Entry from March 01, 2005
City That Care Forgot (New Orleans nickname)
"The City That Care Forgot" is a somewhat forgotten nickname of New Orleans. The nickname has long been associated with the New Orleans Mardi Gras and was first cited in 1910. "The City Care Forgot" -- minus "that" -- was coined by Alfred S. Amer (1866-1959), manager of the St. Charles Hotel (demolished in 1974), according to The Daily Picayune on September 13, 1910.
The song "Begone, Dull Care" -- possibly an influence on the nickname -- was sung at Mardi Gras in the late 1800s, but the nickname does not date to the 19th century.
Other New Orleans nicknames include "America's Most Interesting City," "Baghdad-on-the-Bayou," "Big Crescent," "Big Easy," "Big Greasy," "Big Sleazy," "Birthplace of Jazz," "Chocolate City," "Chopper City," "City of a Million Dreams," "City of Yes," "City That Forgot to Care," "Convention City," "Crawfish Town," "Creole City," "Crescent City," "Erb City," "Gateway of the Mississippi Valley," "Gumbo City," "Hollywood South," "Jump City," "Mardi Gras City," "Metropolis of the South," "N'Awlins," "Necropolis of the South," "Nerlins," "No Orleans" (after Hurricane Katrina), "NOLA," "Northernmost Banana Republic," "Northernmost Caribbean City," "Old Swampy," "Paris of America," "Queen City," "Saint City," "Silicon Bayou," "Silicon Swamp" and "Sweet Lady Gumbo."
Wikipedia: New Orleans
New Orleans (/nuː ˈɔːrlɪnz/, /nuː ˈɔːrliənz/, /nuː ɔːrˈliːnz/, or /ˈnɔːrlənz/; French: La Nouvelle-Orléans [la nuvɛlɔʁleɑ̃] ( listen)) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a larger trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502.
Wikipedia: St. Charles Avenue
St. Charles Avenue is a thoroughfare in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. and the home of the St. Charles Streetcar Line. It is also famous for the dozens of mansions that adorn the tree-lined boulevard for much of the uptown section of the boulevard.
The Southern live oak trees, plentiful in the historic Garden District, were planted during the early twentieth century. Similar additions were made on other major New Orleans streets, such as Carrollton Avenue, Napoleon Avenue, and part of Canal Street, becoming one of the city's most memorable features.
St. Charles Avenue is one of the chief Mardi Gras parade routes.
(...)
The St. Charles Hotel, near Canal Street, was one of the city's two most well-known hotels through most of the 19th and early 20th centuries; it was torn down in the 1970s.
2 March 1897, St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, pg. 6, col. 2:
REVELRY AT NEW ORLEANS.
The Mardi Gras Spirit Has Possession of the City.
Special to the Post-Dispatch.
NEW ORLEANS, La., March 2. -- Revelry reigns supreme to-day, and the Mardi Gras spirit has possession of the entire city. It is the great day of the carnival. Dull care, thoughts of business troubles, of sickness and of all matters that oppress the mind, are banished for the hour, and residents and strangers are giving themselves up to merrymaking with the spirit of joyous abandon essential t othe success of a genuine Mardi Gras.
13 September 1910, The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, LA), pg. 7, col. 7:
HOTEL GOSSIP.
Amer Adopts a Slogan.
"The City Care Forgot."
This is the slogan that will be used by Alfred S. Amer, the manager of the St. Charles Hotel, who assumed charge yesterday upon his arrival from New York.
Mr. Amer is a great believer in advertising, and his new slogan in making the St. Charles Hotel better known will rebound to the benefit of the city.
Although Mr. Amer had planned to take hold of the St. Charles Oct. 1, he at once assumed control and now will be in full charge, with the exemption of a few days next week, when he will be away.
"I think New Orleans is going to have a busy winter," said Mr. Amer, "and the exposition, I believe, is an assured fact.
"We will be some weeks completing the repairs we now have underway, but we will be able to care for all our patrons without any inconvenience to them."
4 December 1910, Chicago (IL) Sunday Tribune, sec. 9, pg. 6, col. 4 ad:
"THE CITY CARE FORGOT."
