Black Cracker Presents: Tales of...Season 1

Tales of Times Square: The Tapes

This podcast presents voices of strippers, old fighters, burly-q men, peep show girls, hustlers, cops and the priest who tried to save them.

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I’m Josh Alan Friedman, reporting to you from Times Square in the ’70s and ’80s. The people you will hear—now ghosts of Old Broadway—spilled their souls for my book, Tales of Times Square.

#16: Old Flesh Agents

FROM SELTZER BOTTLES TO IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME. 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.

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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 podcast series.

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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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#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.

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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.

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