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 February 28, 2013
Buster Brown (United Parcel Service or UPS nickname)

The United Parcel Service (UPS) is a global package delivery company that was founded in 1907. UPS trucks are brown and a company trademark is “What can Brown do for you?”
 
“Buster Brown” was a comic strip character first created by Richard Felton Outcault in 1902; “Buster Brown” later became known as a brand of shoe. UPS (or at least its brown truck) has been nicknamed “Buster Brown” since at least 1988. CB radio slang popularized the UPS truck “Buster Brown” nickname.
 
Other UPS nicknames include “Big Brown,” “OOPS” and “United Parcel/Package Smashers.”
   
 
Wikipedia: United Parcel Service
United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS), typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is an American global package delivery company headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States. It delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the world.
 
UPS is well known for its brown trucks, internally known as package cars (hence the company nickname “Brown”). UPS also operates its own airline (IATA: 5X, ICAO: UPS, Call sign: UPS) based in Louisville, Kentucky.
 
Wikipedia: Buster Brown
Buster Brown was a comic strip character created in 1902 by Richard Felton Outcault who was known for his association with the Brown Shoe Company. (The name “Buster” came either directly or indirectly from the popularity of Buster Keaton, then a child actor in vaudeville.)
 
Google News Archive
18 December 1988, Record-Journal (Meriden, CT), Business, pg. C-1. col. 1:
Crunch time for “Buster Brown”
UPS king of the hill for package delivery

By Peter Downs
(...)
Closer to the truth, many Christmas presents reach their appointment thanks to “Buster Brown,” the appellation CB operators on the road have given United Parcel Service.
 
29 September 1991, Buffalo (NY) News, “On the Road Again: ‘Lonesome Cowboys’ of U.S. Highways” by Jay Searcy (Knight-Ridder):
UPS, which truckers have nicknamed “Buster Brown,” pays by the hour, not by the mile, and pays top drivers more than $17 an hour.
       
Google Groups: misc. transport.trucking
Part 3: Are there really Hollywood actors on the CB?
ASoftInc
9/12/95
(...)
UPS - Buster Brown
 
Google Goups: misc.transport.trucking
As requested-Some Truckin Slang
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
7/21/97
(...)
BUSTER BROWN   UPS “How about it ,Buster Brown, you got it on?”
 
Urban Dictionary
buster brown
Trucker Speak for a UPS Driver or Truck. Primary because of their brown trucks.
How ‘bout cha there Buster Brown, you got a copy?
by Vincent Rose Apr 28, 2007
 
Google Books
Happy Go Lucky’s Journey, Book 1
By Christine Longcor
Xlibris Corporation (Xlibris.com)
2010
Pg. 96:
As we were riding, he said, “See that truck freightliner? We call them ‘corn flakers’ out here, and the ups, we call them ‘buster brown.’”

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityWork/Businesses • Thursday, February 28, 2013 • Permalink


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