Please enjoy this newly edited and remastered version of our show on New York City's most famous Christmas tree and the surprisingly fascinating story of how its annual lighting became a national event.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree has brought joy and sparkle to Midtown Manhattan since the early 1930s. The annual festivities may seem steady and timeless but this holiday icon actually has a surprisingly dramatic history.

Millions tune in each year to watch the tree lighting in a music-filled ceremony on NBC, and tens of thousands more will crowd around the tree’s massive branches during the holiday season, adjusting their phones for that perfect holiday selfie.

But the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is more than just decor. The tree has reflected the mood of the United States itself — through good times and bad.

The first tree at this site in 1931 became a symbol of hope during the Great Depression. With the dedication of the first official Christmas tree two years later, the lighting ceremony was considered a stroke of marketing genius for the grand new “city within a city” funded by JD Rockefeller Jr.

The tree has also been an enduring television star — from the early years in the 1950s with Howdy Doody to its upgrade to prime time in the 1990s.

Join Greg for this festive holiday history featuring kaleidoscopic lighting displays, painted branches, whirling snowflakes, reindeer and a very tiny owl.

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The aviation hero Amelia Earhart, who became one of the world's most famous women during the Great Depression, is one of those historic figures that people think they know quite well.

But during her lifetime, much of her public image was the product of a New York book publisher. And even today, Earhart's legacy is reduced down to seemingly strange disappearance over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon, joins Greg on this week's show to untangle her surprising and even provocative true story -- as a young midwestern woman who embodied the possibilties of flight through the persona of 'Lady Lindy' even though the lofty ambitions of her publisher (and lover) George Putnam often placed her in dangerous situations.

And New York City figures into both her story -- and that of early American flight. From the airfields of Governors Island to the Greenwich Village settlement house which became her home.

ALSO: What really did happen to Amelia Earhart? Her biographer has the answer.

This episode was edited by Kieran Gannon

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Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II are two of the greatest entertainers in New York City history. They have delighted millions of people with their unique and influential take on the Broadway musical — serious, sincere, graceful and poignant. In the process they have helped in elevating New York’s Theater District into a critical destination for American culture.

In this episode, we tell the story of this remarkable duo — from their early years with other creators (Hammerstein with Jerome Kern, Rodgers with Lorenz Hart) to a run-down of all their shows. And almost all of it — from the plains of Oklahoma to the exotic climates of South Pacific — takes place on just two city blocks in Midtown Manhattan!

PLUS: What classic music venue still bears the name of Oscar Hammerstein’s grandfather?

How did the ritzy Plaza Hotel celebrate the fifth anniversary of Oklahoma’s debut?

How is Richard Rodgers associated with Hamilton the Musical?

And what was the final song written by Rodgers and Hammerstein?

In honor of the new Richard Linklater film Blue Moon about Richard Rodgers' first songwriting partner Lorenz Hart AND in honor of a new set of Broadway musicals opening in November, we're reissuing this 2017 show in a newly re-edited, remastered edition.

Visit the website for more images of the shows discussed on this show

All music by Rodgers and Hammerstein can be found on releases from Sony Masterworks

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