Quaint, Historic
NEW ORLEANS
America's Convention and Carnival City.
THE ST. CHARLES.
Finest All Year Hotel in the South
4 December 1910, Washington (DC) Herald, pg. 3, col. 6 ad:
"THE CITY CARE FORGOT."
Quaint, Historic
NEW ORLEANS
America's Convention and Carnival City.
THE ST. CHARLES.
Finest All-year Hotel in the South.
18 December 1910, Beaumont (TX) Enterprise and Journal, pg. 4 ad:
"THE CITY CARE FORGOT."
Quaint, Historic
NEW ORLEANS
America's Convention and Carnival City.
ST. CHARLES HOTEL
9 February 1912, The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), third section, pg. 13, cols. 4-7 ad:
NEW ORLEANS
"THE CITY CARE FORGOT"
The St. Charles
"The Center of the City's Hotel Life."
21 April 1913, Sheboygan (WI) Press, pg. 6, col. 5:
"The more the merrier" will be the slogan Convention week, and Baltimore will be "The City Care Forgot."
14 June 1914, Washington (DC) Post, pg. 5, col. 6:
You will remember that when Morello was in New Orleans on the affairs of the Ignatz Florio Association he wore a bandanna handkerchief with five knots toes in it in defiance of those who threatened to epose his counterfeiting schemes in connection with the real estate propaganda. All afternoon Morello stalked the streets of "The City of Care Forgot" wearing this badge of defiance
described in the Black Hand ritual as worn by the head of crime.
7 February 1921, Atlanta (GA) Constitution, pg. 6?, col. 7:
On the days of its prime carnival season saw its official opening the Monday preceding Shrove Tuesday (mardi gras) when with due formality committees of the Mystic Krewes sailed down the river to meet the royal yacht, aboard which was Rex, King of Misrule, and for two days sovereign of the so-called City that Care Forgot.
17 February 1931, Chronicle-Telegram(Elyria, Ohio), pg. 10?, col. 5:
... -- Mardi Gras. All New Orleans seemed to forget business and the city seemed to be the one "care forgot."
28 October 1959, New York (NY) Times, pg. 37, col. 3:
ALFRED S. AMER, 92,
EX-HOTEL OFFICIAL
Alfred S. Amer, a retired hotel executive, died Monday in his apartment at the Hargrave Hotel, 112 West Seventy-second Street. He would have been 93 years old today.
T his retirement 10 years ago Mr. Amer was manager of the Pierpont Hotel in Brooklyn. Previously he had been for twenty-three years an owner and manager of the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, now the St. Charles-Sheraton.
While assistant manager of the old Waldorf Hotel here, he served as chairman of the building committee for the new clubhouse of the American Women's Association.
In World War I Mr. Amer served as a $1-a-year man with the Federal Housing Corporation.
End of an era: New Orleans, 1850-1860
By Robert C, Reinders
New Orleans, LA: Pelican Pub. Co.
1964
Pg. 150:
One hundred years ago, as today, New Orleans was billed as "the city care forgot." A combination of forces - French traditions, sea port town, frontier influences, wealth - gave New Orleans in the 1850's a reputation as the most glamorous, and most decadent, city in America.
Laws of Silence
Friday, August 30, 2013
Dull Care: Origin, Usages and Meanings
(...)
1st century, BCE
I believe the phrase "dull care" originates with Roman poet Horace (65-27 BCE), which as I later leaned, is also Reijden's conclusion. His article is worth reading, and I was glad to see the article's subtitle is Deeper meaning, or not a deeper meaning? That is the question? He thankfully doesn't mention Moloch, but he does discuss some other mythological figures.
The first (and what I assumed was the only) mention of dull care by Horace that I came across is:
Vinum eique arcana secretorum anima dat esse spes iubet ignavos fuga curam agit hebetes, et novis rationibus docet complementum votis.
"Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul, gives being to our hopes, bids the coward flight, drives dull care away, and teaches new means for the accomplishment of our wishes."
(...)
