Entry from
March 01, 2005
Big Easy
"The Big Easy" is related to "the Big Apple."
There was a dance hall in Gretna (New Orleans) named "the Big Easy," circa 1910. However, the hall was short-lived and probably has nothing to do with New Orleans being called "the Big Easy" or New York being called "the Big Apple." Over a dozen years ago, I looked through almost all the New Orleans directories (city directory and telephone books) under "big." I couldn't find a single "Big Easy" before the 1970s. There was a place called "the Big Apple" that followed the nationally popular "Big Apple" dance in 1937.
The United States had a "Big Easy" air drop to Berlin, Germany in 1948, but that doesn't appear to be related to New Orleans.
In the 1960s, "the Big Apple" began to re-emerge in jazz circles. In the late 1960s, writer Betty Guillaud began to call New Orleans "the Big Easy." I don't know what I did with those citations, but I saw them in the "Big Easy" file in the Historic New Orleans Collection.
In 1970, James Conaway published a crime novel titled The Big Easy. In 1987, the novel was made into a film, direct by Jim McBride and starring Dennis Quaid, Ellin Barkin, Ned Beatty, and John Goodman. This film made the "Big Easy" nickname popular.
Despite the facts that "the Big Apple" comes from New Orleans, and that it indirectly gave New Orleans the "Big Easy" nickname, New Orleans has done almost nothing to recognize its own history.
The New Orleans Fair Grounds racetrack has a web site. I paid my own money (as usual) to fly down to New Orleans and personally provide the Fair Grounds with the "Big Apple" history. I've e-mailed several times. "The Big Apple" is nowhere on the Fair Grounds web site.
I've written many detailed letters to the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper. The "Big Apple" story has not been published there. And, as with New York City, the story hasn't made the local television or radio news in New Orleans, even for a second.
I've e-mailed the mayor of New Orleans. I said that the story of "the Big Apple" must be publicized in New Orleans, where it all started. A simple proclamation (a mere piece of paper) would have done that. Maybe the stablehands had sons or daughter who are still alive. For heaven's sake, honor your own citizens, or people will believe the story about the fictional whores. The mayor wouldn't help.
Only Blake Pontchartrain, of Gambit, published information on "the Big Apple." I'll let Blake tell the story of "the Big Easy" (twice).
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2002-04-09/blake.html
Hey Blake,
My mom wants to know how, when, why, where, and by whom did the phrase "Big Easy" become a synonym for New Orleans.
Son Alan
Dear Alan,
All of Mom's questions will be answered right here!
References to the Big Easy have been around for about 100 years. Around the turn of the century, when the great Buddy Bolden was the king of New Orleans jazz, the legendary musician played his cornet all over town: Rampart and Perdido streets, Uptown, the lakefront and across the river. Some people reported seeing him perform in a club called the Big Easy Hall. A dance hall called the Big Easy definitely existed in the early 1900s; some claim it was in Storyville, but others say Gretna.
In Pop Foster's autobiography, he also makes reference to a club known as the Big Easy. However, because jazz musicians often gave nicknames to people and places, the Big Easy could just as easily have referred to a dance hall, a dance or even someone who did the dance. Over the years, the nickname became associated with New Orleans as more and more people used it to refer to a city with a slow, easy pace and a relaxed attitude about almost everything.
In 1970, James Conaway, a police reporter, wrote a crime novel set in New Orleans called The Big Easy. Later, Dennis Quaid starred in a movie of the same title.
But credit seems to go to Betty Guillaud, formerly of The Times-Picayune, for making the nickname a household word. Betty had a column in the old States-Item, and in it she compared the laid-back style of New Orleans to the hurry-up pace of New York, the Big Apple. She's often given credit for popularizing the phrase "Big Easy" in the early 1970s.
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2003-06-24/blake.html
Hey Blake,
I understand you wrote a column some years ago explaining the origin of the Big Easy tag. Could you please repeat some of it? When did it start, did it follow the Big Apple, did it come from a movie, etc.?
Herman Kohlmeyer
Dear Herman,
You know I'm always happy to write about any of the charming nicknames our great city has been given, whether it's the Crescent City, the City that Care Forgot, or the Big Easy.
Betty Guillaud used to be a columnist for The Times-Picayune and before that she wrote for the old States-Item. In the early 1970s, in one of her columns, she compared the laid-back style of the New Orleans to the hurry-up pace of New York, which already had the nickname the Big Apple. Betty is often given credit for popularizing the phrase "Big Easy" and making it a household word.
Also, in 1970, James Conaway, a police reporter, wrote The Big Easy, a crime novel set in New Orleans. A movie of the same title was released in 1987 starring Denis Quaid.
But if you were around 100 years ago, you would have heard references to the Big Easy even then. A dance hall called the Big Easy definitely existed in the early 1900s. Around the turn of the century, when the great Buddy Bolden was the New Orleans jazz king, he played his cornet all over town: Rampart and Perdido streets, Uptown, the lakefront and across the river. Folks claimed he played in a club called Big Easy Hall; some say it was in Storyville, others Gretna.
