On the Bowery

For the better part of America's filmmaking history, Hollywood has been responsible for churning out the movies we love. Whether that was horror, drama, comedy, western, musical, or romance, the movie machine was booming. Starting in the fifties and sixties, before the New Hollywood movement independent filmmaking began to release groundbreaking and thought provoking movies. One of the earliest examples of this, is our subject today. Known for its gritty realism and eye opening footage, it's a movie that turned heads, started a conversation for activism, and influenced other filmmakers.

So if you're like me and you enjoy film and the impact and emotions they convey, then grab a glass of your preferred liquid and join me for the next little while. For me, that's a glass of iced peach tea. So sit back, relax, and let's talk about the love of film. Welcome to Glazed Cinema.

Today, we'll be diving into an important movie within American cinema, specifically American documentary filmmaking. It was directed by a man who helped usher in a new way to lack at filmmaking, one that took influences from previous movements and made something new. Blending activism with documentary filmmaking, it highlights a specific moment and place, that many people might not be familiar with. Before we get into that, let's talk about a few things things to get a sense of place, as I think that's important.

First, we should probably illuminate the namesake of this film, afterall if you're not familiar with The Bowery, you might be scratching your head. The Bowery is an area of of New York City, specifically on the East Side of Lower Manhattan. Today, the Bowery is a place of culture, host to upscale hotels, great restaurants, and a thriving arts scene with expensive and sought after real estate. The Bowery has seen a lot in its time and has a colorful past to unfurl for those interested in history. Today's subject showcases the area in the 1950s, when the area looked much different.

The Bowery is a neighborhood that has a storied past. The name comes from the Dutch word Bowerij, which translates to farm. What began as a Native American trail, became farmland with New Amsterdam in the 1600s. It housed wealthy families and mansions in the 1700s, saw the parade of Washington and his victorious army in 1783. Became a butcher's district and home to elegance in the early 1800s. Then in 1870 saw the rise of flophouses, tenements, brothels, and pawnshops to house immigrants arriving in America. It was also around this time that the famous gang "The Bowery Boys" rose to power, made famous by Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.

The area never really recuperated from this state of being until just over one hundred years later. One of the reasons why comes from a rather bright spot in history, when The Avenue became one of the first in America to see electricity, trains, and trolleys in 1905. When the trains arrived though, so too did the overhead track that still stands today, shadowing the street below. Deemed too dark and loud for the middle-class, it attracted a less fortunate crowd.

For the better part of that one hundred year period, including when our subject today was filmed, The Bowery was New York's Skid Row. It was home to many bars, nightclubs, mills, and missions, inhabited by the homeless, drunkards, thieves, and those down on their luck. It developed a reputation nationally for its less than stellar reputation, known as Skid Row or Thieves Highway. To give you some context into that reputation, Theodore Roosevelt in his later tears in life, wrote an essay on The Bowery in 1913, titled 'Dante and the Bowery'. In it, he compares New York's Skid Row to Hell in Dante's Inferno. A great quote from it reads:

"The Bowery is one of the great highways of humanity, a highway of seething life, of varied interest, of fun, of work, of sordid and terrible tragedy; and it is haunted by demons as evil as any that stalk through the pages of the “Inferno.”"

Our subject today, was filmed on the very streets of the Bowery, showcasing the people who called it home. The events depicted take place in a three day span of time and was made by a pioneer of documentary and independent filmmaking in America.

On the Bowery is a film from filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. Rogosin was born in Long Island and studied chemical engineering at Yale. Before he graduated however, he volunteered to serve in World War II where he served on the Navy. When he came back home he Lionel was determined to take a more active role in society. Seeing images of the holocaust in Europe and racism in America he took up a camera to confront the social evils he was sickened by to try and trigger change.

The idea for his first film came very close to home when one day his attention drew to the Bowery. He resigned from his father's textile company and invested sixty-thousand dollars in the production of our subject today. When asked where the inspiration for his filmmaking technique, Rogosin pointed to a film that had greatly influenced him at a young age. A movie that was deeply affecting and hailed for its realism, All Quiet On the Western Front.

