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 in progress—BP (3/19)
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“Coffee—A tasty cup of caffeinated sanity in an uncertain world” (3/19)
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Entry from May 20, 2021
“Back in the Big Apple” (Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone? play, 1971)

Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone? is a play by Terrence McNally (1938-2020). McNally wrote many plays, and came to New York City when he enrolled in Columbia in 1956.

“BACK IN THE BIG APPLE” is one of the scenes in Act One. Tommy Flowers says, “I don’t know where I’m going to sleep when I get back to the Big Apple tonight.”

The play was first produced at Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, on January 7, 1971. This is before the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau popularized the “Big Apple” in the 1970s.


Wikipedia: Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?
Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone? is a play by Terrence McNally.

Production history
Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone? premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, on January 7, 1971. Directed by Larry Arrick, the cast featured Robert Drivas as Tommy Flowers, Barbara Damashek, James Naughton and Henry Winkler.
(...)
Overview
The play focuses on Tommy Flowers, a “social misfit”, a “zany, dangerous rebel.” The play takes place in the time when there were clear divisions between Youth and Age, Rules and Freedom.  There is a “running commentary” about the 1960s/early 1970s “free love sexual liberation.” Tommy’s homosexuality eventually becomes obvious through the course of the play.

Google Books
Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?
By Terrence McNally
New York, NY: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
1972
Pg. 11:
GRETA. Have a pleasant flight. Mr. Flowers. I’ll see you in New York.
(...)
Tommy. (...) I don’t know where I’m going to sleep when I get back to the Big Apple tonight.
Google Books
Pg. 73:
PROPERTY PLOT
(On Stage and Personal)
ACT ONE
(...)
BACK IN THE BIG APPLE

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityThe Big Apple1970s: Big Apple Revival • Thursday, May 20, 2021 • Permalink