Entry from
July 05, 2004
It’s A Nice Place to Visit, But I Wouldn’t Want to Live There
Actually, people DO want to live here. Have you seen New York real estate prices lately?
I've done the only work on this phrase, most often applied to New York City but sometimes to other places as well.
9 June 1910, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 7:
"New York is a nice place to visit, but you couldn't hold me there with a two-inch rope. There isn't enough breathing room."
(Said by Captain "Jack" Abernathy. It now looks like he coined the original phrase. I'll have a hard time beating 1910. I had known previously that the phrase was at least popularized during the 1939-1940 World's Fair—ed.)
29 November 1930, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 23:
On the program title page he quotes an old saying: "New York is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't live there if you gave me the place," which really has very little to do with the play.
(The famous critic J. Brooks Atkinson, reviewing the comedy THIS IS NEW YORK by Robert E. Sherwood—ed.)
I've done the only work on this phrase, most often applied to New York City but sometimes to other places as well.
9 June 1910, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 7:
"New York is a nice place to visit, but you couldn't hold me there with a two-inch rope. There isn't enough breathing room."
(Said by Captain "Jack" Abernathy. It now looks like he coined the original phrase. I'll have a hard time beating 1910. I had known previously that the phrase was at least popularized during the 1939-1940 World's Fair—ed.)
29 November 1930, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 23:
On the program title page he quotes an old saying: "New York is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't live there if you gave me the place," which really has very little to do with the play.
(The famous critic J. Brooks Atkinson, reviewing the comedy THIS IS NEW YORK by Robert E. Sherwood—ed.)