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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Entry from June 05, 2006
Sugar Daddy
In 1923, Dorothy Keenan King (a New York model) was found chloroformed to death in her New York City apartment. She had called John Kearsley Mitchell her "heavy sugar daddy." It is possible that "sugar daddy" began with this sensationalist case.

A "sugar daddy" is one who has the money ("sugar") to support someone or something. In 1936, "Sugar Daddy" became the name of a popular candy.

“The gender neutral term for sugar daddy is fructose financer” and “The gender neutral term for sugar daddy is glucose guardian” are related sayings.


Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary
Main Entry: sugar daddy
Function: noun
Date: 1926
1 : a well-to-do usually older man who supports or spends lavishly on a mistress, girlfriend, or boyfriend
2 : a generous benefactor of a cause or undertaking

(Oxford English Dictionary)
sugar daddy [cf. DADDY 3] slang (orig. U.S.), an elderly man who lavishes gifts on a young woman.
1926 G. FRANKAU My Unsentimental Journey ii. 32 There came another woman to the sofa; and spoke to me of '*sugar-daddies'.
1935 WODEHOUSE Luck of Bodkins xxi. 266 The morning papers had come aboard, reassuring citizens..that sugar daddies were still being surprised in love-nests.

27 March 1923, Syracuse (NY) Herald, pg. 8:
Anna Pinkweed, tiring of her home town, Bogash, O., goes to New York to really live.
(...)
Thus Anna was left with the bewhiskered Sugar Daddy who wanted the knife.

28 March 1923, Kingston (Jamaica) Daily Freeman, pg. 5:
John Kearsley Mitchell, son-in-law of E. T. Stotesbury, multi-millionaire, of Philadelphia, has been revealed as the mysterious "Mr. Marshall," who was the "heavy sugar daddy" of Dorothy Keenan King, New York model, who was chloroformed to death in her New York city apartment.

12 April 1923, Syracuse (NY) Herald, pg. 8:
"You haven't forgot the night I dragged you away from the girl who was yelling for her royal sugar daddy, have you?"

22 April 1923, Lima (OH) News, pg. 8?:
Dorothy never suffered anyone or anything to interrupt her rendezvous with the man she called her "baby" and her "heavy sugar daddy."
(Dorothy Keenan King -- ed.)

29 April 1923, Los Angeles (CA) Times, "Peg o' Los Angeles," Pg. III38:
The "sugar daddy" doll is the latest fad -- a little stuffed man in evening clothes!

24 September 1923, Atlanta (GA) Constitution, pg. 2:
A new "heavy sugar daddy" has appeared in the republican cam[ in the general shuffle that has taken place along with the accession of the Coolidge forces.

10 February 1924, Atlanta (GA) Constitution, pg. 10:
For Dottie had only one friend of any social pretensions, her "heavy sugar daddy."
(A Westbrook Pegler story datelined from New York -- ed.)

25 February 1925, Washington (DC) Post, pg. 11:
"Every time a stock goes up a point or two nowadays the street says, 'Ah, there goes Durant again! Some sugar daddy.'"

"And," said the cynic, "that is a pretty good reputation to have, provided you don't let it wander too far up Broadway."
(An S. S. Fontaine story datelined from New York -- ed.)

27 October 1925, Washington (DC) Post, pg. 17:
The Washington Exhibition Co. announces that Sugarman has been signed to coach the professional basketball team that will represent this city. The vital question is who is the "Sugar Daddy?"

9 March 1926, New York (NY) Times, 'The Play" by Brooks Atkinson, pg. 21:
As embellishment to the merely serviceable fable, it touches lightly upon the search for lodgings, the scarcity of running hot water, the vanities of the actors, the jealousies and social cleavage, the "sugar daddy" of the show, the difficulties of dressingrooms, baggage delivery and native stage manager, with a thrust or two at Equity for sardonic condiment.

Champagne Cholly:
The Life and Times of Maury Paul
by Eve Brown
New York, NY: E. P. Dutton & Company
1947
Pg. 62:
Let us look at a brief lexicon:

Lovely people: Sweetie Sweets.
Nasty people: Soury Sours.
Money: Oodles of ducats.
Snobbish: hoity-toity.
Long Island: Longuyland.
Happy: dee-lighted.
The well-informed: Those Who Should Know Whereof They Speak.
Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont: Social Sultana.
Sugar-daddy: Grand Old Provider, or G. O. P.
Opera first-nighters: The Turreted Tiara Set.
Ladies of the old guard: Staid and Steadies, or Stout and Steadies.
Summer: The Torrid Months.
Rich Women: Doughty Dowagers.

(Trademark)
Word Mark SUGAR DADDY
Goods and Services IC 030. US 046. G & S: CANDY SUCKERS. FIRST USE:
19360400. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19360400
Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM
Serial Number 71565391
Filing Date September 17, 1948
Change In Registration CHANGE IN REGISTRATION HAS OCCURRED Registration
Number 0544252
Registration Date June 26, 1951
Owner (REGISTRANT) JAMES D. WELCH COMPANY CORPORATION MASSACHUSETTS 810
MAIN STREET CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS(LAST LISTED OWNER) CHARMS MARKETING
COMPANY CORPORATION BY ASSIGNMENT, BY ASSIGNMENT ILLINOIS 7401 SOUTH CICERO
AVENUE CHICAGO ILLINOIS 60629
Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Attorney of Record DOUGLAS R. WOLF
Prior Registrations 0401144
Disclaimer NO REGISTRATION RIGHTS ARE HEREIN CLAIMED IN RESPECT TO THE WORD
"SUGAR" APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN.
Type of Mark TRADEMARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECTION 8(10-YR) 20011102.
Renewal 3RD RENEWAL 20011102
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
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New York CityWorkers/People • Monday, June 05, 2006 • Permalink


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