Conclusion
This is undoubtedly an incomplete list, culled as it is from the Internet. Any real understanding of the origin and diffusion of this phrase is impossible without more data. I have a dozen or so examples distributed over a two-thousand year period! One thing is that it seems consistent in meaning, which corresponds to the Bohemian Club's usage. Dull Care is not only the ensemble of the mundane woes of life, finances, marriage and struggles with anxieties and boredom, but it would seem to include general sorrow. Starting with Horace, driving it away with alcohol seems to be a common solution; several of my examples are drinking songs, but whimsical solutions accompany merriment and even the pursuit of higher things.
Twitter
Diamond James Karst
@jameskarst
Perhaps you've wondered where "the city that care forgot" came from. NYer Alfred Amer brought it with him in 1910.
3:20 PM - 2 Nov 2013
New Orleans Bar Association (2017)
NEW ORLEANS NOSTALGIA
Remembering New Orleans History, Culture and Traditions
By Ned Hémard
When It’s Sleepy Time Down South
(...)
The capable hotelier Mr. Amer came to New Orleans directly from New York, where he was a member of the managerial staff of the world-famous Waldorf-Astoria, and also the managing director of the Manhattan Beach Hotel. Mr. Amer worked his way up to top-management, beginning as a bellboy in Toronto in 1882. From there, he advanced along the line at the Windsor Hotel, New York; Lafayette Hotel, Philadelphia; and the Laurel House at Lakewood. His initial managerial post was the Coleman House, Asbury Park, New Jersey. A succession of management positions were representative of his mercurial rise leading up to his arrival in New Orleans to replace J. Russell Blakely as manager of the St. Charles and to head his own company, Alfred S. Amer & Co., Ltd.
(...)
Continuing his advertising campaign, Amer and the St. Charles Hotel provided guests in 1917 a complimentary booklet, entitled “Souvenir of NEW ORLEANS ‘The City Care Forgot’”.
Twitter
Paul Vargas
@PaulVar65531867
St Charles hotel 1884 and 1919. Coined The City That Care Forgot. 1st used in their ads of 1910. #neworleans #nola #thecitythatcareforgot
8:59 AM - 22 Jan 2017
The song "Begone, Dull Care" -- possibly an influence on the nickname -- was sung at Mardi Gras in the late 1800s, but the nickname does not date to the 19th century.
Other New Orleans nicknames include "America's Most Interesting City," "Baghdad-on-the-Bayou," "Big Crescent," "Big Easy," "Big Greasy," "Big Sleazy," "Birthplace of Jazz," "Chocolate City," "Chopper City," "City of a Million Dreams," "City of Yes," "City That Forgot to Care," "Convention City," "Crawfish Town," "Creole City," "Crescent City," "Erb City," "Gateway of the Mississippi Valley," "Gumbo City," "Hollywood South," "Jump City," "Mardi Gras City," "Metropolis of the South," "N'Awlins," "Necropolis of the South," "Nerlins," "No Orleans" (after Hurricane Katrina), "NOLA," "Northernmost Banana Republic," "Northernmost Caribbean City," "Old Swampy," "Paris of America," "Queen City," "Saint City," "Silicon Bayou," "Silicon Swamp" and "Sweet Lady Gumbo."
Wikipedia: New Orleans
New Orleans (/nuː ˈɔːrlɪnz/, /nuː ˈɔːrliənz/, /nuː ɔːrˈliːnz/, or /ˈnɔːrlənz/; French: La Nouvelle-Orléans [la nuvɛlɔʁleɑ̃] ( listen)) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a larger trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502.
Wikipedia: St. Charles Avenue
St. Charles Avenue is a thoroughfare in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. and the home of the St. Charles Streetcar Line. It is also famous for the dozens of mansions that adorn the tree-lined boulevard for much of the uptown section of the boulevard.
The Southern live oak trees, plentiful in the historic Garden District, were planted during the early twentieth century. Similar additions were made on other major New Orleans streets, such as Carrollton Avenue, Napoleon Avenue, and part of Canal Street, becoming one of the city's most memorable features.
St. Charles Avenue is one of the chief Mardi Gras parade routes.
