mission Board 10 W. 17th St. New York, NY 10011 212-242-7757 info@cmmb.org wvwv.cmmb.org
Chabad on Washington Square 27 Washington Sq. N. New York, NY 10011 212-674-1950
Chinese Conservative Baptist Church
103 Madison St. New York, NY 10002 212-962-6040 www.nyccbc.org