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.
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.
This site is edited by Barry Popik.
Birdseed or Bird Seed (children’s trail mix)
Gorp (Granola, Oats, Raisins, Peanuts; Good Old Raisins and Peanuts)
Trail Mix
Marguery Sauce (Filet of Sole Marguery)
Melt (Tuna Melt; Patty Melt; Fatty Melt)
Turbaconducken (Turducken wrapped in bacon)
Choup (chowder + soup)
Chinese Chews
Pizza Margherita (Pizza Margarita)
London Broil
Chewing Gum
Cocktail Hour
Cocktail Party
Mongolian Barbecue
“Dragged through the garden” (hot dog with everything on it)
Hangover (Hang-over)
“Crying all the way to the bank” ("Laughing all the way to the bank")
“The race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet”
Speakeasy (Speak-easy)
Dive Bar (Dive)
“One for the money, two for the show, three to make ready, and four to go”
“Don’t call us, we’ll call you” (entertainment saying)
Blind Pig
Blind Tiger
“You can’t be too rich or too thin”
“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”
“A recession is when your neighbor loses his job; a depression is when you lose your job”
“If money can fix a problem, then it really isn’t a problem”
“Out to lunch”
Deep Pockets ("short arms and deep pockets")
East Jesus (any remote town, but often associated with Texas)
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”
“An apple for (the) teacher” (apple-polisher)
“From soup to nuts” (from beginning to end)
Republic of Brooklyn
Liar’s Ball (Real Estate Board of NY annual banquet)
Wild West (Wild Wild West)
Wild and Woolly
“Pretty please, with sugar on top”
“Desserts” is “stressed” spelled backward
“The Chicken and the Pig” (lessons in commitment from bacon/ham and eggs)
“I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor; rich is better”
“I couldn’t have done it without the players” (Yankees manager Casey Stengel)
“Close, but no cigar”
“The show must go on” (show business adage)
“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy”
“As American as apple pie”
Sazerac (cocktail)
“Beer before liquor, never sicker; Liquor before beer, never fear”
“Beer before wine, you’ll feel fine; Wine before beer, you’ll feel queer”
Soup-and-Fish (a dinner suit)
“In the red” (loss) & “In the black” (profit); Red Ink & Black Ink
“No good deed goes unpunished (in Washington)”
“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”
Cracker Jack (Crackerjack)
Baking Soda
Baking Powder
Alexander/Gin Alexander/Brandy Alexander/Coffee Alexander (cocktail)
Mother Merrill (Merrill Lynch nickname)
Root Beer
Busboy or Bus Boy ("busing” tables)
Sicilian Pizza
Half-and-Half Pizza
Marble Cake
Lady Baltimore Cake (Lord Baltimore Cake)
Grandma Pizza (Grandma Slice)
Birch Beer
“Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk”
“That’s the way the cookie crumbles”
“Spend like drunken sailors” ("Spend like a drunken sailor")
World Capital of Capital (World Capital of Capitalism)
Sport Pepper
“Elections have consequences”
Gimlet (cocktail)
“Money, Marbles and Chalk” ("Money, Marbles or Chalk")
“A lick and a promise”
“If I tell you a hen dips snuff, you can look under its wing”
Domino (to give birth)
“If you owe a bank thousands, you have a problem; owe a bank millions, the bank has a problem”