(...)
The St. Charles Hotel, near Canal Street, was one of the city's two most well-known hotels through most of the 19th and early 20th centuries; it was torn down in the 1970s.
2 March 1897, St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, pg. 6, col. 2:
REVELRY AT NEW ORLEANS.
The Mardi Gras Spirit Has Possession of the City.
Special to the Post-Dispatch.
NEW ORLEANS, La., March 2. -- Revelry reigns supreme to-day, and the Mardi Gras spirit has possession of the entire city. It is the great day of the carnival. Dull care, thoughts of business troubles, of sickness and of all matters that oppress the mind, are banished for the hour, and residents and strangers are giving themselves up to merrymaking with the spirit of joyous abandon essential t othe success of a genuine Mardi Gras.
13 September 1910, The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, LA), pg. 7, col. 7:
HOTEL GOSSIP.
Amer Adopts a Slogan.
"The City Care Forgot."
This is the slogan that will be used by Alfred S. Amer, the manager of the St. Charles Hotel, who assumed charge yesterday upon his arrival from New York.
Mr. Amer is a great believer in advertising, and his new slogan in making the St. Charles Hotel better known will rebound to the benefit of the city.
Although Mr. Amer had planned to take hold of the St. Charles Oct. 1, he at once assumed control and now will be in full charge, with the exemption of a few days next week, when he will be away.
"I think New Orleans is going to have a busy winter," said Mr. Amer, "and the exposition, I believe, is an assured fact.
"We will be some weeks completing the repairs we now have underway, but we will be able to care for all our patrons without any inconvenience to them."
4 December 1910, Chicago (IL) Sunday Tribune, sec. 9, pg. 6, col. 4 ad:
"THE CITY CARE FORGOT."
Quaint, Historic
NEW ORLEANS
America's Convention and Carnival City.
THE ST. CHARLES.
Finest All Year Hotel in the South
4 December 1910, Washington (DC) Herald, pg. 3, col. 6 ad:
"THE CITY CARE FORGOT."
Quaint, Historic
NEW ORLEANS
America's Convention and Carnival City.
THE ST. CHARLES.
Finest All-year Hotel in the South.
18 December 1910, Beaumont (TX) Enterprise and Journal, pg. 4 ad:
"THE CITY CARE FORGOT."
Quaint, Historic
NEW ORLEANS
America's Convention and Carnival City.
ST. CHARLES HOTEL
9 February 1912, The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), third section, pg. 13, cols. 4-7 ad:
NEW ORLEANS
"THE CITY CARE FORGOT"
The St. Charles
"The Center of the City's Hotel Life."
21 April 1913, Sheboygan (WI) Press, pg. 6, col. 5:
"The more the merrier" will be the slogan Convention week, and Baltimore will be "The City Care Forgot."
14 June 1914, Washington (DC) Post, pg. 5, col. 6:
You will remember that when Morello was in New Orleans on the affairs of the Ignatz Florio Association he wore a bandanna handkerchief with five knots toes in it in defiance of those who threatened to epose his counterfeiting schemes in connection with the real estate propaganda. All afternoon Morello stalked the streets of "The City of Care Forgot" wearing this badge of defiance
described in the Black Hand ritual as worn by the head of crime.
7 February 1921, Atlanta (GA) Constitution, pg. 6?, col. 7:
On the days of its prime carnival season saw its official opening the Monday preceding Shrove Tuesday (mardi gras) when with due formality committees of the Mystic Krewes sailed down the river to meet the royal yacht, aboard which was Rex, King of Misrule, and for two days sovereign of the so-called City that Care Forgot.
17 February 1931, Chronicle-Telegram(Elyria, Ohio), pg. 10?, col. 5:
... -- Mardi Gras. All New Orleans seemed to forget business and the city seemed to be the one "care forgot."
28 October 1959, New York (NY) Times, pg. 37, col. 3:
ALFRED S. AMER, 92,
EX-HOTEL OFFICIAL
Alfred S. Amer, a retired hotel executive, died Monday in his apartment at the Hargrave Hotel, 112 West Seventy-second Street. He would have been 93 years old today.
