The Big Apple: “Cattle come first, then men, then horses, then women”

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 February 03, 2007

“Cattle come first, then men, then horses, then women”

"Cattle come first, then men, then horses, then women” is said to have been the priority list of the old West. The phrase appears as “an old Texas saying” in Edna Ferber’s book Giant.

Montana State University News
The cattle came first: Students gather oral histories of Montana women
April 25, 2005—by Annette Trinity-Stevens
(...)
When asked about the meaning of place and its effect on her family, one woman quoted her father. “He said that men out here think that the cattle come first and the horses come second and then [the] women.”

Google Books
Giant
by Edna Ferber
New York: HarperCollins
2000
copyright 1952, 1980
Pg. 43:
“Well, you know the old Texas saying. In Texas the cattle come first, then the men, then the horses and last the women.”

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • (0) Comments • Saturday, February 03, 2007 • Permalink