Syndicated newspaper columnist Walter Winchell (1897-1972) wrote in a column in March 1949:
“Sights You Never See on the New York Map: (...) ‘Ptomaine Road’ (a stretch in the Broadway 40s) littered with unkempt beaneries.”
“Ptomaine” then meant “food poisoning,” indicating Winchell’s low regard for Times Square’s restaurants. The name “Ptomaine Road” does not have any other known citations and is of historical interest today.
Wiktionary: ptomaine
Noun
ptomaine (countable and uncountable, plural ptomaines)
1. (chemistry) Any of various amines formed by putrefactive bacteria.
2. (dated) food poisoning
23 March 1949, Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger, “On Broadway” by Walter Winchell, pg. 25, col. 2:
Sights You Never See on the New York Map: (...) “Ptomaine Road” (a stretch in the Broadway 40s) littered with unkempt beaneries.
June 1949, Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan (New York, NY), “Winchell’s New York,” pg. 112, col. 2:
Sights You Never See on the New York Map: (...) “Ptomaine Road” (a stretch in the Broadway 40s) littered with unkempt beaneries.
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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