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 September 02, 2007
Friendly City (Amarillo nickname)

“Friendship” is the motto of Texas, so it’s no surprise that Texas towns are friendly. Amarillo called itself “the friendly city” in the 1930s, when it was entertaining cattlemen. The Amarillo nickname has been in disuse since the 1960s.
   
The city of Austin had used the “Friendly City” slightly earlier than Amarillo—since 1925. A recent state of Texas promotional slogan has been “Texas Friendly Spoken Here.” The city of Abilene also recently got into the “friendly” slogan business with “the Friendly Frontier.”
 
     
19 February 1935, Amarillo Globe, pg. 12, col. 3:
During the past 18 years that the Panhandle Livestock Association has met for conventions, Amarillo has carried a reputation of being a friendly city, ready to throw down the gates to the visitors. 
 
14 July 1937, Amarillo Globe, pg. 6, col. 1:
Amarillo is in the heart of the cattle country—a country known for its friendly attitude. Every year when hundreds of persons who come here for conventions go home they remark what a friendly city we have.
 
Amarillo is a friendly city. Especially to its guests.
(...)
Extend your friendship. Don’t just stop with knowing your neighbors. It would be well even to know the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker by their names. Everyone with whom you come into contact daily or weekly, you should know, however slight that acquaintance might be. If your list of names was increased by 18 or 20 and if everyone did the same thing, then Amarillo truly would be a friendly city.
   
7 March 1938, Amarillo (TX) Globe, pg. 5 ad:
WELCOME TO AMARILLO
With true friendship and the spirit of the West we give you this message. Throughout the years Amarillo has been known as the “Friendly City” and it is our wish to do our part to keep it for the years to come, true to that name.
   
2 February 1945, Amarillo (TX) Globe, “Soldier on the Plains Eulogizes the Tree,” pg. 4, col. 2:
Besides the comment of the tree lover, other comments range from “Amarillo, the Friendly City” to “2,200 Miles From Home,” and “I love letters best.”
     
23 April 1958, Amarillo (TX) Globe-Times, pg. 1, col. 1:
Amarillo and Odessa can claim top places in the Texas murder derby.
 
It’s a dubious distinction.
 
Odessa has a slight edge over what the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce has sometimes called “The Friendly City.”
 
9 May 1961, Amarillo (TX) Globe-Times, pg. 12, col. 1:
Amarillo has a nickname, or slogan as the case may be, which has withstood the test of time and numerous repeatings.
 
The nickname in question is “The Friendly City” and it fits the people of the Golden Spread Capital like a new hat.

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Sunday, September 02, 2007 • Permalink


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