American actor, writer, director, comedian and playwright Woody Allen wrote in “Examining Psychic Phenomena” (The New Yorker magazine on October 7, 1972, reprinted in the 1975 bookWithout Feathers):
“There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?”
“How far is it from midtown and how late is it open?” has been described as a typical New York-centric saying.
Wikipedia: Woody Allen
Heywood “Woody” Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, December 1, 1935) is an American actor, writer, director, comedian and playwright, whose career spans more than 50 years.
The New Yorker
Fiction OCTOBER 7, 1972 ISSUE
Examining Psychic Phenomena
BY WOODY ALLEN
There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?
OCLC WorldCat record
Without feathers
Author: Woody Allen
Publisher: New York : Warner Books, ©1975.
Contents:
(...)
Examining psychic phenomena
Google Books
The Insanity Defense:
The Complete Prose
By Woody Allen
New York, NY: Random House Trade Paperbacks
2007
Pg. 119:
Examining Psychic Phenomena
There is no question that there is an unseen world. The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?
Google Books
American Culture:
An Anthology
Edited by Anders Breidlid, Fredrik Chr. Brøgger, Oyvind T. Gulliksen and Torbjorn Sirevag
New York, NY: Routledge
2008
Pg. 205:
Let me begin by telling you the most New York joke that I know. It comes, of course, from the pen of Woody Allen, and it concerns the hereafter. There are really only two questions bout the hereafter, Woody Allen suggests: How long does it stay open? And can you get there by cab from midtown Manhattan?
Google Books
Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist:
How to Explain the World Without Becoming a Bore
By Peter L. Berger
Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books
2011
Pg. ?:
I am reminded of that most New York statement by Woody Allen: “The question about the hereafter is not whether it exists. The question is how long it stays open, and whether one could get there by cab from midtown Manhattan.”
The Wall Street Journal
The Belief System of ‘Magic in the Moonlight’
The stars of Woody Allen’s new film talk about his faith—or lack of it
By DON STEINBERG
July 15, 2014 3:56 p.m. ET
“There is no question that there is an unseen world,” Woody Allen wrote in a 1972 New Yorker humor piece called “Examining Psychic Phenomena.” “The problem is, how far is it from midtown and how late is it open?”
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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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
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.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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