The Big Apple: “Big Hat, No Cattle”

Above, a plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at west 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.

Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Oct. 17, 1931, Turf Play, p. 7.

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.

This site is edited by Barry Popik. Technical matters are handled by Grant Barrett of Double-Tongued Word Wrester Dictionary.

Entry from August 03, 2006

“Big Hat, No Cattle”

"Big hat, no cattle” (or “all hat, no cattle") means someone who boasts a lot ("talks out of one’s hat), but doesn’t have the means to back it up.

28 June 1952, Albuquerque (NM) Times, pg. 4, col. 2:
“Big Hat, No Cattle”
(...)
Somehow this situation reminds us of the loud-talking ranchman who applied to a western banker for a loan. The banker asked a neighboring Indian if he regarded the rancher as a good credit risk. The chief pondered the question a moment, and replied:

“Big hat, no cattle.”

27 August 1961, Washington Post, pg. E1:
Rep. David T. Martin (R.-Neb.) reports another barbed one: How an Oklahoma Indian defines a New Frontiersman:

“Big hat—no cattle.”

Needless to say, this kind of irreverence is confined pretty much to the Republican corner.

8 July 1977, Chicago Tribune, pg. C1:
“The guy’s nothing but a nickel-and-dime politician. ... a Texan—big hat and no cattle.”
(Charles O. Finley, owner of baseball’s Oakland A’s—ed.)

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • (0) Comments • Thursday, August 03, 2006 • Permalink