On the Bowery was released in 1956 using a mix if documentary and scripted sequences to make up its story. The movie follows a man named Ray, who is a former railroad worker, who finds himself in the Bowery with just enough money to buy drinks and have a good time. His first stop is at a local bar where he meets a few men in mid conversation who are enjoying libations. Sitting down next to them they strike up conversation and become quick friends. After copious rounds of drinks, we next find Ray waking up to the morning sun, laying on the sidewalk. As he stirs and recounts how he arrived there he takes inventory and realizes his money was stolen. Without any assets and only the friends he made last night, Ray must find a way to survive in the city he now calls home.

The film takes place on location, all shot on the streets of the Bowery or in the buildings of the Bowery. The people we see and follow throughout the movie are also not actors, but actual inhabitants at the time, including Ray, the main character.

The first time I saw On the Bowery was a maybe fifteen years ago. I saw the Blu-ray in store and was intrigued but the cover. It was a line of men at a bar, smoke distilling the air, all in mid conversation. Upon reading the back I took a chance and bought it. When I pressed play a couple days later I didn't really know what to expect and I was pretty shocked. It opened my eyes to a lot of things, including the fact that New York once had a Skid Row area at all.

One of the things that really stuck out to me about this movie though was the overall insouciant mindset of the some of the people on the street. I dare say some had a confident air about them in their social circle, oblivious to the city and those around them. Different strokes for different folks I suppose, but that outlook was something was very foreign to me.

Unfortunately, not many people know about On the Bowery, but it's a ground-breaking film that shined a light on a known problem. It was hailed as ahead of its time and had its greatness recognized by some, while others couldn't look past its grittiness and realism. While it shocked viewers at the time, it wasn't able to remain buoyant among the rising waters of scrutiny from Hollywood for not sticking to conventions.

While some activism occurred elsewhere, the Bowery largely remained unchanged. In fact, it got a lot worse to where instead of mainly worrying about drunkards, robbery, fights, and homelessness, the seventies saw narcotics, stabbings, and murder become regular occurrences.

In 1980, the area began to see gentrification take place little by little and by the 1990s some of the area's mainstays were exiting stage left. Perhaps the saddest of these was the concert hall of CBGBs which had played host to countless legendary rock, punk, and metal shows.

The Bowery has a long history of comings and goings, but little evidence of its reputation of Thieves Highway still remains. There is one remnant that is still there though. One of the missions that helped support the less fortunate of the area, Mission is still standing today, the same place its stood for over one hundred fourty years.

Despite not being able to see the old scars, On the Bowery remains a testament to how this area used to be and a great symbol of activism. In 2008, it was selected to be preserved within the National Film Archives by the Library of Congress. It not only ushered in a new way of telling stories through film, but it also opened doors for independent cinema to exist in. Despite its mixed critical acclaim, countless filmmakers drew inspiration from the film, including John Cassavetes. If you like documentaries, history, or like discoveries different filmmaking techniques and movements, I highly recommend checking out On the Bowery. It's realism and grit leaves a lasting impression that I think you'll appreciate.

If you'd like to watch On the Bowery, you can find it on a variety of streaming services. At the time of this recording you can find it on Kanopy. Kanopy is a streaming service of tremendous value with a diverse list of offerings. Kanopy is a unique service in that it's sponsored by the Library system and is totally free for anyone with a library card.

You can also find On the Bowery on The Criterion Channel. The Criterion Channel is a streaming service from our friends at the Criterion Collection that offers a fantastic catalog for any new or seasoned film fan. Pricing tiers include $9.99 per month or $99 per year, which is what I chose to do.

You can also find On the Bowery on other services including Kino Now for $4.99 and Prime Video for $2.99.

If you like this podcast, tell your friends and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Each week there will be new content including hints about episodes before they air. If you'd like to learn more about the show, visit our website at glazedcinema.com. There you'll fond more info about the show and a place to submit ideas for future episodes. For film fans who are hearing impaired, the blog page on our website features each episode in written form as well. As always, thanks for listening and I hope to see you next time with another beverage and another fine film on Glazed Cinema.