Wait in Times Square and eventually everyone you know will pass

A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.

Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.

Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.

Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.

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Entry from December 06, 2004

Wait in Times Square and eventually everyone you know will pass

Times Square has always been crowded with people. It's an old New York City proverb that, if you wait long enough in Times Square, everyone you know will pass by you. The proverb dates back to at least 1926.

But don't wait in Times Square. Keep moving -- we need the sidewalk space!

19 March 1926, New York Herald Tribune, pg. 8:
"Wait in Times Square and eventually everyone you know will pass" is a proverb that this great new edifice perceptibly strengthens, since it is attracting the attention of the highest type of commercial organizations in a number of industries.
(An ad for the Paramount Building at the Cross-Roads of the World - ed.)

4 March 1950, Los Angeles Times, pg. 2:
One of them said he has always heard that if you stayed in a certain spot long enough, you would be sure to meet everybody in the world - but, he said, the way he heard it was you were supposed to wait in Times Square. "Must be the Farmers Market is the place where you'll meet everybody, sooner or later." We concur.
(This is a Farmers Market ad - ed.)

Posted by Barry Popik
Names/Phrases • Monday, December 06, 2004 • Permalink

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