Hors d’oeuvres are often very tiny pieces of food. “Hors d’oeuvres: A ham sandwich cut into 40 pieces” has been credited since at least 1952 to the comedian Jack Benny (1894-1974). Georgia Gibbs (1919-2006), a popular singer, was credited in 1944 with calling hors d’oeuvres “a ham sandwich cut into 50 pieces.” Heartsill Wilson (1920-1994), a salesman, was credited in 1972 with calling hors d’oeuvres “a ham sandwich cut into 20 pieces.”
14 October 1944, Chicago (IL) Tribune, “Looking at Hollywood” by Hedda Hopper, pg. 16:
Georgia Gibbs describes hors d’oeuvres as “a ham sandwich cut into 50 pieces.”
29 June 1950, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI), “Wake Up With a Smile” From Roundy, pg. 1, col. 8:
I was at a place the other night the woman said she wanted the guests to have some hors d’oeuvres.
She asked me how I liked them I told her it first time I ever seen a sandwich cut into fifty pieces.
Google Books
Coronet
Volume 33, Issue 1
1952
Pg. 59:
Hors d’oeuvres: A ham sandwich cut into 40 pieces. —Jack Benny
6 November 1952, National Road Traveler (Cambridge City, IN), pg. 5, col. 3:
Hors D’Oeuvres: A ham sandwich cut into 40 pieces. —Jack Benny
16 April 1969, Waterloo (IA) Daily Courier, “People and Places” by John Barbour, pg. 40, col. 1:
Definition of hors d’oeuvres: A ham sandwich cut into 40 pieces.
Google News Archive
13 January 1972, The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA), pg. 4, col. 7:
Food For Thought
Hors d’oeuvres—a ham sandwich cut into forty pieces. (Jack Benny)
15 December 1972, Aberdeen (SD) American News, “Earl Wilson’s New York,” pg. 4, col. 5:
WISH I’D SAID THAT: An hors d’oeuvre, explained Heartsill Wilson, is merely a ham sandwich cut into 20 pieces.
Google Books
December 1977, Boys’ Life, “Think & Grin,” pg. 80, col. 3:
Daffynition: Hors d’oeuvres — A ham sandwich cut into 40 pieces. — Lou Riechman, Dayton, Ohio.
Google Books
Funny by Definition
By Robert Myers
Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.com, Inc.
2000
Pg. 93:
HORS D’OEUVRES: A ham sandwich cut into forty pieces.
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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