New York City’s original Pennsylvania Station (1910-1963) was torn down, and Grand Central Terminal was the next landmark to be threatened. “‘No More Bites Out of the Big Apple: Save Landmarks and Save Grand Central” was a slogan used in 1975 by the Municipal Art Society.
   
A court ruling in December 1975 saved Grand Central Terminal, and this Associated Press story was printed in the The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ) on December 17, 1975:
 
“He (Fred Pappert, executive director of the Municipal Art Society—ed.) said he would hand out apples at the terminal this morning with signs saying, ‘No more bites out of the Big Apple. Grand Central Terminal is saved.’”
 
   
Wikipedia: Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus of the Metro-North Railroad’s Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines, serving the northern parts of the New York metropolitan area. It also contains a connection to the New York City Subway at Grand Central–42nd Street station. The terminal is the third-busiest train station in North America, after New York Penn Station and Toronto Union Station.
(...)
Grand Central and the surrounding neighborhood became dilapidated during the 1970s, and the interior of Grand Central was dominated by huge advertisements, which included the Kodak Colorama photos and the Westclox “Big Ben” clock. In 1975, Donald Trump bought the Commodore Hotel to the east of the terminal for $10 million and then worked out a deal with Jay Pritzker to transform it into one of the first Grand Hyatt hotels. Grand Central Terminal was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and declared a National Historic Landmark in the following year.
 
Museum of the City of New York
97.102.29
Save Grand Central
DATE:ca. 1968 (1975 is probably correct.—ed.)
No more bites out of the Big Apple!
button (information artifact)
 
4 October 1975, New York (NY) Times, “Tie Is Tied To a Cause” by Nadine Brozan, pg. 16, cols. 1-2:
The ties between the tie and the crusade to save the station are subtle to the casual observer.
 
“It represents our slogan, ‘No More Bites Out of the Big Apple: Save Landmarks and Save Grand Central,’” explained Patricia Jones, director of the Municipal Art Society, which spearheaded formation of he committee.
 
Future offerings, including T-shirts that are now in production, and book bags, will be more direct. They will proclaim “Save Grand Central” and will be embellished with a design of the statues of Mercury, Hercules and Minerva that sit above the terminal’s clock.
(...)
And then there are those who just don’t get the message. “Half a dozen people have asked me, ‘What is the big apple?’” he said. “I ask them are you a New Yorker? And every one of them is.”
 
Newspapers.com
17 December 1975, The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ), sec. B, pg. 2, cols. 1-3:
<>Grand Central Station
Historic Rail Terminal
Saved By Court Ruling
NEW YORK (AP)—The Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court reversed a lower court yesterday and declared that the Penn Central Railroad may not allow a skyscraper to be built over Grand Central Terminal.
(...)
Fred Pappert, executive director of the Municipal Arts Society, which led the fight to save Grand Central, said he was delighted with the decision.
 
He said he would hand out apples at the terminal this morning with signs saying, “No more bites out of the Big Apple. Grand Central Terminal is saved.”