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.

Recent entries:
•“Welcome to growing older. Where all the foods and drinks you’ve loved for years suddenly seem determined to destroy you” (4/17)
•“Date someone who drinks with you instead of complaining that you drink” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing the evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Government creates the crises so it can ‘rescue’ you with the loss of freedom” (4/17)
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Entry from July 12, 2004
1928: “On the Big Apple” column
In 1928, the New York Morning Telegraph ran a daily column of tidbits from the New York racetracks. Gerald Cohen spotted the first column.

It is almost certain, given his long use of the term, that John J. Fitz Gerald helped to name this column. This would be the second Fitz Gerald "Big Apple" column.


15 June 1928, New York (NY) Morning Telegraph,pg. 18, col. 4:
On the Big Apple
ACTIVITIES AT ANCIENT AQUEDUCT
(A different sub-head was used for various other tracks, such as Belmont and even Saratoga. No authorship of the column was given -- ed.)

22 May 1947, New York (NY) Herald Tribune, "Radio in Review: Transatlantic Quiz" by John Crosby, pg. 22:
They were pretty hep in American slang, too, but they missed -- and so did I -- on the phrase "in the big apple" and "on the big apple." The first refers to a fruit picker in Oregon; the second to jockeys who go from track to track to ride in the big stake races.
Posted by Barry Popik
New York City • The Big Apple • 1920s: John J. Fitz Gerald and the N.Y. Morning Telegraph • Monday, July 12, 2004 • Permalink


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