T his retirement 10 years ago Mr. Amer was manager of the Pierpont Hotel in Brooklyn. Previously he had been for twenty-three years an owner and manager of the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, now the St. Charles-Sheraton.
While assistant manager of the old Waldorf Hotel here, he served as chairman of the building committee for the new clubhouse of the American Women's Association.
In World War I Mr. Amer served as a $1-a-year man with the Federal Housing Corporation.
End of an era: New Orleans, 1850-1860
By Robert C, Reinders
New Orleans, LA: Pelican Pub. Co.
1964
Pg. 150:
One hundred years ago, as today, New Orleans was billed as "the city care forgot." A combination of forces - French traditions, sea port town, frontier influences, wealth - gave New Orleans in the 1850's a reputation as the most glamorous, and most decadent, city in America.
Laws of Silence
Friday, August 30, 2013
Dull Care: Origin, Usages and Meanings
(...)
1st century, BCE
I believe the phrase "dull care" originates with Roman poet Horace (65-27 BCE), which as I later leaned, is also Reijden's conclusion. His article is worth reading, and I was glad to see the article's subtitle is Deeper meaning, or not a deeper meaning? That is the question? He thankfully doesn't mention Moloch, but he does discuss some other mythological figures.
The first (and what I assumed was the only) mention of dull care by Horace that I came across is:
Vinum eique arcana secretorum anima dat esse spes iubet ignavos fuga curam agit hebetes, et novis rationibus docet complementum votis.
"Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul, gives being to our hopes, bids the coward flight, drives dull care away, and teaches new means for the accomplishment of our wishes."
(...)
Conclusion
This is undoubtedly an incomplete list, culled as it is from the Internet. Any real understanding of the origin and diffusion of this phrase is impossible without more data. I have a dozen or so examples distributed over a two-thousand year period! One thing is that it seems consistent in meaning, which corresponds to the Bohemian Club's usage. Dull Care is not only the ensemble of the mundane woes of life, finances, marriage and struggles with anxieties and boredom, but it would seem to include general sorrow. Starting with Horace, driving it away with alcohol seems to be a common solution; several of my examples are drinking songs, but whimsical solutions accompany merriment and even the pursuit of higher things.
Diamond James Karst
@jameskarst
Perhaps you've wondered where "the city that care forgot" came from. NYer Alfred Amer brought it with him in 1910.
3:20 PM - 2 Nov 2013
New Orleans Bar Association (2017)
NEW ORLEANS NOSTALGIA
Remembering New Orleans History, Culture and Traditions
By Ned Hémard
When It’s Sleepy Time Down South
(...)
The capable hotelier Mr. Amer came to New Orleans directly from New York, where he was a member of the managerial staff of the world-famous Waldorf-Astoria, and also the managing director of the Manhattan Beach Hotel. Mr. Amer worked his way up to top-management, beginning as a bellboy in Toronto in 1882. From there, he advanced along the line at the Windsor Hotel, New York; Lafayette Hotel, Philadelphia; and the Laurel House at Lakewood. His initial managerial post was the Coleman House, Asbury Park, New Jersey. A succession of management positions were representative of his mercurial rise leading up to his arrival in New Orleans to replace J. Russell Blakely as manager of the St. Charles and to head his own company, Alfred S. Amer & Co., Ltd.
(...)
Continuing his advertising campaign, Amer and the St. Charles Hotel provided guests in 1917 a complimentary booklet, entitled “Souvenir of NEW ORLEANS ‘The City Care Forgot’”.
Paul Vargas
@PaulVar65531867
St Charles hotel 1884 and 1919. Coined The City That Care Forgot. 1st used in their ads of 1910. #neworleans #nola #thecitythatcareforgot
8:59 AM - 22 Jan 2017
Posted by Barry Popik
Nicknames of Other Places • Big Easy, City That Care Forgot (New Orleans nicknames) • Tuesday, March 01, 2005 • Permalink
Nicknames of Other Places • Big Easy, City That Care Forgot (New Orleans nicknames) • Tuesday, March 01, 2005 • Permalink
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