Pops Foster, another legendary musician, makes a reference in his autobiography to a club he calls the Big Easy. But you know how jazz musicians regularly gave nicknames to people and places, so the Big Easy could have been a dance hall or a popular dance of the day.
It seems that over the past century, the nickname has become associated with New Orleans as more and more people used it to refer to a city with a slow, easy pace and a relaxed attitude about almost everything. We're just not in a hurry to get anywhere -- even to the Super Bowl.
Google Books
The Autobiography of Pops Foster: New Orleans Jazz Man
by Tom Stoddard, Pops Foster
San Francisco: Backbeat Books
2005
Pg. 37:
Over in Gretna we used to play the Big Easy Hall and the Drag Nasty Hall.
Google Books
Exploring Early Jazz:
The Origins and Evolution of the New Orleans Style
by Daniel Hardie
San Jose: Writers Club Press
2002
Pg. 82:
The Magnolia played dates at lake side picnics, and at Gretna's Come Clean Hall, Big Easy Hall, and Drag Nasty Hall, places sometimes easier to name than identify.
Google Books
Queen New Orleans:
City by the River
by Harnett Thomas Kane
New York: William Morrow
1949
Pg. 285
As the 1900s approached, New Orleans had dozens of fair-sized Negro dance places, in and around Perdido, up along South Rampart, and below Canal as well. Big Easy, Come Clean, Funky Butt -- the list is a long one.
27 December 1948, New York Herald Tribune, pg. 13, col. 7, "Matter of Fact" by Joseph Alsop:
Big Easy 103
BERLIN. (...) Thirty-five minutes earlier Big Easy 103 had come in from Tempelhof.
http://members.aol.com/airlift48/page2.html
C-47's going East to Berlin were called "Easy", returning C-47's
traveling West, were called "Willie". C-54's had the names 'Big Easy' and "Big Willie".
http://www.angelfire.com/pa4/billvons/bal/navy.htm
Loaded planes flying into Berlin were designated "Big Easy" - the B indicating Rhein-Main-based aircraft. Those based at Weisbaden were designated "Able Easy." In contrast to the four engined R5D's and C54's the twin-engined C-47's carried the name of "Little Easy."
2 April 1972, Lima (Ohio) News, pg. D1:
Mardi Gras: Is It Worth It?
"Fat Tuesday In The Big Easy"
There was a dance hall in Gretna (New Orleans) named "the Big Easy," circa 1910. However, the hall was short-lived and probably has nothing to do with New Orleans being called "the Big Easy" or New York being called "the Big Apple." Over a dozen years ago, I looked through almost all the New Orleans directories (city directory and telephone books) under "big." I couldn't find a single "Big Easy" before the 1970s. There was a place called "the Big Apple" that followed the nationally popular "Big Apple" dance in 1937.
The United States had a "Big Easy" air drop to Berlin, Germany in 1948, but that doesn't appear to be related to New Orleans.
In the 1960s, "the Big Apple" began to re-emerge in jazz circles. In the late 1960s, writer Betty Guillaud began to call New Orleans "the Big Easy." I don't know what I did with those citations, but I saw them in the "Big Easy" file in the Historic New Orleans Collection.
In 1970, James Conaway published a crime novel titled The Big Easy. In 1987, the novel was made into a film, direct by Jim McBride and starring Dennis Quaid, Ellin Barkin, Ned Beatty, and John Goodman. This film made the "Big Easy" nickname popular.
Despite the facts that "the Big Apple" comes from New Orleans, and that it indirectly gave New Orleans the "Big Easy" nickname, New Orleans has done almost nothing to recognize its own history.
The New Orleans Fair Grounds racetrack has a web site. I paid my own money (as usual) to fly down to New Orleans and personally provide the Fair Grounds with the "Big Apple" history. I've e-mailed several times. "The Big Apple" is nowhere on the Fair Grounds web site.
I've written many detailed letters to the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper. The "Big Apple" story has not been published there. And, as with New York City, the story hasn't made the local television or radio news in New Orleans, even for a second.
I've e-mailed the mayor of New Orleans. I said that the story of "the Big Apple" must be publicized in New Orleans, where it all started. A simple proclamation (a mere piece of paper) would have done that. Maybe the stablehands had sons or daughter who are still alive. For heaven's sake, honor your own citizens, or people will believe the story about the fictional whores. The mayor wouldn't help.
Only Blake Pontchartrain, of Gambit, published information on "the Big Apple." I'll let Blake tell the story of "the Big Easy" (twice).
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2002-04-09/blake.html
Hey Blake,
My mom wants to know how, when, why, where, and by whom did the phrase "Big Easy" become a synonym for New Orleans.
Son Alan
Dear Alan,
All of Mom's questions will be answered right here!
References to the Big Easy have been around for about 100 years. Around the turn of the century, when the great Buddy Bolden was the king of New Orleans jazz, the legendary musician played his cornet all over town: Rampart and Perdido streets, Uptown, the lakefront and across the river. Some people reported seeing him perform in a club called the Big Easy Hall. A dance hall called the Big Easy definitely existed in the early 1900s; some claim it was in Storyville, but others say Gretna.
In Pop Foster's autobiography, he also makes reference to a club known as the Big Easy. However, because jazz musicians often gave nicknames to people and places, the Big Easy could just as easily have referred to a dance hall, a dance or even someone who did the dance. Over the years, the nickname became associated with New Orleans as more and more people used it to refer to a city with a slow, easy pace and a relaxed attitude about almost everything.
In 1970, James Conaway, a police reporter, wrote a crime novel set in New Orleans called The Big Easy. Later, Dennis Quaid starred in a movie of the same title.
But credit seems to go to Betty Guillaud, formerly of The Times-Picayune, for making the nickname a household word. Betty had a column in the old States-Item, and in it she compared the laid-back style of New Orleans to the hurry-up pace of New York, the Big Apple. She's often given credit for popularizing the phrase "Big Easy" in the early 1970s.
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2003-06-24/blake.html
Hey Blake,
I understand you wrote a column some years ago explaining the origin of the Big Easy tag. Could you please repeat some of it? When did it start, did it follow the Big Apple, did it come from a movie, etc.?
Herman Kohlmeyer
Dear Herman,
You know I'm always happy to write about any of the charming nicknames our great city has been given, whether it's the Crescent City, the City that Care Forgot, or the Big Easy.
Betty Guillaud used to be a columnist for The Times-Picayune and before that she wrote for the old States-Item. In the early 1970s, in one of her columns, she compared the laid-back style of the New Orleans to the hurry-up pace of New York, which already had the nickname the Big Apple. Betty is often given credit for popularizing the phrase "Big Easy" and making it a household word.
Also, in 1970, James Conaway, a police reporter, wrote The Big Easy, a crime novel set in New Orleans. A movie of the same title was released in 1987 starring Denis Quaid.
But if you were around 100 years ago, you would have heard references to the Big Easy even then. A dance hall called the Big Easy definitely existed in the early 1900s. Around the turn of the century, when the great Buddy Bolden was the New Orleans jazz king, he played his cornet all over town: Rampart and Perdido streets, Uptown, the lakefront and across the river. Folks claimed he played in a club called Big Easy Hall; some say it was in Storyville, others Gretna.
Pops Foster, another legendary musician, makes a reference in his autobiography to a club he calls the Big Easy. But you know how jazz musicians regularly gave nicknames to people and places, so the Big Easy could have been a dance hall or a popular dance of the day.
It seems that over the past century, the nickname has become associated with New Orleans as more and more people used it to refer to a city with a slow, easy pace and a relaxed attitude about almost everything. We're just not in a hurry to get anywhere -- even to the Super Bowl.
Google Books
The Autobiography of Pops Foster: New Orleans Jazz Man
by Tom Stoddard, Pops Foster
San Francisco: Backbeat Books
2005
Pg. 37:
Over in Gretna we used to play the Big Easy Hall and the Drag Nasty Hall.
Google Books
Exploring Early Jazz:
The Origins and Evolution of the New Orleans Style
by Daniel Hardie
San Jose: Writers Club Press
2002
Pg. 82:
The Magnolia played dates at lake side picnics, and at Gretna's Come Clean Hall, Big Easy Hall, and Drag Nasty Hall, places sometimes easier to name than identify.
Google Books
Queen New Orleans:
City by the River
by Harnett Thomas Kane
New York: William Morrow
1949
Pg. 285
As the 1900s approached, New Orleans had dozens of fair-sized Negro dance places, in and around Perdido, up along South Rampart, and below Canal as well. Big Easy, Come Clean, Funky Butt -- the list is a long one.
27 December 1948, New York Herald Tribune, pg. 13, col. 7, "Matter of Fact" by Joseph Alsop:
Big Easy 103
BERLIN. (...) Thirty-five minutes earlier Big Easy 103 had come in from Tempelhof.
http://members.aol.com/airlift48/page2.html
C-47's going East to Berlin were called "Easy", returning C-47's
traveling West, were called "Willie". C-54's had the names 'Big Easy' and "Big Willie".
http://www.angelfire.com/pa4/billvons/bal/navy.htm
Loaded planes flying into Berlin were designated "Big Easy" - the B indicating Rhein-Main-based aircraft. Those based at Weisbaden were designated "Able Easy." In contrast to the four engined R5D's and C54's the twin-engined C-47's carried the name of "Little Easy."
2 April 1972, Lima (Ohio) News, pg. D1:
Mardi Gras: Is It Worth It?
"Fat Tuesday In The Big Easy"
Posted by Barry Popik
Nicknames of Other Places • Big Easy, City That Care Forgot (New Orleans nicknames) • (0) Comments • Tuesday, March 01, 2005 • Permalink
Nicknames of Other Places • Big Easy, City That Care Forgot (New Orleans nicknames) • (0) Comments • Tuesday, March 01, 2005 • Permalink